1 pound burger (source: sports.webshots.com)

This afternoon, Jessy and I went to a restaurant, called Fuddruckers, with friends for lunch. They are specialized in hamburgers, claiming that they serve world’s greatest hamburgers. One thing I noticed was that it is possible to order different sizes of hamburgers. You know what is the biggest size they have? It is one pound. I will get back to you about how big one pound hamburger is. Instead, let me talk about pound again! If you go to a grocery market in the United States, they sell a lot of stuff, including fruits, meats and cheeses, based on weight. The unit of weight here in the U.S. is pound whereas it is either kg or Geun(근) in Korea. Now… you would expect that they will write like “$10/pound.” In reality, you would have a hard time to find “pound” as a unit of measure written on anything in any of the grocery markets in the U.S. Instead, you will see “lb.” For example, in the fruites section, they would put a sign like, “$2/1 lb” in front of grapes. I was wondering why they use “lb” instead of “pound.” Based on the information on Wikipedia, it is originated from Roman word, libra. The word pound is originated from its Germatic adoption of latin phrase, Libra pondo. So, when it comes to writing, they use “lb” but when it is the time to speak, then they say pound.

Now, how big is the one pound hamburger? It is huge. For your information, 1 pound is 0.45 kg. When Korean people go to a restaurant to have meat together, 2 – 3 people share 1 Geun (0.6 kg), which is around 1.3 pound. But when you talk about 1 pound here, it is only the weight of meat but hamburgers have bread, vegetables and sauce. Combined, it would weigh probably around 1.2 pound. I am not sure how many people can finish that burger. I think my friend Phil can. Phil, can you? Have you tried? Now, on the other hand, there is a very small and tiny burger, originally created by White Castle restaurant chain. It is called, slider. I do not know why they called it slider in the first place but it is really tiny so that you can actually put the whole thing into your mouth and finish. Some of the restaurants here in PA have slider on their menus. So, if you found slider on your menus next time you are in a restaurant in the U.S., you should try it. But please remember to ask them how many of them are going to be in your plate. Chances are your order would include 4-5 sliders which are almost the same as a half pound hamburger.