Meet my first guest blogger

In case you haven't noticed, I've neglected my blog for almost a month. I promise to be back soon and at that time, I'll explain my absence. But for now, I'm going to let my friend Matt, a faithful This Little Piglet reader who you might remember from this post, tell you about his love for In-N-Out.

Before I go and bask in the glory of not blogging for a just a little longer, I have to say one thing. I've had more than a few friends ask to do a guest post. Matt was most insistent and his first submission couldn't have come at a better time. If anyone else is interested, the floor is yours. Judith, you've been talking about a guest post since the beginning of my blog and I'm still waiting. And Mom, you're a traveler extraordinaire who took not one, but two, 2-week trips by yourself to Europe this summer, and I'm always telling you what a great blogger you would be. You find the best places to eat and you're really good at photographing your food. I know you're busy enough putting together your 300+ KodakGallery albums (complete with captions), but seriously, give blogging a try.

Oh and one ground rule if you do send in a guest post. I need pictures! Matt told me that he forgot to take some because he was so mesmerized by his food. Finally, someone feels my pain! Since he sent me a simple word document with no photos, I thought I'd put one up for him. It goes along with the theme of his post and features me and my wonderful friend Tara in sunny California. It was my first visit to In-N-Out. She's modeling a bag I bought in Brazil and I'm overcome with joy (my burgers and fries were that good). Ahh, memories. Now without further ado, meet Matt!

My name is Matthew, and I am very excited to be writing this right now. I had asked This Little Piglet if she ever gets tired of writing, or didn’t feel like doing the blog, but was really working my way around to the question, “have you ever thought about having a guest blogger?”, and she responded, “send me something, and if it’s good enough I’ll put it in.” Well, this could be my 15 minutes in the blogosphere, or this could never get posted, and Piglet could just laugh it away. However, I have an ace in the hole, I was traveling, and writing from different locales adds excitement, right?

Well, not exactly. I was in San Diego with my lovely wife, extending a friend's wedding into a mini vacation, and we did go to a really fun authentic Mexican place in Old Town, and took lots of pictures. We also went to a fresh fish market/restaurant, and also took lots of pictures, and if Lia (OK, I’m done calling her Piglet) gives the green light, maybe I’ll share those with you, too.

But the truth of the matter is while Lia shares El Bulli with you, I have to share one of the first things I do when I get to the Left Coast. I go straight for In-N-Out…and my wife Julie has no problem with it. So while this doesn’t register on the nice restaurant scale, or authentic local flavor scale, it's still worth writing about.

The In-N-Out dinner is a fast food treat. I have trouble even calling it fast food. When you order the burger, they make it for you on the spot. They grill fresh beef when you order, not ahead of time. Of course I ordered the double cheeseburger with onions, and Julie went with a single. If they’re offering onions, why not get them? If you ever stare in the back of a McDonald's, you'll see them dump the frozen fries in the deep fry. Not at In-N-Out. You'll see food technicians at work. They use a device to cut up whole peeled potatoes before frying them in vegetable oil.

When we arrived in San Diego, we went to the hotel, dropped our bags off, and asked the front desk where the closest In-N-Out was. After a few minutes, with a hand drawn route written on the map of San Diego, we were on our way. I didn’t even unpack a bag, so I never had my camera to take any pictures. I didn’t even give myself a chance to unpack the camera. Believe me though, that paper wrapped double cheeseburger and fresh delicious fries are really a great way to start off any trip on the west coast. They also offer milkshakes, but I went with a root beer.

Go to http://www.in-n-out.com/ and find out if there's one near you, or if you're an east coaster planning to head west sometime soon, make sure to try this quick, delicious and ultra fresh burger. On our trip, the temperature in San Diego went below seventy once and the locals said they were having “weather". People can try to convince you that this is what makes Southern California so attractive, but I know better. It’s the In-N-Out burger.