Whoever said being a food blogger was easy clearly hasn’t ever agreed to judging a burger competition.

This Memorial Day, I will be one of three judges in a Burger Throwdown, where Chef Jorge Luis Montes will compete against five other amateur chefs for ultimate burger making bragging rights. Wanna come? Only a couple tickets left!

Not only do I get to stuff my face with six different burgers, but I also get to judge a side dish and dessert competition, which is open to the public to enter. While friends and some attendees have told me how lucky I am, I tell them I’m exhausted at the mere thought.

“But you’re a food blogger! You get to eat, for free!”

“Yes, but do you know how much food that is? I’ll be napping in the car before you can announce the winners!”

While I sure do love to eat, with six burgers and countless other food entries, here’s to hoping I don’t pass out on my judging card.

For more information about the event, the judges, and ticket prices, visit the official Burger Throwdown website.

Tweeting during the event? Use #burgerthrowdown

South Florida New Yorkers fret no more: Brooklyn Water Bagel will be expanding as early as this September.

No need to schlep to Delray to get a taste of your favorite Brooklyn water. Jupiter will welcome the next (and second) location to the franchise later this year. We can expect at least two Boca Raton locations and even one to hit South Beach in the months following the Jupiter store opening.

After opening in August, Brooklyn Water Bagel has been showing off their water treatment plant inside their restaurant. You don’t need to be a native New Yorker to taste the difference. Water really is a big deal.

There are few things I like to admit. Walking into The Floridian Diner for the first time in the 16 years I’ve been in Florida is one of them.

Don’t judge me. I don’t get out much. But since I was in the downtown Fort Lauderdale area, it was pointless for me to walk into a Denny’s or IHOP on a Sunday afternoon when I could walk into a legend.

Upon entrance, the Floridian reminded me Barry Manilow – extremely cheesy but somewhat enticing. Photos of random celebrities – including a candid Gov. Charlie Crist – cluttered the walls that are random reds, yellows, and other bright colors Martha Stewart decorators wouldn’t approve of. I’m not quite sure about the rest of the patrons, but I was in love.

It’s hard not to love something as real as the Floridian. It’s got nearly 63 years of character built up inside of it. It’s open every single day of the year, which is quite fitting for downtown Fort Lauderdale, where even bums need a place to people watch when the drunk GTL’ers have dispersed.

I think I’m so impressed by the place because South Florida isn’t known for bad-ass diners. Pretty beaches, palm trees, fist pumpers? Yes. But diner food? Not quite. I wasn’t trying to sober up from a night on the town. I wasn’t an out-of-towner who heard about the place from a Food Network show. I was just some girl who walked in as a stranger and walked out a fan.

I ordered the bacon eggs benedict and left not only full and happy, but content knowing that I wouldn’t waste another 16 years missing out.

Photo by: Dori Zinn

It’s embarrassing, really. It’s shameful, regretful, and even disgraceful. With the legend of Hollywood Beach’s LeTub Saloon, I felt immensely awkward walking in there for the first time this past March.

I’ve been in South Florida 16 years. By unwritten law, that makes me a native. It’s my job, as a “native,” to eat at legendary internationally renowned restaurants like LeTub so I can tell visitors that yes, it is everything it’s cracked up to be. Some time in college, when my fat kid-ism was spreading across dorm rooms, someone asked me if I had ever been to LeTub.

“I could never eat at a place that has a name so pompous, even if it is about a toilet…”

We laughed, and that was the end of that. Currently, I may or may not count that moment as one of the dumbest comments I’ve ever uttered.

In 2006, GQ magazine voted LeTub as having the best burger in America. Immediately following that was an Oprah special on the place.  Since then, General Manager Steve Sidle says the place is constantly swarming with tourists who want to try the famous burger. Three years after the acclamation, I gave in, and there was nothing pompous about it.

Ok so I’m a little late. Don’t judge me because it took me 16 years to eat the 13 ounce sirloin burger. I’m kicking myself hard enough as it is. It may be a massive burger, but when cooked to a medium perfection (medium-rare would make it too raw since it’s so bulky), it oozes with juice and cheese, crunchy lettuce, tomatoes and onions. I sat for an extra 10 minutes after I was finished not because I was enjoying the view of the intercoastal (which I was), but because I physically couldn’t move. If you don’t finish the burger, you haven’t done yourself justice, no matter how full you are. Don’t make the same mistake I did.