Regional foods can contain multitudes of memories

THE SANDWICH goes by several names, including “canteen”, “tavern” and, most descriptively, “loose meat”. First sold in Muscatine, Iowa, nearly a century ago, it is now popular across the state. Like a hamburger, a Maid-Rite—as the dish is known at Dan’s Sandwich Shop in Newton, Iowa—is made from ground beef. But instead of a patty flipped off a grill, diners get a scoop of loose, pebbly, well-done meat dug out of a cooking trough and dumped onto a bun, typically topped with mustard, ketchup and pickles.