Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Well, they ARE Walla Walla onions!

We all know that Burgerville is the best fast food money can buy. When I say this people like to throw in their two cents about  how In-N-Out burger is way better. I just shake my head in amazement. I then ask them if they have ever had a Burgerville cheeseburger with extra spread. They say No. I just look at them sadly.

I like that Burgerville uses range fed beef, raised with no antibiotics or hormones. They compost their waste products. They use 100% wind power for all their chains and headquarters. They allow bicyclists to use the drive through window and their slogan is "Choose Fresh, Local, Sustainable. Choose Burgerville." I don't know how they do it, but those cheeseburgers have a unique taste I have yet to see duplicated or matched. Their veggie burgers are amazing, and that is a rare find.

But high quality comes at a price.  I took my brother-in-law there a while back and when they told him his total, he asked where the white table cloths and candles were. Still, when I am in town, I never miss it.

Scott took all of the kids to see a movie the other night. Jodi and I found ourselves alone so we decided to go get Burgerville. We each ordered a cheeseburger basket with onion rings. We also ordered my nephew two cheeseburgers. It came to $20.00. I thought she read it wrong. We got to the window and I asked her how it could possibly be that much. She just glared at us. I asked her if there were diamond rings included. She said it was $3.00 more to upgrade to onion rings. But they are just onions I pointed out. "WELL, THEY ARE WALLA WALLA ONIONS," she told me. I told her I have grown onions out of the ground and they are not that rare or priceless. Jodi handed her my debit card. She tried to take it from her but Jodi held on. They had a little tug-of-war before Jodi gave in. The manager came over to oversee this little transaction. I asked if we could get less onion rings to bring down the price. He said they were $1.50 per ring! So I took two off. He walked away angry, the girl helping us couldn't figure out how to change the order. "Oh just leave it, I don't want to be high maintenance" I said.(haha) While we waited Jodi told her how sorry we were for making her feel responsible for the high price of onions. She admitted  to us it was a daily hurdle to explain to people why Walla Walla's were so expensive. It got old, she told us.

When our order came out it was missing onion rings. The manager said, "You said you only wanted THREE not FIVE!" I calmly told him we didn't want to be difficult, so we left it as is. He stomped off with his tongs to collect four more rings. "Don't worry," she said. "They are HUGE!"

I told Jodi that they couldn't be THAT expensive. Jodi suggested we swing over to WinCo to see how much they were per pound. Just for kicks. We marched over to the onion display. $1.28 per pound. Each onion weighed about one pound. Just as we suspected...you could get a lot of rings out of one Walla Walla.

We were taking pictures of me and the onions when  a guy strolled up with his plastic bag. Other people were wondering what the big deal was. You usually don't think of Walla Walla onions as something exciting. We stopped and stepped aside so the guy could get his onions.
"No go ahead," he told us.
 "No, no, no....you go ahead, I don't want you to watch while I get my picture taken with these onions," I said.
I then went on to say that we had a really good reason for doing this. He said he was sure we did. He then started choosing his onions. "You know, these are the best onions you can buy," we told him. He smiled. I then went on to tell him the WHOLE story of our Burgerville trip and how we came to be here, taking pictures for my blog. I told him to google MY KITE DREAM and he would see it was the truth. I asked if he wanted to be in the picture. He said, "Don't involve ME in this." It was too late. Jodi snapped a picture while I was expaining away.

We laughed about it all the way home. We told Scott and my Dad about it. All we got were courtesy laughs. We were told, "I guess you had to be there." But we didn't agree. We thought it was hilarious. My nephew told us were were strange. Jodi asked him, "Who would actually go take pictures with onions at WinCo?!"

"Nobody," he said. Well, there you have it. That in itself is funny.

Oh, and the onion rings really were worth it.

10 comments:

  1. Mikki...u either make me cry or make me laugh really hard..Did you ever take journalism in high school or college? You should be a reporter..Well keep on with the great stories..

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  2. That is SO funny and I was there!! I think it was funnier when I read it. I usually don't laugh outloud when I read things, but this was great!! Keep up the good writing sis!

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  3. As usual you make my heart smile! ;)

    And for the record I do love Walla Walla Sweet Onions!

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  4. You should take a trip to Walla Walla, Washington! During the harvesting time the smells are wonderful! I am not a big onion fan but, Walla Walla Onions are the best, I agree!

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  5. I should! Can you really smell it in the air?? Now I want onion rings for dinner....

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  6. Bah HA HA! Hilarious! I can so picture you and Jodi. We have a place like that here in Austin called Terra Bur*ger. My friend and I took our kids and spent $50!!! Cheese is 1.00 exta there, but it is all natural, no hormones. :) Needless to say I make my kids eat every morsel. Alex cries like a baby about the price and gets a hot dog from Costco, which is next door.

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  7. I always wait a few weeks between checking your blog, just so I can be sure there are new postings. They never fail to make me laugh hard and put me in a great mood. Course your post about Havensong made me actually cry- but it was such a beautiful story...I'm so happy for you. Then I wiped my eyes and started reading about walla walla onions and was laughing so hard I was crying all over again! You are too funny, you have such perfect sence of timing in your writing...awesome... keep it up. You make my day!

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  8. So, Tia, Abi and Alex all insist on BV when they visit home here in BG. But for us hicks - ouch!
    I usually cry when I get the bill there even w/out onion rings. For the price I can get linen napkins and a smarmy waiter.
    But.... I do agree BV is fabulous.

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  9. Deeann
    Thank you!!! That makes me so happy to hear you say that...deep down I wonder if I am boring people to tears. :) I LOVE to write though..I must admit.

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