Don't waste your money at Cultures!

My parents arrived home from Cuba on Wednesday night and came for a brief visit yesterday to see us.  It was such a nice visit, all very exciting holiday talk.  All the while I was of course dying to be the one on the warm Cuban beach, sipping fruity drinks with umbrellas and watching wee man play on the sandy beach that he loves so much.  Alas, I just had to live vicariously through my parents.  I was happy that they were so happy!

Now being with my parents means I have great potential to falter from my wise eating program; this did not happen!  Just a quick note, I am so confused by the semi-colon.  Jacquie Bee, can you please give me some insight on how to use properly this lovely piece of punctuation?  Thanks. Anyway, I digress.  My food situation wasn't quite as spot on as it is when I'm completely in my routine and in my comfortable control zone, but it was still pretty decent.  My parents gave me lots of support, encouragement and praise for a job well done (so far) - very nice!

Yesterday's food

Veggie wrap, tabbouleh & fruit salad from Cultures (I'm going to have a rant about Cultures in a bit)

Diet Iced Tea

1/2 cup basmati rice

1 cup vegan chili (made by moi)

Medium sized chunk of homemade corn bread

1 McCain's 100 calorie chocolate cake (bad choice)

1.5 Dad's Oatmeal Raisin cookies (bad choice)

Water and cuppas (didn't keep track of volumes)

Yesterday's exercise

50 minutes on elliptical (level 3!) burned 546 calories (now that's by memory, so I'll verify it on my card at the gym)

40 crunches

40 leg lifts

10 puke inducers

12 reps on all 9 weight machines + inner & outer thigh 

Okay, Cultures.  The service on Saturday mornings at Cultures is amazing, well, one guy in particular is amazing.  He's knowledgeable, friendly & is going to uni to become a Physician.  I heart him.  In Burnaby I had completely given up, no, boycotted Cultures because of the CRAP service and even CRAPPIER selection of fillings for a vegetarian sandwich.  The last time I went to Cultures in Burnaby, I ordered a vegetarian sandwich and was utterly confused as to what fillings were on offer.  The guy behind the counter seemed to have no clue what would go on a veggie sandwich - weird.  I ended up with two pieces of bread with 1 leaf of lettuce, a slice of tomato and that's it!  WTF?!  That was the last straw.  I swore I'd never go to one ever again; there had been many bad experiences before that.  What's one to do when you're out and about and need a healthy choice?

My most recent Cultures experiences have been both good and bad.  Saturdays, good.  Other days, very bad and reminiscent of Burnaby.  Yesterday was the worst.  I will never go there again.  Hmm, scratch that.  I will go there on Saturday if the awesome guy is there and I will tell him why I'm not going to go there anymore.  See the thing is, I'm pretty sure the people who are giving me the CRAP service are the owners.  So even though I like the one guy, I can't line the pockets of two assholes for the sake of a 'healthier' choice.

There I was, staring at the menu board, spoiled for choice.  I decided to be risky and go for something different - the cheese pita.  Yes, I asked if I could get veggies on the pita before I ordered it.  When it came time for the gal to make the pita, she asked me if I wanted cheese. Umm, didn't I just order the cheese pita?!  After establishing that I wanted cheddar cheese we proceeded to the very painful task of choosing veggies.  I requested, "All of the veggies available", only to be met with, "Well, what ones do you want?"... "Everything you've got".  We went on like this for an eternity.  For those of you who know me, my level of patience for insolence is not good.  I can go from 0 to 10 in a very short period of time.  It looked like the gal making the pita was trying to shelter something from me so I got kind of nervous.  I am afterall planning on eating this thing!  She was unwrapping processed cheese slices.  What?!  No.  Shyness totally thrown out the window, I called her on the processed cheese thing and informed her that that was indeed not cheddar.  Amazingly, real cheddar slices magically appeared.  I really should've just left at this point, but I didn't.  I was hungry!

I made a suggestion to the guy at the cash, apparently the manager, that I had never ordered a pita from their store before and it was quite a painful experience and that it might be nice to be offered a selection of things to choose from, rather than having to guess.  He told me they didn't have time to do that because they were busy.  Good God, seriously?  First of all, I was the only one there.  Of course I pointed this out.  He also told me it "... depends on who you get".  "You know who you'll get if you continue this level of service? I said, "NOBODY".  The lady who had arrived behind me tried desperately to get some information about a muffin, only to be met with surly and indifferent service from 'the guy'.  She then left after telling him how rude he was and that she was never coming there again.  Word up, sister.

I know that was a seriously long-winded rant, but I hate it when companies take the piss, especially during these hard economic times when quite frankly, they should be thrilled that anyone in their right mind would pay $10 (and change) for a crap pita that ended up having only one slice of lettuce, two slices of tomato & carrot, one piece of green pepper and 3 water chestnuts.  That of course means that I think I'm in my right mind!  

Oh yeah, it was the Cultures at Burlington Mall.

BOO to Cultures.

Cupcake

xo