You've got to be desperate to eat at White Castle. As someone who loves a junk binge as much as the next, someone who hasn't hesitated in the past to devour deep-fried pig anus or sheep-brain sandwiches, I sternly urge you to save yourself the steel-wool shower.
White Castle is the home of sliders; a sort of mini burger often served with no vegetables or cheese. It's one of America's cheapest and saddest fast-food chains and during my teenage brother's recent visit to the States, I gamely accompanied him to an outpost for a bit of vicarious self-loathing.
Ask yourself what you'd expect to pay for two miscellaneous meat sliders at an American fast-food restaurant. Frank paid $1.56.
Of course, not all burger-and-fries joints in America are quite so cheap but, even off the back of a global recession, most of the big chains are doing just fine. McDonald's made more than US$6 billion ($7 billion) last year.
But in the fast-food nation, chains are taking increasing flak for their employees' McWoeful employment conditions.
