September 04, 2007
Rubbing Elbows
Although I have been boycotting Whole Foods ever since they raised the price of their salad bar overnight from $4.99 to $7.99 a pound (that is, the Nothing-Special-Lettuce-and-Cucumber Bar, not the Dessert Bar or the Antipasti Bar), and especially after I lost respect for their CEO, James Mackey and his underhanded pseudonymic internet tactics, yesterday afternoon I did hit the newly revitalized store in Fresh Pond (undoubtedly a serious misnomer, given that the pond is a close neighbor of the infamously polluting corporation, W.R.Grace). The renovated store is bigger, but has those polished concrete floors and florescent lights (green literally and figuratively) that ultimately create a dank warehouse ambiance.
In the spirit of grand celebration, there were visiting celebrities. Most notable, two Italian water buffalo babies from Vermont pitching their yogurt and "Olivia" from Olivia's Organics (looking quite like Lucy from Peanuts with a yellow head the size of my exercise ball). I could not snap her picture because her interpreter, (she needed one because she couldn't speak due to muffling by the ball on her head), a Whole Foods employee, undoubtedly would have confiscated my camera on the spot.
As if that wasn't enough excitement for one afternoon at the market, while I was standing in line, the cashier held up my purchase and asked if it were winter squash.
"No", said I, "It's a .....a...ah...", then, mildly embarrassed, I turned to the man behind me in line and said, "I'm rapidly losing my ability to capture nouns."
That man just happened to be Robert Parker, who said, "Oh I gave that up years ago."
Had I the presence of mind, I would have said, rather than thought. "I don't think so." Next time.
At this point in our scintillating exchange, the cashier crowed, "Delicata!".
I didn't shoot Mr. P. because, it is, after all, against store policy. Turns out that delicata are winter squash, but more expensive, and more delicious than the usual varieties.
Photo note: The baby water buffalo who was made to stay outside for sanitary reasons, thus becoming fair foto game.
Posted by Dakota at September 4, 2007 06:52 PM