"sliders" news and stories

Garlic breath can be yours, sliders fans. White Castle is giving away coupons for a free Garlic Cheese Slider on Facebook (for a limited time). One of three new limited-edition sandwiches that will be available only through October 30; the others are Garlic Cheese & Mushroom and Garlic Cheese & Chicken Marinara.

To get the coupon, you must "Like" the White Castle page on Facebook. Print it out and use it at any of the nationwide locations. The coupon will be available on White Castle's Facebook page through October 22.

What exactly is a Garlic Cheese Slider? It's the traditional White Castle patty topped with a slice of garlic cheese. The Garlic Cheese & Mushroom Slider has its 'shrooms in a "savory sauce" (what that sauce is, we're not exactly sure); and the Chicken Marinara Slider takes a breaded chicken breast and tops it with garlic cheese and Italian marinara sauce. We're still waiting on the offer for complimentary breath mints.

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.

The concept behind Boston Market is simple: Pick up what you need for dinner and be on your way. And with 514 stores in the U.S., it's evident that it's a successful formula for the Golden, Colorado, based company. Problem is, the chain's big sellers -- hearty fare like rotisserie chicken, meatloaf, and pot pies -- are great for family meals, but the company wants customers to come in for a new reason: snacktime.

Enter the slider.

Boston Market is rolling out three of the small sandwiches, which company execs are calling "a lighter meal" or "an afternoon snack." And though though the word "sliders" typically means one thing -- tiny burgers -- apparently the term is now being employed to describe any miniature sandwich: Boston Market's offerings are meatloaf and cheddar, turkey and swiss, and BBQ chicken and cheddar.

More about the new sliders after the jump.

Of all the trompe l'oeil (French for "trick the eye") cupcakes we've seen on Slashfood - toasted ravioli cupcake, ice cream cone cupcakes, caramel apple cupcakes - these mini-burgers, or "sliders," may just be my favorite. The buns are vanilla cupcakes, the burgers are bits of chocolate cupcake, lettuce is shredded coconut, and ketchup and mustard are red and yellow icing.

These come from Smiley's Sweets and Creations, via Tastespotting. I'm thinking these definately have a place on my upcoming March Madness menu...

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Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert!

In last night's episode of Top Chef, teams created dishes to serve at a block party in a Chicago neighborhood. First things first: This was one intense block party. We're talking moon bounce and dunk tanks. In fact, now that I think about it, the food didn't even look like the best thing there.