5 Burger Joints Worth Traveling For

ID-10052807 By Grant Cochrane
Free digital image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhoto.net/By Grant Cochrane

It might not be the healthiest cuisine option around, but a really great burger is something that can satisfy cravings and turn a crappy day into a much more remarkable one. However, when it comes to finding a brilliant burger, there’s more to look for than just some meat on a bun. From mile-high creations filled with all sorts of goodies to simple yet elegant options that focus on quality ingredients, there are burgers all around the world that are sure to have your mouth watering and taste buds satiated in a few minutes flat. If you’re keen to travel the world trying the best burgers on offer, read on for five restaurants you should add to your bucket list.

Ferdi in Paris

This Parisian establishment is good enough for Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, who have been spotted more than once at the restaurant, and declared by Penelope Cruz to serve up the best cheeseburgers in Paris. It is also the place that some of the world’s most well-regarded fashion designers turn to when they need a good lunch — both Marc Jacobs and Christian Louboutin have been seen dining here on many occasions. Run by husband and wife-team Alicia and Jacques Fontanier, Ferdi opened in 2004 as a “strictly non chichi” venue for Parisian locals to head to for home-style comfort food, quality Spanish tapas and an extensive drinks list. The restaurant is named after the couple’s son Ferdinand and has been fitted out with eclectic, quirky decor such as their son’s old toys, humorous vintage signs and well-loved second-hand furniture. Ferdi (located near the Place de la Concord) has a warm, informal, intimate feel and is famous around the world for its cheeseburgers. The venue books out months in advance, particularly for dinner, so ensure you make a booking before you go so you can enjoy time spent at this quality restaurant. After all, the sign on the front door says it all: “Good food takes time. We have the food. Do you have the time?”

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Review of Double-Double at In-N-Out Burger

We were on the road recently in Ventura, California, and we jumped at the opportunity to grab a legendary In-N-Out Burger. This wasn’t a new thing for us, but some of our friends had never tried these delicious concoctions. As you cans see from the photos, we went with the Double-Double burgers. It looks like many double hamburgers you’ll find today at other fast food spots, but the taste of this burger surpasses all of them and lives up to its legendary status. You can taste the quality of this burger, as you won’t find one sitting under a heat lamp. They use fresh beef and have their own patty making factory. By focusing on burgers and not cluttering the simple menu with chicken or other options, In-N-Out can deliver the goods over and over again.

While the burger was amazing, the French Fries were average at best and the shake was nothing special. Everything here revolves around the incredible burgers.

Another thing to keep in mind is In-N-Out Burger’s not-so-secret secret menu. You’ll see from the pics above that the official menu at In-N-Out Burger is very simple. Over the years, loyal fans have order all sorts of variations and some of them have become staples for customers who goes there regularly. The company published their own guide to some of these “secret” menu items here, and here’s one of many blog posts on the topic.

If you don’t live on the West Coast you’re SOL on this one. Just make sure you try them when you head out West.

  

Girls in Stars and Stripes Bikinis

Happy Fourth of July weekend!

We found some photos in the vault that fit this holiday weekend perfectly, with past models Stacy and Jenny giving us plenty to celebrate with their stars and stripes bikinis.

Hopefully you have a great cookout to attend in order to properly celebrate the holiday. If you’re hosting it, check out our recent feature on how not to screw up your barbecue. If you’re looking for ideas on what to serve, check out Mike Farley’s recent recipe for the Green Chile Burger.

  

Jamba Juice now offering the Cheeseburger Chill

If there’s one thing the good people of Jamba Juice know, it’s fruit. So why would they try to get into the burger business? In truth, they aren’t – this video is just a strong right hook at the fast food industry, which has started to encroach on Jamba Juice territory by offering concoctions they try to pass off as smoothies. Those abominations are about as much smoothie as the cheeseburger shake is a burger, and yet, people order them. That got us to thinking, if people are willing to eat fast food smoothies, who would be willing to eat a cheeseburger shake?

1. Frat guys – If fraternities have a reputation for one thing, it’s their filth. It’s not networking, job prospects, close friends, or even great parties. The real frats, frats that people like you and me went to skill with, were disgusting. They had horrific hazing rituals. Their members (my friends among them) would find absurd bets like “who can kill the most wounded soldiers at the next house party.” These guys would love to ingest a cheeseburger milkshake. You can almost guarantee that a brother at your local party school has tried this very thing to rid himself of a nasty hangover or win the approval of the rest of the house.

2. Hot dog stand regulars – At three in the morning, few things sound quite as good as a hotdog loaded down with onions, jalapenos, chili, coleslaw, and healthy squirt of stadium mustard across the top. For some people, that sounds good at nine in the morning. And for lunch. And as a mid day snack. When you’re in such a hurry to give yourself kidney stones, why not slurp the food through a straw, right? Right.

3. Extreme runners – When I first read about Dean Karnazes I was enchanted. The guy lost it at a party, sprinted into the night and didn’t stop running until morning. That was just the beginning of an insane career. He has gone on to compete in marathons and supermarathons, sometimes entering himself in team competitions and running against five other men by himself. He ran 50 marathons in 50 days across 50 states. He’s completely insane, but he keeps his body going by guzzling calories as he runs. He orders pizzas on the go, snacks on eclairs mid-run. He needs the ridiculous caloric intake just to keep his body running. The cheeseburger shake is perfect for this guy – a calorie bomb you can sip as you sprint.

4. Fast Food fanatics – If you’ve seen Morgan Spurlock’s “Super Size Me,” you know there are people in this world that would prefer the Big Mac to a nice hand-pattied burger. For those few people, you can imagine the cheeseburger shake would be the perfect treat. It’s salty, disgusting, and consumable in three minutes or less. What more could you want?

5. Britney Spears – Britney Spears is a wreck. A complete and utter mess of a human being. When she isn’t flashing her hoo-hah or pressing ham for the paparazzi, she’s busy driving with her kids on her lap and having public – very public – psychotic breakdowns. She’s also known to step into gas station bathrooms barefoot. I don’t know what kind of gas stations you go to, but the bathrooms I see at the local Kwik-N-Go are like something from a horror movie. If the walls aren’t smeared in human excrement there’s usually used toilet paper strewn about and a cocktail of bodily fluid stewing in the turlet. If Britney can stomach that mess without so much as a pair of shoes (much less a biohazard suit), you can bet she’d be willing to slurp down a burger shake without thinking twice.