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I say, if you’re gonna break that diet, do it in style. No need to count calories here: you can be certain that any one of the following gastronomic monstrosities will exceed your daily recommended intake of calories (not to mention cholesterol, sodium and various kinds of radioactive waste). So without further ado, we present the gooiest, most absurdly extravagant bad-for-you feasts America has to offer (to which we owe supersizedmeals.com a hearty thanks). Let’s start with the most creative concoctions first:
The Luther Burger
Legend has it this Decatur, Georgia specialty was invented by Luther Vandross himself (that is, before he died from complications involving diabetes, hypertension and stroke in 2005). It’s a bacon cheeseburger served between two halves of a Krispy Kreme donut.

The Hamdog
Half hamburger, half hotdog, this bad boy is a hot dog wrapped in a beef patty, then deep fried and covered with chili, cheese, onions and topped with a fried egg. And yes, you get fries with that.

Macaroni, Cheese, and Mini hot-dog Tiramisu
Created from Superbowl leftovers by the culinary wizards over at Stuff Magazine. Behold!

More heart-clogging fun after the jump.
In ‘n’ Out’s 100×100
Part of In ‘n’ Out’s not-so-secret “secret menu” is the build-it-as-high-as-you-want burger special — you just ask for a double-double, plus x number of patties. At a cost of $97 — and 19490 calories — the 100×100 is truly the mother of all burgers.

Burger Mountain
Chef Christine Nunn was inspired by the pretentious-yet-mammoth burgers she found at Disney World, which inspired her to make her own, in honor of the fat-making mouse. Her creation is called “Burger Mountain,” and is topped with tomato confit, mushroom duxelles, onion jam and bernaise sauce.

How about some animal fries to go with all that burger? Courtesy In ‘n’ Out, of course: this is fries with pickles, cheese spread and grilled onions.

