Even though my favorite sandwich was and is the classic Philadelphia
cheese steak, I used to really like the Arby's
steak sandwich. And the barbeque sauce Arby's had was fantastic. Every time I entered
Arby's and saw the large chunk of meat roasting, I would start salivating. Agda
and I got married in Santa Monica City Hall many years ago and afterwards she,
I and Sergio, Agda's brother, who was our Best Man, took my jeep for service at
the Toyota place in Santa Monica and went across the street to Arby's for our
honeymoon lunch. Those were the days!
And growing up in
Upper Darby, a suburb of Philadelphia, I loved going to the pre-MacDonald White
Castle at 69th St. for their tiny little burgers. You could eat 5-10 of them
and not get filled up.
But then the unthinkable happened - Arby's stopped using
real meat and (I think) began using "pink slime" molded to look like
real meat. And White Castles essentially disappeared and their tiny little burgers
became known as "sliders", which are these days available at every bar for Happy
Hour. What an ugly word for a divine little hamburger.
But all was not lost - the Arby's barbeque sauce has remained!
And so did the only thing I like at MacDonald's - the HiC orange drink. And the
White Castle restaurant was immortalized in the 2004 mind-bending movie, "Howard
and Kumar go to White Castle".
Yes, those were the days!
