It is common knowledge that cheeseburgers aren’t really famous for its health benefits. If you do a quick mental arithmetic of it, if you eat three cheeseburgers in one week, you are consuming about 1100 calories. And just so you know, that’s a lot!
Then again, cheeseburgers will always be a staple in every meat lover’s menu. There’s no denying it, cheeseburgers will always be one of the best comfort foods and will always stay as not only America’s favourite guilty pleasure, but a global guilty pleasure as well.
It is such a global phenomenon that even a SEO Singapore consultant friend of mine said that he’s got a lot of clients asking him to SEO-proof their websites that are selling cheeseburgers and other fast foods.
Truly, nothing beats the cheeseburger when it comes to indulging your taste buds with something that is so sinfully delicious. A lot of people have tried taking the healthy route to making cheeseburgers but I still have to encounter one that beats or comes close to the real cheeseburger- fatty and juicy all the way.
Cheeseburger Anatomy
Well, a cheeseburger is a hamburger with cheese. You don’t need accelerated learning lessons to figure that one out. Right? But is that one simple slice of cheese the only thing that makes the cheeseburger what it is today?
Homemade or fast food-made, there are really three barebones of a cheeseburger: the bun, the big slab of burger and a nice slice of cheese.
Nowadays though, there are many more variations of this all-time favourite. More ingredients are added to it and it actually grows taller and taller. In America, there are many local restaurants that have these incredible versions of the cheeseburger. If you’re familiar with the TV show, Man VS Food, you know what I’m talking about.
There are many food eating contests out there and even if the hotdogs are the favourite weapon of choice, there are still a lot of cheeseburger eating contests today. Just look for it in YouTube and you will find tons of funny videos of people taking their love for cheeseburgers in a whole new level.
A lot of restaurant or food chains have also made their names into the mainstreams because of their own cheeseburgers. At the top of my head, there’s White Castle (even more famous by the movie “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle”), Cheeseburger in Paradise, Five Guys, In N Out, and of course, the juicy and fatty Big Mac from good ol’ McDonalds.
Cheeseburger History
Obviously, just like a lot of other food creations, there are several claims as to who created the first cheeseburger. The addition of cheese n hamburgers started its popularity in the mid-1920s. One of the most popular claims though about the invention of cheeseburger is by Lionel Sternberger who was then working as a fry cook at “The Rite Shop” which was owned by his family. He said that he “experimentally dropped a slab of American cheese on a sizzling hamburger.”
Other people who are claiming that they started the Cheese-In-a-Burger Movement is a restaurant based in Kentucky called “Kaelin’s Restaurant” and they claimed to have invented the cheeseburger in 1934.
But among all these claims, I guess the real winner would be Louis Ballast and his Humpty Dumpty Drive-In restaurant from Denver, Colorado because in 1935, the cheeseburger trademark was awarded to him.
Cheeseburger Chill Craze
I don’t even have to convince you that the cheeseburger is popular worldwide. And that young and old, male or female, rich or poor, the cheeseburger will always be loved. In fact, even US President Barrack Obama was photographed ordering one of Five Guys’ best cheeseburgers. He admits to having it as one of his feel-good food.
In 2010, a popular smoothie joint decided to cash in on the cheeseburger bandwagon. Thus, the birth of the Cheeseburger Chill. Now, you don’t have to be a master in mental arithmetic to realize what big numbers and how big a buzz that news gave the smoothie joint. It was so controversial that a lot of people immediately Googled it and got so excited about this.
But to everyone’s dismay, Cheeseburger Chill is nothing but a faux-promo. It was actually a prank by the people from the smoothie joint and sort of a mockery of McDonald’s smoothies. McDonald’s think they can introduce “healthy” smoothies” so the smoothie joint retaliated with their supposed cheeseburger-flavored smoothies.
The smoothie joint said that “It does seem some burger chains are getting into the smoothie business, which to us is about as weird as a Cheeseburger Chill Smoothie. So we’re sticking to what we know.”
Nonetheless, it was a fun prank and something that has tickled the fancy of all smoothie lovers and cheeseburger lovers out there.
But I can’t help but wonder what if a mad scientist or an extreme foodie really makes a cheeseburger smoothie? Or what if somebody already has? Will you gulp it down? Hard to say. Hard to say. I guess we all just have to wait, eh?
Best Cheeseburgers in the World
Who has the best cheeseburgers in the world? Unfortunately, there’s no complete data or survey that shows who are the best providers of these cheese-infused meat masterpieces.
It may be your mom’s cheeseburgers or that small diner in your town, but right now, we just have to make use with the Top 5 Burger Joints in the US, at least according to Zagat (survey site).
Top 1: Five Guys
Top 2: In-N-Out Burger
Top 3: Wendy’s
Top 4: Burger King
Top 5: McDonald’s
Of course, a lot of you will and can dispute these findings. But then again, a cheeseburger is a cheeseburger. We all have our own favourites and our taste buds have their own minds. So does it matter what Zagat says?
Cheeseburgers will always sound, taste and feel like home. Whether you are in Singapore working for a SEO Singapore company or if you are getting drained from your accelerated learning classes, a slice of cheese on top of a juice, meaty burger in between two freshly baked buns would surely give you the cure you need.