Blog Posts by Blue Ribbon Hunter

The National Hamburger Festival in Akron, Ohio is a place where people from all over can come to sample some of the best burgers America has to offer. Festival activities included bobbing for burgers in a pool of ketchup, a burger eating contest featuring World famous competitive eater Sonya Thomas, and of course a burger cook-off. And although there was a category for best classic burger, things got really interesting in the most creative category. We saw everything from a Korean BBQ Burger from Krav Food Truck, to a breakfast style Over-Easy Burger, but even those fantastic burgers had nothing on the winner: The Reuben Burger by Rusty Phillips of MotorMouth. This burger looked like a burger, but tasted like a great Reuben.

The Reuben Burger

The Reuben Burger

By MotorMouth Food Truck

Chef Rusty Phillips

Corned Beef Patty: Sear fresh ground corned beef patty on both sides over high flame on grill. Finish by simmering corned beef patties in a water bath accented by the pickling spices

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Butter cow!Attracting over one million people each year, the Iowa State Fair is one of the largest in the country. Here, the people of Iowa come out to celebrate the state's agriculture in some pretty creative ways. One of the longest standing traditions at the fair is the butter cow. The butter cow is a tradition that began in 1911 where a life size cow is sculpted out of butter and put on display at the fair. Over 600 pounds of butter is used to make the butter cow. But butter isn't just a sculpting medium at the fair, it is also the key ingredient to the fair's most infamous "food on a stick" - deep-fried butter on a stick. To make this treat, Fyfe Concessions dips 1/8 th of a pound of butter into a cinnamon and honey flavored cake-like batter and deep-fries it. Since the butter melts from the heat of the fryer, it ends up tasting like the most buttery cinnamon roll you have ever had.

But deep-fried butter was only one of over 60 foods on a stick. Here's a list of some of our

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For the majority of us, food shopping is all about getting a good deal. We stroll down the aisles hoping that our favorite items are on sale, and we look up menus online in advance so we know what sort of prices we can expect when we go out to eat. The foods listed below go against all of that. Check out some of the most outrageously priced foods we have ever come across.

The Douche Burger - $666.00

This outrageously priced burger comes from the New York City food truck, 666 Burger. This burger is made of wagyu beef filled with foie gras and covered in gold leaf. It is topped with cave aged Gruyere cheese, truffle butter, caviar lobster, and a kopi luwak barbecue sauce. It is then steamed in champagne, and served wrapped in three $100 bills. Why the strange name? Well, because they say you are what you eat…

The Haute Dog - $69.00

Although this seems like pennies when compared to the Douche Burger, would you be willing to pay $69.00 for a hot dog? If you are, then head

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No, a supertaster is not someone who runs around in a cape with supersonic taste buds, but it is someone with a heightened sense of taste. Dr. Beverly Tepper, the director of the Sensory Evaluation Lab at Rutgers University, joined us to fill us in on this interesting topic. She let us know that the population is broken into three different, genetically determined categories: Supertasters, Normal Tasters, and Non-Tasters.

Supertasters

Supertasters make up 25% of the population and it is more common for women to be supertasters. They have twice as many taste buds than the average person and therefore taste things more intensely. Because their sense of taste is heightened, they are also much more sensitive to the taste of many bitter foods such as broccoli, kale, and coffee, as well as sweet and fatty foods. Due to their sensitivity to fatty foods, supertasters tend to weigh less than Normal and Non-Tasters. Supertasters are broken into two categories: picky eaters and adventurous

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The Gilroy Garlic Festival is one of the largest food festivals in the United States, attracting over 100,000 people each year. One of the main attractions is the Great Garlic Cook-Off where eight finalists from all over the country compete head-to-head in front of a live audience. Contestants are judged on creativity, presentation, ease of preparation, and of course, taste. All eight dishes brought something different to the table, from garlic jelly filled tamales, to garlic pistachio baklava, to garlic cheese cake, but only one person could take home the prize. And the winner is…

Crispy Pork Belly with Caramelized Onion and Fig Agrodolce and Creamy PolentaCrispy Pork Belly with Caramelized Onion and Fig Agrodolce and Creamy Polenta

by Laureen Pittman, Riverside, CA

Serves: 7-8

Ingredients:

Pork Belly

2 rectangular slabs pork belly (1 ó - 2 pounds each), skin removed

(remove the skin only - leave the fabulous fat!)

4 tablespoons kosher salt

2 tablespoons coarse ground pepper

1 head garlic, cloves separated, unpeeled

1 quart

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Drive-in restaurants were all the rage back in the 1950s when carhops ruled the dining scene, but there is still one in Atlanta, Georgia that's alive and well, and that's The Varsity. Set on over two acres, The Varsity is the World's largest drive-in restaurant and can accommodate 600 cars, and upwards of 30,000 people.

Onion Rings at The Varsity.

Here's a peek at the amount of food The Varsity goes through daily, and it is all made from scratch!

300 gallons of chili

2 miles of hot dogs

1 ton of onion rings

2,500 pounds of potatoes

5,000 homemade pies

More coke products than any other establishment in the US

Now although The Varsity does offer indoor seating, the way to really experience this restaurant is in your car. Moments after pulling up, a carhop wearing a Varsity hat will come up asking, "What'll ya have, what'll ya have?" We recommend that your answer include onion rings, chili dogs, and their signature drink, a frosted orange.

So next time you find yourself in

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Once we find foods that we like, it is easy to fall into the habit of buying and preparing the same classic dishes over and over again. But by staying in our own food bubbles, we might be missing out on some fantastic dishes that are actually quite common in other parts of the world. That's why we invited the host of "Bizarre Foods", Andrew Zimmern, to fill us in on some of these delectable dishes.

Goat

Although many have heard about eating goat, not many Americans have actually ever tried it! Andrew recommends goat because it is lean, sustainable, cheap, and super delicious. You can find it at most restaurants serving Caribbean or Indian cuisine.

Goat Meat

Natto

Natto is Japanese fermented soybeans. It has a very strong, pungent smell and has a taste similar to a funky cheese. According to Allison, natto is definitely an acquired taste, but if you do like it, it is extremely healthy for you. Natto can be purchased at almost any Japanese market (check the frozen section).

Natto

Read More »from Best Foods You've Never Had

These days everyone is on the go, so in an effort to keep up with their customers, restaurants are becoming more and more mobile as well. New York City is home to thousands of unique food trucks, but there were three that really caught our attention.

Pulled pork waffle with a coolickle

Wafels and Dinges

At first glance this truck may appear to be a normal Belgian waffle vendor, but as soon as you take a closer look at their menu, you will be blown away. They have a huge variety of "dinges", or toppings, to choose from, as well as two different types of waffle bases. Still doesn't sound too crazy? Well wait until you hear about the dish we ordered - a pulled pork waffle with a Kool-Aid infused pickle. Wacky as it may sound, it was DELICIOUS and the coolickle (as they call it) was out of this world and something you can try at home.

The Godzilla

The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck

The name of this truck isn't the only quirky thing about this ice cream vendor. With a base flavor of only chocolate or vanilla, it doesn't sound

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