That's a Wrap

I just don't know what is it about food being wrapped in pancake or bread or rice paper that drives me wild with desire and gluttony. I noticed that recently my fave food has been alternating between either lebanese wrap of sun-dried tomatoes and tuna with green apple with vietnamese pancake. The latter consists of bean sprout, prawns & chicken meat being folded in a pancake made of rice & coloured with saffron and then I get to wrap this in lettuce leaves and lots of basil before I chomp down in pure pleasure. I also love our local 'popiah' - bits of different cooked & raw stuff - bean sprouts, prawns, greens, sometimes chinese sausages, wrapped in a 'popiah skin'. One clear reason I loved indian cuisine with its pitta bread & the various savoury breads/pancakes - naan, chappati, tosai - I get to wrap them around vegetables or pieces of chicken cooked vindaloo style or tandoori and dipped in chutneys or dhal. I get cravings just thinking about it. I also like the idea of using my fingers, I guess, caressing the texture as I pick and role in the wrap. Messy, yes but infinitely enjoyable. To me. And there is also the variety of both cooked and raw vegetables, different colours and textures I get to put in a mouthful.

Another kind of wrapping I like is, well, wrapping presents creatively with textured papers and ribbons, strings or cloth.

My favourite beach-wear is sarong wrapped in many different ways.

I like to receive parcels not in those boxes sold by our post office but wrapped in brown colour 'mahjong' paper and tied with brown string. There is just something romantic about that. Maybe I am influenced by the Sound of Music: 'raindrops on roses & whiskers on kittens,...brown paper packages tied up with strings., these are a few of my favourite things..."

I wonder whether this is a fetish and whether anyone else feels the same way.