By day, I am a corporate trainer. In the world of training, we try to say things as concisely and clearly as possible. We avoid stating any extra steps that could possibly confuse our classroom participants. The world of Rube Goldberg is quite the opposite. A Rube Goldberg machine, as stated on Wikipedia, is "an incredibly overengineered apparatus that performs a very simple task in very indirect and convoluted fashion."

Each year, there is a competition held to find the team that best masters the art of inefficiency. This year's task at the Rube Goldberg competition was to assemble a burger consisting of no less than one precooked meat patty, two vegetables and two condiments, sandwiched between bun halves. The rules required that this task needed to take 20 or more steps.

The winning team was from Purdue University and made their burgers in 156 steps! I hope no one was too hungry.

For more on the event, including some more photos, check out the article on Gizmodo.

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.

Here at Slashfood burgers have been on our foodar since May. Heck, now that we're into summer they're on everybody's mind, including the good citizens of Akron, Ohio, who hosted the National Hamburger Festival this past weekend.

The hefty hamburger above was cooked up this weekend, but not in Akron. Weighing in at 10 pounds, Big Bad Bubba's Double Wide hails from Huntington, W. Va. Specifically Hillbilly Hotdogs, which last year created a 5-pound burger known as, you guessed it, Big Bad Bubba's Single Wide.

This weekend HH added the BBDW to its menu. This massive sandwich may sport a 6.5-pound patty, but it's still less than one-sixth the weight of the largest burger I've ever heard of. Either way, I'd love to see Kobayashi take one down, if only so he could declare himself a big bad bubba, even if he is only half-wide.

Hamburgers have been in the food news a lot lately. I started noticing it back in May when Craig LaBan (the same one who is being sued by a restaurant he negatively reviewed), the food critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer, went searching for the best burger in Philly. He was so moved by the experience that he wrote and performed a love ballad to the cheeseburger.

It was seemingly quiet in the burger world for a while, but then this last Wednesday, there was that burger recipe competition at the Rare Bar and Grill in New York City that whittled over 400 burger recipes down to a manageable four. The cluster of recipe finalists were prepared by the chefs at the Rare and presented to an illustrious panel of five movers-and-tasters. Adam Kuban of Serious Eats was one of the judges (along with food critic Ed Levine) and he wrote up a thorough blow-by-blow of the experience.

Just today, I learned that this weekend, Akron, OH will be hosting the National Hamburger Festival. They will be offering a variety of events, including Bobbing for Burgers (in a kiddie pool of ketchup), a Best Burger Competition and a Miss Hamburger Festival Contest (for which, at the ripe old age of 28, I am too old to enter). If you live in the Akron region, you should know that tickets cost $5 a day and are still available (kids under 7 get in for free).

Thanks to Vanessa PR for the pic.

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 the National Cattlemen's Beef Association of all places. As you can tell by the name, this quarter-pound burger is meant to fall into the realm of fusion. I don't think Ming Tsai created the recipe, though.

Before we get into the burger itself, I have a wee bone to pick with the ad copy. While I realize that the tag line is about lean ground beef, it still rankles me. Calling beef fat is a compliment as far as I'm concerned. Evidently, the NCBA is not promoting beef brisket or other luscious cuts that form the backbone of Texas barbecue with this campaign.

Now that my rant's over, let's get back to the burger. It's certainly one of the most healthful specimens that we've written about this month. And with a spicy sesame-soy mayonnaise and Asian slaw dressing the peppery burger it's probably quite tasty. So far, I understand the East part of this burger. I guess the West part refers to the beef itself since there's nothing particularly Western about any of the other ingredients.

Last month, a friend of mine had a Thai Peanut Burger at a restaurant and couldn't stop raving about the flavor combination, so I've since been searching for recipes to put it to the test. Now, I love Thai food and I love peanuts, but I have to admit, I've never considered putting those flavors together on a hamburger before.

Somewhat surprisingly I wasn't able to find much on the web (it doesn't sound that strange, does it?) but I did finally come across this one at, of all places, the Laura Scudder's website which I'll be trying in honor of National Burger Month - I'll let you know how it turns out. Recipe can be found after the jump.

It's five-for-one day here at Slashfood. Just kidding, who could possibly eat only one slider, much less make a meal of it. Hence today's headline. These specimens come from Powers Hamburgers in Fort Wayne, Ind. Powers is that town's answer to White Castle, i.e. a late-night establishment for when the mood strikes. I must say they look a helluva lot better than White Castle. For one thing, they're smothered in sauteed onions. I've had Krystal burgers and they were a step above the Castle's. These greasy little wonders appear to be a on whole other level all together.

