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i adore white castle cheeseburgers. period.

I worked in detroit for a while; about once a month I'd drive out to White Castle for a sack. If I ate them every day, or even every week, I'd probably be sick of them, but now that I'm back in Toronto, we can only get them on family trips to the US. And we found one in Ohio that shares space with Church's chicken which has vanished from Canada, and was our favourite fried chicken. A wing and a thigh from Church's and two cheeseburgers - great road food.

And I'm curious - to all those people who said "they taste like ass", where, exactly, did you learn what "ass" tastes like?

If you're eating white castle before 10pm, you're doing it wrong.

Never ketchup on white castles either, just bun, onions pickles and cheese.

The chicken sandwiches with honey mustard are good, as well as the cheese sticks, but you'll want to pass on their "marinara".

WC's also has some of my favorite fast food fries. love the kinkle cut.

Like they say "You gotta get to White Castles before the crazies do!"

ChiChi....

I hope that you're going to tell us where in and about NY/Long Island are the best spots to go, or where you've been to crab fish and clam hunt!

Thanks, Joe

P.S. Went out to the Woodmere Pier on Long Island this past weekend and caught 1 nice size Blue Claw and a whole bunch of these small to large Brown Crabs - dont know what they were or if they are edible... we threw them back!

Greetings from Fire Island! We are on the Great South Bay, four miles offshore from Long Island. This morning's catch contained two quite large blue crabs, and one spider crab which you do not want to eat, ever. My pot has an escape proof setup wherein the bait is separated from the exit. We get many sea whelks, which up 'til now I have no knowledge how to eat, or cook. I am told they eat the clams which live on the bay's bottom, and so should be discarded. Last year we tried to boil them, but the flavor was just plain awful. Does anyone know how to make these whelks edible? I'd love to know.

Here's my recipe for a creamy crab bisque:
Boil your crabs, remove the back meat, set aside. Dice carrots, onion, a hint of garlic, and celery. Saute slowly in butter. Crush the shells and place them into your pot. Add a few tablespoons of tomato paste, fresh thyme, pepper, salt, a few bay leaves. Let the tomato paste cook out. Add a good shot of brandy. Carefully flame the shells, and add a half glass of white wine. Cook five minutes more. Add a few full glasses of chicken stock, and an equal amount of water. Bring to a boil, skim off any scum that rises. Lower fire to a simmer, and cook for twenty minutes.

Make a roux, strain the broth from the crabs into the roux, stirring quite thoroughly. Try to push some of the vegetables through the strainer. Add some heavy cream and sherry if you like. Now slide in the crab meat. I generally slip in a pat of sweet butter at the very end of it all. This in honor of Julia Child, my mentor.

I hope you enjoy. I deliberately didn't cite exact quantities, but it's important to convey the method. You can always adjust according to your own feelings.

Cheers, Michael

That's a weird looking crab! Definitely not a blue. Apparently it's a Liocarcinus vernalis (?)- anyone know the vernacular name for it or seen ones like them off Long Island? According to Wikipedia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Liocarcinus_vernalis.jpg ) they are native to Belgium!

And I second kitchengeeking: got to catch them with chicken necks and string- followed by the Old Bay and beer

Have a single crab trap in Naples, Fla.'s Dollar Bay . Enjoy Blue Crab and occasional Stone Crab claws . You are right as it is akin more to harvesting a garden or to game trapping in Midwest . jfitz

I have said this before on Slice (regarding Co/UPN style vs. Lomardis brick oven vs. a plain slice) and the same holds true for burgers. There is a time and a place for all burgers, for me.. it is circumstantial! Sometimes I want some LaFrieda meat, sometimes I want a pub burger, sometimes I even crave a McDs, and yeah... sometimes I actually crave a steamed bun, oniony White Castle slider. Just how it goes! Now I might get a LaFrieda burger 10 times before I hit McDs or WC, but still.

White Castle burgers are pretty unique.They punch holes in them to create the "steaming" process. Very different from a regular burger that is normally seared on a grill, WC Sliders have that uniform gray color and texture, which most people seem to either love or hate.

Personally, I love and miss them since there's no White Castle in my area. Get the fries drowned in cheese whiz, amazing. Shakes are good too. All of course tasting the best around 4 in the morning.

Also I've never had a fine dining / trendy "slider" (and I've had a bunch.. usually too much/ wrong kind of bread, overcooked meat, falls apart, etc..) that came even close to being as good as a 75 cent White Castle burger.

I was a Teenage Slyder Slinger: http://www.slashfood.com/2007/05/31/i-was-a-teenage-white-castle-worker/

When in high school in the mid-70's a the night would often end with a trip to the Castle. The unfortunate one who decided to stay home would get his car "Casletlized".....we would break into the car and hide White Castles throughout..the seats, under the seats, dashboard, glove compartment..even on the antenna..you get the picture. The one burger under the sun visor got em everytime. Great fun and memories.

Some random WC thoughts:

Moving from Queens to eastern LI, I was suprised at the differences in the WC restaurants... no bulletproof glass.

For a work function, pot luck picnic, I brought a crave case. Imagine the spread on the table, fondue, quiche, finger sandwiches, caviar, and a stack of WC slyders. This was fellow colleagues and administration from work and about 85% of them have never had a WC burger before.

I had a friend of the family visiting from the West Coast and never had WC before. We convinced her that the bulletproof glass was soundproff, the "secret" burger to order was the "Kiki" burger, and you only need to order one slyder. I still laugh to this day at the expressions of the workers reacting to some lady yelling at them that she wants 1 "kiki" burger.

Good times.

i have to go with new york style, grilled with sauerkraut and mustard