At work, I report to someone whose base is in Atlanta. I don’t see my boss very often. Maybe once every quarter. Last month, he told me he’s coming over to Vancouver and did not state his agenda for the visit. Some of us were uneasy because I know the company had clamped down on traveling during these uncertain times. Who knows, right? For all we care, he could be here to serve Termination Notices! I mean serving of Termination Notices had to be done by the boss and in person too.

Nothing of that sort happened. LOL!

Do you guys ever get worried about losing your job?

I used to read a lot in the papers of some company laying off 10 people here, 1200 there, and 50 in another place. They were just numbers … and it did not hit home until I began to hear about substantial layoffs in Vancouver companies … EA, McKesson, Best Buy and others. All of the sudden, I began to know names of people who had been laid off … they are no longer numbers, they are real people … and people I know. *shudder*

Enough of these depressing thoughts … back to food.

So, the thing is I brought Frank (my boss) and Stevie who are both from Atlanta out for dinner. As much as I would love to bring them to the best that Vancouver could offer in terms of ethnic food, I know the Americans would not really enjoy it. I played safe and brought them to a burger place.

I brought them to Burgers Etc. I could have brought them to a pricier place but as you know, expenses are harder to claim these days and trying to pass a $50 per head dinner is not going to fly. But then Burgers Etc is not exactly really cheap.

Burgers Etc is well known as the “Best Burger in Metro Vancouver” by viewers of CTV News. Burgers Etc is not a big place with just about 10’ish tables or so. I guess this is a place where people come pick up a burger, eat and go.

You know, it’s sometimes hard to explain to the boss that his hot shot Project Manager is taking pictures of his food. I mean, how do you do that and not take a hit on the image of professionalism? I believe he thinks I am kind of kooky. He certainly saw a side of me he had never seen before. Our Stellas helped.

Burgers Etc has other great stuff too, like humongous moist ribs. However, the only thing everyone must have is their burger … which is named as THE BEST BURGER. What we had was at least 7 inches tall. We could have made it taller if we wanted but that was good enough as a statement that we did the big one.

The basic burger itself is $8.50. It has a 6 oz ground chuck steak, mayo, ketchup, lettuce, tomatoes, red onion and topped with a dill pickle. It is served MEDIUM WELL, and they emphasized medium well. For that $8.50, you also get a choice of one side of corn niblets, potato salad, coleslaw or baked beans. You may substitute the side with fries, soup or salad for an extra $1.50.

It is the add ons that make it exciting. Extra patty is $3. Extra bacon is $1.50. Other add ons that costs $1 are cheese, sauteed mushrooms, sauteed onions, pineapple ring, fried egg, Jalapeno peppers, banana peppers and sauerkraut.

I loaded my with sauteed mushroom, pineapple rings and fried eggs. It took me a few minutes to decide how I am going to handle this. In front of my boss this was like Problem Solving 101!

At one point, I wanted to deconstruct this and eat it a layer at a time but the problem is I was only given serviettes, nothing else. So, the only possible way is to press it down to about 2 inch thick but being careful that all the stuff, especially the mushrooms does not fall out of the sides.

It was downright messy for all of us. At the end, not much fell off but the hands were all oily and greasy. Nice stuff! The Americans loved this … a lot.

The bill came to almost $50 before tips. According to company policy, the most senior person must pay and make claim for entertainment. Problem we found out was that Burgers Etc accepts only cash or debit cards. Stevie and Frank did not have cash on them and that means that I will have to pay.

I put in my claim two weeks ago … and so far, no word of approval.