Monday, January 04, 2021

New Year Burgers

For many years, we have enjoyed burgers sometime during holiday season. I have memories of, I think more than once, dropping in at a burger joint on New Year Day after the long drive home from visiting family in Toronto. In trying to recollect the cost back in the early seventies, I think those meals were up to 10x less expensive than they are now. Mind you, A&W is fairly expensive for a burger joint although worth the extra cost every now and then.

Then, for many years, a run to [usually] Burger King became part of turkey-cooking day which generally  was cooked a day or two before CHristmas. (Just once, I would like to type CHristmas without capitalizing the H but I never seem to manage. I usually correct the typo, but I am leaving it stand this time.) I would make a takeout run and bring the food home. It became a tradition that we looked forward to renewing almost every year.

We have often done the burger thing sometime during the holiday season, and I had a yen to do repeat it in some form to end 2020 even though no turkey was cooked this year. So, on the day before New Year, we opted to takeout from A&W and then to take it to the river rather than home.

While it is only a 5 minute drive to the park, we still faced the problem of keeping the food warm on a cold day. The solution was to put the food in the cooler into which we also inserted hot packs.


Sue and I prefer our food hot, so we were hoping that this would work. While it didn't work terribly well, at least the food remained somewhat warm.


Did you notice the lapdesk, above? Yes, we brought our laptop trays to help keep everything in order.

This is not the first time that Sue has taken a photo like this during the pandemic, and it may not be the last.


I must say that this was a totally fun blast from the past. Who but a teenager and now us oldies would want to eat in the car and actually get a kick out of it? The food was quite good, and it was fun to do something totally different from the norm.



15 comments:

Marie Smith said...

I don’t think teens would worry about the heat packs. Fun indeed. You have to change things up to get through these times!

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Nice to keep up with favorite traditions even if they need to be modified a bit in keeping with the current times.

Bohemian said...

I just found your Blog via reading another, Pandemic Lockdown Extended Stay Boredom has really expanded my Horizons here in The Land of Blog! *smiles* While I was on a brief dietary stint of No Meat to attempt to control a Diabetic situation that had become ridiculous... I got addicted to the Burger King's Impossible Burger... The Man didn't believe it when I told him it tasted just like a Real Burger until I tricked him and he ate one and didn't know the difference. *LOL* Two Years later, when I ditched the Veggie/Vegan shit that wasn't really working nor effective, I still rather like those faux Burgers from The King. There aren't many A&W's around these parts but I fondly remember the tiny Mugs we got as a Child there of Root Beer, I still have one swiped from one. Don't call the A&W Police, the statute of limitations has long expires I think. *winks* Happy New Year!

DJan said...

I haven't eaten meat in so long I don't know how I'd tell the difference with those impossible burgers, but now I think I might have to try one. Looks like it was indeed fun! :-)

Barbara Rogers said...

I fell in love with Impossible Burgers this fall/winter. The local restaurant serves them with their yummy potato salad, and the lunch is about $11. So I drove the extra miles to Burger King, where there's always a line of cars (I think they stopped indoor service completely.) Most times the burgers are wonderful, as well as the forbidden fried onion rings...and I'm happy enough with pink lemonade. Wish they had A&W root beer! Anyway, the last time I went was later than normal lunch, and the I-burger was a bit dried out. SO, she says, I know they sit there over lunch time, ready to sell. Going early next time I get the urge, but it's been several weeks. (My plant based diet is also low fat, so I really loved the rings...as a treat.) Oh, the lunch at BK is $8.34.

Anvilcloud said...

People writing about BK and their burgers leads me to say sadly that we don’t have one in this town, and the town 30 minutes west lost theirs some time ago. There is one in the town 30 minutes ot the south.

Ed said...

I used to love eating at A&W as a child but sadly they are all extinct down here. But two years ago as we were driving through Quebec, we found one and stopped there for lunch for old times sake. I don't speak French and the register girl didn't either so we were reduced to pointing at pictures to place an order but we finally succeeded.

These days, the family that farms our farm also raises beef and we've gotten quite used to their superior flavor so we don't often buy burgers on the road.

Marcia said...

You brought back an early Covid memory. We wanted to eat out but no way inside a restaurant, not that any were open, so we drove to Chik Fila. Went through the drive thru then pulled into a parking spot to enjoy the meal. I'd forgotten about how we felt so guilty about that because technically we were not to do that when we lived in the retirement community.
Don't see A&W restaurants around here. Do enjoy their root beer.

Margaret said...

What a great way to do something different! I too prefer hot food, which would be problematic. I miss eating out.

gigi-hawaii said...

Well, good for you and Sue. Here, we don't eat in our car. It is forbidden. Don't like crumbs and odors in the car. No sir.

Red said...

Funny what traditions we make during Christmas. I don't miss eating in a car although at AW they used to hang a tray on your window with the food and you always ate in the car. We even did that with two little kids.

Joanne Noragon said...

I can't remember the last decent burger and fries. Well, bon apatite for as long as you do this.

Rita said...

The lap desks are a smart thing to have in the car--especially these days when you can still get take out food. Love her car meal-selfies. :)

Christina said...

I love a good burger, preferably a nice chunky one in a local pub (although not for a long time now). We don't have A&W here. I think this middle aged woman would also enjoy eating in the car once in a while, it sounds almost adventurous! Of course we can't drive more than five miles past the local authority boundaries, which makes a car lunch in a nice spot difficult.

Jeff said...

I had almost broken the habit of eating in the car--thinking that I needed to take time to sit down and enjoy a meal--then COVID came along and old habits return. And, too many of my "meals out" have been fast food (although there are a few places I frequent where I can get good food to go)