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Posted: 12:00 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012

National Cheeseburger Day: You don’t need fries with that

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Lola burger by Michael Symon
Iron Chef Michael Symon's Lola burger, a super-moist burger made from three grinds of beef and topped with pickled red onions, cheddar cheese and his own spicy ketchup.

By Liz Balmaseda

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

I’ve got cheeseburgers on the brain. It’s a culinary obsession of mine, and it also happens to be National Cheeseburger Day on Tuesday. Not that every food holiday triggers a craving in me. A few days ago, it was National TV Dinner day, and that triggered zilch.

But I do heart cheeseburgers. Single cheeseburgers. Double cheeseburgers. Cheeseburgers with pickles or onions, or both, or neither. Give me a seared beef patty, plump beneath an ooze of melted cheese, and I’m a happy woman.

What kind of cheese? Cheddar, jack, blue, brie, gouda, smoked provolone – if it’s flavorful and melts, it works for me.

A day like this meaty holiday takes me back to one of the best burgers I’ve tasted, star chef Michael Symon’s Yo! Burger at the 2011 South Beach Wine & Food Festival. Topped with provolone, pickled onion and his tangy hot pepper “ShaSha” sauce, this burger’s secret weapon proved to be none of the above. Its winning component was a thin disc of crispy fried salami nestled between the cheese and the bun.

It was brilliant.

To have a burger like that on a day like National Cheeseburger Day would be a very delicious thing.

Then again, I’d settle for a Lola Burger. I came across this burger while leafing through Symon’s 2009 Live to Cook book (Clarkson Potter). At once, it combined so many things I love: the cheeseburger, the chef, and the name. (Lola is the name of my sweet pup.)

Of course, the chef not only uses a mix of brisket, beef cheek and sirloin, he grinds it himself, favoring a 75 to 25 beef-to-fat ratio (that’s what I’m talkin’ about). He serves the cheddar-topped patties atop toasted English muffins and layers in dill pickles, bacon and pickled red onions. That Lola’s a showgirl indeed.

Granted, there are some terrific cheeseburgers out there around town, from Chuck Burger Joint in Palm Beach Gardens (where you can notch up your cheeseburger with bacon and a cage-free fried egg) to BurgerFi in Delray (where you can get the Ultimate Cheeseburger, a double-patty prime brisket burger topped with Swiss and blue cheeses, lettuce, tomato, pickles and secret sauce).

But whether you decide to grab a burger on the town, or celebrate the occasion quietly at home, you’d better get a move on, my cheeseburger-loving kindred souls. Before you know it, it will be Wednesday.

And this week, Wednesday is otherwise known as National Butterscotch Pudding day.

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