The state of Indiana has given exactly two culinary gifts to the rest of the world. One of them is Wonder Bread, which some of us Hoosiers are apologetic about. But the other one is our hubcap-sized offering to the bar food gods: the fried pork tenderloin sandwich.
In theory, it’s simple. Take a chunk of pork tenderloin, pound it flat, batter and fry it and put it on a bun with some onions, pickles and mayo. Not much to it. But in Indiana and some other Midwestern states like Iowa, a sort of arms race has developed to see who can serve the widest, most comically huge piece of pork on an ordinary-sized bun. Sometimes the result looks like a sandwich. Sometimes it looks like a slab of meat levitating an inch above the table.