Monday, October 8, 2007

Quest for the Holy Power Bar

Warning: Complaining ahead

I'm hungry. Almost every morning, all morning long. It's not that I don't get fed enough during the day when you take it as a whole, but Spanish culture tells me that I should go from a small bowl of cereal at 8 am until the main meal at 3 pm without eating. That's seven hours...seven long, hunger-filled hours.

To remedy this unfortunate situation, I've been on the lookout for those deliciously caloric, oddly textured delights called power bars (Apparently that's the actual brand name, now that I look. I guess to be unbiased I should say "energy bars"). I figured I'd just jaunt on down to the supermarket and pick some up. Wrong. They have cereal bars, but energy bars were conspicuously lacking. Okay, I figured, I'll just go to the other, bigger supermarket a little farther down the street. Wrong again.

This was beginning to be more of a challenge than I thought it would be. One day, as I munched on a cereal bar and browsed madaboutmadrid (sweet site if youre thinking of visiting the city, and in English!) I found a link to a guide to Madrid put out by one of the local newspapers. This guide had a bunch of "top ten" lists, one of which focused on physical activity. Coming in at number ten was the health food store "Hidelasa" and the first two words in the guide's description of this store are "energy bars." By golly! I thought, I just may have found these elusive beasts! I quickly looked up the store's location and saw it was on the outreaches of the Madrid metro system, but I was determined.

So, today I made the journey to Hidelasa. The one hour journey there, the forty five minute journey getting lost once there, and the one hour journey back. But I had downloaded some NPR podcasts just for the purpose of passing time on this trip (I've told you I'm a dork). Plus, I was getting my energy bars, right?! How could this NOT be worth it?

With that question, I leave you with this picture, which I hope sufficiently captures my amusement, disappointment, and general befuddlement at Spaniards' concept of energy bars.

Energy bar, with handy size reference

Stats:
Calories
180 (about 50 less than a PowerBar)
Cost
$1.75 (compared to about $1.50 in the munchie marts if I remember right)
Calories expended in the process of obtaining energy bar
Probably a lot more than 180


On the upside of things, I told my seƱora this story and she said she would just have to start making me more food. JACKPOT! Spanish tortillas, here I come!

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