Sometimes you miss home. -Best Burger in Ecuador

It doesn't matter where you travel.  Where you end up.  What kind of adventures and lifetime experiences you encounter or who you meet.  You will sometimes miss home.

What is familiar to you becomes distant as you sink profoundly into your new Expat life and with that distance comes a longing for discovering familiarity in your new home.

My new home is Ecuador and I am no exception.  Sometimes I want a burger.  I want it with cheese, pickles, onions, ketchup.  You know, the works right?  I want it to be authentic, genuine, the real McCoy!  I want it with fries (not rice) and I want a Coke.  Sounds like a simple demand right?  But it is not.

You see, we have that here in Ecuador.  There are great burger places here, like Lucia Pie House, which is one of the best burgers I have ever tasted, and definitely the best in Quito.  The burger comes to your table just how you like it, with all the fixings, fries on the side, ketchup, and a Coke.  But it's not the same.  Oh no.  There is something missing.  Something is just not right about this medium well slab of Carne Molida (ground beef).  It is just not the same.  Why?  Because it is not home.

Lucia Pie House.  The BEST Burger in Quito

Why is it that even though this burger is an exact carbon copy of the American version, it does not FEEL the same?  Because it is not home.

When you make your home far away from home you tend to try to cling on to things you find afar that remind you of home.  For me its burgers.  It could be other types of food, it could be an environment such as the countryside or a lake, it could be just about anything that will remind you of home.  But it is NOT.  Is your search for home like things some sort of coping mechanism for finding comfort in your new home far away?  Is this normal?

I never thought my new found craving for McDonalds, in which I NEVER enjoyed in the states, would get my brain boiling with such thought provoking questions.  Maybe I am just starting to experience that Culture Shock they talk about.  Everyone who reads this blog knows that I have immersed.  Right?

But maybe no matter how deep you immerse in your new culture and your new environment there will always be a corner in your skull full of grey matter whispering to you; "There's no place like home."  At least while I am here I have places like Lucia Pie House to keep my cravings at bay.


Mike
www.themiddleoftheworld.com