New Orleans is, without a doubt, a city that defies the rest of the United States. From the French influence to the third world-esque devastation of Hurricane Katrina to the fact that women are willing to take their tops off for beads (okay maybe that one’s not so different), it is unquestionably a unique city. Yet, as a first time visitor with a meat blog, I was far more interested in the culinary aspects of NOLA than anything else, beginning with The Ruby Slipper Cafe.

Based on the line out the door when we arrived for brunch, The Ruby Slipper on Magazine Street seemed to be almost as famous as its namesake, but we braved the wait by grabbing a drink down the street and then took our seats. The menu was full-on Southern fare meets France, which I guess is to be expected in New Orleans. And in a rare twist, the wife and I split two dishes.

The first was the Corned Beef Bennie (pictured way up north), which is just a cutesy way to say Corned Beef Benedict. This started with a buttermilk biscuit base, topped with corned beef hash, horseradish cream, poached eggs and hollandaise. It was every bit as delicious as that sounds and the worst thing I can say about it is how sad I was to have to split it.

The second dish was the “Bacon & Egg” Sliders (their quotation marks, not mine), which was two mini burgers, each topped with their own stuff. The wife took the burger topped with a fried egg, roasted red pepper coulis (which I can only assume is terrible), pickled red onion and further pickled green tomato. I cannot speak for this mini burger, but like the coulis, I can only assume bad things. My half, however, was topped with pig-candy bacon and cheddar. Simple and effective. Unfortunately, as much as I enjoyed the salty and sweet, all I could think about was eating more of that bennie.

The Ruby Slipper Cafe was a good first foray into the cuisine of NOLA and I definitely felt much better-prepared to take on the rest of the town after a hearty brunch such as this.

Bates’ Hamburgers in Farmington Hills has a history with my family. As my step-dad’s favorite burger place in the area, I kind of inherited his love for their classic sliders. In the same vein as Greene’s and Hunter House, Bates’ is the third and final spot I had to review in the greasy trinity of awesome sliders of Metro Detroit. And just like in those other two reviews, it is important to note that these are real sliders: skinny patties prepped on the griddle with onions and the bun on top so that they get that tasty burger steam inside.

I, of course, ordered my double cheeseburger without the onions and without the fluorescent pickles that are known to gravitate towards burgers such as these. I also ordered some chili fries to accompany the burger.

Unfortunately, my desire to avoid pickles was not heeded and I was left with frightening green slices and the residual juices soaked into the bun. Not all was ruined, but it was not a good start. The finish, though, was glorious. The Bates burger simply tasted superior to Hunter House and Greene’s. Perhaps it is a heartier patty or a difference in seasoning, but whatever the case it is simply how it is. The fries were just as I had hoped: crinkle-cut and topped with the wet chili that is endemic to the Detroit area.

If they could deal with their pickle issue and stay open 24/7 like Greene’s, Bates’ would be unstoppable.

The 8 oz. Burger Bar in Melrose has intrigued me for a long time. It combines two of my favorite things, burgers and bars, into one, so I knew eventually I would have to see how well that combination works. I recently got my chance and even went online to check their menu before going. On that menu I saw something that made me want to go even more: Fried Wisconsin Cheese Curds. Cheese curds are one of my favorite things in the world and although I prefer them un-fried, I will eat them anytime I see them offered. Excited about these curds, I stepped into 8 oz. Burger Bar.

Then I looked at their menu and almost cried.

No cheese curds. Quick, unvegan, think fast. There could be a good reason for this. Maybe they are kind of a secret dish only for people who read their menu online. Perhaps they were recently added to the menu online yet, but they hadn’t printed out the new menus for the restaurant yet. Still full of hope, I asked the waitress and she replied that they no longer served them. Drats! I mean how hard is it to take them off the online menu? I checked today and they are still there. Had I never known about the existence of the curds, I would have been happy in my ignorance, but seeing them on the menu online and not actually serving them gave my visit an immediate bitter taste.

We tried to salvage my disappointment by ordering a few sides. These were the fries, sweet potato chips and truffled potato skins. Nothing like a few good starches to get your stomach warmed up. Each of these appetizers tasted good in their own ways, so I didn’t feel like I was getting a potato overload. The sweet potato chips were both the orange and purple variety, which didn’t really taste any different, but were a nice touch.

The potato skins were like none I have ever had before, topped with truffle oil and a light cheese and further cemented my thoughts that truffle oil makes everything taste better. They tasted quite good and were a nice change from the typical potato skins loaded with cheese and bacon (although those are always delicious). The fries were Kennebec…whatever that means. To me it just meant they were pretty damn good. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

But enough about the sides, you say, on to the burgers. Well their normal burger options seemed pretty uninspired from my unvegan point of view. Some started out strong, but then threw in items that would have just ruined them (vegetables). Instead, I ordered their Suds & Slider Sampler. This intrigues me because it offered up a couple of meats not found in ordinary burgers, namely Niman Ranch lamb and wild boar. The third slider was triple prime beef. I knew these wouldn’t be sliders in the real sense, but I thought the mini burgers would be nice.

