Recently I went on a trip to Chicago ( really Wilamette) and as with most of my trips I thought about food and decided to focus on searching for the quintecinal Chicago Dog. My understanding is it is the hot dog, a poppy seed bun, a pinch of celery salt, some tomato slices, mustard, a pickle wedge, onions and perhaps that crazy green relish ( no ketchup). As always when I visit my brother and his family we started at Irving's for Red Hot Lovers. I originally thought that the place was was a trashy lingerie type place and could never understand what it was doing in such a nice area ( of course I grew up in Washington D.C. across Wisconsin Avenue from the Good Guys).
Inside there is a long counter and lots of guys taking orders and making hot dogs. At Mustard's End in Evanston there was the same thing and as any good restaurant guy could figure out you have to serve alot of hot dogs quickly to make money, and since the food cost is low you can have more labor to make up for it. The hot dogs were a little different at each place but slowly I realized that for me the grilled dog was much more interesting than the steamed or boiled. The bun was important but I usually added ketchup, a huge no no.
On atrip to Washington D.C. and Ben's Chile Bowl it was the griddled half smoke with chile cheese and onions and while the setup was similar -- lots of people making lots of dogs, chil, burgers and fries fast, the dogs were very different but both were really good, complete meals on a bun and only 800 calories and you don't even feel full.
And I learned one important thing, I'm glad I don't live near any of these places because the hot dogs are really good and too easy to eat. Chile fries need ketchup and when you finally have the money to eat what you want your conscience and your weight won't allow you to do it.
But I still am searching for the Chicago Dog ( we took a trip to the Dawg Haus but the people in the picture had already waited an hour and my nephew didn't have the patience nor the hunger for adventure to wait that long) to end all Chicago Dogs and I'm hoping someone can name some places for me to try on my next trip back.s
Inside there is a long counter and lots of guys taking orders and making hot dogs. At Mustard's End in Evanston there was the same thing and as any good restaurant guy could figure out you have to serve alot of hot dogs quickly to make money, and since the food cost is low you can have more labor to make up for it. The hot dogs were a little different at each place but slowly I realized that for me the grilled dog was much more interesting than the steamed or boiled. The bun was important but I usually added ketchup, a huge no no.
On atrip to Washington D.C. and Ben's Chile Bowl it was the griddled half smoke with chile cheese and onions and while the setup was similar -- lots of people making lots of dogs, chil, burgers and fries fast, the dogs were very different but both were really good, complete meals on a bun and only 800 calories and you don't even feel full.
And I learned one important thing, I'm glad I don't live near any of these places because the hot dogs are really good and too easy to eat. Chile fries need ketchup and when you finally have the money to eat what you want your conscience and your weight won't allow you to do it.
But I still am searching for the Chicago Dog ( we took a trip to the Dawg Haus but the people in the picture had already waited an hour and my nephew didn't have the patience nor the hunger for adventure to wait that long) to end all Chicago Dogs and I'm hoping someone can name some places for me to try on my next trip back.s
No comments:
Post a Comment