JasonM wrote:

I wonder what wine would go best with sliders. In case someone wants to impress a date.

Boone's Farm Snowberry Creek

I suspect that if one's date is not is not impressed enough after the offer of White Castle alone, then one should consider requiring even less teeth of potential "courtees."

seebee wrote:I suspect that if one's date is not is not impressed enough after the offer of White Castle alone, then one should consider requiring even less teeth of potential "courtees."

That'd be setting the bar pretty low, considering that one can eat a White Castle slider just fine with gums alone.

JasonM wrote:

I wonder what wine would go best with sliders. In case someone wants to impress a date.

Boone's Farm Snowberry Creek

As I pointed out several pages back (who knew this thread would be so epic?), WC is test marketing liquor sales at some stores in Indiana. I wonder if that includes wine or just Ice House? That is what I used to love about eating at the Mickey D's HQ in Oakbrook, getting a carafe of wine with my quarter pounder.

edit:
According to this: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industrie ... 52137194/1
WC has merged its Lafeyette store with a concept called Blaze Modern BBQ that sells wine and seasonal beers. And you thought Twin Anchors' BBQ was scary.
Besides Blaze Modern BBQ, there's an Asian food brand, Laughing Noodle, at a White Castle in Springfield, Ohio, and a triple-decker sandwich concept, Deckers, in Lebanon, Tenn.

d4v3 wrote:As I pointed out several pages back (who knew this thread would be so epic?), WC is test marketing liquor sales at some stores in Indiana. I wonder if that includes wine or just Ice House?

It's a long thread, but I posted a little bit back that it was Barefoot Cellar wines (four different kinds) being offered at the Lafayette store.

For me, White Castle's having been around for 90 years counts for something. It's food to eat with your kid or with a friend when you're not taking anything too seriously and you need a meal on the way to doing something fun.

I have fond memories of having hosted a party for The Boys the one and only time Da Bears won the Super Bowl. Included on the menu was a bag of sliders, which were much appreciated and went great with some long-neck Old Styles.

Yeah Tom, I agree exactly. Kansas City had four stores, but they closed--who knows why? But I must say that, every couple of years, I'd love to drop by a WC and get a (small) bag of sliders. There's nothing like 'em (which is probably a good thing!).

Geo

Pie Lady wrote:

Khaopaat wrote:If I recall correctly, they were actual rings of white meat chicken, like someone pounded chicken breasts flat and punched rings out of them.

If that's true, I want a dozen chicken holes.

Some of those crazy Yelpers suggest that chicken rings are chicken holes.

This damn thread. The other day I walked past a White Castle without the slightest thought of stopping. On the way back a large ad reminded me I never had a chicken ring. I didn't want to be accused of blindly jumping on the anti-chicken ring bandwagon.



The rings look suspiciously like some chicken batter was looped out of a nozzle.



And the inside looks even more suspiciously like they're made of homogenized chicken.



Meat should not have air bubbles. If chicken rings were actually made from solid breast muscle I would expect White Castle to boast about it, but on their website they describe it only as "tender all white meat." So how do they taste? Surprisingly decent actually; nicely seasoned, not too salty, not overly greasy, tastes like chicken. I don't see many more chicken rings in my future nonetheless.

Oh yeah, I got a slider too, strictly as an aesthetic experiment.







So how does it taste? Just as I remember, takes me back to my first-ever bite of a slider. I don't see many more White Castle burgers in my future.

Khaopaat wrote:One interesting tidbit I learned: the 30-slider Crave Case isn't the biggest thing on the menu; that honor goes to the $66 100-slider Crave Crate ($84 for all cheeseburgers, $85 for all jalapeño cheeseburgers, mixing & matching is allowed). 2012 LTH Picnic idea?

Scariest thing I've seen in a long time.



The guy behind the counter told me they don't sell a lot of crates.

My cat would love to live in that.

Pie Lady wrote:My cat would love to live in that.

Tell you what, next time your cat needs a new house I'll take the burgers off your hands - no charge.

Rene G wrote:The guy behind the counter told me they don't sell a lot of crates.

Sounds like the perfect White Elephant gift to me.

It's widely known that elephants don't like White Castle.

I wonder how fast I'd get sued if I opened an 'Elephant & White Castle' slider-centric gastropub in the loop ...

i<3pizza wrote:I wonder how fast I'd get sued if I opened an 'Elephant & White Castle' slider-centric gastropub in the loop ...

I got just the beer you should serve:

Maybe we could get some of those trained elephants to paint our sign for the outside ...

No, it would have to be Strawberry Hill. Philistine.

They have done something to sliders!

After not having even thought about White Castle for years, reading this thread caused me to begin "Jonesing" for an onion-steamed, 1 oz. square of questionable parentage served on a stale but steamed undersized dinner roll.

