Who puts eggs on a burger?

The K.G.B burger and garmesean frites.

There's no doubt that people in Louisiana are a little different.

Not different in a bad way, but definitely different.

Maybe it's the French influence, maybe it's living life in hurricane alley, maybe it's the 110 percent humidity ... I'm not sure, but these folks have a different way of looking at life, and to be honest, I love it.

My co-worker Scott Braucher
never stops working.

So, when the group I'm working with this week suggested we dine at Curbside today and have us a K.G.B. burger, I followed their lead.

One cool thing about working at The Advocate is that each day, they have another food vendor serve lunch in the parking lot. Employees start lining up well before noon to partake of that day's offering. When we were here a couple of weeks ago, I remember them raving about Curbside and their K.G.B. Burger.

What makes a plain old hamburger into a K.G.B. burger?

Why the fried egg on top, of course! Oh, and the praline bacon (but more on that in a minute).

I have to admit, I've been all over the country, but I've never heard of putting an egg on a hamburger (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Someone apparently thought a big juicy hamburger wasn't messy enough, and that it might be a good idea to put an over-easy egg on top. That way, when you bite into it, you can have egg yolk spray all over your shirt.

To be honest, I'm not sure how much the egg actually added to the sandwich. It definitely didn't hurt, but I'm not going to rush home and start adding eggs to all my hamburgers.

The praline bacon is another matter.

As if bacon by itself isn't good enough, I now know that it should be coated in a mixture of brown sugar, butter and cream to give that salty goodness a twist of sweet decadence. I'm not sure who came up with that idea, but I tell you, he or she was a genius.

Curbside packages their burgers with fresh frites (fries), and I chose the garmesean frites covered in garlic and parmesean cheese, and a warm diet Coke.

I'm not sure how you find the Curbside Truck on any given day, but it would be worth it to drive around town until you spot the beat-up panel truck and brave the long lines. They have several other burger models if fried eggs aren't your thing. Frankly, by themselves, the burgers are darn good, but when you add that bacon, you'll want to move to Louisiana and become a part of the Who Dat Nation.

You just thought you knew how to cook bacon

I thought bacon couldn't get any better.

I just learned a new way to cook that potently flavorful, oh-not-so-good-for-you slice of heaven that never would have occurred to me.

"What's the secret?" you ask.

Bake it.

I know what you're thinking. That's crazy talk.

My dad raised me the "right" way. You place those yummy strips of goodness in a cold pan and then turn on the heat. That prevents them from shrinking so much. Soon they'll be sizzling in their own juices, striving for just the right level of crispiness. If done properly, you are rewarded with tasty morsels for the family to fight over AND that all-important byproduct -- Bacon Grease -- which gives your scrambled eggs a flavor jolt.

The problem is that the bacon never seems to cook evenly. Some parts will be overly done and others remain flaccid, unappealing hunks of fatty meat. Then there's that whole shrinkage factor thing, but let's not go there.

Recently, I came across a short article in my Cooking Light magazine titled "Your Bacon Is Burnt & Crinkly." I kind of felt like I was at a BA meeting (Bacons Anonymous). "Hi, my name's Dorsey, and my bacon's burnt and crinkly." (Hi, Dorsey!).

Anyway, this article encourages cooks to prepare bacon the professional chef way by baking it, not by pan frying it.

Here's how:

1. Lay your bacon strips out on a wire rack that you place over a foil-lined jelly-roll pan (that's a baking sheet with sides). The wire rack allows the grease to drip down so the bacon doesn't wallow in it's own juices.

2. Pop the pan in a cold oven and turn it on to 400 degrees.

3. Bake for 20 minutes or little longer if the bacon is thick. You don't need to turn the bacon, but you might need to rotate the pan if your oven has hot spots.

What you're left with is flat, evenly cooked bacon that doesn't shrink nearly as much.

Give it a shot, you may never cook bacon the same again, but I'm warning you that you might want to cook a little extra. If your family is like mine, you can never cook enough bacon.