Philadelphia Magazine writer Jason Fagone spent one year profiling some of the most divinely outsized personalities in the world of competitive eating. While Akron house painter Coondog O'Karma makes a midlife grab at glory via rapid-fire pizza consumption, Bill "El Wingador" Simmons attempts to reclaim Wong Bowl supremacy from 90lb Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas, and day trader Tim Janus dons the mantle of the mysterious Eater X, it all comes down to one shared hunger. They all want to win the Mustard Yellow Belt of International Hot Dog Eating Supremacy back from the Japanese who'd dominated the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest nearly every year since 1997.
Back in July of 2001, that would mean beating the record of 25 1/8 set the previous year by Kazutoyo "The Rabbit" Arai.
Our intrepid pack of testers blind-chomped their way through fifty different franks, hot dogs and wieners in hot pursuit of the top tube steak in all the land. Not a single chicken, turkey or tofu dog made the final cut, while beef and pork reigned supreme. Did your favorite frank lead the pack?
Today for lunch I'm having a local, Maine made dog, W. A. Bean & Sons Red Hot, that I'm cooking up myself for a change. Beans meats have been made in Maine since 1860. Red dyed, natural casing dogs are big up here, but this was the first time I have seen Red Hot's. Meaty pork franks, very mildly spicy at first, then with a bit of back of the mouth heat later. I wouldn't call them very spicy, but they're pretty tasty, especially with some of my spicy onion sauce. So far they are some of the best dogs I've ever had.
I have been eating Walter's Hot Dogs in Mamaroneck, NY ever since I worked around the corner for a few months after High School. I was a truck driver for a medical supply warehouse and delivered to hospitals all over the NYC Metro area. I was waiting for my 18th B'day to roll around so I could get a job in a wine shop, but had my hot rod to maintain, so any job was a good job, and I have always liked to drive.
I would start early in the morning, so my day would end just after what everyone else called lunchtime. For me this was great because by that time the lines for lunch were gone at most places, and it was easy to get something quick just about anywhere. One place I stopped by almost every week was Walter's.
It's situated in one of those roadfood meccas, styled like a Chinese Pagoda with a copper roof, built back in 1928. Walter's dogs are served up by the hundreds and the thousands every day since they first opened in 1919. Long lines at lunch and dinner mellow out a bit in between. The dogs themselves are a very mild frank, butterflied, the split dogs are grilled in a secret sauce on each side until they are lightly browned and starting to curl and served on a toasted bun.
The usual way to order is with the spicy relish, which is basically a mix of brown mustard and relish. On the side a small basket of fries, onion rings, or sweet potato puffs, and to drink it's mandatory to get one of Walter's famous shakes or malteds made from their own ice cream. I would usually have three or four dogs at a time, being a growing boy who was skinny as a rail and with a fast metabolism. Last time I was there a year ago I could handle two and a shake, no fries, and was full the rest of the day.
AOL Health Editor Katherine Steinberg submitted the photo above for inclusion in the Midnight Sausage series, but we thought it was worthy of a post all its own.
"As I was wandering the streets of London foraging for food, I came across something even more foreign to me than the British slang -- the hot dog hamburger, or the 'express special'. It was so strange that I had to take a picture. I'm not sure what about this makes it faster than your average meal, but I do know that it comes with fries. But don't get too excited, judging by the recent price dip, it won't be popping up in your local deli anytime soon."
Has anyone seen or sampled this frankenfood in London or elsewhere? We'd love a first-hand account.
Grilling and the summer season go hand-in-hand. So it's only natural that, once Memorial Day arrives, you break out the grill and the coals and the burgers (or, if you're me, the latter is of the faux variety).
But what if you're not too keen on that lighter fluid/coal taste on your food, and you don't want to invest in a gas grill? No problem - get yourself a Baja BBQ Firepack from Mike and Maaike. It's a great eco alternative to your typical grills, (46,200 tons of lighter fluid are sold each year, and they emit 14,500 tons of VOCs, or Volatile Organic Compounds, which can deplete the ozone layer and are generally unhealthy for our lungs).
