Burger and the Ground

First word: BURGER

Juicy Tasty Burger

I remember how amazing burgers taste. The juicy tasting meat complemented with the taste of onions and the flavor of ketchup and mayonnaise. And perfect with the fresh crispness of lettuce. You can tell I’m quite hungry while writing this! I absolutely love burgers. All burgers however are not created equal. Each one has a unique flavor and taste to it forged and created by garnering all the different ingredients. The big mac from McDonalds has this interesting combination of flavor. It is a bit sweet yet a bit sour creating the perfect opposing taste added with the ketchup and cheese. Simply splendid! The roast beef sandwich from Arby’s has a much different taste to it. It has no toppings or vegetables. But what makes this burger unique is the way the beef is sliced so thinly. It gives a whole different level of exquisite dining. Oh and we can forget about the whopper from burger king. The whopper is a simple burger that relies on the taste of mayonnaise and lettuce to enhance the flavor. It’s filling and incredibly amazing at the same time.  

Second word: GROUND

Peaceful Pasture

The ground reminds me of the earth and nature. The essence of the earth and nature has this cooling effect. It grounds the energy of the world. And the trees provide oxygen and life energy to the world. Earth gives birth to metal, metal gives birth to water, water gives birth to wood, wood gives birth to fire, and fire gives birth to earth. This is the cycle of the five elements of nature. The ground has powerful symbols to it. In many cultures, there are myths and stories of origins of mother earth and nature. Because it is such an important part of our existence and world. We cannot exist without the power of nature. And that is what the word ground reminds me of, that we are all a part of something all powerful.

At first it was a bit difficult to combine the two words which seem incompatible together. But I thought of a few ways to that they can be used:

Dirt Burger: I was thinking that a dirt burger could be made. Similar to how mud pies are made from dirt and flour but a burger made out of grass as lettuce and dried mud as the buns and maybe twigs as the meat. Perhaps this could be a sculpture or a depiction of art of some kind.

Ground Cinnamon Burger: I don’t know if this would actually taste good or not. But when I think of spices I think of ground cinnamon a nice spice to add to many dishes. I was thinking of combining the two elements together making a burger based around ground cinnamon, it would have a subtle hint of sweetness but not too much.

Ground Cinnamon Spice

 Ground beef burger: I’m sure this exists already but ground beef definitely is the way to go for a burger. It would be full of flavor.

Burger used as compost: A burger that has dropped on the ground and used as compost for fertilizer. All things must return back to nature and again be a part of the great cycle. Why not help it along a bit faster!

Underground burger restaurant: A burger restaurant built to enjoy the wonders of being underground perhaps in deep caves or something. It would definitely be an interesting tourist attraction as well as rest stop.

Animal food burger: Burgers used to feed wild animals throwing them on the ground. They would be smaller for the animals to be able to eat it bit by bit. Everyone should have the joy of enjoying the beauty of burgers. We can’t leave animals out it would be animal cruelty. Minus cows.

Giant Burger Sculpture: A giant burger sculpture made from the clay on the ground. A wonder of the world as big as the pyramids of Egypt! Perhaps this can be used to generate and create buzz for a restaurant.

Underground burger headquarters: Having the headquarters of McDonalds or burger king be underground and shaped like a burger. This would protect it from nuclear strikes and natural disasters.

Burger shaped lightning rod: A lightning rod used to ground lightning to the ground with the tip shaped like a burger. This would promote McDonalds or burger king as a company that wants to protect its customers from lightning. Good PR.

Ketchup fertilizer: A fertilizer developed from ketchup to improve the appearance of crops. You see normal crops look boring they should have different colors. On top of that, the fertilizer lets the grow and adds nutrition.

I think out of all these ideas the only viable one would be the ground cinnamon burger. I don’t know how it would actually taste but it feels like an intriguing idea seeming as I haven’t actually had the luxury of eating one yet. I think it would definitely create a product differentiation.  

Water Filters

It has always been a great concern to me what type of water to drink. It’s something so small and detailed but it’s very important. 75 percent of our body is made from fluids and we need to drink an average of 1.9 liters of water a day to stay in good hydration. And if I don’t invest in a good water filter then a lot of problems can happen. I think we can all agree that drinking tap water is out of the option. There are a lot of scientific articles out there that try to convince us that it’s “great for us” and all that because it has fluoride and helps our teeth or whatever. These articles sadly don’t mention the chlorine and chloramines level in the water used to cleanse the water from diseases. Not to mention the random minerals in the water. I want to design or research a water filter that will create an optimal experience for the consumer. Because so many companies out there are just trying to get our money. They don’t really care about what is truly better for the consumer or not. I have no idea why these companies are so short sighted. I believe that companies should add value to society. Currently, there is no really good water filtration system in the market that can be cost effective. So I really want to focus my research on creating and researching an optimal way to filter water yet do it at a reasonable cost. And I also want to make it easy for the consumer because water is such an important part of our health and lives.

I have done some research on which type of filter would be optimal. There are several kinds. The reverse osmosis system purifies the water by forcing it through a tiny membrane and drawing out bacteria, salt, minerals. It is very expensive and it also takes all the healthy minerals out of the water too! The water distiller system boils the water and condenses the water again so all the bacteria minerals would also be gone. It’s also very expensive and takes out all the healthy minerals. Another type of water filter is the charcoal filter. The benefits of this type of filtration is that it filters out bacteria and bad elements like lead mercury. The carbon charcoal will bond with all the heavy metals and filter them out of the water. It also retains the good minerals. The filter has to be changed every 6 months or so. This is the type of filtration Brita filters are based from. However, even though Brita filters make tap water significantly healthier, the filters on them are so small. It is built for more of convenience rather than being a good filter. The ceramic filter filters our bacteria and mineral because they have microscopic fossilized one celled algae that are so tiny they only let through few particles. Out of all these options, I think that ceramic and charcoal filters would be the best option for the general consumer. They are easy to use and not expensive. I would not recommend the other ones because they are far too expensive and a lot of users have listed a lot of problems on them.

Bamboo Charcoal

Another type of filtration system uses the bamboo charcoal, a substance used in Asia for thousands of years starting with 1400 AD in the Ming dynasty of China. It has been listed as having miraculous properties of releasing negative ions the air – which creates a healthier environment. And it also filters water. But here’s the amazing part. It filters water and adds vital minerals the body needs. I found an article here Bamboo Charcoal. I really want to do more research into how these various ways of filtration can be combined to create and generate a good experience for the consumer. I am thinking that if we combine the ceramic, charcoal, and bamboo charcoal filter. It will succeed in producing a cost effective solution to filtration and improving the general health because the bamboo charcoal adds minerals back into the water.