Rincon Bakeries

In Puerto Rico last weekend for a wedding. Rincon is a real deal rustic surfing village with stray dogs and dudes selling coconuts and empenadas out of trucks on the side of the road.

I tried some streetmeat but what did it for me were the bakeries - sort of like bodegas, where you can grab coffee, cigarettes, 6 packs of beer - plus there's a full-on bakery in the back cranking out fresh bread, sandwiches and pastries every day.



Puntas Bakery is close to the beach on Rt 413 (the main drag of Rincon) and plastered in surfing stickers. I was a little worried when I saw a philly cheesesteak on the menu. Went for a combination pork-beef-chicken sandwich and an egg & cheese with bacon. Delicious. The sandwiches are made on the bakeries' own pan de agua (water bread) and pressed. Pretty much exactly like a cuban without the pickles or mustard but plenty of butter and mayonnaise.



Punta Mar Bakery, a little further down 413, had more seating, no cheesesteaks and an amazing pineapple turnover. Another delicious sandwich with shredded chicken, sliced ham and cheese. I could eat these things every day for the rest of my life. Also an assortment of ribs and meats under a heat lamp. Amazing.

Hot Dog Of The Week - Pastrami Dog

Latest Hot Dog Of The Week for Serious Eats. Grab one at Famous 4th Street Deli (pictured below). About halfway through I took my side of slaw and just dumped it right on the dog. It will blow your mind.


They also make a knish dog. Check out the new location on 19th St. just north of Chestnut.

FoodLand

I briefly had a layover in Hawaii to visit my parents for dinner on my way to Korea, and I had a taste of why I am the eater I am. Here is a quick photo I took of the deli counter at FoodLand ( yes isn't that the best name for a grocery store?) and the poke ( a variety of seafoody salads) portion of the deli counter. Probably the only place in America where perfectly normal people walk up to the deli counter to get seasoned sea snails and kimchee crab for there afterwork snack or on the way to the beach.

Hot Dog Of The Week- 24th & Passyunk

Down on Passyunk Avenue west, between 23rd and 24th streets, right in front of the Dunkin' Donuts this guy sells probably the best hot dogs in Philadelphia. Actually the thing to get is the hot sausage on Jersey's finest Del Buono Bakery long roll. He's got all kinds of toppings but go for the homemade pepper hash.

Get there early - he's probably gone by 5pm, weekdays only, and the line gets long. This is for a reason.. He's been there maybe 10 years cranking out good dogs. There's also supposedly a Carribean food truck down there but I didn't see it. There was another cart with fish sandwiches and fish cakes and a guy selling bootleg T-shirts in a vacant parking lot.




Found some old (1913) recipes for Pepper Hash via Google Books. It really started as more of a pickling process. I always thought it was exclusively Pennsylvania Dutch (German) because my grandmother made it, and the PA dutch certainly made it but it wasn't exclusive to their cooking. But it seemed to hit its height of popularity in the Philadelphia area served with fish dishes and eventually hot dogs.

Anyway you can read the whole article on Serious Eats.

More Philly Hot Dog Research

Gus' Hot Dog Cart on 5th & South

While "researching" half the hot dogs in Philadelphia over the past few weeks I came across a few surprises and a bit closer to my goal of trying every fish cake combo in the city.

Gus' Hot Dog Cart on 5th & south is a great stand and one of the few street vendors to serve the notorious combo. Steamed jumbo dog, grilled fish cake & mustard on a half of a hoagie roll. Gus' location is appropriate because he's about a block away from where Levis' hot dogs- birthplace of the fish cake combo - was located.

Fish Cake Combo from Gus' Cart

I also hit Johnny's Hots for the first time. I was a little stuffed from Gus' combo so I just got a dog with pepper hash. It was OK but didn't blow me away quite like the truck on 24th & passyunk. The bun was interesting though, more tooth than your standard bun - holds up to mounds of toppings - but not too bready or tough. I think the thing to get is the sausage- next time.

Hot Dog with Pepper Hash from Johnny's Hots

Bubby's Brisket and Bugsy's Weiner

Bubby's Brisket and Bugsy's Weiner, a newer place on 15th street just north of Arch also does the combo, here the fish cakes are deep fried and served on top of a split dog on a steak roll. Great fish cakes, deep fried might be the way to go - but 2 of them plus the big roll is sort of an overwhelming amount of starch.

Deep Fried Fish Cake Combo from Bubby's Brisket

I finished it at home with extra mustard and hot sauce and a jug of iced tea. Also tried their plain hot dog which was a decent standard split & grilled dog. A casual walk-up take out joint catering to the local lunch crowd, nothing spectacular but probably the only place less than 5 years old that has the combo, good to see them keeping it alive.