So, how does the Baja BBQ work? Simple: Light the chemical-free, 100% recycled and biodegradable paper pulp container that contains 2 pounds of charcoal. It burns down on its own and after 15-20 minutes, you'll have a pile of charcoal that will perfectly grill your meat, veggies, or dessert without any of the added chemicals or gross lighter fluid taste.
Hot Diggity Dog! L.A. is a hot-dog kinda town. From Pink's to Dodger's Stadium to a variety of zesty newcomers, the lowly hot-dog is still much beloved in Tinsel-town.
For the most part, food and drink holidays come one per day, but today it's a regular smorgasbord.
Today is National Lollipop Day, National Hot Dog Day and National Ice Cream Soda Day! And that sounds like...well, a stomach ache. I would suggest not eating them all at once but maybe eating them at each meal. Maybe some lollipops for breakfast, a hot dog or two for lunch, and a couple of ice cream sodas for dinner.
Summertime always sparks a craving for hot dogs. No doubt it's largely due to fond memories of childhood barbecues. I've little or no time for whining about whether wieners make for unhealthful eating. Debates about how to cook 'em hold infinitely more interest. As a New Yorker, I'm no stranger to so-called dirty water dogs. I've been known to eat one now and again, but I much prefer the grilled dogs of my childhood. I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that deep-fried dogs are a relatively new indulgence for me.
Tastiness aside, I realize deep-fried dogs are probably about as good for you as pork cracklins, though no less tasty. Lately I've been reading about hot dog cooking methods that are down right life-threatening. I'm not talking about holding your dog over an open flame with your bare hands, but zapping it with the current that comes out of your wall. Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories gives step-by-step instructions for this novel way to fry your frank along with the warning, "Do not, under any circumstances, cook hot dogs this way." To their credit EMSL repeatedly points out the danger of being electrocuted by cooking a wiener via wall current, and notes that the taste of the final product leaves something to be desired.
The second bizarre method of hot dog cooking I came across is not so much life-threatening in terms of process, but yields a product, that deserves to be called palate deadening. For some reason Jaime J. Weinman decided to microwave a hot dog until all the fat had been rendered out. After 10 minutes of zapping the poor frankfurter, it was reduced to a dry tasteless stick. I'd be hard-pressed to find any cured sausage that didn't taste downright awful after being nuked for five minutes, much less 10. [via BoingBoing, Serious Eats]
Now that grilling season is here, I'd thought I'd tell you about a unique piece of hot-dog paraphernalia I came across the other day. Not satisfied with the capacity of one company's weenie roaster that's frankly quite phallic, blogger bbum had them create a macabre device that can roast several dogs at a time.
Even though it looks more like the Punisher, this device was modeled after horror writer H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu, a tentacled undersea demigod worshipped by cults and feared by mortal men. I wonder whether cooking seafood sausages on this contraption would incur some form of primeval wrath. [via Boing Boing]
A hot dog stand in a Chicago suburb has come up with a meaty way to celebrate Christmas: reindeer redhots. Fred Markoff, the owner of Redhots and Fries in Glenview, is known for serving up exotic meats, including smoked alligator and pork sausage.
Markoff opted not to serve the $8 reindeer wiener Chicago-style with mustard, onion, sweet pickle and sport peppers. The only resemblance the reindeer redhot bears to a Chicago dog is its poppy seed bun. Everything else, including the toppings of mustard and grilled onions and the meat itself, is pure Alaska.
Markoff gets the reindeer dogs from Alaska's Indian Valley Meats. Incidentally, the redhot isn't pure Rudolph. Reindeer meat is far too lean to produce a tasty dog, so the wiener also includes beef and pork. Despite the blend of meats, Markoff is considering putting a grape tomato on one end of the dog in what would amount to a most unusual display of Christmas spirit.
Good grief. Get your minds of the gutter, Slashfoodies!
It's a photo of Mushroom and Garden Vegetable Chicken Sausage from Hot Doug's in Chicago, as taken by Erielle of food blog Fancy Toast. I am familiar with Hot Doug's, as it was one of the spots on my Short List of places to hit on a trip to Chicago last fall, but I never made it, opting instead to stay close to my downtown hotel. Now reading through Erielle's account of how people will wait in a line that wraps around the block for one of Hot Doug's sausages, and particularly seeing the photos, I am kicking myself.
