This new Elmhurst Taiwanese spot specializes in so-called “Chinese Bergers.” The baked bao these burgers are deposited on has been modified to be like a hamburger bun, or maybe an English muffin. Instead of a meat patty, the one shown here features sautéed and gravy-gobbed gluten strips that do a convincing imitation of cow flesh, making one of the most interesting veggie burgers I’ve had lately. What’s that green stuff sticking out? Kelp!

This Upper West Side pick-up spot probably has a more ambitious menu than is good for it, but occasionally the strange notions score, as in this baconburger patty in which the bacon lies, not across the top, but coarsely crushed and entombed within the ground meat wad. And finding the bacon inside as you bite into this lush burger is like a being a miner and striking a rich vein of ore.

Daddy-O is something of a home-away-from-home for Rochester ex-pats, especially those who attended the University of Rochester or RIT, who give the place a frat clubhouse feel late into the evenings. The restaurant menu recreates such Rochester bar-food staples as the so-called Garbage Plate, which originated in 1918 at a bar called Nick Tahou’s. In this case, the dish features a pair of cheeseburger patties (hence its inclusion here) smothered in chili sauce and mustard. And I do mean smothered.

On paper at least, El Jalapeno’s Texana hamburger promises to be the spitting image of a real Texas What-A-Burger, featuring mustard, raw onions, and American cheese. In practice, however, they make this burger with whatever they have on hand, so you may end up with queso fresco instead of bonafide American cheese. Still, a very tasty and strange hamburger in an unexpected place.

Who has the balls to put Velveeta on their double-decker hamburger? – Ft. Greene’s No. 7, that’s who! It may transport you back to childhood as it hardens your arteries. There’s a runny, mayo-based sauce about the same color. Note: this burger has since been replaced by a “meatball” burger topped with kaffir marinara.

What a weird catalog of ingredients goes on top of SBO’s Big Boss Burger: fried egg, turkey bacon, fried onion rings, and various vegetable matter, with some shredded stuff flying on top like pennants at a medieval jousting tournament. In such a lush context, does it matter that the burger patty is made of farm-raised elk? Probably not.

You’d think that a smoked meat burger would be a patty topped with a plank of Canadian pastrami-like meat, but this is not the case at Mile End Sandwich. There, the smoked meat is actually ground up in the patty with the beef, and you get glimpses of its flavor in every bite. For those who hesitate to go all the way with a smoked meat sandwich, here’s your ticket.

Of course, a rice burger suggests that the patty is going to be made of rice, or some amalgam containing the swamp-borne grain. But at the uptown branch of Sunrise Mart, where a bewildering array of Japanese fusion fast food is offered, the rice goes into the “bun,” and not the patty. The “bun” is fried, too, which renders it crisp and more than a little bit tough, and your filling choices run to things like teriyaki salmon, kinpira (burdock root), and kimchee pork (shown here), in addition to a plain old beef patty.