Photo: rishi989, Flickr
A "slider" can be a sneaky baseball pitch, a 1972 album by T. Rex, a turtle of the genus Trachemys, the mascot of the Cleveland Indians, a potentiometer control, or the little glass tube that connects the bong reservoir to the bowl, but, increasingly, it has come to mean a Lilliputian-size hamburger.
Food historians sometimes trace the origin of this usage to White Castle, the world's first hamburger chain.
The hamburger itself was brought to New York City in the early 19th century by German sailors, who taught cooks in harborside eateries to make patties of ground beef -- as yet, there was no bun. These patties were named after the city of Hamburg, the busiest port in Germany. So appealing was the concept, that hamburgers soon spread to the upper levels of society, and by 1834, New York's most effete restaurant, Delmonico's, listed a "Hamburg Steak" on its menu.






