http://burgerdays.com

For the past three months, we've been stuffing our faces with just about everything we can get our hands on, slowly but surely stretching our stomachs to their very limit. We call it training. Our wives call it disgusting. Semantics aside, we feel properly prepared for our annual pilgrimage up I-95 for a date with a whole lotta beef and whole lotta booze as we descend upon the Big Apple for the 2014 edition of the NYCWFF Burger Bash this Friday. With Rachel Ray hosting and meat-man extraordinaire Pat LaFrieda doing the presenting, the Blue Moon Burger Bash features 27 chefs and restaurants putting their best beef-on-bun creations forward in hopes of winning one of the night's top prizes. Two of last year's big winners are back in the mix again with back-to-back-to-back People's Choice champ Josh Capon looking for a four-peat and Paul Denamiel of Le Rivage, the judge's top pick in 2013, hoping to take home another trophy. Notably absent from this year's competition: last year's co-People's Champ Guy Fieri and Food Network superstud Bobby Flay. But shed no greasy tears for us. After looking at this year's menu, we're gonna be just fine. While it's a given we'll be taking Capon's Bash Burger and Denamiel's L'Aristocrat Burger to the face, the rest of our must-eat list is still into the double digits. Here are the highlights: 1) The Former Champ Burger: Costata's PJ Calapa, who took home the 2012 judge's trophy, is back with the White Label Burger– a dry-aged beef blend with bacon marmalade 2) The Truffle-Muenster Burger: BLT Steak is topping a LaFrieda blended patty with muenster cheese, ramp relish and truffle aioli 3) The Vowel-Challenged Burger: STK serves up its special-sauced Wagyu-beef lil BRG and all we want to do is buy a vowel 4) The Pork Belly & Runny Egg Burger: Crispy pork belly confit, tempura onion rings, jalapenos and a sunny side up egg all get tossed on the beef in Breakroom's burger 5) The Fondue Burger: Butter's Alex Guarnaschelli (also of Food Network fame) tops a LaFrieda beef burger with Gruyere and roasted garlic fondue, potato skin chips and serrano chilies 6) The Juicy Lucy: Michael Ferraro of Delicatessen is hooking up a cheese sauce-stuffed burger with tomato onion bacon jam 7) The Candied Bacon Burger: BBD's Ralp Perrazzo combines the sweet and the savory in his Steakhouse burger with candied bacon, aged goat cheese and onion straws 8) The Ramen Burger: The insanely popular burger is back with a Ramen noodle bun surrounding prime ground chuck, shoyu sauce, scallions and arugula 9) Burger Impossible: Robert Irvine's Bavarian Burger is topped with black forest pork belly, caramelized onion and apple jam, Gruyere, pickled red cabbage and spicy mustard dijonnaise 10) The Richie Rich Burger: Foie gras and truffle relish grace prime beef in Top of the Standard's Belle Époque burger. 11) Shake Shack. After a eating 10 burgers in 2012 and totaling 12 last year, we feel our experience and training has put us in position to set a new record. Yep, all of the above –and then some– is gonna be in us on Friday. May God have mercy on our waistlines. *Brand new this year, there's no more token-voting for the People's Choice Award. Instead, a fancy, high-tech wrist band will allow attendees to vote at digital stations at each participant's booth.