Evil Little Things

I get asked a lot of times why I don't eat raisins. Heck, I don't even wish to smell or touch raisins. As I have alluded to in my profile, I cannot get near these wrinkly dried things because they are fatal to my very being. They induce nausea and possibly vomiting if any one of them actually entered my system. It is not a physiological allergy, but it is definitely a mental aversion. Raisins, besides being wrinkly and dried, are also sticky and squishy. How can anything that look so putrid be suitable for human consumption?

I know I sound like a loser getting all squeamish over a dried fruit, but I really do not know where this fear of mine originated from. I remember however that this definitely started since I was young, because there were times I had to skip breakfast (and get my mom all piqued) because she bought raisin bread in the morning. Perhaps during my formative years bullies used to throw raisins at me. Hmm... don't think this story exonerates me from the "loser" label... Oh well, perhaps my brain is just hard-wired the way it is.

Since then I have learnt to avoid raisins from all nooks and crannies, including all varieties of apple crumbles and unlabelled muffins. Prunes are a giant version of raisins (pomologists may foul me on technicalities but hey, prunes are HUGE and wrinkly, aren't they?). Fortunately these are easier to spot because of their size, so I have never quite gagged on one of these before. I almost died last year when the team served up an imaginative (boy, ain't I good with euphemisms) raisins + onions sandwich during Regatta. I will always remember their gleeful anticipation of the impending torment as I bite into the bread. Sun-Maid will probably describe the bite to "release the natural goodness of raisins in bountiful bursts", but I will just call the whole experience a ghastly one.

I teared, not because I'm a wuss. But because of the onions.

By extension, I avoid cranberries, blueberries, sour plums and all other sorts of similar foods that may be wrinkly or dried. And I remain a happy man, so I don't see what's wrong with that.

Interestingly, raisins.com bring you to a site selling bikinis. I wonder why... ;P