Tuesday, July 19, 2011

1000 free Wienermobile Hot Dogs


YES it is true I will be passing out 1,000 FREE HOT DOGS from the Wienermobile tomorrow (Wed July 20th) from 11:30 'til 1:30 in front of city hall! 5 different hot dogs based on my last two years of intense hot dog research. There's a philly-style pepper hash dog, a "Kosher Tommy" wrapped in salami and cheese wiz, and a crazy Colombian Hot Dog buried under pineapple salsa, bacon, chimichurri mayo and crushed chips. The dogs are Oscar Mayer's new "Selects" - all beef dogs with no nitrates.

Also helping me pass out hot dogs I have a great team including DFF correspondent Caroline as well as the awesome dynamic duo Thom Lessner and Rose Luardo. Come out and get some free dogs!!

15th & Market
Wed July 20th
11:30am - 1:30pm

more info on Meal Ticket-
Philly's Hawk Krall mans the Wienermobile next week

Monday, July 11, 2011

Ride Those Bikes



Friends of Drawing For Food Aaron and Jamie-Lee (who have in the past brought me awesome New England food gifts like Atkins Farm Donuts and Moxie) are currently 10 days into an epic 2-month bike ride across the United States and I'm jealous.


OK well maybe not Jealous of biking 100 miles a day through the mountains in 95 degree heat, but definitely of their route off the main highways and through small towns, and stops at awesome diners, apple orchards and roadside stands.


Food highlights so far have been the "fried mush" at the County Seat - an amazing looking Amish diner in Goshen, Indiana, having pizza delivered to their "stealth campsite" in an abandoned state park, and breakfast at the Steel Trolley in Lisbon, Ohio, with an awesome looking menu that includes 10 different varieties of hot dog that they probably didn't get because Aaron's a vegetarian. Bummer but at least they took some hot dog photos for me.


Anyway I'm psyched to see what else they eat and find as they blow through Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and South Dakota. Check out ridethosebikes.blogspot.com for more.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

National Hot Dog Month - All the Hot Dog Blogs

Another bonus for National Hot Dog Month, I thought I'd feature some of my favorite stuff from other hot dog blogs. I really love reading about new and obscure hot dog joints, trucks and carts in parts of the country you rarely hear about in the "mainstream hot dog media". Some of these guys really put me to shame in terms of scouring for real deal out of the way stuff and posting as often as every day.

double red hot from johnnies in OKC / buddiesandhotdogs.blogspot.com

BUDDIES AND HOT DOGS
Somehow related to Frank - a newer gastro-dog type joint in Austin - this group of dudes have been uncovering awesome hot dogs in California, Seattle, Portland and Minnesota for a few years now.


One of my favorite posts from them is on Mike's Chili Parlor, a sort of Cincinnati-style Greek chili parlor/dive bar in Seattle (??) that's been there since 1922. They've also done some great posts on old-school Coney joints in Sioux City Iowa.


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ya-ya's home of the q-dog / birmingham hot dog tour
THE GREAT BIRMINGHAM HOT DOG TOUR
Even though these guys dissed me for "blowing through Birmingham" and "miss(ing) the best hot dog stands in our city" when I stopped at Pete's and Gus's for the Serious Eats / Rachael Ray America's Best Hot Dog article.. I love this blog and really wish I had found it BEFORE visiting Birmingham.

chili dog and a special from sam's / birmingham hot dog tour
You'll notice that almost every B-Ham hot dog joint serves some variation of the "Special" which consist of chili or loose meat, sauerkraut and "sauce" which is sort of a cross between barbecue sauce and NY red onion sauce. One of their favorites is Sam's Super Samwichs.

Another terrific spot is Ya-Ya's, a roadside stand that serves the Q Dog that's sort of like a barbecue version of the special with kraut, sauce, and pulled pork.


