![\"\"](\"http:\/\/hamburgersaremylife.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/06\/maid-rite.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oops, mixed my metaphors\u2026or adages, or something.\u00a0 A friend and I were emailing this week about how easy it is for certain foods to bring on a \u201chome memory,\u201d\u00a0 some flashback to our earlier years and locations.<\/p>\n
Whereas once we had to try and devise copycat recipes for whatever our particular craving was, now the internet is full of sites will send you a \u201ctaste of home,\u201d whether it is New York Bagels, Philly Cheesesteaks, Chicago pizzas, or Kingcakes from New Orleans.<\/p>\n
Our discussion was prompted by the fact I was telling her I was making \u201cMaid-Rites\u201d that day \u2013 a staple from my days in Iowa.\u00a0 I described them to her, and she said \u201cOh, loose meat sandwiches,\u201d\u00a0 which is what these delicacies were labeled during some episodes of the \u201cRoseanne\u201d show.\u00a0 Roseanne\u2019s husband at the time, Tom Arnold, was originally from Ottumwa, Iowa (also the fictional hometown of MASH\u2019s Radar O\u2019Reilly, and not very far from Riverside, Iowa, the town where future Starfleet Commander James T. Kirk will be born on March 21, 2233.<\/p>\n
Maid-Rites are an Iowa institution.\u00a0 Created by Muscatine butcher Fred Angell in 1926, the sandwich\u2019s first taster was a deliveryman who said \u201cFred, this sandwich is made right,\u201d and thus began the name and the legend.<\/p>\n
The sandwiches are crumbled, ground beef, cooked on a bed of onions, with \u201cspecial spices\u201d (I think it\u2019s just yellow mustard) stirred in; they are served on a traditional hamburger bun with dill pickle chips.<\/p>\n
They were the first fast-food franchise, back in the 20s, and the first four franchisees are still operating to this day.\u00a0 They were ahead of the curve in other ways \u2013 they created both the walk-up, and drive-thru window serving options.<\/p>\n
Distinctly an \u201cUpper Midwest\u201d kinda thing, I estimate there are about 100 Maid-Rites in operation; but franchises are available, if this essay is creating a gnawing hunger in you, of either the food or the financial kind.\u00a0 While I don\u2019t think they take credit for inventing them, at most Maid-Rite\u2019s, you can enjoy another Midwest food icon:\u00a0 mini-donuts.\u00a0 Other than those two signature items, most of the establishments have a general coffee shop menu, with sandwiches, soups, and ice cream favorites.<\/p>\n
The chain sometimes uses the slogan “Too Good to be a Patty.”\u00a0 Although another Midwest institution, White Castle, is a few years older, and has grown to be many, many times the size of Maid-Rite, for Iowan’s everywhere, Maid-Rites are the burger of choice.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oops, mixed my metaphors\u2026or adages, or something.\u00a0 A friend and I were emailing this week about how easy it is for certain foods to bring on a \u201chome memory,\u201d\u00a0 some flashback to our earlier years and locations. Whereas once we had to try and devise copycat recipes for whatever our particular craving was, now the… Continue reading Anywhere, IA – Loose Meat Sandwiches<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34],"tags":[2133,2192],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}