NYC Whole Foods = Grocery Store Heaven

Is it wrong to have a love affair with a grocery store...because I do. It all began in New York City. One night my friend Allison and I were searching the streets of Manhattan for an affordable dinner option when we stumbled across heaven in a grocery store right in the middle of Columbus Circle. That heaven was called Whole Foods Market and it became one of our favorite places over the next few weeks.

Whole Food lures you in with their free range chicken, organic strawberries, bags made from recycled toilet paper, and of course the $7.99 a pound salad bar! Why would a salad bar elicit so much excitement you ask? Well the Whole Foods salad bar is no ordinary salad bar -- it's row after row of couscous salad, rice, cold pasta, Indian food, soul food, crisp lettuce, fresh baked bread, homemade sandwiches, and the world's best mac and cheese. And it all costs $7.99 a pound! You just grabbed your preferred size of recycled container and load up on whatever you want! Then you stand in line for 20 minutes with all of the other eco-friendly New Yorker's until you can pay for and enjoy your organic rice with a side of orange Vitamin Water (it's all the rage in NYC).

Whole Foods is one of the things I've missed the most since I've left New York -- so how delighted am I to find out that they have one in Park City! And luck would have it I was in Park City with my family this week! So this morning I drag my parents to Whole Foods while espousing the deliciousness of the organic salad bar only to find that the Park City Whole Foods does not have one-tenth of the salad bar that the NYC Whole Foods has. I wanted to sit right down on the recycled floor and cry because I was so disappointed. But luckily I pulled myself together before I had a breakdown and settled for buying a box of all natural frosted shredded wheat, a bag of frozen organic soy beans, and a bottle of un-pasteurized apple juice -- oh and an organic oatmeal raisin cookie the size of my hand.

I guess those purchases will just have to tide me over until I can go back to New York and get my fill of the earth-friendly megastore that is the Columbus Circle Whole Foods...sigh...