When a reader-submitted ranking puts Houston on top, that's the voice of the people affirming Houston's underrepresented awesomeness. When polls don't go our way, that's because people are idiots who have no idea what they're talking about.

When it comes to the America's Favorite City rankings by Travel + Leisure, it's a little bit of both. For the 2012 list, the magazine again judged cities on criteria from food and nightlife to culture and quality of life. But there is one new twist — each category has two rankings, one from visitors and one from locals.

Unsurprisingly, Houstonians give our city much better marks than outsiders. You could argue that we are biased in favor of our hometown, but the local rankings are pretty honest when it comes to the city's faults.

Houstonians rank ourselves among the worst for public transportation and pedestrian-friendliness, weather, for a romantic getaway and for visits during the summer and the Fourth of July. The areas in which visitors rank Houston far below residents — diversity, theater/performance art, museums, flea markets and ethnic food, among others — are things that Houston does extremely well, if you know where to look.

We get it — Houston isn't showy. Great restaurants, for example, are found in strip malls, in converted houses on residential streets and in neighborhoods that aren't on any tourist itinerary. Tourists just don't get us.

For example, in the food category, Houston dropped to the No. 4 city in the country for burgers, though locals rank it the best in the country. That's the first time since 2009 that we haven't been number one in the burger rankings, and we were replaced by Providence effing Rhode Island.

Outsiders also rank us fourth for barbecue, 13th for ethnic food and 19th for fine dining. Houston didn't break the Top 20 in any other subcategory — pizza, cafés, coffee, microbrew beer, street food.

To that I say you can call us ugly, you can trash our architecture, our weather and our driving ability, but you better recognize that we are one of the best cities in the country to eat in. Especially when it comes to burgers.

In a best burgers slideshow for Houston, the magazine recognizes Lankford Grocery, Bubba's Texas Burger Shack and The Burger Guys, which is really just scratching the surface of Houston's burger culture. I'd add Bernie's Burger Bus, Hubcap Grill, Sparkle Burger and the burgers at Vic & Anthony's to that list, for starters.

What do you think of the America's Favorite Cities ranking? And where is your favorite burger in town?