Free advertising: Five Guys Burgers and Fries

This fast food* joint changed my life and by "changed my life" I really mean I felt fat and satisfied last night.  Five Guys Burgers and Fries totally made my week.  I visited one yesterday and finished eating some of the fries I had leftover from my meal this morning.

On Thursday, I came across this catchy YouTube video of an auto-tuned, songified version of a Five Guys Burgers and Fries meal review.  I couldn't stop laughing at the genuine enthusiasm of the reviewer, Daym Drops, and drooling at the close up shots of the food.  I wanted to be him so I could eat that food and rave about it in a poetic, glorious, scrumptious manner.  If I could talk like him, I'd probably have more friends too.  I vowed to myself that the next time I was in the US and I saw a Five Guys Burgers and Fries, I would force them to take my money in exchange for their food.

Here's the original review.  You should watch it now.  If you're feeling hungry, this video will only amplify your hunger pangs.  Be warned, Daym's excitement and burger zeal is contagious.  Deliciously contagious.



Ugh, so good. Ok now watch the songified version:



.....dayum, Dayum, DAYUM!!!!!

I always have trouble telling people what my favourite food is because it seems unfair to single out just one dish, but I'm beginning to think that it's a good quality burger and fries because I tend to salivate a lot whenever I see pictures/videos/ads of something saturated with grease that also looks beautiful and of high calibre. Dayum!  The first time I saw that video, I watched it twice.  And sang along...

I forwarded it to my friend G (not his real name, but definitely a G, yo!) and happened to see him the next day (or in our case, yesterday).  We were sharing with each other about how great that song was and how good the food looks, and G casually mentioned at how he knew how Daym felt in his video because he'd eaten Five Guys Burgers and Fries food before.  I asked him, "Oh cool, where? When you were in California?"

"No, there's one at Park Royal."

"WHAAAT?!?!?!?!!?"  

I know I got really loud because I started to get excited.  They have locations in Canada, cool!  Long story short, we made a spur of the moment trip to Five Guys Burgers and Fries.  Apparently there are many locations in BC and there will soon be locations in Vancouver on Robson and Port Coquitlam.  I regret not bringing my camera or Spider-Man.

The restaurant was much bigger than I thought it was going to be.  Very spacious and bright.  It had a diner-eque fast food layout feel.  I had a stupid grin on my face as I walked through the door and took in the atmostphere.  My stupid grin persisted as I gawked at the menu, placed my order, and waited for our food to be cooked.  My stupid grin turned into astonishment when G showed me that they have complimentary salted peanuts (with shell) that you just help yourself to.  Free peanuts while you wait! DAYUM!

NOTE: picture added Sep 10, 2012

I think we waited for about ten to fifteen minutes before the servers finally called us to pick up our food, hence the asterisk at the top of this post because I'm not sure if that still qualifies as fast*.  The staff really took their time in making the burger right so I don't really care about how long I had to wait.

I ordered a large fries and a bacon burger with "everything" on it (condiments are no charge: mayo, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, grilled onions and mushroom, ketchup, mustard).  Unfortunately, while waiting for our burgers, we were informed that they were out of bacon (...whaaa? How am I supposed to get my crispety crunch on?) and they gave us free drinks instead.  Refills are free.  I got refills.  I should have asked for cheese in place of bacon, but oh well.  More peanuts.  

I ordered a large fries thinking it would be a McDonald's size portion or something like that, but instead I got a plain drink cup (larger than my actual drink cup; see picture at top of post) filled to the over flowing with fries.  The guy behind the counter who was serving me placed the fries cup into the ghetto grocery bag but before handing me my food, he scooped up another shovel full of fries and dumped them into the bag, on top of the already full fry cup, spilling all over my wrapped burger and onto the bottom of the bag. 8^O

NOTE: picture added Sep 10, 2012 - ALSO, this picture doesn't do it justice...and this was only a "Regular"

The burger was wrapped in a foil and it was fat from all the fresh quality condiments they used.  It was so tall and uneven from all the toppings that I started to pick out the pickles and tom out the tomatoes (haha) and eat them separately because the height of the burger had to be at least three inches and it was hard to keep everything together.  The burger itself  was actually made of two patties of juicy, succulent, flat-top grilled, make-your-mouth-water to perfection ground beef.  G chided me for picking out the condiments and told me I had to eat it as a whole.  He was right, I was not being faithful and true to my burger.

