Cook Philly / Hot Diggity Hot Dog Class

It's hot dog season again, which means non-stop hot dog related events here in Philadelphia, half of which I think I'm involved with (I can't keep track of it either) including several hot dog art shows, the Wienermobile, a hot dog topping contest, hot dog specials at restaurants all over the city (Brauhaus Schmitz is serving Rieker's dogs for a limited time).

But the one event we've really been busting our asses for the last few weeks is this Hot Dog Class and 8-course hot dog tasting menu at Audrey Claire's Cook.

It's a bit steep at $135 a ticket, but along with discussing the history of hot dogs, we're serving a 1-time only epic regional hot dog menu - a collaboration between Keith Garebedian of Hot Diggity and myself -where we've gone to great lengths to recreate 8 different regional dogs with as much authenticity as humanly possible.

Rather than simply topping any old dogs with regionally inspired toppings, we're having the appropriate frankfurter brands shipped in from all over the country, many of which you would never find at a Philadelphia hot dog stand, and may never see in Philadelphia again.

For a handful of the courses we're also using local dogs - Levis brand for a Philly pepper hash dog, and even driving up to Newark next week to pick up dogs from Best Provisions (brand served at Memphis Taproom, and the standard for deep-fried NJ Italian hot dogs) and fresh Pizza Bread from a North Jersey bakery to make real deal New Jersey Italian Hot Dogs.

Last week we embarked on a mission to source old-fashioned German wieners for the 1st course, to be served with Keith's house made sauerkraut, scouring Philadelphia sausage shops and European markets for the best.

We brought everything back to Hot Diggity for a 20+ dog taste test, finally settling on Rieker's house-made and smoked 100% Veal Wieners, probably now in my top 5 hot dogs in the country. We also found a great Polish garlic dog for one of the other courses, and more terrific natural casing hot dogs than I thought existed in Philly, but you'll have to wait for the Serious Eats article for all the details.

Another course I'm excited about is the Detroit Coney. We're having L-901 Coneys shipped in from Winter's Sausage in Michigan -  the secret brand that was served at the legendary Lafayette Coney Island (pictured above) until just recently - and topped with Keith's awesome beef heart chili.

We're also doing a Minimalist / Depression style Chicago Dog with natural casing Vienna Beef dogs coming in from Chicago, a Pulliams-style (above) southern "toasted" slaw dog with house-dyed neon red dogs from the Hot Diggity test kitchen; a bacon-wrapped Sonoran dog paired with Diggity's new house made Lime-Jalapeno-Cilantro soda - and a handful of others. And beer. 

Dog Gone It

$135 (only 6 tickets left!)

Audrey Claire's COOK, 7/28 at 7pm

audreyclairecook.com

thehotdiggity.com

Psychedelic Broad & Snyder Chicago Dog from "Tony Cheesesteak"

Walking around Broad & Snyder the other day at 9 in the morning I was surprised to see a food truck parked right down the street from the Walgreens. And then even more surprised to see a crazy menu of super weird supposedly regional hot dog concoctions that looked like either a joke or the best thing on the planet.

I almost dropped my camera trying to take a million photos knowing this truck might only last a couple of days like the gray-hot-dog-food-poisoning nightmare cart that opened up on Broad & Morris last summer for a week or so.

Ahh yes, the old time Philly classic topped with sweet roasted peppers, pickles and American cheese. I couldn't bring myself to order this. I dunno, if it was tomatoes and banana peppers and called the "Pizzaz Dog" i'd probably write about it for the next 25 years.

Next up is the Chicago Dog. Note the authentic Chicago Dog photo, likely printed from the internet at Kinko's, confused by a description that includes "sweet peppers" (not sport peppers), lettuce, cheddar cheese (??) and celery (not celery salt).

Here goes the actual dog. A beef frank on a soft hoagie roll, topped with pickles, thick onion slices, sketchy tomatoes, processed American cheese, giant chunks of celery, ketchup and mayonnaise. 

Quite possibly the most bizarre interpretation of "Chicago Dog" I've ever seen or even heard of. So ridiculous it's sort of amazing, not to eat but maybe as some sort of postmodern "found hot dog art object??"

The ring of grey around the outside of the dog definitely worried me a little bit. I took maybe two bites, it wasn't as bad as I expected but definitely not a Chicago Dog. The American cheese / mayo / ketchup  /  pickles thing really just makes it taste like Mcdonalds, plus celery.

Next up, the Cajun Dog.

This was a spicy all beef sausage, wrapped in turkey ham (no pork on this truck) topped with more American cheese, pickles, onions, ketchup and mayonnaise on a toasted roll. 

