I know that Joe's been slinging burgers at you every day at noon in honor of (questionably official) National Burger Month, but those are Burgers of the Day. This is the Burger of the Night.

This monster burger is from The Counter Burger in Santa Monica, CA, which happens to be number 15 on Alan Richman's GQ List of the 20 Burgers You Must Eat Before You Die (we also covered the California Burger from Houston's from that list earlier this month), and which happens to be a burger that had its own Oprah moment. I went to the Counter, and I have to say, I was not overly impressed. Then again, "must eat before you die" and Oprah builds up some pretty high expectations.

I will say, however, that the sweet potato French fries that we had with the burgers were out of this world. The Counter is definitely worth a visit if you're in the area, but don't go out of your way just to make it before you die.

Today's Burger of the Day comes from Rouge, a highly acclaimed New American bistro in Philadelphia. Cathy over at Gastronomy had the pleasure of splitting one of these with a friend recently. It bears pointing out that this bad was ranked No. 4 on Alan Richman's list of 20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die. As you can see from the pic, this hefty specimen is topped with Gruyère, under which lurk some tasty caramelized onions. But what did Cathy think? She describes her first bite as "beefy heaven," and goes on to praise the gargantuan patty's moistness. There are some who say that such an outsized burger stretches the very definition of the word "hamburger" to absurd limits. As for me, I know what the next meal I'm having in Philly is, that is of course after I down a Tony Luke's roast pork Italian.

[via Tastespotting]

So far, Nicole and Sarah have given their thoughts about Alan Richman's GQ list of "The 20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die." (A .pdf of the entire article is available here.) Since Sarah and Nicole have both hit at least a few spots on Richman's list, I figured it was time I start catching up, especially since I live only minutes away from the restaurant that occupies the number one spot on the list, Le Tub, in Hollywood, Florida. Le Tub has had roughly the last half a century to garner praise for its burgers, and the evidence, in the form numerous framed and yellowing newspaper clippings, is obvious throughout the restaurant. The rest of the decor is also worth mentioning. The rickety, open-air bar and restaurant sits perched on the Intracoastal Waterway, and it's as if the entire place has been whittled from a huge chunk of driftwood and is now held together by little more than fishing nets, banyan roots and the occasional rusty nail. And, of course, there is a bathtub planter outside, as well as a variety of toilets and toilet seats strewn about the lush, overgrown property.

The issue of Alan Richman's dislike of New Orleans and its food is brought up, with a particular focus on his assertion that Creoles do not exist. It's not all that difficult to find an actual Creole living in NOLA and once you find them, they'll probably share some of the food that they're famous for whether Mr. Richman likes it or not, including: Calas, Artichoke and Oyster Casserole, and Beef Daube Glace

Harold McGee starts a new column, the Curious Cook. which will explores the science of food. The subject of this article is blue-green garlic, a color that results from sulfur compounds that are the result of pureeing onions and garlic together.

The 66-year old Essex Street Market, on the lower East Side of Manhattan, bridges the gap between "of the bodega and the universe of the gourmand," where you can't expect to know who is going to buys what or how they're going to pay for it. It's completely unpretentious and the food is great.

It's the start of latke season and it's hard to resist the lure of a hot, crisp, fried potato pancake.

Frank Bruni eats at Tocqueville and the Tasting Room and gives them two and one star, respectively.

Mark Bittman, the minimalist, talks more about his hugely popular no-knead bread recipe.

Where to find tableware like the Achatz and Adria's.

In this month's issue of GQ magazine, food guru Alan Richman took a glossy, 8-page look at the food of New Orleans post-Katrina. The idea sounds like a good one, so why is the article so controversial? The problem is that the piece was not gushing, not exactly sentimental and, in parts, not accurate about the city and its food.

To date, the vast majority of the pieces about New Orleans have been stories of survival and of working to restore the city to its former state. People rebuild their homes and lives. Restaurants struggle to clean up, reopen and attract customers. Richman writes some about the touching, uplifting parts and the grassroots movements of people to get their lives back in order, but does not write exclusively about the uplifting parts, in fact stating that "New Orleans shouldn't exist," referring to it below-sea level elevation right on a vulnerable coastline. In another controversial assertion, he says that Cajuns originated in Canada, which is true, contrary to what some of his critics have said. However, Richman also states that he doesn't think Creoles ever really existed, but the term applied to a definite and large group of people in the city. He explains his position in the GQ podcast, by the way.

True story: I've been buying a six pack of yogurt, sometimes the kind in the little cups you eat and sometimes the bottles you drink, every couple of weeks for the past three months and I haven't eaten/drank one of them. Not one. I don't know why. I get on these kicks where I say "I'm going to get healthier and get some low carb/low sugar yogurt and eat them for meals!" And then they just sit in the fridge for two weeks and expire so I have to throw them away.

Over at GQ.com, Alan Richman runs into a woman at the supermarket who insists that he's wasting time eating yogurt when he could be drinking it. So Richman decides to not only taste the little samples she has on her table but also does a little test at home: what's faster, eating a cup of yogurt or drinking a yogurt smoothie? Here are the results.

Back during the summer last year, I remember reading an article in GQ by Alan Richman. (You don't want to know why I had my hands on a copy of a men's magazine.) In the article, Richman listed the Top 20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die, and called out the California Burger at Houston's as Number 6. When I read that, listed in there with the likes of Peter Luger's Steak House in New York and The Counter in Santa Monica, I balked. Houstons?? It's a chain!

But apparently, New York Times restarautn critic Frank Bruni found himself at a local outpost of the chain, tried the burger, and liked it. He said, the burgers, made with eight ounces of ground chuck, were extremely satisfying: slightly charred, very juicy, cradled by a fluffy bun, cooked precisely to the requested medium-rare doneness."

Who knew? And to think the man didn't even like In-n-Out.

This is the best fast-food hamburger there is: a double-double from In-N-Out Burger, the popular California chain. Actually, with its two juicy, 100% pure beef patties, hand-leafed lettuce, tomatoes, secret spread and two slices of American cheese (not processed cheese) on a freshly baked and toasted bun, the double-double is better than a lot of non-fast food burgers, too.

I suggest that you compare the In-N-Out classic to GQ's list of the 20 hamburgers you must eat before you die. The list was compiled by Alan Richman, food critic and author of Fork it Over, who seems to be a reputable enough source, though I am still hard-put to take culinary advice from a men's style magazine. I have personally eaten at three of the 20 places on the list, though I can only say that I clearly recall two of them, and did not find the burgers to be of any higher quality than the double-double. I think GQ needs to add another spot to their list.