I took a huge first bite and I wanted to say "wow!" because it was soooo good (I was also really hungry at this point from all the waiting), but the meat of this strength burger absorbed the air in my mouth and prevented me from talking.  All I could do was make muffled delighted "Mmmmm, foo goooth" sounds.  Also, the patties were still really hot.

NOTE: picture added Sep 10, 2012

The fries were delicious.  They use peanut oil to fry their fries (with potato skin still on) so the starchy goodness of the fry retains more oil which I think makes the outer layer darken more and get extra crispy.  The fries didn't bite me back as much as I bit them, but there was the perfect amount of salt on them.  They were definitely different from Daym's fries in the video.  For the record, I got them regular style.  Maybe I will try cajun style next time. 

At this point, my stupid grin was back on my face.  G was amused and enjoyed his burger in a quieter, reserved, gentlemanly manner.  I took a second, smaller bite while raising my fist to the air and shouted, "...dayum, Dayum, DAYUM!!!!!"  The other patrons and staff in the restaurant stopped to look at me as if I had turned into a giant, salted peanut.  Actually, I don't have the guts to do this in real life, but I did whisper "...dayum, Dayum, DAYUM!!!!!" to myself.  Did I mention that it tasted really good?

After leaving the Five Guys, I thought about what I paid for and how I could get a Legendary burger with sautéed onions and endless fries at White Spot for $9.99, but Five Guys is different.  I will definitely go there again.  I paid $7.69 for my "Bacon" Burger and $4.99 for the Large Fries.  I think I can do with a single patty next time, which would be considered a "Little Burger" according to their menu.  We'll see.

When I returned home, my parents asked me typical parent questions such as "Where were you?" and "What did you eat?" so I sat them down and forced them to watch the two videos that I embedded above.  They actually enjoyed them!  I also raved to them about the food and service as they tried some of my leftover fries, while my Mom reminded me about the dangers of frequently eating out (which I don't do) and eating stuff high in fat.  Meanwhile, my Dad nodded in approval at the fries and how good the food looked.

Since I forgot my camera, here's a picture of a Big Mac I ate a few years ago, but instead of the middle slice of bread, I replaced it with a Jr. Chicken.  Mmm, let's do this!

And a tutorial/cover on how to play "Oh My Dayum" by The Gregory Brothers & Daym Drops, yeah!

Pointless Post #81 - "Iron Man" Edition

I was blessed enough to attend a screening of The Dark Knight Rises last night with some friends.  During the previews before the film started, everyone was still talking to their neighbours and such (including me), but the entire theatre started to quiet down during the new Superman trailer because of how cool it looked (Nolan and Snyder touches, how can it not?).  Then just as the trailer was about to end and the title Man of Steel appeared and you hear and see glimpses of Superman streaking through the sky, as he prepares to break the sound barrier, my friend beside me says very loudly:

"Oooh, IRON Man!"

And a bunch of us just start cracking up, but not only our little group, but our section of the theatre.  Particularly one guy one or two rows in front of us because I could hear him stifling his giggles the same way I was.  It was more about the delivery of the joke.  You had to be there.

By the way, Christopher Nolan,

Pointless Post # 80 - Kriss Kross in church edition

Pastor J (or maybe its MC, because he was holding a mic at the time) cheered me on by singing "Jump, jump!" at me on Sunday afternoon.  We had a church barbecue and everyone was lining up for food, ignoring the bouncy castles.  I took it upon myself to say hi to the bouncy castle attendants (they looked bored) and to test the durability and funness of the apparatuses.  I bounced up and down in the first one.  Then I moved onto the other one.  I let out some involuntarily shrieks of joy and laughed very, very loudly.  It was edifying.