The other day I posted about the Rouge Burger and said that some may folks may feel that it stretches the very definition of the word hamburger. Today's Burger of the Day is a homegrown creation that shatters that definition. Mega Hamburger One comes to us from a crazed fellow named Marshall Astor. Apparently this badass burger is something he whipped up for hamburger night about five months ago. As he puts it, "things kind of got out of hand." Indeed they did.

Excluding bun and beef, Astor's burger has nine other ingredients. As you may be able to see from the photo, these include a fried egg, avocados and caramelized onions. What you may not be able to discern is the seared pineapple layer, just above the tomatoes. Chef Astor has been kind enough to provide witty and informative mouseover notes for each layer. He also lays out an attack plan for eating it. Squeeze it down to mouth size and hold on for dear life until it's all but gone, unless you want it all over the front of your shirt.

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]

A Pennyslvania eatery is on track to topple a Guinness record for the world's largest hamburger. Denny's Beer Barrel Pub cooked up a 123-pound behemoth this past weekend besting a record set by a New Jersey restaurant by 18 pounds.

The Beer Barrel Main Event Charity Burger sells for a hefty $379 and serves about 100 people. Denny's used 80 pounds beef, 160 slices of cheese and a house-baked 30-pound bun, among other things to create the meaty monstrosity. It was cooked overnight in an oven for more than six hours.

No word yet on whether the creators of the gargantuan burger referred to today's Cookbook of the Day, for recipe ideas. My guess would be no.

The Four Seasons in Jakarta, Indonesia has recently introduced one of the most expensive hamburgers in the world. The burger costs 1 million rupiah, which is approximately $110, or roughly twice the monthly minimum wage in the country! Served with a side of french fries, the hamburger is made of Kobe beef, foie gras, Portobello mushrooms and Korean Pears. The pears are known for the sweet taste and juiciness, but even with all the press that this burger has received, it isn't clear how the pear is incorporated into the final product.

One of the chefs from the hotel confirmed the reason that the burger is so expensive is that that the hotel "import[s] all the materials, and they are high quality." In the last month, the hotel has sold 20 burgers.

Estik, a restaurant in Madrid, Spain, also claims a burger in the same price range. Their kobe burger is €85.

I admit that I did not think it was possible for the King, the strangely masked man of Burger King TV commercial fame, to get any creepier. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Burger King is promoting Sneak King, an inexpensive and ad-laden Xbox 360 game that features - you guessed it - the King. Instead of standing around and fraternizing with attractive women, he hides, creeps and sneaks around the virtual world in which he lives, jumping out from behind objects to force burgers on unsuspecting people. The image of being stalked by the King (as seen in the above trailer) is enough to make you sleep with the lights on just to be on the safe side.

The only reason to buy the game ($3.99 at Burger King) is (a) if you just shelled out for an Xbox 360, don't have the budget for better games and are really desperate to play it or (b) you have some crazy fantasy about being the King, which who the player controls in the game. If you're buying it for the first reason, that's somewhat understandable. If it's the second...

No one else puts a burger together quite like McDonald's - or, at least, that's what McDonald's thinks. The company has put in a patent application (WO2006068865) in Europe and the US that tries to stake the company's exclusive claim to their sandwich preparation methods.

If you have ever gone behind the scenes at McDonald's you will immediately notice the posters that visually describe the components of each sandwich to the cooks, but the process is more complicated that just a photo - especially if you follow the instructions in the patent application. Apparently, it involves the "pre-assembly of sandwich components and simultaneous preparation of different parts of the same sandwich." Bread (a.k.a. the "bread component") is toasted while a filling is heated. Condiments and garnishes, from ketchup to tomatoes and bacon - are put into an "assembly tool" and added, together, to the sandwich. And it is the making of sandwiches, not the making of "McDonald's burgers" that the 55-page application tries to claim in the name of the company, noting "often the sandwich filling is the source of the name of the sandwich, for example - ham sandwich."

A spokesman for the UK patent office said that, while they may be able to claim their "assembly tool" as unique, neither they nor anyone else can gain the exclusive rights to making a sandwich.

No, that's not some euphemism for playing football or for having sex, it's the attempt to eat the specialty dish at Mulligan's Bar in Decatur, Georgia, the HamDog. It's a hot dog wrapped in a hamburger patty, deep fried, covered in chili, cheese, and onions. Oh, and toss a fried egg and some french fries on there too.

Somewhere, Homer Simpson is drooling.

As the article says, it's not the healthiest of meals, and the South has become known as "The Stroke Belt," sort of the headquarters of the national obesity epidemic around the country. But everything in moderation I guess. It's not something you'd eat every single day, or maybe more than once a month, but it's certainly something I'll tackle if I'm ever in the area.