D I S P A T C H E S | Inside Washington

Food Shopping, In Style

by Dibya Sarkar

Setting: The (Social) Safeway on Wisconsin Avenue. 

I entered unhindered and proceed toward the vegetable section. I glanced around, but no one of importance was in the vicinity. I picked out some bell peppers (one red, one yellow) and then overshot the garlic bin. I picked out two good-sized bulbs. I weaved my way past the cheese section and wondered why my European friends hate American cheese so much. I perused the chicken section and wondered whether I should get boneless or chicken with bone. 

To my right, two men in dark suits stared down the aisles. One was definitely of Middle Eastern or South Asian descent. This was a new twist. Possibly it wasn’t Tommy Thompson or Condee Rice, but instead a high-ranking foreign diplomat. I picked out chicken breasts for $3.99 per pound. Not the best price, but I was cooking dinner for friends the next night and didn’t feel like going shopping again.

I passed the frozen vegetables aisle, got a couple of packets mixed vegetables, and then turned left where more Secret Service and foreign bodyguards were standing. At that moment, I bumped into a colleague from work, Amanda, a copy editor. We talked about who could possibly be shopping at the Social Safeway. With so many agents in the grocery store, we figured the official could have sent someone else in to pick out the food. Of course, I was thinking why shop at Safeway when you could hobnob with the upper crust at the Fresh Fields up the road. We then noticed one of the foreign Secret Service pushing a grocery cart. 

So we’re talking and talking and meanwhile there are men with concealed weapons all around us. Then, coming down one of the aisles (I believe it was the baking aisle), I noticed a man I recognized from TV. He looked Middle Eastern. He was on the short side, dark hair, clean-shaven and was wearing, I believe, a blue blazer and gray shirt and slacks. Then it hit me … King Abdullah of Jordan is pushing a cart, full of groceries. I was so stunned that I didn’t notice the cart’s contents. Amanda later said it was brimming with junk food.

He sauntered down the aisle. We looked at each other and I thought he was quite striking and good looking in a distinguished sort of way. He passed right by us, and, to my surprise, agents didn’t move in to contain me (I mean I would, knowing me). Amanda and I walked down the aisle the King had just graced. I told her who it was and she asked me, "How do you know?" Well, I watch TV, I told her. A young slacker walked past us and asked me who it was and I said, "Dude, it’s like King Abdullah of Jordan." He said, "Whoa." And then Amanda asked the question that anyone would have asked at this point: "Why is he shopping at a Safeway?" 

Who knows why we wage war and not peace? Or why Julia Roberts was once married to Lyle Lovett? Maybe the king got homesick. According to a friend, Jordan does, after all, have one Safeway; it’s located in Amman, in fact, where King Abdullah lives.

Author’s note: The preceding story was originally sent as an e-mail to several friends Sept. 26, 2001 recounting my “encounter” with the first head of state I’ve ever seen up close and personal. However, the event in no way should be perceived as indicative of my life in Washington, D.C. It has been, and continues to be, on the boring side.

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Dibya Sarkar is a contributing editor to PopPolitics.

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What else did King Abdullah buy while he was in town? Read the Reliable Source (third item) in the Washington Post. Lloyd Grove also caught Dick and Lynn Cheney shopping there in July. Although we’ve heard that the Social Safeway got its name because teens used to hang out in its parking lot at night, its reputation as a pick-up spot is now well-known. More on that from Georgetown’s The Hoya and Digital City.