I Ate Skippy!!!

Another first for me today.

My comrades at the iaido club invited me to their weekend practice at Simon Fraser University. I had to decline because it's too far and takes too much out of my study time for next week's final exams. However, it was the after-event that merited my presence - exotic meat burgers.

The venue was this place called Stormin' Norman's Spirit Grill on Commercial Drive. They also operate at Wreck Beach but I never noticed, probably because I was too focused on the sexier of the nudist fare there. Alright, so I admit it, but as long as they voluntarily expose themselves, I'm not technically a pervert. Incidentally, the restaurant website also has photos of Wreck Beach if you're even mildly curious at seeing a bunch of naked people at the beach.

I was the first one there, and waited an hour for those other people to come. Well, they finally did come - just about when the waitresses there were starting to believe that my "friends" were really imaginary. After the menus were passed around,I looked through it and sure enough, there were all sorts of animals listed. The most prominent offerings were buffalo, muskox, caribou, elk, venison, wild boar, ostritch, kangaroo, and alligator. To me, the latter two were the most exotic, but since I've already eaten alligator during my time in Miami, I opted for the kangaroo burger.

It reminded me of a TV show I used to watch as a little kid called Skippy The Bush Kangaroo. Don't ask me how we end up getting an Austrailian TV show from the 60's aired over here. My best guess is that the Commonwealths share their television programs very openly.

Anyway, the basic premise is that the eponymous kangaroo befriends the park ranger and his son in a national park or some sort of reserve. Not just any kangaroo, but a highly intelligent kangaroo, who would help her human compatriots protect the park from the likes of rustlers, criminals, hippies, and other evildoers. Skippy demonstrates her intelligence each episode by doing stuff from simply going over to the ranger house to recruit Dad's help, to flying in a helicopter to pick up an injured hiker.

One of the quirks of the show was that the boy would make this long whistling sound with two leaves, and Skippy would drop whatever the fuck she was doing and hop straight to his aid. It taught me at a very young age that animals are sentient beings and would make wonderful and helpful friends with people. It brought so many fond memories.

So I made it a double kangaroo burger.

When food finally arrived, the waitress directed us to the toppings and condiments bar where we can further customize our meals. In my enthusiasm for the eminent tasting of this delicacy, I hummed, in a sick form of irony, the chorus to the song Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport - another childhood memory.

Once all that is done, I finally chomped on my Skippy burger. It was pretty damn good! The texture was quite like a regular beef burger, but I suppose that as long as you grind it up into a patty, anything would have the same texture as a regular beef burger, including cardboard (which I suspect is the reason why McDonald's burgers often taste like their containers). The taste was more or less similar to beef, but milder and less "musky", which is the best way I could describe it. All in all, it was a great meal for under $10.

I'm definitely going to come back to taste the rest of the zoo.

Double Skippy patties with bacon, cheddar cheese, onions, mushrooms, green peppers, olives, and a side of poutine.