http://burgerdays.com

We're always up for a trek when it comes to burgering, but if that trek involves Miami and 30+ burgers from the some of the best-known burg chefs in the biz-- we're there with beefy bells on. It all goes down this Friday at the super-duper-swanky Ritz-Carlton in South Beach where Burger Days will be all up in that sweet, beefy action at the gala of all burger galas-- the 2012 SoBe Burger Bash. (Ok, the official name is the Amstel Light Burger Bash presented by Allen Brothers Steaks and Diet Pepsi hosted by Rachael Ray, but we get winded just thinking of typing that thing out). In addition to eating as much as possible leading up to the big day, further prep include a round of spray tans for the Crew, learning all the words to Mr. Smith's jam, and watching nothing but Bad Boys and Bad Boys II for the rest of the week. Damn straight, bienvenido a Miami. Not only are we downright ecstatic for the opportunity to dive into burgers we only read about on the Internets, but we're stoked that we'll be getting up close and personal with the local joints taking their talents down to South Beach. Six burgers with D.C. locations are in the mix at the Bash, including two D.M.V. originals. One of those locals is Mark Bucher from BGR, who'll be making his Bash debut this Friday. Bucher told Burger Days he's both excited and nervous about the competition and admits he's feeling a lot of pressure. He's been preparing for two months on his entry: his popular Wellington burger with a little twist-- it's topped with foie gras. And even though this is  Bucher's first dance at South Beach, he's no stranger to burger competition. Or accolades. At meat guru Josh Ozersky's Feedbag Burger Summit in 2009, Bucher's Wellington walked away with top honors. (Bonus: On the side, he'll be hooking up sweet potato tater tots. Uhh Mark-- can we get them suckers on the BGR menu??) The other local boy ready to do his burger thing down south is Good Stuff Eatery's Chef Spike Mendelsohn. Unlike Bucher, this ain't Spike's first rodeo; 2012 will be his fourth year laying it down on the grill in Miami, and not only that, he done won the whole thing in '09. His Colletti's Smokehouse --a staple during our Capitol Hill burger outings-- cleaned up three years ago, winning People's Choice, the Judges Award and Best Dressed Burger. What a stud. Conceptualizing burgers for the past year in hopes to win back the title, Spike is breaking out an all-new burger this time that he says he didn't come up with until just this January. And holy hell, are we looking forward to getting a piece of this one. Debuting at the Bash is Spike's Steak-Frites burger with blue cheese, maitre d' butter, french fries and bearnaise. Oh merde yeah. And fine, if Shake Shack won't bring their latest creation to us, then we'll just go to it. We've been pleading with them to bring their new SmokeShack --a Shack cheeseburger topped with Applewood-smoked bacon, cherry pepper relish and ShackSauce-- to their D.C. spot, but nope, it's strictly a Madison Square Park exclusive (so far). Well, it just so happens that very burg is their entrant into this year's Bash, so yeah, we're circumventing the shit outta the system and getting our taste this way. Rounding out the rest of the D.C. burgs are Bobby Flay and his Burger Palace with a Buffalo Style Burger with red hot sauce, blue cheese dressing --of course it's "crunchified"-- and PJ Clarke's burger topped with Porter cheddar, Bluewood Farm double green relish with 1884 smoked ketchup catsup. The other spot allegedly participating is Serendipity 3, but they were absent from the Burger Bash menu and did not return our emails. Now, we tried to go through the menu and pick the top burgers we want to try but, got damn, it's impossible. The entire thing is ridiculous. It's just plain silly. There's 32 burgers in the lineup and, we shit you not, every last one of them sounds amazing. Go ahead, take a look. How can we pass up "the best burger in the world"? Or defending Bash champ Michael Symon's B Spot? What about Bulldog's The Luther? And hopefully-soon-to-be-in-D.C. Flip Burger is coming with a country-fried cheeseburger? With pig belly?!? And we haven't even mentioned the bacon jam burger... What the hell are we gonna do? We've got four days. Four. Days. Operation Stomach Expansion is a go.