The weather is nice (at least where I am). It's Friday. Why not break out a grill this weekend and make your own, perfectly melted cheeseburgers?

Thanks to Another Pint Please... for adding your photo to the Slashfood Pool.

Here's a synopsis of the latest food products and politics news being covered by our fellow bloggers over at Slashfood sister site, GreenDaily:

• Top British scientist predicts a severe food crisis if we continue to have babies, burn fossil fuels, and eat meat
• Headed to SXSW this year? Here's where to eat and drink
  
• Cadbury's commitment to using less plastic will make those chocolate eggs taste even sweeter
• Wish you could cook your hamburger while you drive? Your dreams have come true...
• Prepare yourself for Armageddon with Cheeseburger in a Can
• If you must buy your food from a big box store, at least go to one of these
• The green restaurant movement is picking up steam

Check out GD for tons of food-related info...it's amazing how often the topics of environment and food overlap, especially as farmers explore greener methods and more food goes organic.

NYC's Board of Health attempted last year to pass a measure that forced fast food joints to post calorie counts on their menu boards, right where people could see them (and, I guess, be horrified by them and run screaming from the restaurant. Or...something. Not quite sure what the city's goal was).

At any rate, a judge struck down the measure, so now they're back to where they started. But they're not giving up on trying to hoard their mighty caloric knowledge on the citizens of New York! By golly, they will succeed in getting people to acknowledge the 600 calories in that Premium Crispy Chicken Ranch BLT Sandwich they're eating! And then the Board of Health officials will sleep soundly at night, feeling virtuous that they have single-handedly handled the "obesity epidemic." Right?

For the record, Burger King and McDonald's already make this information available (it took me half a minute to find how many calories were in that Chicken McWhatever listed above), they just don't advertise it like the marquee outside of Radio City. Currently, if the city's restaurants want to display their food's nutritional info, they are more than welcome to.

And I mean, really, how many people nowadays don't know that fast food is bad for them? I highly doubt that prominently displaying caloric information will make people who have already walked through a eatery's doors gawk at the fat content and walk out of the store in a huff. I mean, if I want a cookie, I'm eating the cookie knowing that it's bad for me (and even secretly reveling in that fact).

If enacted, the regulation will go into effect March 31. So, until then, we can remain uneducated, bumbling masses. Sound good?

Doesn't this guy know that it's Burger King where you can "have it your way?"

A man in South Carolina has sued McDonald's after going into one of the establishments and ordering two hamburgers without cheese. Well, he got cheese on them, and it turns out he's allergic to cheese. He's suing for $10 million.

Now, the guy says he almost died (his medical bills were $700, which McDonald's said they would pay but they were turned down), and he's suing because of the reaction he had to the cheese and because his family "risked their lives" to rush him to the emergency room.

If you're wondering why he didn't see the cheese before he bit into the hamburger is because he ate it in a darkened room.

Before anyone ever heard of Harold, much less Kumar, before the invention of the Crave campaign, before the word Slyder was trademarked I was a teenage White Castle worker. On this last day of National Hamburger Month I'd like to share my memories of working at America's oldest hamburger chain, as well as my thoughts on its present state of affairs.

I started working at White Castle during my senior year in high school. I'd eaten their burgers with my folks as a kid and had enjoyed their "restorative" effects after drinking with my buddies. We used to call the tasty little suckers "White Crapples." When one opened in my neighborhood, I figured what the hell, and applied for a job. After management determined I had a pulse and some level of manual dexterity, however minimal, I was hired.

Back then the uniform was slightly different than it is today. I remember wearing a brown shirt and a baseball cap. All burger cooking was done in clear view. To the left of the register, customers watched their square patties being steam-grilled. I still remember the time a Little League team ordered 100 burgers. Instead of letting the line back up, we opened another station and got to work.

Once after blowing a joint with my co-worker Max, the burgers on my flat top started burning. As I stared into space, he sounded the alarm by screaming, "Bang your head" at me. He averted disaster by ladling onion water onto my griddle. Back then there was no shortage of onion water, since we used dehydrated onions. Small dust clouds would form as we poured dried diced onion into stainless buckets before adding water.

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]

I love Krispy Kremes, bacon and burgers, too, but I've never tasted the abomination, er, delicacy, pictured here. But only because until today, I didn't know any place nearby to sample this artery-clogging, waist-broadening wonder. After all, I ate a hot, unglazed Krispy Kreme for an article I wrote about the company years ago. I wouldn't recommend it. Talk about heart-stopping.

If I lived anywhere near a certain minor league baseball park or was friends with a certain R&B vocalist, I'd surely have tried one of these things by now. This miracle of modern griddle work is now being served at Google's New York City cafeteria. Now all I need to do is find a good cardiologist and get a job with Google.

A few weeks ago, we took a peek at some of the world's largest pizzas, and while this pizza might not qualify for that list, it definitely deserves a title of its own. It is one of the most bizarre pizzas that I have ever seen: the Aussie Hangover Cure. It should have been called the McCheeseburger Pizza. The pizza not only has four McDonald's cheeseburgers topping it, but an entire order of large french fries, both under and on top of the burgers, as well as bacon, cheese and tomato sauce. I won't hazard a guess as to the calorie content, but it's safe to say that it is a lot. And as for it acting as a hangover cure? It strikes me as something you might eat the night before you wake up with a hangover, not something you'd crave in the morning.

If you missed the opportunity to flip burgers in high school, you can have a second chance without quitting your day job. Alternatively, you can flip burgers while you "work" at your day job. Just use the McDonald's employee simulator. Start your day off with the ringing of your alarm clock, and click your way through your routine: breakfast, driving to work and, of course, making the burgers.  If you're having fun, you can even work overtime for an extra $5! The game isn't as riveting as Diner Dash, but then again, probably neither is working at McDonald's - especially when you don't get to interact with the customers to break up the monotony.

Here's an incentive for playing, though: If you make it to the end of the game, you'll learn that McDonald's employees have scary dreams.

[Thanks to McAuliflower for the tip!]

A while back I mentioned the fact that In-N-Out burger will let you add patties and cheese to their standard Double-Double Burger, along with a mouthwatering photo of a 20x20 burger, which is probably the maximum amount that a single person could consume. Assuming, of course, that the person consuming the burger is a very, very hungry linebacker. If you have a few friends around, though, you might want to increase your order to an astounding 100x100. For only $97.66 (burger sold in Las Vegas), you and seven friends can gorge yourselves on meat and cheese. What up Willy! documented the making and consumption of this amazing burger. I don't think I could do it, but these guys have my deepest respect. And a few of my antacids.