Horseshoe sandwiches are ubiquitous in Springfield, Illinois, but no one eats them anywhere else. Like many folk foods, they’re hard to define, but all share a toasted bread base, a pile of some meat or other, a slathering of sauce, and, in place of the usual toast topper, a full spud canopy. A modern “shoe” is perhaps the most massive single-dish meal in the nation, comparable in both size and spirit to the notorious Rochester (New York) garbage plate: a kitchen-sink meal of nutritionally wicked elements doled out in awesome proportions. At breakfast time, you can get the shoes slathered with cream gravy or cheese sauce and covered with hash browns. Lunch and supper shoes are piled up with hamburgers, pork tenderloin cutlets, fried chicken, whitefish, or just about any other main course you’d find on the menu of a diner or pub and strewn with french fries. Of course, good meat is important to a shoe’s success, and some claim the cheese sauce is the key, but in our experience it is the potatoes that make or break the dish.
God bless America.
I lived in Springfield for almost 5 years, and I can’t tell you how many of these I consumed. And, I still weighed a measly 165 pounds. The two places they mention getting these at, aren’t even that great. If you want a recommendation, ask me. I know all the secrets. :) Plus they don’t mention you can get a ‘Pony Shoe’ which is half the size. I cannot wait until November when I am in Springfield, and can have one of these again. You can even get ‘Horseshoes’ at Steak N’ Shake in Springfield.
I know…. I’m a glutton..
Reblogged from Covenger + Kester.
9.25.09 18 note(s)
