Tuesday, January 23, 2007

My First Sub

It is not that I had never had at Subway before, but that was in India where you hardly find any person other than those behind the counter. I could take my own time and customize my order as well. Still, I did not like what I had that time and could not correlate the word cold with sandwich while paying so much. Anyways, seeing the long queues at the nearby Subway joint everyday, I thought of trying to see if this was any different.

The first difference - Fast Food queues should move real fast. And so, even though I was around twenty odd in the line, it was hardly 3 minutes before I was to order - fully undecided about my order. The fast movement of the queue was apparent from the fact that 6 people were behind the counter. Your bread travels from one to the next till it becomes a sandwich and you pay to the last person.

The first person asked what type of bread. I replied - "I don't need." :D (He had pointed to a chart that had all the bread varieties, but the only thing I read was, add a delicious garlic bread to your subway meal.) Then he said, "How can I make it without the bread?" Finally I said I wanted the first bread type.

The bread passed on to the next person.

She said - Cheese? My reply - "No, thanks". That would have meant paying extra, you know. But on quickly running my eyes on the board I found no mention of paying extra for cheese. But it was already too late.

The bread passed on to the next person and I could not understand what she did other than passing it on. The next person gave me a look and I could understand she was expecting me to say something, but did not understand what. Finally she said - "What all you need?" Did not get her accent and thought she said something else. So I replied - "yes, fine." She said, pointing - "WHAT ALL? Lettuce? Tomato?" I got the point and continued - "Onion, ummm.. yes that's all." Then realised what all I should have said when the girl behind me replied to the same question - "Lettuce, tomato, onion, carrot, cabbage, pickle, jalapeno, olive…" I realised what I had missed because mine was already packed. And then came further grief when I heard the girl continue - "yes, mayonnaise, mustard, yes a little bit…."

The bread passed on to the next person who billed it and said enjoy your Sub! Enjoy I did!

Afterall, I unknowingly removed some extra calories from what they claim to already reduce. And, like the calories, I had taken away most of the taste out of what little it was supposed to have.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hahaha - very funny experience. I will be careful if i travel onsite some day.

Great writing, cheers!

Anonymous said...

If you had asked for cheese, the next question would have been "American or Swiss?" ... whatever!

Arindam Das said...

After selecting bread next question would be 6" or a foot long?