New Stuff at Hot Diggity

Just stopped by Hot Diggity to check out some new dogs including Keith's awesome version of the Philly Combo that Holly Moore called the "best he's ever had" and yeah it's amazing.


A Sabrett's natural casing dog is wrapped in a homemade salt cod / potato mixture, breaded with panko and deep fried. Topped with pepper hash and brown mustard. Not fishy at all and much better than the questionable frozen fish cake you would be eating if you ordered this from some scary lunch stand under Market East station.


Hot Diggity is really coming through with making stuff from scratch and taking hot dog technique to the next level. Especially with their latest "Buffalo Dog" which will be on the menu (or as a special?) real soon.


Diggity's Buffalo dogs are made from actual Buffalo meat at D'Angelos on 9th street (Philly's #1 source of exotic meat) and are actual hot dogs - fine ground meat in hot dog size rather than coarse ground sausage being called "hot dog" for a gimmick. Topped with honey buffalo wing sauce, diced celery, chunks of good blue cheese and topped with deep fried crispy chicken skin.

I've seen a lot of "Buffalo" style hot dogs and honestly they usually turn me off (dog dipped in hot sauce and drowned in blue cheese dressing = no thanks) but this one is GREAT. Other news from Hot Diggity is that they are now BYOB and will soon be carrying Levis Champ Cherry Soda which you should definitely order with your Philly Combo.

Hot Diggity
630 South Street
Philadelphia

Michael's Deli - Double Philly Surf & Turf

Another stop in my quest to eventually eat every Philly Combo (aka Philly Surf and Turf) in the city. If you don't know, the Philly Combo is an old Philadelphia hot dog variation that consists of a hot dog and a potato-fish cake on the same bun, usually with mustard and onions, sometimes garnished with pepper hash.


At Michael's Deli at 4th and Wolf - an unassuming South Philly corner store with video poker and a kitchen in the back - this is the only way to get them. 2 smashed fish cakes, and 2 split hot dogs on a hoagie roll, with mustard and onions.

The result was better than I expected. The fish cakes were fresh (not too fishy) and Dietz & Watson dogs were decent. The roll was nothing to write home about, and the option of pepper hash would have been nice to add some moisture to the sandwich. But overall a success.



A tiny South Philly corner store with juice, cigarettes, and a few dusty groceries, walking in you might be surprised that they even serve food, let alone a giant menu with a zillion different hoagies, cutlets, burgers, hot dogs, wings, breakfast, pasta and even pizza. I don't really understand where they keep all the food.. maybe a kitchen or walk-in freezer in the basement?

The cheesesteak we also tried was just OK, but some of the concoctions on the menu have me curious enough to go back.

• Animal Farm
Big pile of Chicken breast, cheesesteak, bacon, cheese, onions...

• Brontosaurus Burger
3 burger patties served with fried onions, swiss, american, and mozzarella cheese.

• The Stray Dog
3 hot dogs on a large italian roll with fried onions, relish, saurkraut and mustard.

• Pizazz Pizza
Another obscure Philadelphia classic. Pizza with American cheese, tomato slices and sweet peppers.

Then for breakfast there's scrapple and eggs, pork roll, creamed chip beef, baloney & egg. And everything is cheap as hell.
Check out the crazy menu here (with music!) -
Michaelsdeliphila.webs.com

Michael's Deli
4th & Wolf
Philadelphia

more fish cakes and pizzaz-

•Drawing For Food - Fish Cakes from Gus's Cart and Bubby's Brisket
•Drawing For Food - Nicky & Pete's Famous
•Hot Dog Of The Week - Philly Combo
•Meal Ticket - Outside The Box (Pizzaz at the end of the article)