Place: Chicago Dog
Lunch: Jumbo chili dog basket (chili dog, potato salad, kettle chips, pickle), Pepsi
Smiling Counter Girl, who usually works at the downtown store, is having issues with the POS system..
"I CAN'T SEE THE SCREEN! I'M TOO SHORT!"
Other Girl, who seems to be doing nothing: "Well stand on your tippy toes."
She literally tries this and eventually enters my order. "I think it's the glare," she notes.
Other Girl: "You should wear sunglasses."
She gives me my total, and it's about two bucks less than it should be.
"You did put that in as a jumbo dog, didn't you?"
"Oh CRAP," she replies. "HEY THAT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A JUMBO!"
Other Girl: "THAT'S A JUMBO!"
Girl In Back Making Food: "A JUMBO?"
"YES SHE'S RE-PRINTING THE TICKET!"
It's National Hot Dog Day, and this is my second chili dog of the morning. The first was at 5:30am because I had to go to work early, and whenever I have to go to work early, I swing by QuikTrip and get a chili dog. It's tradition. It's also completely necessary because I'm not getting through a workday that early without a gutbomb breakfast.
You could argue that I'm doing National Hot Dog Day wrong since there's also a National Chili Dog Day (last Thursday in July), but I'll probably have a couple Nathan's hot dogs, sans chili, for dinner. So there.
Hot dog cooking at home has gotten far easier recently. I discovered a couple of products from a company called Nostalgia. The first is a hot dog toaster. It has two round slots to put hot dogs in and two arched slots to put buns in. In less than five minutes, you have cooked hot dogs and toasted buns. AMAZING! It works great, but the slots only fit standard width dogs, so no plump or jumbo dogs. One of the complaints I've seen about them is using Ball Park's "plump when you cook 'em" dogs because they fit in initially, then get stuck when they cook.
The second is their hot dog roller grill. A mini counter top roller grill that will take on pretty much any straight round sausage you throw at it...or carefully place on it. In 15-25 minutes (depending on the size of the dog), you have perfect roller grill dogs. I use the crap out of that thing. You can fit about eight standard length dogs on it at a time, or four longer ones.
Since pretty much everything I post anymore includes a stupid listicle, here's a list of my current favorite dogs, be it at home or about town.
Nathan's Jumbo Restaurant Style Beef Franks - Nathan's has a wide variety of dogs available at supermarkets. These are the ones to get. Unless you want to deep fry them, which requires the Natural Casing variety. Simply my favorite hot dog ever.
Sabrett Bun-Size Beef Frankfurter - Similar to Nathan's. Slightly stronger taste. Probably a better pairing with sauerkraut. I don't like sauerkraut. But I like these.
Schmidt's Bahama Mama - A Columbus, OH-based staple since 1886 (they still operate a restaurant in German Village), this dog has as perfect a mix of spicy and hot dog I've ever had. Not too spicy unless you put spicy mustard on them. That'll clear your nostrils. A popular roller grill item at Maverik convenience stores out west and at EZ-Go's on the Kansas turnpike. If you're in the Cincinnati area, you can find grocery packages at Jungle Jim's.
Vienna Beef - A Chicago staple. If you're making a Chicago-style dog, this is the dog you should be making it with. Or so many will argue. I get the jumbo ones.
Eisenberg - Another Chicago style dog some will argue should be used for Chicago dogs. Hy-Vee Gas convenience stores have these on their roller grills.
Kirkland Quarter Pound-Plus Beef Hot Dogs - Kirkland is Costco's house brand. They sell these thick way-longer-than-the-bun beasts at their in-store snack bars with a soda for $1.50. Cheapest lunch in town. You can also buy them in huge bulk packs in the store. They taste similar to the Eisenburg dog.
Oscar Mayer Foodservice Beef Hot Dog - The Oscar Mayer restaurant-grade dogs are different than any of the variety of dogs they sell in grocery stores. They're juicier and have a completely different flavor profile. I don't do the home dogs, but I like these. That's the dog in my QuikTrip chili dog.
