there's paper in it
Last night I dreamt I was at the MS cafeteria. I was really hungry, and had hardly any money, so I chose a chicken pot pie. While eating it, I noticed how fast I was eating and tried to just eat half. Then, I tried to just eat half of the side I assigned myself to. None of these measures worked, and I continued wolfing it down.
Suddenly I had to stop, because my fork cut into a stack of what looked like paper. Yes, it was paper, junk mail and phone bill envelopes like you might see in your recycle bin. Complete with pen scribbles and little plastic covers for the address windows. That was it, I had to get something else.
I found a sandwich to eat from the "grab and go" section for five dollars. It was tunafish, cut into triangles, and using wheat bread that was dyed green. It was st particks day. When purchasing the sandwich, I complained to the cashier about the stack of paper in the chicken pot pie. She said "Yes, we did that to save money." She seemed sympathetic. I replied "Why didn't you just use - nothing?" She nodded her head, both of us realizing the lameness of my answer necessitating drastic action (such as paper) in and of itself.
The thing that resonates about this dream for me is the feeling of passivity we have as food consumers, especially in a controlled environment like ballparks, college, MS, or DisneyLand. The values of variety of food, economy, and of satisfying our hunger are there, but somehow reversed, so that the institution holds the upper hand. At least somebody saved money in my dream, but it wasn't me. I bought two lunches I didn't want. And the variety concept was there, but only as "green bread, hmmm, what will they think of next." Then there is the overall question of what is satisfying, how that satisfaction must come slowly or we will waste it with a stomachache. How it can sometimes be fooled, and how sometimes we want to be fooled, as part of the show that food provides for us three times a day.