The price of sandwiches at the Westside Cafe across the street from work in West Berkeley, specifically the basic turkey on homemade marble swirl bread, suddenly rose $0.75 today. Up until now it had been what I considered to be a pretty good Bay Area value at $5 a person. Now, at a whopping $5.75 por cabeza, I'm not so sure. It's still not a bad deal as far as lopped off, no frill standards go and healthy Bay Area sandwiches are definitely not cheap, not anymore.
"So... you guys raised your sandwich prices?" I asked the clerk behind the register.
"Dude... the price of flour like doubled over the past two months. It's not the actual flour but the cost of getting it here," the young pudgy faced counterman told me in semi-confidence and partial disgust.
My immediate thought was Argentina and their struggle against hyper inflation and prohibitively exorbitant ever-increasing food prices in those months before the crash in December of 2001. Pictures of young men, women and children - entire families - commandeering giant dump trucks filled with scrap meat and animal carcasses desperately searching for any and every last salvageable piece of meat, quickly entered my mind.
We're going down, just like what happened in Argentina and no one's looking, no one's watching,.. no one paying attention. That lonesome road and the price we pay for gas and bread.
* picture above brought to my attention by Cal Santos - Thai artist Kittiwat Unarrom and his gruesomely creative bread sculptures
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