Urban Fair?

No go for Bronwyn at the dentist today. Her cold prevented her from having the treatment, so it was postponed. In preparation for the sedative she was not allowed to eat or drink past midnight. Seeing she goes to bed around 8:00pm that meant she was extremely hungry by the time we left the dentist around 9:00am this morning. The dentist office is situated above Urban Fare in Yaletown. Urban Fare is a grocery store that thinks it is Harrods Food Hall. A little more care is taken over the decor...but essentially it is just a grocery store. It caters to the Vancouver Urbanite; a professional family of 4 living in a 500sq ft condo; a professional couple living in a 300sq ft condo with a tiny dog that wears jewellery and little shoes; a single professional living in a cupboard. People pay a lot to live in Vancouver's hottest and fastest growing urban neighbourhood, and they demand to pay more for their commodities, goddammit! They want the exact same groceries that other "lesser" grocery stores sell, but these should be displayed in a style generally agreed to be more aesthetically pleasing (a mixture of rustic old-world, and modern utility), they should cost 20% more, and be labelled "gourmet". What's the point in buying an over-priced condo and taking out a massive line of credit if you don't get to pay more for everything you buy???   

Actually, they do have some "specialty" items that looked very tempting. I was drooling over the displays of  handmade chocolates and cookies and ogling the treats in the deli while providing Bronwyn with a running commentary on how delicious or how amazing this or that looked. Bronwyn tagged along and then finally said, in desperation, "Can I just eat something?" Oh yeah...she was hungry. So she chose 3 tiny organic "gourmet" iced-donuts that tasted like cardboard. (I could have bought 10 Timbits for the price of one doughnut). One was iced with chocolate, one with raspberry and one with maple syrup. There was also one topped with lavender (!?) flavoured icing. That just sounded wrong. But what do I know?

While we sat in the cafe area and ate the doughnuts, I happened to notice 3 women occupying a nearby table and "eating" breakfast. They were probably in their 40's, slim, and dressed smart/casual. I was quite hungry myself and couldn't help noticing as I walked past their table (and stared at their food) that they had all ordered a full breakfast only to leave all their fried breakfast potatoes and toast on their plates. What? Who would do such a thing? It makes no sense. Don't order potatoes then...don't order a big breakfast. It took all my strength to resist saying, "Are you gonna eat that?" I hate wasted food. But I remembered where I was and simply stared longingly. In my ideal world you will be able to ask people if they are going to eat the rest of their food and, if not, they will gladly give it to you.

I suspect that woman #1 decided to leave her potatoes because she's watching her figure and we all know that carbohydrates are from the devil. She might be worried that if she eats her pile of potatoes she'll get fat and unattractive and subsequently shunned by the Yaletown community. The second woman, not to be outdone, probably looked over and thought, "Shit, she's not eating her potatoes. Well then, neither will I. In fact, I'm not going to eat my toast either...ha ha!" And I'm sure the third woman, who was a little heavier than the other two, thought, "Bitches! I could eat all your potatoes AND my own. But I'm just going to take 3 sips of my water, push the food around my plate and not eat any of it...ha! And when I get home I'll bury my face in a tub of green tea, lavender soy ice-cream!"