Let’s go… Slaho!

I love to BBQ. It’s quick and easy and when there are paper plates available it means minimal cleaning afterwards. So when I can find a moment to BBQ, I do. Such was the case today. On Monday, it was my youngest’s second birthday, so we invited the family over and we made some burgers, hot dogs and italian sausages on the grill while taking the opportunity to jump in the pool (only men of course, for those wondering, along with ALL the kids, about 15 in total, and for the last half hour I was alone! Not fair). I always get ragged on for trying to be exact with the food I make, but the truth is I hate seeing good food go to waste, so my count allowed for leftover uncooked burgers. That meant that today we could have burgers. SWEET!

So, I BBQ’ed the burgers and I brought them out to eat. It was then that I realized that we only had ONE hamburger bun left. We had plenty of OTHER bread (a loaf of whole wheat bread, another of honey wheat, and about a dozen hot dog buns plus half a dozen English muffins), but we were down to the LAST hamburger bun. This is a problem under normal circumstances. You see, two of my kids refuse to eat burgers unless they are in HAMBURGER buns. Fortunately, today one of those kids was eating something else, having chosen to make chicken nuggets, so the remaining child had the hamburger bun. One of my other kids, who doesn’t really care what kind of bread is on the burger and I each had a burger on 100% whole wheat, and my wife chose to eat the burger without bread (she does this from time to time… it wasn’t a bread issue).

But this whole incident reminded me of the time I made burgers for everyone and we had NO buns. Two of my kids refused to eat. How can you eat, after all, a hamburger without a hamburger bun? I tried to explain to them that it didn’t HAVE to be on a bun… patty melts are made on rye bread, and they are considered burgers, I argued. Their response? “We don’t like rye bread!” But you do like honey wheat, don’t you? “It’s not the same! Make us something else.” Needless to say, I didn’t make anything else, but I was given the whole “You know it really isn’t the same” argument by a few people who were there, and by others who passed by later and heard the story.

Now, let’s be reasonable here. Sure, all breads are not the same. But if it’s a bread you like, it shouldn’t be an issue using it for a sandwich is it? I mean, I’ve used Cuban bread on every conceivable sandwich out there. I actually have had an English muffin burger before (it was delicious). I’ve used Media Noche bread for meatball subs (also very good), and have found a way to use Hawaiian loaves to make sandwiches to. All these are breads I enjoy, so I don’t see why they couldn’t be used as replacements when the otherwise desirable bread type is not available. If you like the available bread, then as far as I’m concerned, BREAD IS BREAD.

Now, I don’t like raisin bread. So I wouldn’t use that as a substitute. I just don’t like it. But my kids like every other bread type I had available, and still refused to acknowledge them as viable options. “It’s not the same!” So how about the hot dog buns? Aren’t they the same just in a different shape? We just need to cut the burgers in half so that they’d fit the hot dog buns. NOPE! Not hot dog buns. So as to not make my kids looked too spoiled I will insert here that they both did wind up eating the burgers (even though one begged me to cook something else to which I refused). One unhappily used the hot dog buns and told me it just didn’t feel right (Oh brother!), while the other ate it a la carte. But all the complaining still irked me… and it didn’t help when they got the unnecessary help from the peanut gallery. One even offered to go buy the buns!

Maybe I’m just being silly, but I think that they’re the ones being silly (and all their supporters). Sure buns have a different texture than regular loaf bread especially since they are thicker and don’t fall apart so easily, but the taste is not much different. Really. So if you’re ever at my house at a BBQ and we run out of buns, back me up here when I bring out the “regular bread”. I need a little love behind me.

And if you are wondering… “man, this was a pretty weak blog” my response to you is… look I blogged OK? That’s what was on my mind and yes it bugged me enough to write about it. And anyways a BLOG IS A BLOG, right? It’s just something to read to make you think a little. Some are just deeper than others, that’s all. While others are are flimsy as white bread. But in the end it serves its purpose.

And yes, I am going to buy buns tomorrow. There are some burgers still left over, and I am not in the mood for an argument tomorrow. I’m enjoying my summer vacation too much to get upset over a silly argument over bread. WHEW! Glad I got that off my chest!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 at 11:36 pm and is filed under Just thinking.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.