That you've never sampled a grease-soaked staple of fast food until today – and yet you're working as a food critic for a major American weekly – is more than a little disconcerting.

Like it or not, fast food is - predictably and pathetically - tied to the gastronomic history and culture of this country.

Never even thought to do some catch-up culinary homework, huh?

It's strange. Just sayin'.

Sarah DiGregorio

No, I don't think that (national, mega-chain) fast food is an important or interesting part of the New York food scene, nor that it is necessary to have tasted all the mega-chain fast food burgers in order to have an informed knowledge of food in general.

When thinking about burgers, I would say it's more important to have tried New York's iconic burgers like Shake Shack's or Bar Six's (and, ideally, the iconic burgers of LA, too) than to have tasted a White Castle Slider.

So in other words, you think that tasting that slider today has made me a more informed food writer? It was interesting, and a funny experience. I definitely don't feel like a more informed eater because of it, or that I would become even more informed if I ran out right now for a Big Mac. You may disagree.

EM:
Isnt that kind of like saying a fashion writer needs to buy and wear clothes from Wallmart to understand fashion? Not bloody likely compadre.

I only lost my White Castle virginity after moving to the US 5 years ago. And I only had my first Twinkie a month ago at my friend's kid's birthday party. I can honestly say that neither experience has informed my palate tremendously. Although I would recommend trying a Big Mac... (yes, we had those in my country!)

The holes the slider (or, meat thing?) are there to aid the cooking process, because they are actually steam grilled, not fried.

Furthermore, how could you eat just one?

Sarah DiGregorio

Hey Rick-- thanks for the info.

I actually kind of wanted another, but I was on my way to eat pork dumplings! So I resisted.

Your review of White Castle sliders seems disingenuously elitist, in a twelve-year-old-claiming-to-be-so-over-amusement-parks-but-very-clearly-enjoying-the-roller-coasters kind of way.

Your bias for the "iconic" burgers of New York (or LA, or Peoria, Illinois, or wherever) disqualifies you from coming off as essentially uninterested in (even national, mega-chain) burger eateries. Verbally skirting that preference with the "if it's free, I'll eat it" conceit backs this up. Only "good," i.e. patently informative meals are (over)paid for in some upscale joint on Second Avenue?

Laborious point being, I wouldn't expect you to be more or less informed for having or not having eaten sliders, free or not.

But to extend the appended metaphor, many of your readers likely purchase and wear the occasional article of clothing from Wal-Mart (or Target, etc.), even if it's just socks and undies. They may never claim to love fashion-conscious Wal-mart, but the evidence and receipts support the naked truth.

Just would've thought you'd have been more aware of the credibility gap, prior to publishing a national, mega-chain burger review. Put yourself in your readers' tighty whiteys, if you will.

Hey Sarah, it's Kevin.

The holes are for quicker cooking, since, as mentioned above, they are steamed they only need to be cooked on one side and not flipped. Next time we run into each other, ask me about my White Castle story. In college I worked in a discotheque and would get off work at 5AM. Every couple of months we make a run to White Castle after work.

Also the Quarter Pounder if far superior to a Big Mac.

Thanks for proving my point, Kev.

I have to agree to some extent with EM. I think that while everybody is free to either accept or discard its aesthetic as pleasurable White Castle is by all measures a culturally and historically important foodstuff. While I think it is going too far to say that one can't be knowledgable or properly write about food without having tasted a White Castle, I do think it is fair to say that one is more well informed and worldly for having experienced it and that there should be no pride taken in never having tasted one.

Sarah DiGregorio

Hey Kevin!

That's so funny, one of the reasons I've had White Castle on my mind was the fact that you wouldn't tell me your White Castle story until I'd had a slider. Now I'm really, really curious.

Have fun in that ivory tower, dear.

Whoops – I meant "White Castle," of course!

Sarah DiGregorio

Honestly, if you read the blog you will see that no one here eats in an ivory tower. We are all over the city, in all neighborhoods, eating cheap, great food.

(Pssst... Kevin... I get the feeling she doesn't really want to hear your White Castle stories... I know – how rude, right?)

Hey Em, who are you? You seem to be taking this way too personally, wait a minute are you THE burger king? Or wait, are you the Humburgler? Either way, you're being a dick for no reason, dear. The vitriol on these "food blogs" is always scary to me. I mean, it's a blog post about a hamburger for godsakes!

Class warfare? On this lil' blog? Really now, Em, having a mom that won't let you eat White Castle is surely as apple pie as White Castle. Of course, I too wonder who Sarah was hanging out with after she was let out into the world. I guess they can't all have been as lucky as we were (are) to be drunk/stoned and hungry at 3am.
And frankly, unless your posts are a complete put-on you sound like a preening twat, smelling his own burger swamped a-hole due to bending over backwards in a meatless effort to defend the rest of us Wal-Mart trollin' trolls.

I suppose a reference to the inner sleeve of the first Dictators album would fall upon deaf ears and tone deaf humor sense.

The White Castle slider was supposedly the first fast-food burger in the United States, hence the odd cooking method. Wish you'd tried their pulled-pork sandwich, too, which is being so heavily advertised.

I never would have taken you for a child of stoners!

The best part about White Castle is that if there is no White Castles where you live you can call the "800" number and have them delivered frozen to your house!!!

Bob - Funny that some stoners DIDN'T have a taste for the Shmassle. But, I guess it takes all kinds. Of stoners.

I could only ever find the awesome onion chips in the Midwest. And I miss their brief foray maybe two decades ago into battered fish filets as opposed to breaded.

I'm sure I already know what the "pulled pork" tastes like and unfortunately, I'll probably like it.

The pig's ear at Metro Cafe was awesome tonite, btw.

"Losing My Virginity"? Madame, what you've experienced is the middlebrow culinary equivalent of getting to second-base. Almost.

Especially in light of your, until now, fast-food cloistered-ness, what you need to do is not simply eat a single slider, but, stoned, drunk or sober, work up enough of an appetite to actually eat (or, in true American fashion, overeat) a meal at one of our nation's "fine" fast-food burger joints, greasy fries/rings and a watery soda to wash it all down.

Then after, sweating, top pants button undone, sated and mildly-to-extremely nauseated, filled with hot shame and head echoing an unending chorus of "Why?," then my dear, you will have lost your slider virginity. And likely, sensible gal I assume you are, it will be back to the nunnery for you.