All My Troubles Seem So Far Away

After seeing a coworker with steamed pork dumplings for lunch, I got the craving bad. Plus I actually had ground pork thawed and waiting for a home.

But life throws you wrenches. From last night's torrential rain came a big ole' hole in the ceiling in our apartment building. The butt ugly cracked hundred year old linoleum now made worse by splattered sheet rock and rotted ceiling gook mixed with rain to give it that final 'yes girl, you are living in squalor' feeling.


I realized I really couldn't be bothered with laborious rolling and delicate food tonight. But I still wanted the flavors of those dumplings. So, I took all the ingredients and made an Asian burger! Burgers always make me feel better. Ginger, garlic, green onion, soy sauce, sesame oil, hot pepper oil, white pepper. Then in place of the cabbage, I used finely chopped up carrots and left over broccolini.

To keep it healthier I stayed away from the cheese and buns, instead layered it with thin sliced sauteed potato and spinach.

We are in an apartment that we can barely afford and yet it constantly smells in the hall and now it looks even worse. These kinds of injustices can get a monkey down. But when I saw how cute this little burger looked all peakin' out at me through those garlicky potato slices, I just had to put my troubles aside for a moment. With each bite I remembered another reason why we love this apartment. The great location, the beautiful neighborhood, easy access to all trains, a block from PathMark and Target, we never see the other tenant and we're on the top floor. Man, that burger was good at what it does.