It Slices, It Dices, It Entices: Thoughts on Sur La Table

            

Photo Credit: Marco Gualtieri

            Derision and desire. This is what I feel every time that I enter a Sur La Table, and my visit this weekend was no exception. These two competing sentiments duke it out inside my head for total domination of my judgment. When I’m there, I’m either scoffing at products that no one could ever need or lusting after said products. Yes, it’s true, I want everything I see in the store. From the probably useless corn de-silking brush and avocado slicers to the adorable potholders and aprons, I want it all. 


            But, as much as I want everything there, I always leave with nothing. There’s just something about the store that evokes Stepford-Wivesian conspiracy theories in my mind. You go in, something or someone in the store turns on this switch, and suddenly you want to be a 50s housewife or to put on a Martha Stewart style dinner party (without the insider trading, thank you very much). While, true, this is a rather outlandish thought, it’s one that is not so far off in terms of my own behavior. 


            And that’s the thing that makes me sort of uncomfortable about these stores. It’s almost as if once you go down that (evil?) path, you can never return. Once you convince yourself that you need a new food processor, suddenly you can’t live without an ice-cream sandwich baking pan, and before you know it, you’re buying the most adorable little set of napkin rings (and seriously, who uses napkin rings?) So, until that day when I make it big and have the money to burn, I’m trying to keep Sur La Table as a place for window shopping and mockery rather than for any serious shopping.*

*With one possible exception: I have been wanting an ice-cream maker for some time now, but haven’t been able to get over the mental hurdles to buy one. I think I’m still waiting for someone to get it for me as a gift, it’s just one of those things I can’t buy for myself…but who knows, I may change my mind and I’d like to reserve the right to do so. Also, I hear they have cooking classes, which is something I'd like to check out one of these days...