Pointless Post #79 - Summer Edition

Dear God,

Thank you for my sweet, sweet farmer's tan.

Love,
Tim

PS - The sun is hot.
PPS - I'm not complaining.  It's nice to see it again.
PPPS - I know that's not a picture of my farmer's tan, but of my sweet, sweet hair elastic on my wrist tan.  If I posted a picture of myself shirtless, I'd lose half of my blog readership, which means I'd be down to one reader.

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Got gas for 134.9¢/litre last week and lately its been around the 135-137.9 level.

Pointless Post #78

There's nothing quite like the feeling of that first swipe when breaking in a fresh stick of deodorant.  Except for maybe the feeling of using a new glue stick when pasting arts and crafts.
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Gas was 138.9¢/litre.  It's going down!

SAMSON - Coming to a theatre near you

We're going through the Bible in 90 days as a church.  It sounds like a daunting challenge because its a heavy chunk of reading everyday, but I am actually enjoying it.  God is literally revealing stuff to me that I've never thought of before, in new perspectives and is making me ask questions of why and how.  Also, a lot of times I'm just saying "wow" to myself as the magnitude of what I'm reading is finally permeating my mind and soul.  The Bible is pretty amazing that way.  [insert delayed "pop-pop" here] 

There have been many times in the past where I've neglected my Bible and put off reading it, because honestly, sometimes I just found it boring, irrelevant, or hard to understand.  Most of the time, my mind would wander and I'd lose concentration of what I'm reading about, similar to how I read my textbooks during university.  I think because I've really dedicated the time (so far I'm on day 20/90 days) to read with understanding and have given myself over to this B90 Challenge, so to speak, that God is honouring my true intentions and is allowing me to "see" and learn things from the Bible that I may have read countless times before and never truly thought about it any more than it being words on a page.  I should write out what I learn or meditate on, but sometimes I'm just speculating and I don't want to be accused of heresy.  The Bible has a lot of stuff in it and it makes me think about a lot of stuff.  This is a good thing. 

Anyways, I read through Judges a few days ago.  That book is badass.  My apologies for using that word (and for not giving you a warning), but I can't think of a better way to describe it right now.  For the record, I still consider "ass" to be derogatory language and a swear word as it always has been when I was growing up.  I don't use it in my everyday speech because it's rather crude.  But I don't think you'd appreciate how I'm trying to connote my feelings for the book if I were to say "Judges is a really kick-buttocks part of the Bible!"  See what I mean?  However, it is literally kick-buttocks.  A lot of people get their buttocks' kicked (and die).  O__O

I won't go into too much detail, but Samson is a very interesting guy.  There are four whole chapters devoted to him which is a very significant portion of the book (21 chapters in all).  Samson would make a great historical epic kind of film because it has everything that makes a profitable/entertaining action movie.  A major, flawed character, violence, sex, revenge, limited humour, epic battle scenes (this is where CGI is an advantage), tremendous human feats of strength, and a tragic, you'll-only-believe-it-when-you-see-it ending.

In my mind, I sort of have a mashed up picture of Chris Hemsworth from Thor and Kevin Sorbo from Hercules, mostly because they're big guys with long hair, except I bet Samson's hair was even longer, wilder, and even more magnificent (ps - I'm going to do a post about my hair in the future...yes, because I'm that vain) and epic battle scenes from Zack Snyder's 300.  But those guys don't do Samson justice.  A lion jumps at Samson and he catches it and rips it in half with his bare hands.  HIS BARE HANDS.  When some baddies in an enemy city are plotting to kill him, he goes into hiding, and then in the middle of the night, rips the humongous gates off of it's posts and carries it away just for kicks.  Can you imagine returning to your village to see a giant hole in the wall where the city gates once stood?  And of course, there is the time where he goes all hulk-smash and kills a thousand men with a donkey's jawbone.  This isn't a comic book superhero.  Samson was an actual person who did these things, whether you believe it or not.  It's especially fascinating the number of the times "the Spirit of the LORD came mightly upon him," and then something crazy went down.  I counted at least four times.

