On the Sweeter Side

It has been 11 days since the price of sugar went up by 20 sen per kilo. Since then, our own sugar inventory has run dry. This is not so much because of the price increase but because of circulating rumours that the sugar fairies in the neighbourhood have stashed away the remaining sachets of the local culinary staple ingredient. Our children have been drinking sugarless Milo, and it has not seemed to bother them. Besides that, we never use sugar our own beverages and meagre kitchen-prepared meals. So to say that sugar is sorely missed in our home, is really untrue.

But of course the chain reaction of a price hike never goes unwarranted and it will be more than just sugar that we will be giving up. Unscrupulous service providers use an increase of raw ingredients to their advantages - jacking up prices of their own products or services, with so-called justification. Soon there will be an increase in electricity bills when the cost centre in the service provider, called "the pantry" starts eating away at employee bonuses. Who know? Nothing is impossible in this country.

On the sweeter side of things, some companies may face this sugarless debacle with a lot less flavour. Secret Recipe may or may not be one of them, depending on consumer reaction. Their cakes are going up by RM5 today. That is first hand information, people, and that is alot of Ringgit Malaysia, especially for us.

Luckily we do not run in the same league with confectionary lovers, but cheese cakes - especially Secret Recipe cheese cakes - are the added luxury on the very rare splurge and during festive seasons. And with festive seasons coming to an end this February (gong xi, gong xi), our (my) affair with rich, feel-good cheese cakes shall come to end. I feel their cakes are pricey as they are and an increase just adds the "ridiculous" lable to their price.

It depends on how many others are with me in this loyalty-league towards desserts. Imagine what Secret Recipe has possibly done to several other industries, if the majority of their consumers are just like me. Weight watchers, weighing scales, those fancy weight-loss programmes that allegedly stem from New York or London or France, plus size fasion outlets, may have their ledgers falling into the red. Good for waistline watchers, who, after perhaps a few weeks of no-cheese-cake-night-terrors, will be waking up to looser clothes. But bad for those in the business of enhancing insecurities in the female image industry.

If consumers want to champion rights to affordable desserts and go on that ever coveted cheese-cake strike, The Biggest Loser Asia's business lifespan may even end at Season 1. In the long run, let's look at the brighter side of things, (and you will be taking advice from a cynic). Every person's self-image may take a turn for the positive and mirrors will be all that less criticising. So feast your eyes on your new self, and continue to feast your eyes on this blogpost, which should have pictures of those Secret Recipe delights - especially if you will be giving them up. Hopefully it will be worth more than RM5.