Widely touted as the next hybrid food craze in that foodiest of cities, New York, Keizo Shimamoto's 'ramen burger' debuted at the Brooklyn Smorgasburg food festival a fortnight ago, and people have reportedly been queuing for a bite ever since. Shimamoto fries two ramen noodle 'buns', and tops the meat patty with a shoyu sauce, arugula and scallions, which he reckons resembles a noodle soup. The Huffpo has had a go at making its own.
Photograph: Facebook
A hybrid too far? Seeing as a Cronut (an early summer NY craze) is already a cross between a croissant and a doughnut, adding a burger is definitely greedy – and then there's the cheese … Photograph: Courtesy of Le Dolci
... but the doughnut burger idea is nothing new. Supposedly named after fan and crooner Luther Vandross, the Luther burger was unleashed on the world back in 2006. Also commonly known as a Krispy Kreme burger. Killing me softly, Luther? Photograph: Rawdon Wyatt /Alamy
And, of course, the chains had to get in on the act. KFC announced this little beast on April Fool's day about three years ago but, sadly, it wasn't a joke. Yep, it's two chicken fillets, two pieces of bacon, two melted slices of Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese and – naturally, the Colonel's special sauce. The chicken purveyors claimed that it packed about 500 calories, while others reported it as being closer to 1,228. Photograph: ZUMA Press/Alamy
Moving away from burgers, and loosely towards, er, 'sandwiches', no gallery of fast food crazes would be complete without a mention of the legend that was the bacon explosion. Brought to the internet, and the world, by those scamps BBQ Addicts in 2008, this 'American football-sized dish consisting of bacon wrapped around a sausage and bacon filling' spurred waves of frenetic bacon activity online. Or was that the previous year's bacon mat? Photograph: Megan Day/Megan Day
Yes, we know. This isn't a sandwich, or a hybrid burger. But we couldn't resist including it, if only for the look of glee on this mother's face as she feeds her son deep-fried-butter-on-a-stick at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. They said it tasted like a cinnamon roll with a lot of butter: 'You got to have something weird at the fair.'
Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
... and to go with all those burgers, some deep-fried Coke? Roll up to the LA County Fair, California. Take a look at the finished product here. Photograph: Richard Wong/Alamy
