Monday, April 23, 2007
White Castle
For those of you who aren't familiar with White Castle, they're a hamburger chain that started in the twenties if I remember and basically started all the stuff that Macdonalds does now. The had their own butchers, their own paper company and even had their own building company that would erect new White Castle buildings - that surprisingly enough look like white castles. This was an urban business and many of the restaurants today are in the not so good parts of town that were once the better parts of town. They had, and still have, wannabe competitors like White Tower and other similar sounding names in similar looking buildings. And like Macdonalds, they often took them to court to protect the name.
The burgers, also called sliders (based on the grease content) are tiny little things with holes in them that are steam fried in dehydrated onions. The reason for the holes by the way isn't to save meat, but so the grillers don't have to flip them. They're tiny enough so that buying and eating a dozen isn't much of a feat. When I was a kid I can remember buying the burgers by the 40s and 50s when we visited my grandparents in Chicago. Each teeny burger comes in a cardboard box that probably costs about the same as the meat in the burger. I have tried making them myself with limited success, but you can't really match the restaurants. See my recipes section for directions.
Anyway, we drove to an Ikea this weekend for my wife and there's a White Castle across the street from Ikea. The trip is good for both of us, as she gets to go shopping at Ikea and I get to pig out at White Castle. What really prompted this post was a sign advertising the latest White Castle sandwich - a bologna, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich. I'd always thought that sliders were about as greasy as you could get and they come out with something like this. No, I didn't have a chance to try one - it being too late, and I'm not sure I would if I could. This sounds like something that would make one of the Burger King meat monstrosities almost healthy. Bon Appetite.
Labels: food
