Tom and the 10 pound Hamburger

Food is better when the experience is shared and such was the case when my friend Tom and his wife Barbara invited me to his 70^th birthday party. It was being held in a local restaurant that was a favorite of mine. Nothing fancy, but good food, friendly staff, and customers. That in itself is a recipe for a party.

The menu was of no particular concern because the event was a birthday party and not necessarily an eating event. However, it was a little unsettling to find that the food for an entire party of friends consisted of a single hamburger.

It was after seeing it, that the enormity began to sink in. The patty was made of 10 pounds of 100% beef. The bun was shipped in from Portland, Oregon. No, really it was. It was made by the brother of the restaurant’s owner. The brother owned a bakery in Portland and had made such creations before. The birthday cake was also in the form of a hamburger.   If you look at the pictures, you realize that the cake is normal size for a birthday cake, but compare it to the size of the master creation and star of the event, “The Hamburger”.

The hamburger was cut in the fashion of a cake and served in slices, and was surprisingly good and we had so much fun eating it. The art of eating, is to enjoy it immensely, but do so in size moderation. This is a lesson that has hit later in life, but would have been a wonderful thing to have practiced earlier in my life.

There is no fun in feeling stuffed and there is joy in not being hungry.  The trick here is to find the comfortable place; however, mindless eating is not a good thing.  So, join me in enjoying the event, the food, the comradery and the experience, but leave me out in feeling miserable for hours after the event with that stuffed feeling. Bon Appetite!