Cross-section of Bubby's combo

I still don't really get why the only people who have any chance of eating decent hot dogs in Philly are construction and dock workers having them for breakfast. Moe's, Johnny's Hots, Passyunk Guy, Texas Weiners, all closed by 5, some as early as 3.

Little Pete's Texas Tommy to go

Little Pete's - a great place for a milkshake or a reuben at 4 in the morning - has a killer Texas Tommy as well. Toasted bun, split dog, lots of bacon and melted american cheese, came with a bag of chips and a neatly wrapped pickle. Tony Luke's also has a terrific Texas Tommy with wiz, and something called the Texas Smoked Hot that I wrote about a couple weeks ago, both of which are up there with my favorite Philly hot dogs.

Shiny Foil and Crispy Bacon

There's a few local hot dogs out there I'm still itching to try - Michael's Deli on 4th and Wolf apparently has a jumbo double Philly Combo with 2 hot dogs and 2 fish cakes on a full size italian roll. Also something called the Animal Farm which is a combo cheesesteak with beef, chicken, piles of bacon and cheese. I think after that it might be time for "salad of the week"...

Danish Hot Dogs

Copenhagen is home to some of the greatest hot dog carts I think in the world. The Polser the the original fast food of Copenhagen and the carts are everywhere.The traditional Danish hot dog is a seperate sausage with a roll that you dip into a blob of mustard or Ketchup.

But to me a Danish hot dog is the baguette like bread pocket filled with mustard and mayonnaise that perfectly fits a long skinny hot dog.Which is ingenious because you can put as many condiments as you like and it's very neat and you can walk around.

All the hotdog carts toast your roll, have 3 different kinds of mustard and you can get a side of pickles and deep fried onions. I'm craving one right now. The best part is that you get to stand in line with these beautiful Danish supermodel looking people who are also getting a hotdog.

Philly Hot Dogs Of The Week

Out hitting the streets searching for hot dogs worthy of "hot dog of the week" illustrations. I don't know if Philly Dirty Water Dog is really a regional style but you know what I'm talking about. When you forget breakfast and stop at a food cart on the way to work and grab a 1/4 pound hot dog on a cheesesteak roll that you devour on the street while the dirty water steam is still rolling off the dog.


And then the Texas Tommy. My mom used to make these (and maybe yours did too).A big thing in ladies magazines in the 50's & 60's but pretty sure the name Texas Tommy is a local thing because these suckers are on almost every sandwich, deli and diner menu in Philadelphia.

I never really thought of the Texas Tommy as a Philly thing but it's hard to find them anywhere else. Mother Burger in NYC has a "Kobe Beef" Texas Tommy that's 9 dollars. Johnnie's Dog House in Delaware and a few spots in Jersey have them, but like most Philadelphia classics, the Texas Tommy is best consumed leaning against a gleaming stainless steel ledge or diner counter.

If you really want to get into it check out the full articles here-
Serious Eats - Philly Dirty Water Dog
Serious Eats - Texas Tommy

Texas Smoked Hot - Tony Luke's

Been doing some exhaustive local hot dog research lately... After months of painting & writing about hot dogs from other cities I realized there's a lot I haven't eaten right here in Philadelphia, and as long as the Phillies are going strong I want to continue featuring Philly dogs for my Serious Eats column.

Headed down to South Philly this morning in search of some new & exciting variations. Never even really considered ordering a hot dog at Tony Luke's before... I looked over the crazy menu and my jaw dropped for a second when I saw the listing for the "Texas Smoked Hot" with onions and special sauce.


The Texas Smoked Hot is an extra long split & grilled smoked dog... covered in onions and Texas-Weiner style chili sauce, with a really strong cinnamon taste, stronger than most I've had in Philly, all on a long steak roll. Sort of a cross between a Texas Weiner and a Half-Smoke. Awesome. I'm a huge fan of the "split and grilled" style, especially when there's a good char on there.


So the Texas Hot was a little close to stuff I've done before to make it as hot dog of the week but it's still a fantastic hot dog. Tony Luke's menu has all kinds of wild items I've never noticed before, like the "Papa Luke" steak sandwich with sliced tomatoes and cream cheese and "hot dog fries". I don't love their steaks as much as some (standing by my current favorites - Philip's on 24th & passyunk and George's on 9th street) but this was a killer hot dog. I've heard that their veal cutlet & chicken cutlet sandwiches are also pretty amazing.

Tony Luke's
Front & Oregon
South Philly