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Monday, August 23, 2010

5 Napkin Burger, I think I love you... for helping me not crumble under the pressure of emotional eating impulses.

I have happy news to report on the restaurant front.  Another great place to add to proverbial gluten free lists! And a burger joint, no doubt.  More on that...

My mission is to find at least one good GF friendly restaurant within every cuisine I love (which is pretty much every cuisine in existence) so that no matter the craving, there's no need for a caving in to wheat to follow.

I keep saying to friends and family when they inevitably ask how I'm adjusting to this change that I'm doing really well BUT (HUGE BUT) I am worried that I am going to have a really bad day and it will all unravel.  And by bad day I don't mean bad eating day.  I mean bad emotional day.  For me, food and emotions have always been somewhat linked.  And when I have a bad emotional day, I feel entitled to eat whatever the hell I want.  Generally this translates to macaroni and cheese from a box or takeout. 

This attitude runs deep in my veins.  I actually didn't know that not everyone understood the first day of their menstrual cycle as a caloric free for all until college.  And I never felt a smidgen of guilt about it until then either.  Thankfully my parents weren't big on food as punishment (though dessert was withheld if we were particularly obnoxious during dinner).  But they were huuuge proponents of food as reward, celebration, solace, grief counselor, medicine and psychotropic drug.  Food is the center of every family get together, birthday and holiday.  We eat as a family when we're sad (a binge-y trip to Friendly's (which my spell check keeps correcting to Friendless. Heh.) after my Aunt's funeral comes to mind) and when we're happy (uh, the rest of the time).  So naturally, my fear that I'll have a terrible day at work, a fight with a friend etc has been building.  Fearing that I won't have something to satisfy that urge to feel better has been nagging at me*.  A good cheeseburger is high on that list.

That cheeseburger has been found.  I give you... 5 Napkin Burger. Ground chuck, gruyere and comte cheese and caramelized onions make this thing gawgeous for burger lovers like myself. My boyfriend adores 5 Napkin Burger.  I figured I could make do with some modifications on the Burger Salad, assuming that the french fries would be cross contaminated.  But my server, Christopher, had many surprises up his sleeve.  1. THEY OFFER A GLUTEN FREE BUN (I just about fainted out of joy) 2. All items are fried in separate oil, making the french fries good to go.  The rosemary aioli on the burger had to be nixed, but all the other components were there and amazing. Booyah! Thanks 5N!






*Author's Note: Hi.  This paragraph makes me sound like I have the makings of an eating disorder.  But fear not, my devoted reader(s?).  I'm mostly exaggerating/referring to the rare occasion that I still want to be mentally prepared for.  These days, I am more want to pick up the phone and bother my boyfriend rather than going for an indulgent fork. Lucky him!! Also, I'd like to take this time to shout out Moishe Gold, my most hard-assed English professor at Fordham who would obviously be thrilled to see my love of parentheticals (and parenthesis within parenthesis!) is still very much surviving. And to see that I'm still making up words. And using parenthesis in the very sentence that I use to be self deprecating about their usage.  Sigh.

4 comments:

  1. I'm glad that 5 Napkin is so GF-friendly. I feel like especially here, with so many people and visitors, etc, restaurants really need to move that way as well.
    Also, cheeseburgers are the only think that can calm me down when I'm in a blind rage. I call them "angry cheeseburgers". It's not disordered eating if you don't get angry very often, right? heh.

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  2. That last sentence is exaaactly what I am saying, dude. *high five*

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  3. I've heard non-GF raves about 5NB too. Glad to hear it's awesome!

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  4. Hola Stranger!! I have no need for gluten free.. but that burger sounds INSANE.. and I want one.. now.. ok.. really.. right now!

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