My Bag Lunch Thinks Costco Is A Homewrecker

Today I went on a bulk warehouse eating spree. Everything I ate, except for 2 mini-bran muffins in the morning and a couple spoonfuls of kimchee in the afternoon, was from Costco. Looking back at my recent $40 a day post, two of us could have eaten at Costco for at least a week on forty bucks. And that's without samples.

Lunch was going to be home brought food, and in fact, we had lugged our little lunch "shopping" bags all the way to the Burbank Costco eating area just to get away from the office and be outside. But none of us could resist the call of cheap junk food, so we ditched our lunches and bought hot dogs instead, 'cause it seemed like so much more fun. For a buck fifty what you get is a hot dog, condiments (including sauerkraut if you ask for it!) and a soda, and for a buck fifty, what you don't get is a whole lotta guilt for ditching your home brought lunch, which by the way, I promised myself I would eat for dinner. Oh, and I didn't ditch everything, 'cause in total FOB-ulous fashion, I reached into my lunch bag and took out my little container of kimchee and ate that along with my hot dog. I shoulda piled it onto the hot dog and ate it that way but I didn't. 'Cause then I woulda had people coming up to me and asking, "Mmm, whered'ya get that kimchee dog?"


Which one of these is NOT from Costco?

I think that I would have avoided eating Costco for for dinner if the line at its gas station hadn't been so long, but fate had it that each line was at least 5 cars deep and we had to get back to the office, so I made a return trip in the evening. Yes, just to get gas. But for under 3 bucks a gallon. $2.89 to be exact.

After making the usual pitstop at the book aisle and not finding anything I wanted to buy, I headed straight for the rotisserie, dug through the plastic domed chickens to see which one had the lastest timestamp, and picked my bird out. Yup, you're goin' home with me, little feller! A bag of the Grand Parisian salad would do nicely on the side, so I picked one of those up too and started toward the cashier.


Costs less than 5 bucks and will feed us for 3 days

A big crowd caught my attention and made me stop dead in my tracks; there were shoppers everywhere, digging through bags of what appeared to be pita bread! I had to see what the freakshow was all about, so I made Mr. Chicken and Mr. Bag'O Salad sit off to the side as I went to check out the commotion. A couple of guys from Glendale's Kermanig Bakery had set up a table and were giving out samples of Armenian baked goods, including focaccias, Baklava and other desserts. This was no ordinary sample stand--people were actually buying this stuff, and in droves. I'm not usually a sampler--I can usually do without the half a Bagel Bite or teeny paper cup full of Chex Mix--but I had to on this one, so I asked the guy if I could try a slice of each of the different types of pizza-looking focaccias they offered; they were crisped nicely on the bottom and edges, had a nice olive oil taste, their toppings flavored well with onion and Mediterranean spices. I would soon conform to the crowds: "Yeah, gimmee one bag of the cheese, one of the spinach and cheese, and one of the red pepper paste please." Any three items for $11.99. Not bad.


I gotta say, it was the samples this time that got me

I got home and assembled our Costco dinner, washing our salad mix, carving the rotisserie chicken, and heating up my new-found focaccias in the oven, while the lunch of chicken wings and rice that I had packed for lunch sat neglected in the fridge singing sad songs. "You abandoned me for some cheap $1.50 floozie!" it whined. Aww, don't feel ignored Poor Ol' Lunch, I'll have you for lunch tomorrow.