Ah, just another reason to get myself back to one of my favorite cities, I guess!
Did you know that a place that sells hot dogs is called a "doggerie"? Neither did I, until I heard writer Paul Lukas use the term to describe hot dog vendors in his quest for the best hot dogs in New York City. He feels that hot doggeries are steadily becoming more common, as more New Yorkers accept that a great hot dog can be a whole meal, not just "a snack to be eaten on the run." His quest was designed to help hot dog lovers in the big city find their way to the most satisfying dogs.
He set a few ground rules: all-beef with natural casing for the dogs, and toppings had to be either mustard and/or diced onions. He found a lot of dogs, but not all of them were up to snuff. Here are some of the best:
Brooklyn Diner USA - Really good, and really huge, dogs. Their "15-Bite Hot Dog" measures 15-inches in length and 5 inches around!
Crif Dogs - Skip their signature deep-fried dog and go for the all-beef, which is crisp and delicious, especially when washed down with a shot of Jägermeister.
Katz's - Super beefy, these dogs deserve the name "tube steaks." The buns aren't as good as the dogs, but you'll get over it once you start to dig in.
July 4th. Surf and Stillwell Avenues. The crowd, thousands strong, bristles in the scorching heat, and the announcer hams it up.
"This, the hot dog, the symbol of patriotism!" he bellows; the crowd cheers.
It's the 91st annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, and I stand in the throngs to bear witness. American Joey Chestnut keeps a one-to-two-dog lead over five-time champion Takeru Kobayashi. The mood tenses, tight as a sausage skin. The minutes tick by. Kobayashi evens the score. Then he steps ahead. The clock winds to zero, and Kobayashi wins by a dog and three quarters at 53.75.
The 12 minutes of the contest leave me breathless, and I marvel at the notion of food as a patriotic symbol. Is a hot dog patriotic? Do other foods share the honor?
July is National Hot Dog month and summer is certainly an appropriate choice, as Americans eat 7 billion hot dogs during the summer (from Memorial Day to Labor Day), cooking up two thirds of them in the backyard or at home, and a total of 20 billion every year. On the 4th of July alone, 150 million hot dogs will be eaten in the US and most will be grilled, since 60% of Americans say that they prefer to eat them that way.
Want to test your hot dog trivia knowledge? Take the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council's online quiz and see if you have the goods on one of America's favorite foods. I have to admit that I only got 7 out of 10. What are you waiting for? Test the test and let us know how you scored in the comments!
Philadelphia Magazine writer Jason Fagone spent one year profiling some of the most divinely outsized personalities in the world of competitive eating. While Akron house painter Coondog O'Karma makes a midlife grab at glory via rapid-fire pizza consumption, Bill "El Wingador" Simmons attempts to reclaim Wong Bowl supremacy from 90lb Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas, and day trader Tim Janus dons the mantle of the mysterious Eater X, it all comes down to one shared hunger. They all want to win the Mustard Yellow Belt of International Hot Dog Eating Supremacy back from the Japanese who'd dominated the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest nearly every year since 1997.
Today in the Los Angeles Times food Section:
For the most part, food and drink holidays come one per day, but today it's a regular smorgasbord.
Summertime always sparks a craving for hot dogs. No doubt it's largely due to fond memories of childhood barbecues. I've little or no time for whining about whether wieners make for unhealthful eating. Debates about how to cook 'em hold infinitely more interest. As a New Yorker, I'm no stranger to so-called dirty water dogs. I've been known to eat one now and again, but I much prefer the grilled dogs of my childhood. I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that deep-fried dogs are a relatively new indulgence for me.
Now that grilling season is here, I'd thought I'd tell you about a unique piece of hot-dog paraphernalia I came across the other day. Not satisfied with the capacity of one company's 
A hot dog stand in a Chicago suburb has come up with a meaty way to celebrate Christmas: reindeer redhots. Fred Markoff, the owner of Redhots and Fries in Glenview, is known for serving up exotic meats, including smoked alligator and pork sausage. 
Did you know that a place that sells hot dogs is called a "doggerie"? Neither did I, until I heard writer Paul Lukas use the term to describe hot dog vendors in his quest for the 
July 4th. Surf and Stillwell Avenues. The crowd, thousands strong,
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