It was Monday and my turn to plan our date. I knew our energy would be waning by the time Steve got home from work, so I wanted to keep things close by. I had been scrolling on Facebook and saw a new food truck in our area called The Breeze. They serve gourmet burgers and a variety of seasoned fries. I knew Steve liked seasoned fries, so I opted to give it a go.
When Steve got home we hopped in the car and headed out. When I told him my plan he took a deep breath in and let out a disappointed groan.
"What was that?" I asked.
"Nothing." he said. "Your choice. It's fine."
"Well, why did you make that sound?" I pried.
He admitted, "I just get nervous trying new places. Have you heard good things?" A flood of thoughts started to fill my mind...Have I heard good things? Are you serious? Are you seriously questioning my date plans all because it's a new experience? Psh!
Feeling somewhat dejected I responded matter-of-factly, "Nope. Just wanted to try something new and thought you might like to try the seasoned fries."
Trying to keep the mood light, he said, "It's fine. We'll give it a try." I sensed him trying to be accommodating so I also tried to push past my hurt and move on.
You know, side note, I hate disappointing people especially when I've put a lot of thought into trying to please them, and Steve can't help his anxiety of trying new things- so we were both in a place of insecurity. But guess what? Going through hard things together is good for us. Facing our fears- it's important in developing resilience and strengthening our relationship. Right? This is a part of dating.
This reminds me of when Steve and I went on our first single date. He took me to the Pizza Factory. I ordered a caesar salad and so Steve decided to do the same. Then he asked me what that was- I told him the dressing is made with a little anchovy, lemon, egg yolk... and he got visibly nervous. When I questioned him about it he said that he's normally strictly a ranch dressing kind of guy. We could've changed it, but he decided to try it anyway. Luckily, caesar dressing wasn't as horrifying as he thought and although he didn't really like it, he ate it.
And while I'm reminiscing let me add one more memory. My family took Steve to eat at an Asian buffet when we were first married. He had never tried octopus and there was a dish with little mini octopus tentacles in it. He went for it and only dry heaved twice trying to get it down. We were all laughing. He had a harder time when he tried raw fish. Just the thought caused him to gag multiple times before even eating it. It was funny.
Now back to our date...
Since the food truck didn't post their precise location, we had to drive around and look for it, but luckily we live in a small town and we found it within 5 minutes, parked at a car parts store across from Burger King.
We parked and walked up to the menu.
After reading the menu I decided on the Breeze burger made with berry jalapeño jam, cream cheese, sautéed bell peppers, jalapeños and pepper jack. I chose chipotle pineapple fries. Steve then surprised me and made me a little nervous for him- he ordered the strangest burger on the menu- the Black Pearl. Go big or go home, I guess. His burger advertised blackberries, bacon, cheesecake spread and pepper jack cheese. Cheesecake spread on a burger? That's right folks. With a side of garlic parm fries.
While we waited for our food to arrive, I introduced our activity- hijacking a song we both agree on and changing the lyrics to create a parody about our first date and how we fell in love. We scrolled through some songs and decided to go with Blinding Lights by The Weeknd. Then our food was ready so we picked it up and drove up the street. By this time the sun was beginning to set, so we parked at the nature park and watched the deer in the field while eating our food.
The drive wasn't that long, maybe 5 minutes, but the steam from the fries and the moist burger toppings totally sogged up the bottom bun. Nevertheless, we both thought flavor-wise, our burgers and fries were really good. Practicality though- the cream cheese fillings were slippery and causing everything to slide out. These were MESSY burgers. I think the food truck owners must've known that because they included hand wipes in our take out containers.
Steve's burger was really sweet but he was pleased that the cheesecake and berries actually paired nicely with the burger. We enjoyed our food and they gave us each enough fries to feed a family! Their fry sauce has a little smokiness to it as well.
If I go back I wanna try the cowboy burger- pineapple on a burger sounds yummy. I only say "if" because the prices were on the higher end of what we normally pay when we go out to eat. It cost us nearly $50 after tax and tip for these burgers and fries we had to eat in our car. That's steep considering I just paid the same price for 4 of us to eat at China Star.
After we ate, we sure enjoyed laughing at our creative song lyrics. We started with the chorus and it fit well, then we created the 1st verse and it was funny (probably only to us) and also a bit rough on the rhythm. Maybe I'll post the words when I have my notebook handy.
Anyway, I really love our dates together. By the time we went home, we had been writing in the dark for about an hour in a practically empty parking lot. We laughed a lot and reminisced. I'm glad we included this creative activity for our November date.