When they came, I ate them in the order requested of me. First was the wild boar. This burger was cooked extremely rare, which is supposedly necessary with wild boar because otherwise it could get too tough. The flavor was very different from pork, and I think that’s a good thing. Next came the triple prime beef burger. This was a great blend and a great grind. Finally, I delved into the lamb burger. Of the three, this was definitely my favorite. It had a nice taste and was the best-cooked of all.

Just a few comments on the burgers in general. First off, the menu says that they are cooked medium rare to medium. This was a bit of an overstatement, because these burgers definitely seemed to straddle raw and rare. Some people love this, but I don’t know why. The meat in the middle of the burgers, especially the beef one, had a sort of slimy texture that is usually the result of uncooked meat. I couldn’t even finish the beef burger because of this. Also, the buns were pretty big for the size of the burgers. Maybe they just needed to be squeezed down a bit, but I shouldn’t have to open my mouth as wide as it goes to bite into mini hamburgers.

The burgers also came with beer pairings to fulfill the “suds” part of the sampler. I honestly have no recollection of what these suds were, except that they were pretty good and were well-matched with the burgers. Each one was 5 oz., which was just enough to satisfy my thirst.

One thing that 8 oz. Burger Bar has, that some pretentious burger places don’t, is the ability to customize your burger. This is a great option for unvegans, although I didn’t partake in this option. This restaurant has a lot of potential to be great, starting with remedying the cheese curds situation and finishing with cooking their burgers for a length of time not broken down into nanoseconds. If they could take care of these things, 8 oz. Burger Bar could be great, but until then I can find a better meal elsewhere.

In an area saturated with delicious sliders like Greene’s Hamburgers, I never felt any need to visit White Castle in Michigan. Yet, somehow, on my last visit to my homeland I was convinced to take a drive out to Grand River and 8 Mile Road (yeah the same one that Eminem is from) in Farmington Hills to pay a visit to White Castle. The adventure getting there wasn’t worthy of creating an entire film, but still felt like a hike.

A couple of my friends decided to go in on a cardiac arrest-inducing Crave Case, but I decided to do my own thing and ordered the Sack Meal 2. This included two double cheeseburgers, fries and a drink. Since the burgers came with pickles and onions, I ordered without. Now, you may be thinking that two double cheeseburgers is a lot of food, but at White Castle, you are wrong. Each burger patty is about the thickness cardboard (pre-cooked) and about as wide and long as a business card cut in half. Fortunately, the price is as low as you would hope for this sort of food.

My food was done in a few minutes, since it doesn’t take terribly long to cook through something so thin. Each burger came in it’s own little cardstock box like a gift and as I opened and started eating, I was pretty happy. Although they came in a cookie-cutter square shape, they had good flavor and were nice and greasy. The crinkle-cut fries were also pretty good as a companion to these two burgers. Although I could have eaten about sixteen of these, I was glad I had only ordered two. I think my heart was happy as well.

Although not the perfect slider, White Castle actually does a pretty good job of making the more corporate version of the slider. It’s not a place worth getting in the habit of visiting, but when you can’t get yourself a proper mom and pop slider, White Castle isn’t a bad alternative.

Click on that picture to the left to get a free Pulled Pork Slider coupon from White Castle. The coupon is good through June 30th and looks pretty damn good.

I have a hard time believing you can make a real slider out of pulled pork, but since White Castle burgers are true sliders, maybe they are on to something…

*Update: It looks like they are also offering free regular sliders through July 12th. Check out the coupon here. Thanks to AHT for the info.

(via Gizmodo)

The Metro Detroit area seems to have been blessed with a number of great slider joints. Although Hunter House in Birmingham seems to get the most public acclaim, Greene’s Hamburgers in Farmington is no less worthy, if only for the fact that they are open 24 hours a day.

Greene’s resides in a little unassuming porcelain tile-covered building with the words Greene’s Hamburgers written in a basic black font, with the emphasis on Hamburgers. Inside, the place smells like burger heaven, with no large number of stools placed around the counter and against the windows. The menu barely contains more than hamburgers and fries, but there’s really no need to look beyond those items, because they are the real reason people come to Greene’s.

After a long night of drinking Labatt Blue with a buddy of mine, I ordered two double cheeseburgers and some fries. The nice lady behind the counter told me that onions and pickles were optional and I politely told her I had no need for such things. My meal was promptly served within five minutes and just as beautiful as I remembered. These were sliders the way they are meant to be. Nothing in my burger looked like it had come from some pre-packaged patty. Instead, it looked as if the cook had grabbed a handful of beef, flattened it with a spatula on the grill, turned up the heat and finally tossed some cheese on.

These were prime examples of the word “slider,” which some people believe to mean mini-hamburger. This is wholly untrue. A real slider is a greasy burger that, well, slides right through you. Accompanied by the perfectly crunchy krinkle fries, this late-night snack made my unvegan stomach happy. It also left my unvegan wallet happy, as the prices are unbeatable. Beware vegetarians and vegans, there is no alternative for you here.