The Fastest Meal Ever Had.

Hellenic Republic is a place I’d usually recommend if you were looking to make your night revolve around dinner. I’d probably say, “Get a couple of friends together, call to make a reservation for 7pm-ish, choose a good bottle of wine or 4, ask for each part of the meal to come out separate and order dessert. Assume you’ll be there for about 2.5 hours and you’ll be spending a portion of money from that savings account you keep for meals with friends such as this.” Then you’ll say you don’t have that type of savings account and I’ll think that’s really weird. I didn’t know I was the only one.

I have now learned though that Hellenic Republic is good for much more than your usual indulgent dinner. Sometimes it’s good for days when you’ve had a terribly unsatisfying pizza for lunch, and you can’t think of anything worse than italian food for dinner. You’re in a hurry, probably, but you also definitely don’t want fast food because your lunch was SO bad you need a meal that puts you back in balance.

Okay. This situation is not hypothetical is literal. It was 6pm. Jack and I were seeing Simon Taylor’s MICF show at 7pm. We were heading towards Hellenic Republic on Lygon street and didn’t even know it! It was perfect; we were running a little late because we were rehearsing Jack’s own Melbourne International Comedy Festival show  called 10 Songs Each Better Than The Last (which you should totally go see!). I called Hellenic Republic to make sure they were cool with us only having 40 minutes to eat and the nice man on the other end of the phone smirked. “Of course”, he said! “Absolutely no problem”, he emphasized.

He wasn’t kidding. We were sat straight away, our waitress asked us if we knew what we wanted to order before we even took our seats.

We found the lamb on the menu, decided on corn and taziki appetizer. The waitress was back with our food in 5 minutes – not exaggerating. And I don’t mean she was back with the Taziki, I mean she was back with all of it. It actually came out faster the time it would have taken us to wait in the McDonald’s drive through.

And the lamb was splendid, it was perfectly soft and juicy, and lemony, and tasty. I cannot find words to explain to you how much I love that lamb. That lamb is a dream. I also reaaaaaalllyy enjoy good corn as you can tell by the picture above. There is no time to look good in pictures when you have grilled, cheese topped corn in front of you.

I’ve always disregarded nicer, higher-endy restaurants for these types of rushed occasions, but when push comes to shove and hurrying up – Hellenic Republic is where I’m heading.

In-n-Out Burger // San Francisco

Since I’m going back to Australia the 24th and I’m terrified my family will not commit to the 25-ish hour flight to visit me, I’ve been devoting all my free time to them. We’ve been on the road going from BU soccer game to BU soccer game to spend time together. This translates into a lot of on-the-go food which, coincidently, has caused a huge wave of wanting and missing In-n-Out Burger.

In-n-Out Burger was a long time coming for me. Everyone has heard of it, but only the lucky few living in west of the country get to enjoy it. And tourists. And probably some business people during business trips. After my trip to San Francisco, I am one of those lucky tourists.

As many deliciously outstanding restaurants as there are in San Francisco (such as Mama’s), I could not skip a In-n-Out Burger meet and greet. It feels funny; wanting to visit a fast food joint as badly as any other specially recommended restaurants even though I’m not an avid fast food eater.

The feeling of walking up to In-n-Out Burger was one of familiarity and comfort. It was like, what I imagine, finally meeting your life long pen pal in person is like.

When I skipped up to the counter, the clerk recognized my enthusiasm and matched it. They are the happiest fast food employees on earth, some say. I couldn’t help it, I was beaming with excitement! I already knew about the Double Meat Burger (two pure beef patties hand-leafed lettuce, tomato, spread with or without onions, stacked high on a freshly baked bun), and I just wanted it in my hands.

To be honest, I was a little confused during the first few bites. It felt like I had been tricked, like I hadn’t just eaten a burger and fries. I even contemplated  ordering another just to feel like one usually does after having burger. But then I got it. Their belief regarding healthy and quality food isn’t just a ploy, it’s all true and I could taste it.

My hands were not greasy, I was not grossly full, my fries felt dry (in the best way possible), I didn’t even want to nap. I was in awe of the carefully toasted bun and the juiciness of the beef. I would have gone back and back again had we not been on our way to the airport!

In my normal life (the non-traveling-and-being-my-sister’s-biggest-fan-life) I go out of my way to make sure I never give into that inviting yellow M, because when I’m hungry and in a hurry is the only time it’s ever even considered.

Right now, in this rented black Jeep driving from Dartmouth College back to Boston University, I can’t help but wish for an In-n-Out burger to magically appear and save me from the extra crispy chicken of KFC.