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SMOKIN' CHOKIN' AND CHOWING WITH THE KING
Not strictly a hot dog blog, but Chibbqking serves up some awesome hot dog coverage in and out of its home base of Chicago. One of my favorite food blogs hands down.

minimalist chicago dog from hot diggity dog / chibbqqking
Author Titus Ruscetti (aka King T) has been tirelessly documenting Chicago dogs, especially the Minimalist or Depression style that involves natural casing dogs and big piles of hand cut fries on top of the dog, from no-frills spots like Gene's & Jude's and Redhot Ranch.

coney island deluxe in duluth, MN / chibbqking
Outside of Chicago, King T has been checking out Coney dogs in Duluth, Minnesota and cranking out massive, epic posts from recent travels to Wisconsin involving American Legion burgers, brats, and frozen custard.. oh and also more Coneys and pork tenderloin sandwiches in Indiana - wow.


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THE HOT DOG I ATE
A serious mega-blog with at least 10 contributors, these guys have been EVERYWHERE from Scranton to New York, Tahiti to Chicago.

danish dogs / the hot dog i ate
A few of the authors seem to be from New England and find some awesome spots like this hot dog stand at Carvers Farmers Market in Massachussets serving up Danish Dogs topped with pickled cucumbers, remoulade, and crispy fried onions.

argentinian hot dog sauces / the hot dog i ate
Another killer post from these guys is a report from Argentina featuring some "panchos" buried underneath 7000 different kinds of "mayonesa" in typical south american fashion as well as some real deal sausages in Buenos Aires. Great stuff.


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backyard big dogs, kalamazoo MI / dogs on the road

DOGS ON THE ROAD
A great blog with general hot dog news and original reviews of hot dog spots graded for Food, Atmosphere, Value, as well as Side Dishes rated by his wife"Side Dish Jody" who doesn't like hot dogs. Mostly Michigan based (they love Yesterdog) but talso travel to Florida, Wisconsin, and even Pennsylvania.


mel's in tampa FL / dogs on the road
"Hot Dog Guy" Paul seems to be big on Chicago - style dogs outside of Chicago, including Mel's in Florida with this awesome hot dog car out front and Johnny B'z in Michigan that does Chicago style dogs on New England buns.


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sharr's hot dogs / west virginia hot dog blog
WEST VIRGINIA HOT DOG BLOG
One of the most thorough and hardcore purist regional hot dog blogs out there, WV hot dog blog author Stanton is adamant that west virginia hot dogs (WVHD) are NOT so much about the brand or quality of the dog, but the love and care put into the classic elements of a WVHD - cheap dog, steamed bun, mustard, and homemade chili and slaw.

whitey's has the "one true slaw" / west virginia hot dog blog

The blog is especially brutal towards any HDJ's (Hot Dog Joints) that get even close to "gourmet", use English buns (top-split), or even dare to call something a "slaw dog" (authentic WV hot dogs should automatically come with slaw) I'm not this much of a purist.. but I do LOVE west virginia hot dogs, and agree that it's the sort of classic thing that shouldn't be messed with.

skeenie's - one of the best / west virginia hot dog blog
A lot of the best WV dogs come from Dairy Bars like Dee's Tasty Freeze and Skeenie's (considered the Quintessential WVA hot dog) or even in the back of grocery stores, smoke filled video poker parlors, and barber shops. Hot Dog culture in WVA is ferociously unpretentious, and every time I read this blog, with hundreds of posts going back to 2006, I want to drive down there and spend 3 weeks hitting as many of these places as I can.

www.wvhotdogs.com

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HOT DOG STORIES
Another fantastic regional blog, Hot Dog Stories almost exclusively features trucks and carts in New England, mostly Massachussets. The author is a former hot dog vendor himself, and really gets into the history of each cart, talking to the owners and even shooting short videos.

larry joe's - hotdogstories.com
My all-time favorite post -including a terrific video interview- is about Larry Joe's New England Fire Pit, a truck in New England that cooks dogs over hickory wood, run by a guy who trained at the legendary Boston Speed truck that's been awarded the best in the country several times, but now run by a new owner. So if you want to eat the real thing you might want to head to Larry Joe's rather than the "new" Boston Speed truck.

snappy dogs - hotdogstories.com
I also love all the "only in new england" semi-hippy hot dog stands like Snappy Dogs who serve natural casing Pearl brand dogs topped with homemade toppings like zucchini relish along with home-made nutella whoopie pies (whoa) to take home. Also this guy is trying to visit a different hot dog stand every day for the month of July.