Unable to resist the siren song any longer, I succumbed and drove through the pick up lane at Harlem and Milwaukee last evening, leaving with a Crave case of cheeseburgers, two orders of onion rings, one order each of chicken rings and mozzarella sticks and a bathtub-sized sweet tea, ( my significant other was assisting me in the research, ergo the additional onion ring and sweet tea).

When I returned to Castella de Burpo, we sat at the dining room table and began our epicurean adventure.

Wanting to make the anticipation last, I started off with the chicken rings. I am less than impressed. The breading is O.K. and the flavor of the chicken pudding of which the product was constituted was passable, but I couldn't get the picture out of my mind that, due to the shape, I was consuming the anus of six chickens. I will not repeat this error as it had the effect of being an anti-appetizer, which could possible explain the "Meh" reaction I had to the balance of the repast.

I progressed to the mozzarella sticks, which, when dipped in the little plastic tub of non-descript marinara sauce, were a passable approximation of sleazy bar snacks used to increase the consumption of PBR. Acceptable for what they were, I had a couple but could control myself no longer and retrieved six little square boxes of joy from the crave case.

With the trembling anticipation of a high school boy knowing that he was finally gonna get lucky, I removed one of the small steaming squares from its' protective cardboard raincoat and, with the old Heinz ketchup commercial take-off of the song "Anticipation" running through my addled mind, bit off half of the slider and began to chew. The texture was as I remembered. The mooshyness of the bun/roll balanced with the slightly tart piquancy of the Chipco hamburger dill coin. The slightly gummy texture of the onion-steamed "meat" patty was a familiar old friend... but "something" was wrong. There were less of the microscopic onion dice scattered throughout my mouth than I expected, and the sweet bite of the onion was but a wisp of what once was. The small cheese square tasted like, well, cheese. I lacked the oniony unctuous mucilaginous mouth feel and flavor of my childhood.

Only the onion rings had the familiar old oil, burnt coating bits flavor profile reminiscent of summer nights tooling around in my buddys' 1951 Chrysler "woody" convertible hoping to pick up a couple of cuties in pedal pushers and tight "T" shirts.

Sadly, like those high school gals of yesteryear, the quick fling from White Castle didn't deliver the goods.

In the past, after consuming sliders, it was a given that during the journey through my alimentary canal, there would be the production of enough methane to amuse my crowd of teenaged male friends by lighting our own flatus eruptions with our Zippos' with the wick pulled out far enough to produce a five foot flame. Even after consuming six sliders and a large order of onion rings there was no seismic gastric activity whatsoever. Nothing. Nada. Not even a small toot.

I guess it is, in fact, a truth. You can't go home again.

Binko wrote:

d4v3 wrote:As I pointed out several pages back (who knew this thread would be so epic?), WC is test marketing liquor sales at some stores in Indiana. I wonder if that includes wine or just Ice House?

It's a long thread, but I posted a little bit back that it was Barefoot Cellar wines (four different kinds) being offered at the Lafayette store.

More reason to not eat at White Castle. Barefoot has got to be some of the most putrid tasting wine I have ever had the pleasure of drinking. What do you expect with a picture of feet on the label?

On a positive note, on Friday, my husband and I were out estate saling and he was dying to use the bathroom, so we hopped into the White Castle at Belmont and Harlem. I discovered the nice retro pictures on the wall, which I always think is a nice touch for any restaurant that honors their history.

Tortminder, tnx for taking one for the group! And I know what you mean: this thread has made me think about the whole WC experience--which, btw, you describe *very* accurately--and even perhaps to begin to consider having a slider or two. I can taste, feel, smell the damn thing, very much as you describe. Problem is, where am I to go? Certainly there are no Castles in Montréal. None in Kansas City. Mayhap a visit to the MIL on Long Island is called for... What a quandyarie. Lusting for a slider with nowhere to go.

Bummer about the little onion thingys, they *are* important bits of the whole picture.

Sigh.

Geo
P.S. Ironically enough, I spent October-Christmas in Kensington, London, last year, teaching, and *this*was my pub. Word.

Geo wrote:Tortminder, tnx for taking one for the group! And I know what you mean: this thread has made me think about the whole WC experience--which, btw, you describe *very* accurately--and even perhaps to begin to consider having a slider or two. I can taste, feel, smell the damn thing, very much as you describe. Problem is, where am I to go? Certainly there are no Castles in Montréal. None in Kansas City. Mayhap a visit to the MIL on Long Island is called for... What a quandyarie. Lusting for a slider with nowhere to go.

Bummer about the little onion thingys, they *are* important bits of the whole picture.

Sigh.

Geo
P.S. Ironically enough, I spent October-Christmas in Kensington, London, last year, teaching, and *this*was my pub. Word.

