Lunch at Sur Burger
Ack. It appears that I have let "busy-ness" plague me like so many in our society. A friend messaged me the other day to have lunch and so we met up at Sur Burger on Alvarado. He commented that I hadn't written on my blog in some time so here I am.
This life is crazy and beautiful. We get so many things thrown at us that we get no formal training on how to deal with. I guess busy-ness is one of those things. We all have our ways of coping: making schedules, exercising, ensuring we get enough sleep, etc. But sometimes those habits are less than healthy, maybe we lose sleep to accommodate the busy schedule and try to accomplish more in the day. Maybe we drop the exercise on account of being tired from losing sleep or to try to accomplish more in the day. I guess this is me reminding myself to focus on the healthy habits and not the less than healthy habits. To remind myself that no matter what happens, it will all get accomplished and it will all turn out OK in the end.
My friend suggested we order a bottle of champagne...we had lots to celebrate: life, friendship, living in California, a day ending in "y." So we ordered a bottle of bubbly and a couple of burgers (we were at a burger joint, after all) and I thought this is so California. A little known fact is that the name "California" originates from the Spanish conquistadors after "califia" a mythical island paradise in Las Serges de Esplandian by Garcia Ordonez de Montalvo, a Spanish romance written c. 1510. But also California is a land of abundance with a Mediterranean climate. With that abundance, people--inventive, motivated, life-loving people--have learned how to refine and perfect so much of the natural abundance and resources. Take for example, agriculture (and gastronomy) and viticulture. California has such lovely food and wine.
Anyhow, I'm not trying to get too philosophical here other than to say champagne and burgers felt like a very "California" lunch to me. Champagne is reminiscent of "high-class" culture, if you will, and burgers are fast food. Put together, and eaten slowly, you get the perfect Californian meal.
Something unique about Sur Burger is that they have a "condiment bar." You can fill up on pickles, cole slaw, and different dips for your fries and sauces for your burger. The menu offers "chicken and waffles," which I was going to say is a California food on account of the popularity of Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in Los Angeles, but upon further research, I have found that the dish is a bit older than Roscoe's. There are multiple theories about its origin but one posits that in the early 1800s hotels and resorts outside of Philadelphia served waffles and fried catfish but over time the catfish became any other meat due to catfish's limited availability. By the end of the nineteenth century, the dish was a symbol of Pennsylvania Dutch Country. How cool!
Anyhow, I had a lovely lunch of bubble and burgers, spent good time with a dear friend, and was reminded that I need to write on my blog more often. I hope you have enjoyed my stream of consciousness and that you can take a minute to remind yourself to do something you love that maybe you haven't done in a while. Or reach out to a friend for lunch.