A sandwich shop in New Orleans. I ordered a fried shrimp po'boy. The man behind the counter, Marcus, asked me something gently.
"You want it dressed?"
I looked at the sandwich on the counter. Shrimp. Bread. Nothing else.
It was naked.
I understood at once. In this city, they do not let a sandwich go out into the world undressed. A people who give clothing even to their lunch. I was moved.
"It is not dressed now?" I asked, carefully.
"Nah, right now that's just the shrimp and the bread."
"Then yes. I cannot let it leave this counter naked."
Marcus nodded slowly. "...So, lettuce, tomato, mayo, pickle?"
"Whatever it needs to be decent."
He started building it. I watched each layer go on like a garment. The lettuce was its robe. The tomato, a sash. I bowed my head a little, out of respect for the dressing of a thing.
"You good?" Marcus asked. He had stopped, mid-mayo.
"Do the other sandwiches know," I said quietly, "that this one was almost sent out bare?"
"...They don't really, uh. Know things."
"You protect its honor anyway. You are a kind man."
He finished dressing it without another word. A patient man. He even laid the pickles on like he meant it.
I took a bite, and the shrimp were hot and crisp and the bread cracked and gave way, and the whole thing was, I will be honest with you, perfect. I ate the rest standing up, shrimp falling, mayo on my thumb, completely content.
A man, a blade, a sandwich.
None of the three should ever be sent into the world undressed.
So tell me, America.
You ask if the sandwich would like to be dressed, as if it could feel shame.
Who decided a sandwich had dignity worth protecting?
And when it sat there bare on the counter. Which of us looked away first?
I went to In-N-Out and ordered a cheeseburger. The cashier, a calm young woman named Destiny, asked me a question I did not expect.
"You want that Animal Style?"
I paused.
I did not know what this meant. But a samurai does not admit he does not know. So I answered with weight.
"...Animal Style."
"Cool. So that's mustard-grilled, extra spread, grilled onions, pickles. Yeah?"
I understood now. This was a sacred permission. For one meal, I was being told to put down my manners at the door. To eat the way a beast eats, without shame. I had waited my whole life for someone to give me this order.
"Yes," I said. "I will become the animal."
Destiny did not blink. "...Okay. You want your fries Animal Style too?"
I stopped. Even the potatoes?
"The potatoes also become animals?"
"I mean, they get cheese and sauce and grilled onions, so..."
"Then yes. Let the potatoes abandon their restraint as well."
"...Got it." She was the calmest woman I have ever met. "3x3, 4x4, or just the one?"
I did not know these numbers, but I knew a challenge when I heard one. "How many must I face?"
"It's, like, how many patties you want."
"How many is the most honorable?"
"...Four is a lot."
"Then four. A warrior does not ask for fewer."
She wrote it down without argument. A 4x4, Animal Style, with animal fries. She warned me once, kindly. "That's gonna be huge." I told her I was counting on it.
It arrived. It was a tower. Cheese and sauce ran down my hands the moment I lifted it. There was no clean way to eat it. There was no dignified way. That was the entire point.
I ate it like a beast. Both hands, no honor, grilled onion on my chin, and I have to be honest with you, it was the best thing I have ever put in my mouth.
For thirty years I have kept my manners at every table in the world.
They handed me a burger and told me to be an animal, and I have never felt so free.
So tell me, America.
The whole country knows the secret menu. What else are you hiding in plain sight?
And "Animal Style." Was I eating the animal, or finally becoming one?
im currently drinking with my friends and they were like, “your girlfriend looks pretty.”
i was confused and like, “huh?”
“the girl at the back of your phone.”
the girl at the back of my phone 💜