Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Is what you want...always what you need?

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I really like the idea of a scooter. Not an old person's 'personal mobility device', but a real sporty, zippy little scooter...like a VESPA! It somehow doesn't matter that I have never even sat on, let alone driven a Vespa...I just think I want one. This reminds me of food. How much of what we eat, depends on the power of suggestion? I was in Vancouver the other day, and I sat beside a woman who was eating a hot dog. I personally hate to admit it, but I happen to LIKE hot dogs. Perhaps it was that first foot long hot dog, eaten in the revolving restaurant, high atop the Husky Tower in Calgary. Who knows. Sometimes, I want a hot dog, like I sometimes want a Vespa. This particular hot dog looked and smelled so good, I quizzed the lady on where she got it. She told me that it was a turkey hot dog, and she purchased it from the new storefront location of JAPADOG on Robson Street.

That was a week ago, so yesterday, I headed into Vancouver a couple of hours before my class to do some shopping...and to get one of those delicious looking hot dogs. I had no trouble locating the place. Spiderman has his spidey-senses...I have mine. I walked inside, and it all went very wrong. It didn't SMELL right in JAPADOG. I don't know about you, but I know what a hot dog place is supposed to smell like. It's supposed to smell kind of smokey, and salty, and sometimes like onions frying. When I used to have my store in White Rock, I used to get a once a week hot dog from Montgomery's Cottage Lunch...and that place smelled like the best hot dogs, with a little grease and malt vinegar thrown in! JAPADOG smelled like...I don't know what. There were these HUGE photos of their hot dogs, but even those had weird un-hot-dog like names like the MEAT! Only in very small print, down at the very bottom of the sign, was a note that they also had all beef or turkey hot dogs. I stayed another minute to see if my nose would adjust to the smell. When it didn't...I turned around and left. All the little Japanese girls standing in line looked at me like I was crazy...but I the sad truth was...I didn't want a hot dog anymore.

I ended up at the Art Gallery Cafe. It was the end of the day, so my choices were severely limited. I had a diet COKE and a ham and cheese sandwich on WHITE BREAD. As I sat there, unhappily, munching on a sandwich that kept sticking to the roof of my mouth, causing me to very unladylikely, PRY THE DAMN BREAD OFF THE ROOF OF MY MOUTH...I silently cursed the siren's song of the hot dogs of my youth.

I finished my Diet Coke, and hoped the aspartame wouldn't give me a seizure. I walked down the steps of the Art Gallery towards my class. I was off tomorrow...maybe I could walk down to Montgomery's....

1 comment:

  1. Weird...I have heard people RAVING about Japadog, but never understood the appeal. Now I know not to waste my time! there's just something so wrong about a restaurant that doesn't smell right!

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