Noodles and Burgers – The Latest Craze?

There’s a new potential food craze sweeping the nation and its receiving its fair share of hype: noodles and burgers. In the tradition of the cronut and Luther Burger, seemingly incompatible foods are getting married into dishes that are making some rolling their eyes, and others foam at the mouth.

Brooklyn residents have already gotten a taste of this craze with The Ramen Burger. Created by ramen enthusiast and blogger Keizo Shimamoto, it debuted at Brooklyn’s Smorgasburg food fair. Its zeitgeist has extended to Good Morning America and blogs all across the virtual multiverse.

But you don’t need to travel to New York to get your noodle/burger fix. Philly’s own PYT boasts the Spaghetti Burger—a mozzarella-stuffed meatball patty smothered in red sauce and parmesan flakes smushed between crispy fried spaghetti, garlic butter buns.

At American Sardine Bar, there is the spaghetti sandwich—a fusion of toasted garlic bread, with provolone cheese and basil, topped with spaghetti. but at least the carb load at ASB is served on a bun made of bread. How quaint.

All of these unconventional sandwiches mean that noodles are no longer confined to spaghetti night or your momma’s home-cooked chicken noodle soup. But are any of these “noodle burgers” worthy of being titled the latest food craze? Has the culinary world just run out of ideas and is now throwing everything but the kitchen sink at us in an attempt to create the next PB&J-esque fusion food?

And has style been substituted for authentic flavor in these new creations? You be the judge.