Martie's Hot Dogs - Keyser, WV

Martie's was our last hot dog stop on the drive from Philadelphia to West Virginia. Located on the struggling main street of Keyser, it's easy to miss because the sign out front is from a frame shop that closed a few months ago. The inside has a counter and stools, filled with old signs and hundreds of hot sauce bottles.

First thing we noticed were the ice cold bottles of beer for $2 a pop. Second thing we noticed was the smoke filled Video Poker lounge in the back room full of dudes in wildlife t-shirts. Definitely a local hang out, there were newspapers and ashtrays everywhere and self service cups of coffee for 50 cents. The proprietress (Martie?) was super friendly, Instantly knew this place was going to be a winner.



The dogs were grilled to order and piled high with spicy chili and creamy slaw. I've read about west virginia's sweet hot dog slaw and figured it couldn't be much different than anything I'd had before, but it was. Also for a near ghost town i was surprised at how fresh everything was. Possibly the best dogs of trip.

Learn more about Martie's and West Virginia hot dogs in general at wvhotdogs.com.

Martie's Hot Dogs
96 N Main St
Keyser, WV

pepperoni rolls

in the northern mountains of west virginia hides the pepperoni roll.
it's a small pepperoni stick baked into a soft yeast roll and left to sit so the grease soaks the bread. only available in west virginia and parts of maryland and ohio, I found these at a combination gas station/diner/post office/gun shop in the middle of nowhere.






unfortunately I didn't make it to fairmont,wv; where you can get them freshly baked at Country Club Bakery, the birthplace of the pepperoni roll.

to learn more about pepperoni rolls, check out
bob heffner's pepperoni roll page

meat camp

spent last weekend deep in the mountains of west virginia drinking "old german" and grillin' up meats over the old campfire.
25 miles from the nearest ATM or cel phone service in the craziest backwoods country I've ever seen. fantastic.









check out my flickr page for more west virginia photos..
hawkkrall's flickr page

Jammin'

I was lucky enough this week to have 3 lovely people in my life give me jam as a present. I recieved a jar of West Virginia Blackberry Mountain Jam from Tim. I got a jar of Traverse City, Michigan Cherry Butter from Amanda. And from Gianna I recieved the sweetest jar of blueberry jam from Japan. All these jams in the span of 24 hours, I told you I was a lucky girl. Of course I had to have it with a loaf of fresh multigrain from Metropolitan Bakery and sweet butter with bits of sea salt churned in it.




Tim really enjoyed the Blackberry Jam the most. The Japanese jam was rather amazing because it was whole blueberries and wasn't too sweet, it was more like pie filling. The Cherry Butter is the kind of thing I would smother all over cheese because its not too jelly like, but has a good flavor that would go well with savory things.