People who study language tend to make some fuss, and rightly, about how we shorten words, or sets of words.
Do we do this to make words catchier? Are we inclined to lop off a syllable when the object or place in question (bicycle=bike, Las Vegas=Vegas) is popular and something dearer to our hearts?
The big questions, indeed.
So where does this leave that hearty staple in many a daily diet, the burger? Once upon a time practically everyone said "hamburger" to connote a meat patty between two buns, but a lot of us have lost the "ham" along the way. Good, bad, or merely what happens when a foodstuff gets an entire month devoted to its greatness?
Oh right: May is Burger Month. That's going to mean a lot of different things in a lot of burger-a-teriums -- look for specials listed on pieces of paper slid into menus -- but plenty of posh taverns are spotlight their savoriest plates.
Littlefork in Hollywood is marking Burger Month and National Egg Month with the Good Morning Burger. In addition to the typical burgeresque components, is there "sausage, a runny egg, and maple syrup" in play? We wouldn't have typed those out if it wasn't so. And now we'll wonder if every burger from here on out should have maple syrup. Because, maple syrup.
Tee's on the Green at the Verdugo Hills Golf Course has added Sriracha to the mayo on the Hot Mamma Burger, oh, and the grilled onions, too. Sriracha showing up twice in one burger? That sounds about right, given the spicy condiments headline-making ways these days.
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Plan Check, which has an outpost on the westside and on Fairfax, is also on the offbeat condiment train. Depending on the burger you order, your patty might come topped with apricot ketchup, soy truffle baste, chlorophyll mayo, and kumquat gastrique. Would it be unseemly if we just asked for all of those in a big bowl?
Del Frisco's Grille: The Santa Monica eatery just introduced the Silicon Beach Burger, which pays tribute to its ocean-y environs, but there's another quirky twist ahead for Burger Month: If your initials are D.F.G. you'll get a free Silicon Beach Burger on May 28, which is National Burger Day. Bring an I.D., people with those initials.