Hardee’s Monster Thickburger
In honor of Mental_floss writer John Green’s excellent second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, in which his characters eating nothing but Monster Thickburgers. I had thought this burger to be a fantabulation on John’s part, too strange to be real, but no — all 1,410 calories, 107 grams of fat, and 2740 mg of sodium are available at your local Hardee’s. Weirder still, since Hardee’s introduced the burger a few years back, its same-store sales have increased nearly 10 percent. (That’s a lot of Thickburgers.)
I think that Hamdog’s still alive!
posted by Iain on 3-1-2007 at 2:06 pm
The greasetrucks at Rutgers University have some truly epic “fat” sandwiches. My personal favorite (the Fat Moon I believe) is a foot-long Philly Cheesesteak topped with chicken fingers, mozzerella sticks and French fries.
They also serve the Death Burger which is 2 burger patties, cheese, bacon, 2 fried eggs, french fries and taziki sauce in a foot long sub roll.
posted by Erak on 3-1-2007 at 3:09 pm
Why, why, why must you torment us Alabamans by flaunting your abundance of In-n-Outs? Double cheese, animal style. Mrrrrrr…. That and Tahoe are about the only things I miss from California.
PS, there’s a place on Beale Street in Memphis that’s famous for frying hamburgers, and at least two places do it in Decatur, Ala. Sadly, I’ve never partaken, but I’ve heard it’s “gross.”
posted by Griner on 3-1-2007 at 3:28 pm
Erak,
When I went to Rutgers in New Brunswick, NJ, there was a place called Fat Tony’s, famous for their cheese steak sandwiches which were HUGE and available 24/7. Ahh, the good old days.
And the place for wings was Cluck-U Chicken, home of the thermo-nuclear hot wings.
posted by Sheldon Siegel on 3-1-2007 at 3:59 pm
What about Nick Tahou’s Garbage Plate in Rochester, NY. Soooo bad, but ohhh so good!
posted by Habitat67 on 3-1-2007 at 4:04 pm
It’s too bad the Pizza Crepe Taco Pancake Chili Bag featured on Saturday Night Live last season was fake. It certainly qualifies here.
posted by Jeff Chadwell on 3-1-2007 at 5:13 pm
Of course the worst food for your health is your wedding cake ;)
posted by Married too long on 3-2-2007 at 6:56 am
That build-it-as-high-as-you-want hambuger just makes me feel like I’m having a heart attack.
posted by toasterbot on 3-2-2007 at 7:36 am
The true “best of the worst” is to be found at ‘The Greasy V’ here in Atlanta.
(That’s The Varsity, to you out-of-towners and Johnny-come-latelies.)
Get the allaway dog, the Frosted Orange, and the best onion rings you’ll ever take away, on the way to a Georgia Tech game. It’s the tradition.
posted by Nat on 3-2-2007 at 9:05 am
Got a couple hometown competitors:
Te Charlotte Tavern in ROchester, NY has the Killer Burger. 3 pounds of ground beef served with a half pound of steak fries coverd in brown gravy. Used to have a challenge - eat everythign and you get a dollar off. About eight years ago, when it was priced at 7 dollars, a woman was seen putting most of her burger and fries into her purse to get the dollar off. It was decided she had earned it with the destruction of said purse.
Other competitor is the Garbage Plate at Nick Tahou’s, hangout for drunks, pimps, casual merchants and whatever else can slide in. Two burgers, two dogs, a heaping pile of macaroni salad all topped with ‘hot sauce’. Nifty part is that Tahou’s used to close every July 4 so the cooktop could be cleaned.
posted by Scott on 3-2-2007 at 10:36 am
Did you know that the giant breakfast sandwich at Burger King has something like 600-700 calories? That’s like half of my daily intake!
If you can eat the BK breakfst sandwich and one of those Krispy Kreme donut burgers for lunch and don’t die, I’m pretty sure you’re immortal @_@
posted by Korin on 3-2-2007 at 12:30 pm
Oh yeah… I forgot to say, we have this place in my hometown called Charlie’s. They have a breaded sirloin sandwich where the meat is 4 times as big as the bun!
posted by Korin on 3-2-2007 at 12:39 pm
A friend of mine in Philadelphia invented the Lorenzo’s-Jim’s Challenge - get a slice of Lorenzo’s pizza (they’re large), and go across the street to Jim’s. Get a cheesesteak, and then wrap the cheesesteak in the pizza. Eat. Die. Or, get dessert.
posted by Line on 3-2-2007 at 12:39 pm
this vegan is not happy.
posted by Rebecca on 3-2-2007 at 1:39 pm
Today’s Houston Chronicle mentions the rodeo here has deep fried frozen Coca-Cola.
That should be vegan if they use the right oil.
posted by Jay on 3-2-2007 at 1:54 pm
They sell deep-fried Oreos and Twinkees at the Great New York State Fair… and other places too I’m sure, but that’s where I’ve seen them. It reminds me of the Simpsons where they go to the fair and Homer gets his shirt deep-fried. “No Homer, I did’t say they couldn’t, I said you shouldn’t!”
posted by Sara R on 3-4-2007 at 3:27 am
This must have been written before. Chicken-fried bacon was invented. That’s battered bacon which is deep-fried and served with country gravy. It’s served at some place in Texas.
posted by Mimi on 3-7-2007 at 7:49 am
Where are the recipes? I would like to recreate some of these masterpieces!
posted by slim on 3-7-2007 at 9:58 am
Hey,
Let’s just add some more GOOD, OLD AMERICAN food to the list:
In New Orleans (before Katrina) everyone bought Poor Boy sandwiches (or Po’Boys as they are known there). They deep fry the bread on every poorboy, but the best had to be the French Fry Poorboy- Yes, french fries in a deep fried sub roll, covered with cheese!
Also, on the food network (a place to find some really BAD, GOOD food), the showed a place (I think it is in NYC) that invented the Deep Fried Twinkie. As gourmet desserts (that what they call them) they deep fry things like snickers bars, oreos, gummi worms, ect ! They will also deep fry anything you bring in !