The good thing about this one was that the sausage was decent, probably an all beef commercial Italian sausage. And it was actually sort of good, in a kind of drunken-bratwurst meets messy 7-11 nightmare sort of way. Hot dogs are just the beginning here - there's also breakfast sandwiches, burgers, coconut shrimp, egg rolls, and "Asian Coffee" which I'm pretty sure is just Vietnamese Coffee. 

I thought it might be fun to write about these on Hot Dog Of The Week and get the hot dog purists all riled up, but didn't exactly want to recommend these as something good to eat, and at the same time would have felt really bad writing a bad review - it's a great location, they seem like nice people,  and if they could work out the kinks, a hot dog truck on Snyder that serves coconut shrimp and vietnamese coffee called "Tony Cheesesteak" is pretty much the coolest thing in the world.

Tony Cheesesteak
Broad & Snyder
Philadelphia

Lombardi's Specialty Hoagies

One of those famed South Philly hoagie shops that was written up way back when in the Inquirer but is far enough South of the "hipster barrier" that nobody writes about it, at least in the same way that Cosmi's and Chickie's have lines out the door. Closed the first two or three times I tried to go there, it was finally open the other day and this place is worth the wait. Definitely in my top 10 if not top 5.

Tribune and Centurion

Longhots on the side

Tribune with Salamincini

So their claim to fame is the "Salamincini" which is like a pepper shooter but instead of a cherry pepper, they stuff pepperoncini with salami wrapped provolone. Available by the pound or on a few of their hoagies including the Tribune which you can read some more about on my Serious Eats post.

Also delicious was the "Centurion" loaded with Dry Capacola, Sopressata and Coteghino.

Centurion

With Longhots

Another shot of the Tribune showing Salamancini cross section

Hoagie upskirt: real dry cured capicola

The menu also lists "hot frigadelles" which is just another term for italian frying peppers, aka cubanelles aka frigatello peppers, wider and milder than a longhot (or the "sweet" version which isn't hot at all). The only other place I've ever seen this wording on a menu is Little Nick's a few blocks away. 

Another place that uses real italian cured meats, but well balanced with juicier stuff like coteghino or "ham capacola" so you have a nice variety instead of a the chewy beef jerkey-esque salt bomb that happens when you have too many dry meats sliced too thick.

Lombardi's Specialty Hoagies

hours - Mon-Sat 8:30 - 4:00 (spotty hours, call first)

1226 Ritner St Philadelphia 

215 389 2220

Hot Dog at Charlie's Hamburgers in Folsom

I just wrote about the awesome hamburgers at Charlie's on A Hamburger Today - a roadside shack just outside of Philly that serves up super cheap delicious quasi-sliders - maybe 3 or 3.5 ounce fresh ground beef patties. They also make an awesome hot dog. 

The dogs are split & grilled Dietz & Watson, dressed with the same microsopic shaved-ice onions that come on the burgers, and served on a toasted burger bun. Delicious. 

 I'm sort of into this whole "split  dog on burger bun" style. Check out more of these at Dyer's In Memphis and Nick's Charcoal Pit in Philly.

Charlie's Hamburgers
336 Kedron Avenue, Folsom PA 19033
610-461-4228 ‎

Jerk Chicken from Gigi & Big R

All weekend I'd been working on this soul food cover for Philadelphia Weekly, drawing and looking at pictures of fried shrimp, wings, catfish, macaroni and cheese and various forms of chicken, and thinking a lot about Carribean food and fish hoagies, and realizing that there's a TON of soul food spots way out west and north that nobody ever writes about in all those "best fried chicken" articles.

So the other day I was in West Philly and thought I'd check out some food trucks, but it was late and everything was closed.. except for Gigi and Big R off on a dark side street near 30th street station. Super awesome jerk chicken, insanely flavorful but not crazy spicy.. dirty pile of rice & beans soaked through with jerk juice. Delicious.

There's a reason they beat out all the hipster trucks at the Vendy Awards and also these guys are open 7 days a week and LATE I think until 9 or maybe even 11?

Chef Volas

James-Beard award winning, "secret" Atlantic City Italian-American restaurant in someone's basement. This and Mr Joe's Cafe are so far my favorite "red gravy" spots in the Philadelphia area. 

great bread

romaine, pepperoni, croutons, pepperoncini

penne, bolognese

spaghetti, blush sauce 

The pasta is awesome here, super super simple like shucked & chopped to order clams with butter and parsley. Love it.

broccoli rabe

Giant pounded and breaded veal and chicken parm. This is a half order. Whole fish Puttanesca style specials sounded good too. Everything is huge here so you can share and it's 10 times more affordable than you thought. BYOB and maybe the best service of all time.

limoncello

frank's banana cream pie

Don't miss the limoncello cream pie or the banana cream that supposedly Frank Sinatra had delivered to his dressing room after every show in AC.

