I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today ...

E!
That thing in the picture is what gives contemporary hamburgers a bad name.

does anyone remember when hamburgers and cheeseburgers became just burgers? We didn't used to call them that.

It's just part of the general decline of literacy in our society. :-)

Burgers will never be trendy - it's only what "they" do to them that make a clump of ground beef trendy. And even then it's a marketing ploy. I wonder if the abbreviated "burger" started with or before the Burger King and Burger Chef chains. Time for me to do some research.

And thanks to Mr. Sessa for the quote - I wonder how many fellow Large bloggers will know the reference!

maybe we dropped the "ham" because they don't contain any. (i think)

What are "themed burgers"??

Any place better for a burger than 5 Guys Burger & Fries?

Rule of thumb: When on the East Coast, eat Five Guys. When on the West Coast, eat In-N-Out Burger.

Fuddruckers is pretty darn good, too. So many burgers, so little time.

To quote Homer Simpson: Mmm, burger...

What is a "burger"?
It is, first of all, beef.
Nothing wrong with beef: just ask Morton's; ask Ruth!
It's a humble preparation, no doubt. But therein lies its strength. The burger is servant, not king. It shuns excessive manner. Moreover, it plays well with its neighbors (with the possible exception of fruits). It's naked without bread. It's indifferent without cheese (is it the burger's fault it's too often draped with processed "American"? (answer: No!)).
It loves the company of bacon. Vegetables? Among its dearest companions.
Nuts, you say? Well then, you've probably never had a burger paired with peanut butter. Fascinating.
Hamburger = versatility.
I'm shocked, shocked that you arch a brow at the burger's popularity. Don't believe those who relegate it to mere utility. The burger is a canvas. Would Picasso paint only with ketchup? No! To anyone who fails to recognize the hamburger as art form, I say, your palate lacks the hamburger's favorite spice: imagination.

What, no ham in hamburgers? Does that mean there's no dog in hotdogs? And a guy named Frank didn't shove some Furter into a casing and call it a wiener? Ugh, what a bunch of Vienna dwellers! I'm so cranky because i'm trying to type this while I drive through the slushy hell. GET OUT OF MY WAY!!! Sweet Mother Mary I almost spilled my cinnamon soy chai! My white rage is unbounded! I'm so angry I'm turning my wipers to the more agressive FAST speed. Save me interweb. Save me PDA. Oh God I need a Cup O'Noodles soon!

Wasn't there a chain called Wimpy Burgers?

Isn't it a quote from Wimpy who, naturally, now has his own chain?

I think the trend is to call anything a burger -- I've seen chicken pattie sandwiches referred to as chicken burgers on menus. Likewise, as others noted, the rise of "gourmet" burgers made from less prosaic animal sources or decorated with exotic toppings. Next, Food network will offer a show called "Pimp My Burger."

Oh, we Americans are lazy in language. We couldn't take the time to say hamburger or cheeseburger, so now it is burger. We could take the say Credence Clearwater Revival, Electric Light Orchestra or Bachman Turner Overdrive, so now we go with CCR, ELO and BTO.

There are limits to my personal sloth. I will never...and I mean never...refer to Extra Virgin Olive Oil as EVOO. Not only that, I won't even associate with those who use that abbreviation.

And thanks to Mr. Sessa for the quote - I wonder how many fellow Large bloggers will know the reference!

I'm just surprised that a young pup like Sam knew that line. Wimpy would be pround.

Piano Rob,
Mr Sessa is quoting Wimpy from Popeye!

Piano Rob,
It depends how many of us also remember the 15 cent fast food burger!

The "ham" in Hamburger must be like the "S" in "Mash's" - they threw that away...

I think burgers are "trendy" now because they've enjoyed a resurgence away from the fast-food joints to a burger that's a little bit better and a little bit fresher - like the Five Guys chain.

Here are some of my fave burger joints:

Teddy Burger - Honolulu, HI
Kua 'Aina - Hale'iwa, HI
Tommy Burger - Beverly & Rampart, Los Angeles, CA
Fatburger - Universal City, CA
In-N-Out - WestSide USA
Burgerville - Portland, OR

I went to Burger Bros in Towson last month and found it to be pretty good as well, but I think more investigation will be necessary.

Personally speaking, I don't like overly thick patties. There needs to be a "thickness balance" between the patty and the bun.

We do burgers often, but I use extra-lean organic beef, or bison. Bison is fabulous--moist and delicious. The trick is to cook it only half as long as beef, and NEVER more than Medium. YUM!

piano rob....that's definitely a popeye's reference, where ironically, you can't get a hamburger OR a burger.

Koopers in Fells Point does a great burger!

For chains... Cheeburger Cheeburger and Cheesebuger in Paradise have good burgers.

