Springfield, Illinois, has its horseshoe, and Rochester, New York, its garbage plate; St. Louis’s devil-may-care meal of outrageous proportions is known as a slinger. Eaten for lunch or breakfast or as a predawn prophylactic for an oncoming hangover, its exact configuration varies, but a typical slinger would be two hamburger patties sided by fried potatoes, topped with a fried egg or two, completely blanketed with chili, then garnished with grated cheese and chopped raw onions.
St. Louis’s venerable Goody-Goody Diner (60+ years in business) serves a very similar dish, known there as a Wilbur. Rather than being anchored by burgers, a Wilbur is more an omelet. It comes loaded with peppers, onions, tomatoes, and home-fried potatoes and blanketed with chili and then shredded cheese. It’s the chili that makes the dish: a moderately spiced concoction laced with plenty of meat, also available plain in a bowl or as part of the magic Midwest duet known as chili mac: noodles topped with chili. Usually, chili mac comes garnished by a mass of shredded cheddar cheese . . . unless you order chili mac a la mode, which in St. Louis means a crown of two fried eggs.