Geo, (and all others having a WC "Jones");
Here is a link to finding the locations of http://www.whitecastle.com/locations/all all the Porcelain Palaces. There are a number of them in Missouri, but none in K.C.

I wonder how many people are now going to run out to WC to see what they taste like or just to renew their taste of them. I have not had one for years and am not moved to get one. Maybe David Hammond is getting paid to stir up this stuff so WC increases business? Just kidding.

toria wrote:Maybe David Hammond is getting paid to stir up this stuff so WC increases business? Just kidding.

How did you know?!

Geo wrote:P.S. Ironically enough, I spent October-Christmas in Kensington, London, last year, teaching, and *this*was my pub. Word.

"Twas one of my favorite places to hang out when I was doing my semester abroad back in...too long ago.


Also, I confess that I was 'inspired' to revisit WC after reading this thread over the course of a few days. Then I made the mistake of buying a box of frozen sliders @ the neighborhood Mariano's a few days ago. I think I've learned my lesson.

tortminder wrote:In the past, after consuming sliders, it was a given that during the journey through my alimentary canal, there would be the production of enough methane to amuse my crowd of teenaged male friends by lighting our own flatus eruptions with our Zippos' with the wick pulled out far enough to produce a five foot flame. Even after consuming six sliders and a large order of onion rings there was no seismic gastric activity whatsoever. Nothing. Nada. Not even a small toot.

Unfortunately, no such "problem" here with me after eating White Castles, as my poor wife could attest. I would kill for gas-less sliders.

Rene G wrote:And the inside looks even more suspiciously like they're made of homogenized chicken.

Meat should not have air bubbles. If chicken rings were actually made from solid breast muscle I would expect White Castle to boast about it, but on their website they describe it only as "tender all white meat." So how do they taste? Surprisingly decent actually; nicely seasoned, not too salty, not overly greasy, tastes like chicken. I don't see many more chicken rings in my future nonetheless.

I've never had WC chicken rings, but it seems to me that rings punched out of solid chicken breast muscle would be tough, whereas greater tenderness would be achieved by forming flat patties of shreddded chicken breast meat -which is what these rings appear to be. Can't we safely assume that "all-white meat" means breast meat - is there any other white meat on a chicken? And you say you were pleasantly surprised by them. I don't see the logic to why we disparage "patties" of chicken meat, but we're fine with patties of beef (i.e., burgers), or fish or seafood. Maybe it's because we suspect all the cheapest garbage bits of the bird go into chicken patties, but these are advertised as all white meat, which I take to mean breast meat. Myself, I avoid fast food sandwiches with slabs of solid chicken breast in them because the meat is usually tough.

Katie wrote:- is there any other white meat on a chicken?

Chicken wings are also considered white meat. But I'm with you. For nuggets and sandwich-type preparations, I generally prefer meat that has been ground and formed into shapes as opposed to whole muscle because of the texture. I've made homemade chicken nuggets with intact cuts of breast meat, and it's just not what I want when I want a nugget. It's ground/emulsified chicken all the way for me in that sort of preparation.

Plenty of white meat on a thigh as well. "White" refers to a color of chicken flesh after it has been cooked. It does not refer specifically to the breast.

seebee wrote:Plenty of white meat on a thigh as well. "White" refers to a color of chicken flesh after it has been cooked. It does not refer specifically to the breast.

I'm a thigh guy, and I usually think of the thigh as "dark," but it's not as dark as a leg. Maybe it's not a black and white issue.

seebee wrote:Plenty of white meat on a thigh as well. "White" refers to a color of chicken flesh after it has been cooked. It does not refer specifically to the breast.

I've never heard of anyone referring to any part of the thigh as anything but dark meat. I suppose there are whitish parts on the thigh, but I'd still classify them as dark meat.

Interestingly enough (at least to me), I can't find anything in the USDA food labeling guidelines that define what white meat and dark meat is. I can find a passage like this: "A labeling claim, such as, —white meat only,“ is acceptable when white meat is used to the exclusion of dark meat," but nothing that explains what "white meat" and "dark meat" mean in that context.

Next time you eat a thigh, take a look. There's white meat in there. I'm just sayin', when you see "All WHITE MEAT" labels, it's not the same as "All Chicken Breast," or "Breast Meat Only." Personally, I tend to avoid chicken breast like the plague.

As Binko stated, BINKO is the one who classifies the thigh as dark meat. I'm not sure why. White is a color. Breast is the actual breast. You will see plenty of places tell you that they use breast meat only. I can't think of a standard part of the bird that DOESN'T have some white meat on it.

Breast meat, however, comes from the breast.

seebee wrote:As Binko stated, BINKO is the one who classifies the thigh as dark meat. I'm not sure why.

Because anywhere you go and order chicken, breast/wing=white meat and thigh/leg=dark meat? That doesn't seem like such an unusual concept to me.