Immigration Burgers

I went to an event tonight with a most disappointing spread.

My hopes were high when I walked into the room, as I smelt something that smelt an awful lot like pies - the good ones, New Zealand pies that are stuffed full of meat and cheese. I had been invited to this event as part of the Kiwi community in New York, so pies were definitely a possibility.

I made my way around the room, introducing myself and chatting and making pleasant small talk, checked out the art on display as one should (beautiful, beautiful sculptural pieces - this was not a hardship at all) and then, after the speeches were done, casually made my way towards the food table, on which I was pretty sure I could see arancini, and which hopefully also contained the much-hoped for pies.

Well. Not only were there no pies, there was nothing encased in pastry in that entire, oversized room. The arancini turned out to be whole apricots. There were a couple of plates of those, a couple of Swiss cheese slices (like any deli would serve), a couple of plates of mini gherkins, a plate of mini sausages, and a plate of pretzels. It was like a bunch of lunch fixings got lost and ended up at a '70s cocktail party*, and did I mention there was nothing encased in pastry in the whole place? Parties, receptions, and events are pretty much the only places I eat pastry. Needless to say, I was severely disappointed.

I begrudgingly ate a couple of pieces of cheese to stave off my hunger, did some more glad-handing around the room, then took my leave, excited for the dinner that awaited me at home.

H1 was cooking tonight, and in an earlier text had promised immigration burgers. The fact that he actually meant 'I'm making burgers' and was caught out by autocorrect means nothing. From now on, we will be calling them immigration burgers. It's kind of fitting, too, because they were an awesome mash of typical Kiwi and American flavors, eaten by two New Zealanders in New York.

They had all the basic burger components - a meat patty, buns, lettuce, cheese, onion - then also cleverly incorporated pineapple (Kiwi style), capsicum**, mayo, and an incredible barbecue sauce. And they were amazing. So amazing that there are no pictures, because I ate it***. Instead, I leave you with this:

Immigration burgers are a win!

*Just had a thought. This was an art-based event. Perhaps this was some sort of avant-garde statement?
**Or pepper, depending where you hail from.
***Plus, I think there are enough hastily-taken iPhone pictures of food floating around this universe - I don't think I need to add more.