Everyone loves a burger. You love them, I know you do. Hamburgers, cheeseburgers, bacon cheeseburgers and everything in between. They are burgers. THEY ARE US. I mean, how can you argue with all of this evidence?
Burgers are the rage right now. From In-And-Out to The Counter, Five Guys to Umami, and all of the other specialty joints, it’s all about the burger. These pictures all correspond to a writeup about how they exemplify the current appetite for burgers in all forms. Some burger quotes:
Rock and roll is the hamburger that ate the world.
Peter York
Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburger.
Abbie Hoffman
So I will say it with relish. Give me a hamburger but hold the lawsuit.
S. I. Hayakawa
Here are ten examples of the wide range of burgers now showing up across the country:
10-The “NEW AGE” of burger, courtesy of KFC. It’s not about drumsticks any longer. KFC jumped onto the burger/sandwich bandwagon with their “double stacker” – in this case a never-ending stack of breasts layered over and over with bacon, cheese and sauce into a fast food “thing” that had everything BUT the hamburger and a bun.
9-The tempura burger. Take a bun, forget the meat, and layer on a wide array of tempura vegetables. If it looks like a burger and crunches, it has to be good, right? This is a perfect example of taking what you think a burger is – and turning it into whatever you want it to be. And for me, that works just fine.
8-The “leaning tower of Pisa” burger. Forget the bite-size 99-cent special from a fast food joint. This is the MONSTER. Stack, stack, stack the traditional burger ingredients until they threaten to topple over into their fries, then skewer them with long wooden – well, chopsticks it appears from the photo. Keep it standing upright just long enough to get it to your table, then it’s your problem. I’d love to see the mouth that gets around THIS.
7-The “surprise!” BIG burger. Here’s the easy setup: sit a guy down, line up your shot, then plop a burger bigger than his car in front of him, and take the picture as his eyes widen in delight. Works especially well with kids and short women as well. It doesn’t really matteer how it takes, as long as it tastes BIG.
6- The Slider! Yes, another great innovation for the burger world – the bite-size burger that just wants to be your friend! They are also easy to make – take a mini-bun, a mini-patty, and top with cheese, tomato and any other condiment and you are set! Look closely at the photo here and you will see a slice of beet under the meat – that means it’s an Australian slider…a delicious variation!
5-The “nothing but bacon” burger. Look closely at this one – it’s not a bacon cheeseburger, it’s all bacon! Pictures like this are designed to make you wonder if ANYONE could eat it – but it makes you want to try…bacon has come back with a vengeance, along with burgers, meatloaf, fried chiken, and of course – MAC’n’CHEESE. Let’s be honest – who doesn’t love mac’n’cheese? How about with truffles? Or lobster? Or just about anything else?
4-The Exotic, EXPENSIVE burger. Find the picture of the burger with the egg on top, and that’s your $30 burger – wagyu beef! You can make a cheap burger, and you can make one that will break the bank – add wagyu beef, foie gras, truffles – anything that is expensive can be perched on a bun…that’s why we love the burger.
3-The Schnitzel burger. Welcome to Bavaria, Vienna or wherever Schnitzel lives…this burger takes all of the other fried meats and piles them high for your enjoyment – along with ten, count em, TEN slices of bacon. I found this on a website, and once again, who knows how you eat it, it’s just fun to look at and dream…
2-The Counter Burger. Find the picture with the orange-ish sauce in the cup in front of the burger. This is from The Counter, LA’s hottest (and I say BEST!) burger joint. Why? Because you decide EXACTLY what type of burger you want – they give you a slip to fill out, and a multitude of options – a huge assortment of sauces, cheeses, condiments, buns – and it’s all your choice. I love the chipotle mayo, with provolone, black olives, crisp thinly sliced pickles and sometimes grilled onions. But tomorrow I might want shredded carrots and horseradish cheddar…you get the idea.
And they have great garlic fries with parmesan, and fried pickle chips too! I also enjoy the burger at Father’s Office, but the downside to this gem is that you can’t substitute ANYTHING EVER. It says so on the menu and they mean it. At The Counter, they don’t care how offensive you want to be, they are there to serve.
1-The SPAM burger! I found this ad when I was in Tokyo – a spam burger and pink grapefruit soda for 290 yen…didn’t order it but took the picture, and I probably should have tried it…oh well, next time!
Let me know what you think!
Categories: Australia, BACON, cookbooks, Food, Food Review, Hamburgers, Recipes, Restaurants, Travel
johnrieber 
Love the burgers! Love the exotic burger – the mention of wagyu + foie + truffles made me drool a bit (a lot, actually). A bit surprised that your favorite, Dick’s, didn’t get a mention in the preamble. And, of course, one can never forget about a good ol’ Gott’s burger – still seems odd to say that… Taylor’s Automatic Refresher just seems to roll of the tongue with a flair!!! I’ve been known to starve myself for a day before coming to Napa, knowing that a tasty Gott’s burger will great me upon my arrival… as long as I can endure standing in the line!
Now, I know the focus of this blog is the tasty tasty food and the cinema, but I realize I’ve fallen a couple of steps behind the emerging music scene as of late. You always seem to have your finger on the pulse of the up and coming new bands – anybody I need to be keeping an eye on? Avid readers are glued to their ergonomic desk chairs, ready for you to launch a relatively obscure band into superstardom and into our iTunes folders!
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