Lets get those ER’s Ready—Yum Yum
posted by stu on 3-7-2007 at 10:52 am
A few places in Hawaii (most famously, Cafe 100 in Hilo) serve a combo dish called a “moco loco.”
It varies a bit from place to place, but it’s generally two scoops of steamed rice topped with a fried egg, some sort of meat (originally a hamburger patty but could be anything from Spam to teriyaki chicken fried mahi mahi) and all of it smothered in brown gravy.
It’s a meal and then some.
posted by Alex on 3-7-2007 at 4:58 pm
Ughh, just looking at those pictures make me feel sick.
posted by Janel on 3-7-2007 at 8:53 pm
Funny how I read this all while sitting here eating a veggie corn dog, and it managed to disgust me enough to be turned off even by that.
posted by killsXecaustic™ on 3-8-2007 at 3:44 pm
There used to be a place in southern New Jersey called Greenwood Dairies. Regular resturant with great icecream.
They had something called the lost weekend. Was a giant sunday in a huge glass that must have held at least a couple of gallons of ice cream (in cube shape no less) with tons of toppings. The deal was if you could eat it all you would get another one free.
And for an added prize you got a button that said “I was a Pig at Greenwood Dairies”.
The thing to do as a teenager was to get a bunch of your friends together, get one person with a huge stomach to eat the darn thing if they could and then the rest of you would split the free one. Plenty of ice cream to feed about 8 people and have them stuffed.
Looked for it a few years ago when I was visiting, but it seems to be gone although I did find a Greenwood Dairies it was just a retail store.
posted by ClasicRed on 3-8-2007 at 8:37 pm
How could the Fool’s Gold Loaf not be mentioned? An entire loaf of bread was hollowed out and filled with peanut butter, jelly and a full pound of bacon.
So good that Elvis flew him and his friends out from Memphis to get 22 of them.
posted by nCtrl on 3-14-2007 at 9:14 am
Somewhat related to the 100×100, look up Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub and check the burgers list. The 96er needs to be preordered so they have time to fry the meat, and if you (alone) eat it under 3 hours, it’s free + you get a T-shirt. The 96er used to be their biggest one but then some other diner topped them in size and.. well, Denny’s still holding the world record, apparently.
posted by Kay on 9-3-2007 at 9:16 am
Why is there always some offended/unhappy vegan lurking around to comment on something that does not involve them? You aren’t going to change the world by expressing your displeasure. If you don’t want to eat animals, then don’t. Let the carnivores alone and don’t subject yourself to posts like this. I find most everything on this post gross (except anything from In N Out, which I sorely miss) but I am not going to act self righteous about it either. Loosen up, or have a burger. You apparently need one.
posted by MN on 11-21-2007 at 8:46 am
gotta agree with Nick Tahoe’s garbage plates in Rochester NY, as mentioned above a couple times. 2 cheeseburgers, home fries/french fries, mac salad, meat-based hotsauce, onions, mustard and (in my case) about 3/4 of a bottle of ketchup, all plopped on one plate, along with a couple pieces of bread
:)
posted by Clotho on 12-12-2007 at 1:24 pm
Hello clasic red, you mentioned Greenwood Dairies, in South Jersey. I’m sure you wanted to say Langhorne, Penna. Just south of Trenton N.J. Approx 6 miles south, where Team Toyota is now located.
posted by Art Williamson on 3-8-2008 at 5:36 pm
Hey, no vegetarian cuisine?
posted by Vegetarians on 4-30-2008 at 4:16 am
Stu:
Here in New Orleans, the po boy is one of our most renowned and enjoyed foods. However, the french bread we use is not deep fried. In fact, it shouldn’t even be toasted, because, if the bread is fresh, toasting dries it out and ruins the texture. Traditionally, the filling of the sandwich is fried seafood (shrimp, oysters, or catfish), but po boys can be almost anything: turkey, ham, roast beef, grilled shrimp, roasted veggies, etc.
Of course, there are a couple of places (Rivershack Tavern comes to mind) that are famous for battering and deep-frying po boys (not regular menu items, but if you know to ask, they’re happy to do it), sort of a New Orleans Monte Cristo.
And Tucker’s specialty dish is a stuffed (with everything from sausage to blue cheese) and deep-fried hamburger. Mmm, angina-licious.
posted by 8rustystaples on 4-30-2008 at 10:02 am
Yum, animals style fries from In-n-Out are delicious, and I don’t even necessarily like their fries.
I say go ahead and indulge gut-bomb food every once in a while. I’m not advocating a Krispy Kreme burger every day, but if you really want a bacon cheeseburger, eat a damn bacon cheeseburger. I’d rather die at 75 having eaten that deep fried twinkie than lived till 110 gumming my orange slice after my YUMMY wheat grass shot.
That’s just me!
posted by Lauren on 4-30-2008 at 10:57 am
I saw a guy eating a 12×12 at In n Out once… and his wife said it was his 3rd that week. Gross.
posted by Leah on 4-30-2008 at 11:09 am
Thanks 8rustystaples for correcting Stu. The idea of a deep fried po-boy is gross. Of course, I’m greatly anticipating the (regular) shrimp po-boy that I plan to order Friday night after work.
Speaking of New Orleans, if you (I’m talking to you tourists), don’t drink yourself to death, try a muffaleta at Central Grocery on Decatur before you leave town. The whole will leave you in pain.
posted by Lindsey on 4-30-2008 at 2:18 pm
It’s bad when an article makes you put down yogurt. Well played, Ransom.
posted by Megan on 4-30-2008 at 2:45 pm