  

Why anyone would go to an Asian-fusion slider restaurant full of people wearing designer ultimate fighting clothes, or pay thirty dollars for food poisoning at a buffet (the other dining options in Atlantic City) instead of coming here boggles my mind. 

 chefvolas.com

Zeps from Eve's Lunch

A Sandwich A Day: Zep from Eve's Lunch in Norristown, PA - on Serious Eats.

Moe's Hot Dogs still Delicious

Stopped into Moe's for the first time in a while! This a 2-alarm Engine 47 (deep fried) with pepper hash and spicy mustard.

Always forget that they do deep fried hot dogs..definitely the way to go here since the other option is steamed. Yes they serve the dogs on big hoagie rolls which I'm not really into but willing to overlook since Moe's is otherwise awesome.

Max's Cheesesteaks

I've been driving past this cheesesteak spot smack in the middle of North Philly Time Square (Broad & Erie) for years and finally got it together a few months ago when we were doing the Best Cheesesteak thing for Serious Eats. Max's didn't make the cut for Serious Eats but this place is really one of a kind.

All the Holiday Eating

Christmas Eve
First food gift - an array of british products like "ahhh.. Bisto!" instant gravy and "Salad Cream". I tried the gravy over some grits which I'm sure is wrong but it was pretty good (thanks Helena!)


Picked up a 1/2 sheet tomato pie from Ianelli's on the way to the girlfriend's sisters house in New Jersey (I call it "North" but they say "Central" even though it's all "Subs" and NY teams) and they didn't know what to do with it. Some was heated, other eaten cold, but it spawned a discussion of Newark italian Bakeries so successful overall. Also delicious ham, and every year a 10 lb bag of Ms T's pierogies with brown butter and carmelized onions on the side. Awesome. Then back to the city for late night whiskey.

Christmas Day
Completed the Jersey / Philadelphia exchange by bringing back a dozen giant, puffy, airy, delicious bagels from Bagels & Deli Bakery in Toms River NJ. After these you won't ever try to argue that "there are some OK bagels in Philadelphia" ever again. Piled up with whitefish salad from Dibruno's and a can of Fresca that my dad gets from the dollar store - Christmas hangover instantly cured.

Dinner was a boneless ribeye roast and my Mom's famous brie mashed potatoes. I tried to make them once with fancy pants expensive cheese and "french technique" and they tasted like crap. The secret is cream cheese and bake it in a casserole Mom style. Dessert was mind blowing Gingerbread with some sort of salted carmel brown butter sauce, also amazing. Wish I had photos but sometimes it's just not the time to be an annoying food blogger.

New Years Eve
Back to Corropolese in Norristown for Tomato Pies (full sheets), stromboli bread (f***ing amazing) and 3 lbs of meatballs in the same sauce they use for the tomato pie.




Was thinking of trekking back to Swiacki Meats but whoa Corropolese also carries Kilebasa and Kabanosy so I picked up a bunch of that.


Also proper Zeps from Eve's Lunch right down the street.



Finally found Zayda's Pickles at Cosmi's (actually sourced by DFF research assistant Tim also responsible for these beautiful photos of Czewr's) and don't know why everyone doesn't sell them.


Also more whitefish (I'm addicted) smoked salmon and all that stuff. Somehow 7 bottles of whiskey, most of a keg of beer and lots of wine, gin, champagne, etc.. were consumed by maybe 30 people?



New Years Day
Watched the Mummers on TV even though I live 1 block from Broad street. Ate more Kabanosy and Zayda's pickles in honor of New Years. Finally pulled myself together and went to New Years Day party, bloody marys and bud light. Went to a different party where some guy kept pulling out his shaved balls, and there was an awesome make-your-own grilled cheese station. Went home and ordered Santuccis, the only pizza place in South Philly open on New Years Day at 9pm.



Monday
After 2 days of drinking, helping a friend move into a new apartment at 9am. Awesome. Made better by Mexican breakfast and Mexican Fresca at Los Gallos.




After that, slowly trying to finish off the keg with some board games and Celebre's.



Now, realizing I spent all my money on tomato pie and the bill collectors are calling and I need to do some work and eat nothing but yogurt and quinoa for the next two months.