But then, Judges 16:20 happens, "...but he did not know that the Lord had departed from him."

And that is a sad and somewhat scary thought.  Samson took God for granted, more or less spat in God's face with his actions and by his lack of respect and disobedience and so God basically say's, "Fine, if you think I'm bothering you, I'll give you your space," and just goes.  You almost have to wonder why God didn't "leave" Samson sooner, but that just shows how patient and merciful God is, despite what we're really deserving of.  This is also a sobering reminder of how loving God is to me today, despite all the things I do against Him.  If I continually reject God and disrespect Him in my life, He can easily leave me alone just as He did to Samson. 

This is a good place to pause and think about how merciful and mighty God is, and how insignificant and horrid I am.  And yet God loves me!
  
A fascinating verse sticks out, two verses later in verse 22.  It says that Samson's hair is starting to grow back, even though it was just shaved all off.  So what? Hair does that.  This is why we have barbers and hair salons to this day.  No, there is something deeper to this verse.  The supernatural strength of Samson was dependant on the length of his hair.  And here we see that it's growing again.  God isn't completely out of the picture.  He still loves and cares for Samson, despite his sinful nature and wrongdoings against God.  God is at work in Samson's life in the shadows.  Or in his hair follicles. 

And then BANG, an exclamatory and fitting ending to a very unique story.  A rock ballad plays as the end credits roll.

So in summary, what I'm trying to say is that the story about Samson would make a fantastic summer blockbuster movie, IF it stays true to the biblical truths revealed in the Bible.  I could write a lot more, but I actually never intended my post to get this long.  When I was thinking about writing this post, I thought I would write three sentences at the most, and then this happened.  Oh well.  

Mmmmm, Bible! YEAH! You should read it!

EDIT: November 2, 2012 - I found some pictures from The Bible for Students © 1990 Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton Illinois, with illustrations © 1989 by Blas Gallego, used without permission, please don't sue me!  I'll take them down if you tell me to.

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In other Tim-news, I biked 22.3km in the rain on Saturday and saved myself $4.20 (two 1-zone Faresaver tickets).  But then I also bought myself a hotdog ($1.50) and fries ($2.29) and spent $4.24 (stupid HST) in total at Costco.  Meh, it was worth it.

And my bike light fell off. Time to buy a new one.

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Gas has been about 142¢/litre the past few days and was 140¢/litre tonight.

Pointless Post #77

Today, I went into a costume shop to find out how much a hotdog and/or a banana costume would cost.  You know, just for fun.  I was told that they could cost anywhere from $75-$100, tax included.

Batman Returns is kind of a sad movie.  Also the more I think about it, the more I think that my friend might be right in that he thinks that Tim Burton is some sort of genius.  He's really creative, in an imaginative, distorted, eccentric kind of way.

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Gas was about 147¢/litre yesterday.

Pointless Post #76

Hypothetically speaking, if I were to start a social networking site called "TimBook" or "FaceTim" (....maybe its a network exclusively for Tims around the world.....and no Tams), what are the odds that Facebook would try and sue me?

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Gas hit 150¢/litre today in Vancouver, while it was 128 in Abbotsford. O_O

Fixed my bike light, 'cause I'm cheap

My bike light broke. Or rather, the clip that holds the light to the bike frame attachment broke. So after rubbing the back of the clip on concrete to flatten out the broken edge, I used some plumber's glue to affix it to a piece of corrugated plastic. Then I added a bit of glue gun glue (whatever it's called) along the edges to help make it stick to the plastic as the plumber's glue cured overnight. And then that was that! It doesn't look as pretty as before, but it still works. At least until you see a future post of me whining about how my bike light fell off.

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Gas was 148.6¢/litre yesterday.  It's been in the low 140s for a few weeks now.  EVIL.

Pointless Post #75

Just completed my first ever wedding doubleheader*! I attended a wedding at 10am and then another at 1pm.  Both were beautiful.

