BY TIM MALM, RIPTIDE IOWA BUREAU
In Iowa, eating is serious business. Portions are typically large. Quality is pretty good to excellent and always priced to provide a good value. The number one item on the menu of regional Iowa specialty cuisine has to be the "tenderloin." This sandwich consists of a breaded and deep-fat-fried piece of tenderized pork tenderloin, served on a bun, with your choice of condiments. Seeing the sandwich, one is first struck by the size of the meat. It always dwarfs the bun. This is an essential feature. If the meat isn't at least three inches in diameter larger than the bun, then the sandwich is immediately judged inadequate. I've eaten tenderloins where the meat has even obscured the plate the sandwich was served on. Imagine the planet Jupiter is a tenderloin sandwich. Jupiter's red spot would be the bun. That's a good tenderloin! Topped with mustard, ketchup, and onion, the sandwich above retails for $5 (for two of them) at the employee-owned HyVee grocery store on Agency Street in Burlington, Iowa every Tuesday. Your drink is not included.
Had a pork tenderloin sandwich like that in Downtown Kansas City a couple blocks down the street from the Hallmark Headquarters Building.
Posted by: jim alex | January 03, 2010 at 09:04 AM
Why, Mary Ann, you food pornographer, you! Can you say "a nice and crispy, deep-fat-fried pork tenderloin sandwich -- yum!" again? Please, oh, pleeaasse? Happy New Year
Posted by: todd bray | January 01, 2010 at 12:16 AM
OMG, seeing this makes me long for my youth when calories did not matter. I was born in Mt. Pleasant, just a short distance from Burlington. The only place I have seen pork tenderloin sandwiches is in Iowa and HyVee makes the best! They are, in fact, at least twice the size of the bun! I am sure it is an acquired taste and I have not had one for years, but a nice and crispy, deep-fat-fried pork tenderloin sandwich - yum! Now with this mouth watering memory in tow, I am sure I have gained another 3 lbs. just looking. Let me get my Lipitor! Thanks for the memories.
And Todd, you can always get a large side of bacon in Iowa! :)
Happy New Year
Mary Ann
Posted by: Mary Ann Nihart | December 31, 2009 at 06:09 PM
If it's Iowa, there ought to be a corn-dog on the side. (That's not an insult. I love corn-dogs.)
Posted by: Steve Sinai | December 31, 2009 at 01:57 PM
Sometimes in life we have to enjoy those things that are not "good" for us. No one says you have to make it your whole diet.
(And I'm with Todd, a pork sandwich with a side of pork - YUM!)
Posted by: Bruce Hotchkiss | December 31, 2009 at 11:45 AM
Jimmy, it should be served with a side of bacon. A large side of bacon.
Posted by: todd bray | December 31, 2009 at 11:22 AM
That should be served with a side of Lipitor.
Posted by: Jim Currie | December 30, 2009 at 09:32 AM