The Tenderloin:
I once went to Warsaw, IN because I thought I'd find some good perogies there. It turns out that there are no Polish restaurants in Warsaw. That is because Warsaw, Indiana is not directly named after Warsaw, Poland, it is named indirectly. They named the county Kosciusko (dropping the z and mispronouncing it "Kaz-E-os-ko", more on that at the end) after the Polish colonel Tadeusz Kościuszko, who helped George Washington and the American army in the Revolutionary war. So it made sense to name the new county seat after the Capitol of the country he came from, Poland. And although there are no perogies to be found in all of Warsaw, there are tenderloins...
I've always heard that the older, dingier places in the center of old town are the best places to eat. But, don't be fooled by the newer looking, clean place on the outskirts of town that is called American Table Restaurant. What can be mistaken for a generic fast casual chain is actually a local family owned restaurant that's been in Warsaw since 1987. And the food? Well, if the rest of the menu is anything like the tenderloin, it has to be the best in the city. It started off on a good note when I ordered the sandwich. I get it plain with just hot sauce. I usually ask for two options, either hot sauce straight out of a bottle, or wing sauce. When the waitress offered option three - "The boys in the back make their own hot sauce, will that be OK?", I knew I was about to eat something special. The tenderloin was freshly breaded and fried, you can even tell by the lines in the breading from the metal basket that would dip the meat into the oil. A frozen loin wouldn't have those types of lines. Although the area wasn't anything circus size, the thickness of the meat makes up for it. The loin was deep and juicy which was perfectly complemented by the crispness of the fried breading. With the homemade hot sauce, I can see why some people consider this one of the best places for a tenderloin. This place sits right off route 30 and should be considered on any type of food or tenderloin tour.
The Town:
In most county seats in Indiana, you have the historical museum for the county. As much as I like history and museums, you can find the county museums quite dull if you do not live there and are not familiar with the cities and towns in the area. But, when the county museum is in an old jail built 150 years ago (1870) there is reason for excitement. Scattered around the two floors of old cells is local history, but you can also see how small and cramped these people had to live all locked up. I thought my dorm room in college was so small to share with one person, these are smaller rooms you share with three. And your roommates aren't just some dude from California either, they could be some nasty people. They even have a kid sized bed in there for when woman were jailed. There was no child services back then, so if the dad wasn't around, kids went to jail too. Solitary confinement room is open to walk into also, I got some chills walking in that room that has pretty much remain unchanged in the last century and a half. You can also find the old sheriff's residence that was in the same building as the jail. Imagine that, you and your family living in the same building with the people you lock up, with just a wall in between.
Warsaw contains one of the last, if not the last, cut glass companies in the country. Warsaw Cut Glass, on the south side of downtown, has a showroom you can visit to browse or purchase quality etched glassware. They don't make the glass here, they grind the patterns into the raw glass. Think of it like this, when you purchase a whisky tumbler it will have some machine etched carving, paint, or even a sticker on it to give it character. This place hand grinds the design on a wheel of aluminum oxide. You get your own unique design done by a person. I got to take a tour of the factory and met with Randy Kerkendall, the craftsman who has been doing this here for over 40 years. I watched him cut a glass with the signature pattern (branches and leaves) from memory. I then got to buy that exact glass and even drank bourbon in it later that night. This is a wonderful local shop. It's perfect for giving someone a unique gift or even just getting something cool for yourself.
Just up the road from Warsaw Cut Glass is a Mexican Ice Cream shop called Botanas Locas, which loosely translated means "crazy snacks" or "crazy appetizers". Granted, you can get a chocolate shake here, but I was wanting something I've never had before. Since I am not familiar with Mexican desserts, I asked what the most popular traditional item is. The lady sold me on a Mangonada. It is mango ice cream with a chamoy sauce and chili pepper powder. Chopped mangos are then placed on top of that. It also comes with a tamarind straw, which has a spicy / candy coating on the outside. If you are not familiar with those type of ingredients, I'm not going to go through them, feel free to look them up on wikipedia. What I will do for you is describe the taste. The mango ice cream is very sweet, it powers the taste of the whole dessert. The chamoy sauce and chili pepper add sourness and hot spice. These flavors do not overpower the sweetness of the mango ice cream, but rather complement them. When you get some chopped mangos in your bite, it also adds a bit of tartness to the flavor also. Never did I get any sense of hot spiciness or even break a sweat, but I knew it was there, well except the one time I took a sip through the straw and got a mouthful of just chamoy, that was pretty spicy. Based on what was on the spoon, every bite was different depending on the proportions of the ingredients I had happened to scoop up, but all the bites were absolutely delicious. This is something everyone needs to try. In addition to desserts, there is also a selection of food here, and tacos on the weekends.
I took a hike along the Chinworth Bidge trail, to see.. well... the Chinworth Bridge. If you read a couple of my blogs, you will usually find a walk to a bridge or dam. Sorry, I'm a Civil Engineer, so these peak my interest and you should see a lot of these in the future too. The trail weaves around backyards and parks until you get to the decommissioned pedestrian bridge. Built in 1897, it used to carry traffic from route 30. Over time the route moved away from the bridge and it was closed to vehicle traffic altogether. It's just really neat to see these old iron bridges. They don't make them anymore and more are being torn down every year.
Well, Warsaw may not have perogies, but it does have a lot of other fine stuff from old jails and bridges, to glassware, to Mangonadas, and tenderloins. it's a nice little city and like the others, I look forward to future visits to the "Orthopedic Capital of the World".
See you've been pronouncing it wrong all these years "KOS-CHOOS-KO"
See, I got to drink bourbon out of the glass that same night
by Michael Tomko
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Garrett Indiana.....my home town. There is nothing like one of those tenderloin sandwiches.