Jam, Cereals, and some such things

Time for a post.
It's been six years now that I've been in one place, and there are lots of things I could write about but today I'll write about jams, cereals, biscuits, and stuff.
It's rather curious actually: the first time I went into a grocery store in this country, I was quite amazed to see the lines and lines and rows and rows of stuff and more stuff, and some stuff I'd never even heard of. After awhile of course the amazement wore off, yet even after all this time I've noticed that I'm always fascinated still by the different varieties of jams, cereals, biscuits, and small tubs of yogurt.

For the last three years or so, Guha and I almost always end up going grocery shopping together, and for most of the times while both of us will hunt around for the cheaper brands (for most things I can't taste any difference), for a long time I used to be maniacal when it came to cereals, jams, biscuits, and yogurt.

For awhile now I've given up my experimenting with yogurt. I have two favourite flavours -
chocolate and raspberry mousse and that's all I'll have (Guha will only have Blueberry burst). And for most of the times I'm also not too terribly picky about cereal. Although once when we went to a different store, we did end up buying an unusual box of cereal, which was quite interesting - nuts and fruits and crunchy oats (something toffee-chocolate almond crunch it was called). Guha, I remember though didn't want to get the box of cereal.
But look at all the different things it has, I said - almost drooling at the sight of the box of cereal (of all things!)
No, no - said he. Too expensive. Just look at the price Shilpi.
But it's just this once, said I.
Finally after haggling back and forth we did pick it up. And a good box of cereal it was too. But that was the first and last time. I have been pleased to note that I haven't really hankered for that cereal again.

Yet unfortunately with jams and biscuits it's taken me longer. Guha and I once had a massive fight, over a crummy jar of jam in yet another store that we ventured into quite by accident another time. I wanted, demanded that we buy a jar of jam. I don't even remember anymore what flavour it was or why I wanted it so badly. I had to buy the jar of jam.
Guha finally at the end of his patience, just told me shortly "buy the jam then." But there was that exasperation in his voice, and so obviously I walked away from the jam aisle, but very angrily did I stomp away. I just didn't see why we couldn't buy a jar of jam. It was expensive for a jar of jam but it was only a one time jam jar anyway. I couldn't see what the big deal was.
Guha tried to placate me after that, saying as we were walking around the store: want a bar of chocolate? We could get some chocolate. Want a fruit bar? You like fruit bars.
Of course I shook my head. I didn't want anything else. Finally he said, "Oh just go and get the jar of jam for heaven's sake if you want it so badly." But by then of course it seemed silly to go and get the jar of jam. So we walked out of the store after a bit. And it must have been ten minutes later that we were hollering at each other.
G: It was just a jar of jam after all.
S: Then if it was so why not get it.
G: But the price. It was so expensive.
S: It was less expensive than two packs of cigarettes.
G: But it's not as though we're not going to smoke them now, is it it?
S: But it's not even as though we're going to buy a jam jar every day. Ugh.
G: Why didn't you just go and get it then.
Well after ten minutes of this, we were dead silent and then before we knew it we were in splits to think that we had had our biggest fight in a while over a jam-jar. I gave him a random plastic flower that had been in the car (another story) since I didn't have an olive branch...
And when he came back from the field last September he got me a jar of blackberry preserves (of which I have preserved some still)...But I have not had the craving for any expensive jams anymore when we go to the grocery store. I stick to my generic brand of orange marmalade, which I love, and Guha shifts between marmalade and grape jelly (which goes well with peanut butter).

Different varieties of biscuits/cookies jump out from their respective places on the shelves and bite me every now and again.

Yet for a long time I used to wonder how Guha was never bitten by anything on the shelves. Nothing. He would meticulously stay away from the expensive brands, and I never saw him experiencing a sudden "I have to buy this right here, right now." It's not that he didn't look, or say "oh, that looks good." But he never put anything into the cart. And of course every now and again he would say, "Ah, expensive tastes and not enough money don't go well..." I would pipe in with "oh we can get it once. Let's just get it." But he would shake his head. "Naah," he would say
That mystery was finally solved. I don't really remember where, when, or how. As he put it in "You see if I could, I'd buy stuff that caught my fancy whenever I wanted to. But since I can't - I'd much rather not get the taste of it for now." I went "Aaah. So you'd really like eating that cereal we had once every day?..." "Well maybe not that identical flavour...but you've got to admit that the cereal was very nice. I'd try out the different flavours..." "Hmmm." Said I. "But it's okay to ty it once...isn't it? Then one knows what it is, and one knows what it tastes like." Guha grinned. We talked some more up and down along the same lines.

It's not as though Guha or I are profligate spenders and he is not really a miser nor would he ever be a spendthrift even if he did have tonnes of money (I don't know really what I am - both a miser and a spendthrift) but we have different approaches to jams, jellies, biscuits, and the like. He is fond of ice-cream (especially all kinds of chocolate flavours) yet he still will never look at the shelves, which have the more "exotic" stuff unless they are on sale. Me - on the other hand - I keep hankering to taste the "exotic" stuff at least once. Both of us love cheesecake and tiramisu, and end up having cheesecake on birthdays and special days, and there's nothing like more or less expensive cheesecake - so no, there's no squabbling there. We have no problems buying whiskey or rum (we have settled on the ones we like, although every now and again when summer comes we both longingly look at the Tanqueray wondering if it might go on sale, and then the day it does we make a grab for it or when birthdays come we get some single malt)....so the rest is all fine and dandy.

But jam still remains a sticky issue. Even though I've told Guha that I don't care anymore about interesting jars of jam, even though I whistle past the jam and jelly aisles, Guha will say, "I'm not coming between you and your jam."
P.S: There is one other thing that I really could have every other day (but I don't and one shouldn't. It probably has enough calories to kill a fair sized horse). It's available only in one coffee-shop near campus, and it's called a Lemon-Berry marscarpone cake. It's a regular cake but has cream cheese flavoured with the hint of lemon, and lots of creamy blueberries. Guha got me a humongous slice of that a couple of days ago. That's how I remembered how much I enjoy it, and thought it was an appropriate post-script for this entry on jam, cereals, and some such things...