Not exactly health - food, but I'M not complaining
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
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Recently, I drove past our local White Castle and noticed a yummy-sounding treat advertised: a bacon-cheeseburger going for 85 cents.
Had it been all that long ago that White Castle sandwiches went for a nickel apiece?
But, of course, back then, there wasn't the variety--though it wasn't missed, as it hadn't yet been invented.
People were happy to simply pay a nickel apiece for these wonderful-tasting (unless you were a member of the camp who couldn't stand them), more-bun-than-burger burgers (where even the bun was minuscule).
I have no idea whether or not these tasty treats have yet made it to the Ciao.com side of the Atlantic or not.
As I'm the first person to write about them, I have my doubts about that.
However--as they have been listed as a product here--no doubt, you're expecting them to arrive.
Let me tell you that you're in for a real treat!!!
In order to provide multiple orgasms for your tastebuds, let me start out by describing the most basic of the sandwiches--the one that got them going back in 1921 at their first location (which was in Wichita, Kansas--and all of these years I'd thought they'd started in Indiana. Oh well!).
You start out with a bun that looks a lot like a dinner roll and can fit into the palm of an average adult-sized hand with space to spare around the edges.
That bun is split horizontally and exposed to a greasy grill--as is the unusual burger that will go between it. Exposed to a greasy grill, that is. If one of said unusual burgers were split horizontally, they'd almost disappear!
This unusual burger is even more square than the dinnerrollish bun it will nestle between and is about 1/4 inch thick, if that.
The burger has about five smaller-than-dime-sized round holes in it, which remind you of what you might find on a slice of Swiss cheese. The purpose of these holes in to make it grill without drying out.
This slice of ground beef has also been flavored with tiny onion slices.
After it has been cooked and put on its itty-bitty bun, two or three dill-pickle slices are added before it's served to the customer.
I'm not sure at just what point they added the first variation of this sandwich--a cheeseburger, which was just like the original, except a little, square slice of cheese was added--but I think it's been around for most--if not all--of my earthly life, which began on December 12, 1952.
My dad (an Army Brat growing up in the Ft. Harrison area) grew up eating them frequently, since he and his family were just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Indianapolis (the only place in Indiana where they could be bought at the time0, and my mom (who grew up about 50 or 60 miles away from Indianapolis in a little country village called Cunot) ate them on those occasions when she was lucky enough to go on an outing that included Indianapolis.
They had been married about three years and were living in Anderson when Aunt Kate began dating Uncle Don, a big, fun-loving teddy bear with a seemingly bottomless pit for a stomach.
During a double-date to Indianapolis, they stopped at a White Castle, and Uncle Don insisted on treating everybody to White Castles/
He asked my folks how many they wanted, and they told him two--meaning one apiece, which had been what they usually ate.
As a person who was used to eating between six and a dozen in one setting, he, naturally thought they surely meant two apiece--so that is what he brought them.
They discovered that they could handle two quite well without feeling overly stuffed, so that became what they ordered from then on. In the years to come, the average would go up to three apiece.
As a small child, I would have one or two White Castles and a small orange drink--their orange drinks were, and still are, absolutely delicious!
Whenever we were in Indianapolis--whether going through it while traveling to and from Cunot or down there to shop--there was generally at least one trip to White Castle included.
One night, we were traveling back home after visiting Grandpa and Uncle George. I was about four at the time.
We had eaten well while in Cunot, so none of us was particularly hungry--in fact, I felt a little stuffy for some reason--but Daddy asked me if I wanted a White Castle. I told him no, and we traveled on.
These days, there is a White Castle at 38th and Shadeland ( on the east side of Indianapolis), but there wasn't back then. All White Castles were back in the city.
Somewhere between when I said I didn't want any and when we arrived at this point, I must have burped and lost the stuffiness in my tummy--and suddenly realized that I'd made a horrible (in the mind of a four-year-old) mistake!
At four, I was young enough for missing White Castle after being so close to it to be a major disaster--but old enough to realize that I might be overreacting just a little.
So, when my folks asked me why I was crying, I just told them that I didn't feel well.
They stopped at a drug store and got some Vick's salve to rub on my chest and forehead, and that soothed me so that I fell asleep on the way home.
But I never wanted to experience this kind of emotional anguish again, so, from then on, I would always remind my folks to be sure to stop at White Castle whenever I knew we were going to or through Indianapolis.
In time, I realized that White Castle wasn't the only game in town when it came to Indianapolis, and I could skip the experience without wanting to don sackcloth and ashes.
Even so, it remained a place I enjoyed going to.
When I was a senior in high school, some friends fixed me up with a neat, artistic guy named Gary who was 14 years older and already working at Delco-Remy (our local General Motors division).
We took a liking to each other right away and made plans for our future together--and we both loved White Castles!
We had gone to a star show on the campus of Butler University and stopped at a White Castle afterwards.
At that time, there were no booths in White Castle--just stools around the service counter and stools along a broad window ledge that doubled as table space, and we sat at the latter.
Gary asked me how I would like to be part of bringing the first White Castle to Anderson. Since he had been working for several years, he could put up the money to get us started, and we would be partners in this venture. It sounded good to me, so Gary made a few phone calls--and found out the disappointing news that White Castle was only building in cities of 100,000 or more, which certainly didn't describe Anderson.
Oh well, Gary and I eventually broke up, too.
Several years later, someone else brought the first White Castle to Anderson.
Even though I never became the Cher of the Sonny & Cher of Anderson's first White Castle, my family and I have played important roles in its continued growth.
For one thing, my dad's double cousin, Maxwell "Mac" Phillips, was good friends with the couple who brought White Castle to Indianapolis and worked for them for many years.
And, for another thing, I helped them to improve their fish sandwich.
When they first started serving fish sandwiches, I figured that, since they had cheese for making their cheeseburgers, they could easily add a slice to a fish sandwich, so I asked them to do mine that way. I'd never had one like that before, but, in my imagination, it just sounded as if it would be delicious--and it was!
From then on, I'd order my fish sandwiches with cheese--and, in time, this became part of the menu. Not only did it become part of White Castle's menu but, also, an option at countless other fast-food places.
My folks like to say that I was the one responsible for fish and cheese sandwiches. I don't know if I were the ONLY one, but I was certainly one of the trailblazers!
These days, White Castle remains a timeless institution, still selling the basic sandwich that got them going some 80 years ago--but, also, trying new and different things.
If you would like to know more about White Castle, go to this website:
http://www.whitecastle.com/home.asp
And, remember this: If you were able to send four grown men across the Atlantic to us back in 1964 and drive us wild, we will surely be able to drive you wild in return by sending our little, square burgers over to you!
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