I know their cunning ways.
I am not so foolish to guess otherwise.
But still I fall for their devious plot.
I refer of course to those bits that go in icecream.
Usually it's bits of salted caramel or chocolate chips. Not the cookies and cream for this person who can't tolerate gluten.
But bits there are - tantalising bits that keep you spooning to unearth them.
I don't like to admit this of course - she who is already overweight and who should not be checking for chunks of salty caramel anywhere, much less at the bottom of a small carton of icecream.
But there have been more than the usual nights spent in lately, watching movies that get you in, in much the same way as those dastardly bits inside the icecream tubs do.
I do like icecream, but not really without the flavouring. When that's all mooshed together, it is even less tantalising to me. It is that icecream with the bits that has my undivided attention.
These are the tubs I dive into, like some sort of pearl fisher woman, seeking out the elusive and advertised goodies that tantalise so prolifically on the packet. Of course there are never so many inside as are displayed on the outside, but still we must investigate fully.
I am that diver who takes insufficient air to grab that elusive pearly oyster. I am that diver that risks the bends in order to find the treasure.
And at the end I emerge, crestfallen and full not with the excitement of the catch but with a stomach full of seawater (that's if you can equate sea water to ice cream).
And now I find the yoghurt companies are doing the same. No more mixed in flavours (my favourite is rhubarb). No the good part sits on the bottom, again elusive and out of reach.
I have some long handled tea spoons but even they are not up to the task, when it comes to hitting the mother lode. Instead, despite skirting around at the murky depths, they bring forth a spoonful of yoghurt - yes delicious, but not as anticipated without the full flavouring attached.
It is clever marketing. At least in my household. It keeps us striving for the bottoms of containers rather than the top. It gets us through the tubs quicker than necessary. But still we search.
- Linda Muller
