It's not exactly as if I am perpetually mowing my way through a field of hamburgers on a daily basis. Halfway decent hamburgers are hard come by these days. Most restaurants have gone to specialty or ethnic foods. There are Thai restaurants all over the place, and within walking distance of where I live, there are a number of Chinese restaurants (not the old-style chop suey and chow mein joints, but Mandarin, Cantonese, etc. Greek, Russian, Ethiopian, Vietnamese, Mexican (not counting the Taco Bell four blocks from here), a couple of Italian restaurants (not counting pizza joints everywhere). A couple of bar-and-grill type places. A couple of seafood restaurants (I'm particularly partial to seafood), health food restaurants and a juice bar, two Subways and a couple of delis. I am surrounded by food.

But I don't know of any place nearby where I could walk in and order anything resembling what used to be a standard, medium-priced, very American restaurant meal, say a small salad, entrée of chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes, vegetable, and roll, followed by pie à la mode.

These days, if you hunger for a hamburger in this neck of the woods, you can go to Kidd Valley. I don't know if they're a national chain, but there are several of them around Seattle—very good burgers, but not exactly cheap. Another would be Red Robin Gourmet Burgers. Eleventy-fourteen different varieties, but also a bit pricey.

But I could head down to my local Burger King and get a damned good hamburger (I usually order the Whopper Junior with cheese—fresh and tasty) for a buck and a half. Unfortunately, I just got the news that the Burger King I usually go to has closed its doors. There are others in Seattle, but not nearby. Damn!!

That leaves me with Dick's Drive-In (not bad, but not as good as Burger King) or Jack-in-the-Box. Jack-With-the-Styrofoam-Head's burgers are pretty good, but they're tending to escalate in price. One thing they do have going for them is that after the E coli brouhaha of ten or twelve years ago, Jack-in-the-Box's burgers are scrupulously clean and well-prepared. They don't want a repetition of that.

I really wish there were a decent fish-and-chips place nearby. . . .

We're not unacquainted with the food pyramid, and our food intake is pretty healthy. Barbara's a genius with rice, beans, mixed veggies, pasta. Last night for dinner we had a humongous big salad with sourdough bread (the kind where you slice the loaf yourself).

Don Firth
(Jeez! It's past lunchtime here!)