Night in Tunisia

The Menace of Chick Peas

So I just have to write this, even though it really was basically
covered in the Science vs. Fact blog. Some things here I just don't
know what to make of...

Often, as a nice little snack over my break, I go to the corner nut
vendor to get 50g of roasted chick peas. These have been cooked, and
then roasted in an oven and he puts them into a twisted paper cone
(usually from a medical journal, and I get to read about neat things
like blood poisoning in French), and I pay the equivalent of 25 cents.

Usually I eat them outside, but it's starting to get so hot that I've
taking to eating them inside with everyone else. Usually my chick
peas don't draw any comments, and most people aren't that fond of
them, so my offers to share get turned down, or people take a single
chick pea to eat.

The staff knows that I'm on a "regime" - that's diet in French - as
I'm no longer eating Habiba's prepared meals, and I pass up cookies in
meetings. Unlike in Canada, people here are really supportive when
you're on a "regime". And they keep sweets, etc, away from you if you
turn them down once. And they don't ask about it or talk about it,
which is also very nice.

You can imagine then how surprised I was to hear them tisking at my
eating chick peas in the kitchen yesterday. One co-worker said
"aren't you on a diet?"

My quizzical look prompted the response from another co-worker: "Don't
you know that chick peas make you fat?" Habiba, the housekeeper who
doesn't speak French, puffed out her cheeks, bowled her arms in front
of her belly, and shuffled around in a circle to show "fat". (Don't
you just love communication barriers?)

Apparently everybody knows that chick peas make you fat. Except the Canadian.

How in heaven's name an entire culture has come to the conclusion that
chick peas make you fat is beyond me. Could it be that when someone
takes a liking to chick peas they become obsessed with them and
develop a compulsive chick-pea-eating behaviour? Or perhaps there is
a special Tunisian gene that, when combined with chick peas, causes
metabolic rates to drop and cravings to jump?

What's more, you don't just get fat generally. No, it's quite
specific. You get fat in a ring around your middle - stomach, lower
back and oblique fat-rolls.

So when Loren descends off the plane in Kelowna in December and he has
to roll me into the airport on my perfectly round tire of fat, you'll
know it was the chick peas that did me in.

posted by tiaraletourneau @ 1:17 p.m.