Cincinnati Chili

[Gillman]

Thanks all. We can do a new thread, but I've learned a lot. I thought tenderloin sandwiches are the same as the butterflied sandwich mentioned, so I see now these are two different things.

I never heard of the made-rite sandwich, I like that, want to try that too.

In Ontario we don't have many local foods or preparations but one that most people know is the peameal bacon sandwich. This is the cured but not smoked pork loin, cut in thick slices, coated (whole before the slicing) in yellow corn meal (nothing to do with peas, maybe yellow pea meal was used originally), fried, and piled on a kaiser roll. It is very good with a little mustard or ketchup and some people specify a dusting of black pepper. You can add tomato slices and lettuce. Traditionally though it is eaten plain. I've tried it on different breads but for some reason only a kaiser roll will do.

The Mennonite summer sausage sandwiches from southwestern Ontario are very good and here, I've seen (in their native area) most people eat them on plain white bread, the Wonderloaf-type. And strangely, it tastes really good that way. But the summer sausage has a lot of salt and I find it hard to take that as I get older. The peameal, being commercially cured and kept cold until sold or prepared, is not too salty at all.

Gary

[cowdery]

A parting shot.

[Gillman]

Gimme five of 'em!

Gary

[cowdery]

This is the first I've heard of Maid-Rite Sandwiches, even though they seem to be in this basic region. Since I love this sort of thing (regional cuisines, that is) I did some research and found the Maid-Rite Web Site.

Apparently, Gary, their menu includes tenderloin sandwiches.

[Gillman]

Thanks much that looks great. This is an operation with long roots (i.e., one of the older, smaller franchises like White Castle - I like that one too) and is no retro invention, I love the pictures of the store and counter from the 1930's. Even if (as inevitably) new locations are just copies of the original, at least there was an original! And they are using the same recipe for their signature dish. In fact, their whole menu has a 1930's feel to it. I am on a loose sandwich quest, friends...

Gary

[Gillman]

Some may be interested (or not) in my interest in such plain Jane regional fare. It has to do less with how the food actually tastes - although often the food is justification enough - and more to do with the fact that it is real and comes from real places. (So does more elegant fare, which is as valid, just different). One time I read in a biography of (famed American novelist) Jack Kerouac that he first met his first wife, Edie Parker, in a luncheonette in Manhattan. And what drew Edie Parker to Jack's attention, he later said, was that she ate one after the other four hot dogs covered with sauerkraut! He loved that and it made him love her. Kerouac had a tendency to exaggerate in the later years, but the marriage didn't last too long, so probably he was more right than wrong in the recollection. To me that story is all about luncheonettes and being young and America, really.

Gary

[CrispyCritter]

This is the first I've heard of Maid-Rite Sandwiches, even though they seem to be in this basic region. Since I love this sort of thing (regional cuisines, that is) I did some research and found the Maid-Rite Web Site.

Indeed, they're mostly in Iowa and western Illinois (e.g. Quincy and the Quad Cities area). There are a few in Ohio as well, but it seems that they skipped the Chicago area completely.

Another out-of-place regional franchise that I've seen is the Wienerschnitzel (a California chain of hot-dog stands) in Champaign, Illinois. Their hot dogs were OK, but I'd take a Chicago dog over theirs any day.

[jbarlycorn]

Camp Washington Chili is my personal favorite. "American Regional Classic" James Beard Award, CBS News 1985 "the best chili in the nation". Blues musician Lonnie Mack sings a song entitled "Camp Washington Chili".[
Open 24 hours, its relation to bourbon is pehaps best decribed as an "after the bars close" destination. Any similarities to Mexican mole dishes are purely coincidental.
Cheap, watery, greasy, and VERY good.
Robert

[jburlowski]

Open 24 hours, its relation to bourbon is pehaps best decribed as...Robert

... "better than the dry heaves".