Hyperbole as Feel-Good Food

So I just got back from a meeting in Chicago, a city well known for its regional deep dish pizza and its special St. Patrick's Day green beer. And, if one is willing to be charitable, you could even give them credit for ball-park hotdogs. But, as far as I knew before Wednesday of last week, that was pretty much the extent of Chicagoland’s regional culinary delights.

So, I was looking forward to having some of that deep dish pizza. Or at least a ball park frank. As it was a fancy hotel meeting, I was sure that nothing but the best would be served to us and I knew they wouldn’t be able to resist showcasing the foods that put the city on the map.

But, unbeknownst to me, another regional specialty existed and given the recession and all, our hotel apparently saved the pizza money to present us with it. And, just in case we might miss their efforts and feel slighted, they kindly printed a little sign to let us know that we were being served a “regional selection of breads.” And what a selection it was.

White, wheat and for the more adventurous in our group, rye. Imagine my surprise as I thought I had seen the same white bread in Ohio, Atlanta, and in any gas station I’ve stopped in, grungy or not, while on the road throughout this great country of ours. And in Mexico, China and Peru believe it or not. And, I don’t recall any credit being given to the city of Chicago in any of these places. And the wheat and rye breads. What a joy it was to be able to experience them. It seemed a bit like déjà vu, but perhaps I had only been dreaming when I thought I had seen them before all over the world.

So then I got up a couple of days ago to go to work. Bleary eyed, tired and in need of some mighty fine potassium. Went to get a banana for my breakfast and noticed that my darling husband had labeled it, apparently so I wouldn’t think that that I was going to eat any odd generic banana. Nope, he made sure I knew it was Del Monte quality which I thought was pretty interesting, considering I hadn’t discussed the regional origin of white bread with him and and my opinion that, maybe, just maybe, it was a bit of hyperbole on the hotel's part.

So now I must just assume that everyone but me got a memo on the proper presentation of recession era food. It’s all in the marketing after all, isn’t it?

But, as the week has gone on, I have recognized that I didn’t get the memo because I might have questioned it. Especially the Del Monte quality part. After all, Del Monte is the company that makes those cat treats that are made from animal digest and, as their customer service rep recently pointed out to me, is somehow extracted from the organs of healthy animals and made “palatable”. Sure hope this recession eating ends soon or next time I'm in Chicago they will be serving those cat treats relabled as beef jerky or something. Yum.