America and the Burger, Part 1

by guest blogger Piers Bencard

So after providing notes, commenting, making recommendations (nagging) and editing a few blog entries I have finally been rewarded (?) with my own entry. The reason: being in St Louis and being introduced to a local classic, added to a desire to write an entry on something that readers, certainly in Missouri and the midwest, would be more likely to comment on. If only as they are far more likely to have tasted it (and therefore have a better understanding on the way that our taste buds work). Of course, I thought that the lady, your usual blogger, would do the hard work and I would just proof and point as usual: “No!” she said, “your idea, you write it.” So here it is:

The starting premise: Not all of the readers of this blog will have been to the expensive restaurants often discussed here, and even if they had, they would as likely have been to more humble establishments as well. From there, and being in Missouri, the ‘obvious’ starting point is the classic where the notion originated: White Castle.

For those readers not in the know: White Castle is a burger joint which started in Kansas and is a bit of a love-it-or-hate-it experience, like Marmite in Britain. The company has only 420 restaurants in their chain but reportedly has the second highest revenue for a fast food chain behind McDonalds (which has 32,000). A burger in White Castle is called a slider, as to eat them you slide them out of a small box. They come in multiple varieties: I tried the bacon double cheese slider and the lady had the Jalapeno Cheese doubles. We added onion rings and fries to the order and a diet Coke (apparently to cancel out the fat in cheese). Naturally we were told that we got the order wrong by various people, who all had variations on what we should have ordered.

My sliders were indeed heavily flavoured by the bacon and cheese, the onions and bun would have flavoured them anyway – that is a significant part of the slider taste. The burger itself is hardly the point of going, although some say that the secret recipe has some liver – I hardly tasted it, indeed hardly tasted the beef. This is in part due to the thinness of the patty and also due to the holes in it (it looks like the ‘5’ side on a die).

When asked, the lady told me that hers were: “Unctuous, high in fat, filled with cheese, onions and a slight hint of beef.” The overall experience was somewhat similar to a kebab, but without the salad accompanying it; I was told that after a night out, White Castle would be mobbed.

As to the rest of the meal: the onion rings were the best part, crispy and a touch bready in the coating, the fries were a disappointment and the Diet Coke was interminable – you have to love a country that comes up with the idea that two people can share a drink and continue refilling it until they are completely refreshed.

So what can I compare White Castle sliders to? Well, having already juxtaposed the corporate track record with McDonalds, why not compare a slider with a Big Mac (O Reader, what I do for you!).

And why not? They are both fast food burgers and with the construction of the Big Mac similar to the White Castle double slider (2 patties sandwiched by 3 pieces of bun), they are an easy direct comparison. Not only that, while White Castle has thin patties, the Big Mac’s patties are not really that much thicker, but at least you can taste them – which may or may not be a blessing as they are uniformly well done; regular readers may have noted that I prefer my meat to have a bit more life or at least moisture in it. The dry meat was definitely saved by the special sauce, the other difference being the lettuce – so Mickie D’s certainly wins in the toppings stakes.

We didn’t have onion rings at the Golden Arches, they weren’t on offer, but we did have some of MacDonald’s excellent fries. We also had another never-ending Diet Coke (the lady actually had a never-ending Diet Dr Pepper), and I have to ask why is it that we in the UK are not allowed to have such a wonder? Surely if the never-ending soda (or ‘Pop’ to the British reader) is normal and natural for the American MacDonald’s diner they should be available to the European diner as well?

So in my direct comparison of White Castle’s and the Big Mac, the Big Mac wins on toppings, patty and price (the White Castle were individually cheaper than the Big Mac, but you generally you eat at least 4-6 in one sitting so actually the White Castle’s meal was as expensive as O’Connells – more of which later). Overall, and this hurts and will hurt more as I continue to live with a St Louisan, McDonalds has it.