I feel like I accomplished something great, mostly because I'm super tired right now, but all I really did was not get lost on the way to the churches, show up on time, pretend to be happy**, and eat all their food.

Oh and to top off an eventful day, I saw a skunk in front of the YWCA on Beatty Street in downtown Vancouver.  It made me reminisce of the time I saw a raccoon by the Vancouver Convention Centre near the downtown waterfront during the Olympics.

Freshpie out!

There's chocolate candy in there!

*Note to self: I wikipedia'd the word "doubleheader" and I already know I've used it incorrectly. 
**Note to readers: that was sarcasm; I really was happy.  Did I mention that both the weddings AND couples were beautiful?

Not All Chips Are Made Equal

I love potato chips.  I love the aroma, their crunchy look, the feel of the grease and salt on my fingers, and most importantly, the wonderfully crispy, delectable, savoury taste that delights my palate and causes it to crave for more and more.

You might assume that if you and I were together at the same dinner or party and there was a communal bowl of chips on the table, that you would soon spot me heaping mounds and mounds of the starchy goodness onto my own personal plate.  Or that maybe I would just park myself and stand there the entire night, feasting away from the bowl.  This is not so.  In this context, potato chips mean almost nothing to me because I have too much social decorum.  I also fear that not all my fellow guests have not washed their hands prior to plunging their grubby paws into that same communal bowl.  I've used public washrooms before.  I notice when people walk out of stalls and don't wash their hands.  It scares me.

I like eating chips alone.  All by myself.  If I could lock myself up in a closet, I would do that.  Except I probably wouldn't because it would be too dark and cramped inside.  Also, I prefer eating chips in front of a television.  For you visual people (which is actually everyone with eyes), here's a graph that explains it further:

As illustrated by my very scientific graph, the number of people that I have to share my snack with is inversely proportionate to the tastiness of the chips that I'm eating.  Don't act so shocked.  This isn't the "Experiencing God's Love" graph.  God's love is eternal.  Potato chips are not.  I need to eat and savour each chip because each one is precious in my eyes.  Even the broken bits and crumbs at the bottom of the bag.  I will not cast you aside.  People don't know how to appreciate chips like I do.  And by people, I mean the dirty ones who don't wash their hands after relieving themselves on the toilet.  

Unlike God's love, I pour out my favour more on certain chips because some are inherently more special and just plain better than others.  Examine these two kettle chips:

You can click on it for a high-res version.

Here's a close up of the one on the left, as I hold it up against the light.  It's a normal chip and predominantly opaque.  It tastes very good.


Here's a close up of the chip on the right.  It's a super greasy and glorious.  This picture doesn't do justice, but it's saturated with so much oil that compared to the other chip, it's translucent.  And it tastes DELICIOUS.

There are periods in my life when I won't be able to come across any of these super, oily chips for bags and bags at a time.  But sometimes, on those predestined and God-ordained days, I might come across one of these chips and I'm just like this guy who found his cheese doodles while trekking around the South Pole (PS- you should watch the video in full with the CC annotations turned on).


Oh who am I kidding.  That's what I do each time after I tear open the bag and inhale a big breath of potato chip bag air. Mmmmm....

La Fin.

October is a Long Time from Now

Watched the Canucks get knocked out of the playoffs tonight.
Drank a glass of red wine from my Spider-Man cup.
Watched the last two episodes of this season's The Walking Dead that I've been neglecting.
Binge-ate a whole box of vegetable crackers.

Tomorrow is a new day.
And until then, go Whitecaps!
...and Chelsea in EUFA 8^D

EDIT, April 24, 2012: Chelsea beat Barcelona to advance to the EUFA Champions League Final in Munich thanks to the first away goal by Ramires, but since I might not have many other chances in the future..... FERNANDO TORRES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Gas was 138.8¢/litre today.  I still hate you, gas companies.

Pointless Post #74

I went for a bike ride on Easter Sunday and filmed these videos. I think they're self-explanatory. They're also a waste of time.