• http://hotdogstories.com/

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bolley's in maine / hollyeats.com
HOLLY EATS
Not a blog, but Holly Moore has been writing about hot dogs on his site for over ten years. It's almost impossible to find a place that he hasn't written about, especially on the east coast. He's been in the food business for a long time, as a writer, business owner, and even helped to develop the Big Mac.

schells menu / hollyeats.com
Holly Eats is packed with tons of photos and short and sweet reviews of almost every notable hot dog joint you've heard above and a bunch that you haven't. So many places I'm dying to try like the Easton, PA style dogs at Jimmy's and Richard's Drive-In , or Schell's in Reading that serves dogs topped with BBQ. Holly was also the one to turn me on to the religious experience that is Charlie's Pool Room.

syd's dog / hollyeats.com
There's long gone, legendary Hot Dog Joints like Syd's in NJ, living on only in memory and Holly's Site. Check out the full list of Eateries Gone By for a serious lesson in the food history of Philadelphia, New Jersey and beyond.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Connecticut Hot Dog Tour - Documentary channel and WNPR interview


Just in time for National Hot Dog month, Saturday was the world television premier of Mark Kotlinski's Connecticut Hot Dog Tour on the Documentary Channel. It's an awesome film about 10 of Connecticut's best hot dog stands with some awesome DVD cover art (not sure if the art will air on TV.. looks like they have their own logo / title art..)

• Connecticut Hot Dog Tour on the Documentary Channel


Last year I wrote about some of the stands on Serious Eats - Super Duper Weenie, a gourmet hot dog truck opened by a Culinary Institute Grad with a crazy connection to photorealist painter John Baeder, and Capitol Lunch, an old school joint that serves grilled natural casing dogs with "secret sauce".

• A Connecticut Hot Dog Tour: Super Duper Weenie
• A Connecticut Hot Dog Tour: Capitol Lunch


Other stands featured in the Doc are Rawley's, Top Dog (a hot dog shaped trailer) and the legendary Blackie's, a former gas station. You can actually buy prints of my artwork at the restaurant (much thanks to the Flavin family for making this possible!) or on my website.

• A Connecticut Hot Dog Tour: Blackie's Hot Dogs
• A Connecticut Hot Dog Tour: Rawley's and Top Dog

Also, Mark recently did an interview about the film on the Faith Middleton Show on WNPR in Connecticut. I also chimed in over the phone with a few words about hot dog length and the craziest hot dog I've ever had. Listen here -

Faith Middleton Show (WNPR) - Mark Kotlinski Interview

Friday, July 1, 2011

Dapper Dog Kielbasa Special

Just in case you don't know, July is National Hot Dog Month which for me means hot dog overload, including several events to be announced. Along with Hot Dog Of The Week on Serious Eats I'm going to crank out some bonus posts of dogs I've enjoyed over the past year or so and haven't gotten around to writing about.


First up is Dapper Dog which I initially wrote about a while back when they first opened, but recently went back and was psyched about the quality of the dogs. They seem to have upped their game with more sophisticated toppings, and are using high quality garlicky all-beef dogs, no natural casing but all perfectly split & grilled.


The highlight of my most recent visit was their Banh-Mi esque Kielbasa special with cucumber, cilantro, jalapenos, and spicy mayo. The crunch of the sausage combined with cool cucumber, cilantro, mayo and the flaky Sarcone's bread was awesome.


The use of hoagie roll rather than hot dog bun works with the sausage, the meat/topping/bread ratio still in the right zone and makes sense conceptually, more vietnamese kielbasa hoagie than hot dog.

Their new weekend location in Garden Variety is terrific, you can grab beer at the Foodery across the street and wolf down some dogs. Things were hopping when we were there.. I would look for Dapper Dog to be a solid presence in the Philly hot dog / street food scene for years to come.

Dapper Dog
Fri & Sat at 2nd & Poplar
Lunch at Temple U. 13th & Norris (only during school year)
Lots of special events - follow them on twitter for updates