Cheeburger cheeburger, Pepsi, No Coke

Themed burgers are taking something perfectly fine (your standard hamburger/cheeseburger), and trying to 'improve' on it by adding elements not normally associated with it; if you ask me it just masks what you should be tasting (quality ground beef) with a bunch of items that really don't belong on a burger. They should just come with a bunch of silly hats (if this isn't already happening) and the like; it's the basic premise.

You can usually get one with your jalapeno poppers and southwestern egg rolls (or really, any premade item that comes out of a fry-o-lator).

Chris- if someone else is paying, I'll go for the burger at The Palm. Out of my own pocket...Five Guys is definitely a worthy consideration.

Hey Piano Rob, the cartoon that quote is from has always had a special meaning for me.

I used to be a spinach farmer. I'm not joking, either.

Not to drive this completely off-topic, but before Popeye was a cartoon it was a comic strip back during the golden age of that art form. I believe that Wimpy first used that line in the strip, which was called Thimble Theater (later to become Thimble Theater featuring Popeye once the sailor's popularity took off). Those were some great strips, and well worth tracking down.

And I agree mostly with Hamburgermeister's post, although there is something basic and comforting about the pairing with American cheese. My choice is usually blue though. Beef and blue cheese is an unbeatable combo.

RoCK, I think you will be getting some literature from the AARP soon: Association of Anachronistic References from the Past. Just kidding. Commissioner Large, can you shine the Owl Signal into the winter sky, I'm no Boy Wonder.

This reminds me of the old A-1 commericals..."it's not chopped ham, it's chopped steak." I used to drown my burgers in that stuff when I was a kid.

isn't that our feathered friend above at 8:44?

I think that Ed in his attempt to be humourous or just difficult, was trying to say that many foods start out with place names attached and then the place gets lost as the item develops its own identity. (More research, less ranting dear, I have your email password.)

So hamburgers were Hamburg (Germany) steaks, Frankfurters were Frankfurt (Germany) sausages, and wieners were Vienna (Wien in German) sausages, not be be confused with those canned things.

Then there's this oddity from Wikipedia: Hamburg (ハンバーグ hanbāgu?) is a popular Salisbury steak dish in Japan. It is made from ground meat with finely chopped onion, egg and breadcrumbs flavored with various spices and made into flat circular shape about a centimeter thick and 10 to 15 cm in diameter. Many restaurants (e.g. Bikkuri Donkey) specialize in various styles of hamburger. Hamburger became popular during the 1960s as a more affordable way to serve otherwise costly meat. Magazines regularly printed the recipe during that decade, elevating it to a staple dish in Japanese culture.

So behave yourself Ed or you'll be eating Bikkuri Donkey burgers tonight. 3:-O

Patrick -- Thanks for the "themed burger" info. I've never heard that term before. And, there's probably a reason for that, given my midwestern-upbringing tastes.

Although I must say that I do like blue cheese on my burger.

Alan - Not only do I remember 15-cent hamburgers, but I also remember that I could get two hamburgers, an order of fries and a soda at McDonald's and get change from my dollar.

Another annoyance about the word "burger" is that it has been tacked onto other words. I have seen "fishburger" among others.

Please no pictures of hamburgers on Fridays during Lent.

The only time I crave McDonald's is during Lent. Usually it passes by Saturday.

Hey Elizabeth-

Where did you get the photo of the Big Mac?

The only time I've ever seen a Big Mac look that good in real life was at McDonald's outside of the United States.

It's an AP photo from our archives. I like the white linen napkin around it.

Can't resist pointing out that the Big Mac is hardly fit for locavores. This was in the Chronicle of Higher Education today:

Scholars of international business have long remarked on the global ubiquity of the McDonald's Corporation. Now researchers at South Africa's University of Stellenbosch have settled on the restaurant's signature meal as the symbol of just how global the human diet has become.

A Big Mac meal — burger, fries, and coffee — contains about 20 different plant species with origins around the world, says a team from Stellenbosch's Center for Invasion Biology and the University of Calgary. The scientists were conducting a major study of the evolutionary relationships among the plants people eat worldwide.

Potatoes originally domesticated in South America, mustard from India, onions and wheat from the Middle East, and coffee from Ethiopia were just some of the species the meal was found to contain. The findings are presented in the February 2008 issue of BioScience, the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences.

"There are only eight places in the world where most plant species were domesticated," says John Wilson, a postdoctoral associate with the center. "A burger, fries, and coffee contain species from all these regions. The Big Mac is a combination of years of plant breeding from many different civilizations around the world."

The researchers, who looked at the origins and evolutionary relationships of more than 7,000 different plant species, were particularly impressed to find so much diversity in a single meal, given that members of some less globalized societies still subsist on diets of just 50 to 100 plant species.

Perhaps this means that when the day comes when interstellar travelers arrive on our planet, we can offer them the one food that represents every region of our home:

The Big Mac

Of course, they'll taste it, enjoy it, import it to their homeworld where fast food will result in a health epidemic that they will interpret as humanity's attempt to exterminate their race, they will then return and destroy us and our planet with The Wave Motion Gun.

Oh well...