Eavesdropped in NY: "The Thing That Attracts Me to Soup"

A few weeks ago I blogged about a conversation "I had the pleasure of hearing while trying to work in a coffee shop. Not work as a barista but work, as in, write (they have wireless)." Well, just the other day, at the said coffee shop,  I had the pleasure of overhearing/ eavesdropping on another fascinating dialogue. I never would have believed that two people could have a committed conversation based entirely around  soup. But now I'm a believer. 

Setting: coffee shop chain on the Upper West Side. Woman in her late 20s is siting in a booth,  typing on her computer, half paying attention to what she's writing, half paying attention to the middle aged man and woman sitting in a booth behind her. Young woman is disturbed by the fact that the conversation is simultaneously deadly/ boring and distracting. The man and woman have flat mid western accents and pronounce every word as if it were highly important information.

Woman: I'm dedicated to eating better. Something that fills you up is soup. Very little fat. The thing that attracts me to soup is that there are lots of vegetables. I just don't know the right amounts of vegetables. do you use a lot of leeks? or do you use broccoli rabe? And what about like zucchini and squash, something like that? Have you put those in before? i guess that's what i was thinking

Man: Some. That French rest called Le Pain Quotidien, they have a recipe which i didn't realize, so basically all they did was, i don't know if they steamed zucchini or boiled it like you're talking about, but it was basically real thin, but you couldn't see the seeds or anything. That's what made me thing I should be making more single vegetable soup. I'm talking about single vegetable soups. Sometimes in the past i've made just lentle soup without just lentils and onion. That may appeal to you.

Woman:  I love eating vegetable soups. what i don't like is eating the same stuff all the time. Man: Well, they're all different. Woman: What i liked about what you did is the spices. the spices is what does it.

Man: You gotta remember, from my point of view, I was eating that soup so i could be eating vegetables. So i had to use spice to make it palatable. Since that time I've thrown that spice out. My point is if you season stuff it's all going to taste like curry because that's the main spice as opposed to poultry or thyme

Then the guy pulled this line out 

Man: You've put on some weight since i last saw you.

Woman: I'm not disagreeing with you. Actually I didn't put on weight. The scale says I'm the same. it's the fat muscle distribution.

That part was really sad and annoying. He's telling her she's fat. And she's saying I weigh the same, but am flabbier and weaker. I turned around to get a look, and he wasn't so svelt himself. I wanted to tell him that. But I didn't. But if you're reading this, Mr., guess those soups aren't doing the trick.