Hello and welcome to Cooking Issues. This is Dave Arnold, your host of Cooking Issues coming to you live from the Heart of Manhattan Rockefeller Center, New York City, News Dance Studios. Joined as usual with John behind me. How are you doing, John? Doing great, thanks.
Yeah, coming from the great state of Connecticut. Yep. Great hot dog state that'll come back later. Last Hot Dog State, yeah. Oh, best hot dog state.
It's strong. Uh got uh Joe Hazenrock in the panels. What's up? Hey, how you doing? Welcome to the show.
Yeah, all right. So who do we have at this point? We got Jackie Molecules on the phone. No. No molecules.
He hasn't called in. Did Quinn make it yet? I know Quinn was uh still like you know getting over his McGillas. Did I did? Ah, love it.
How are you doing, Quinn? I'm doing. Sometimes that's the best you can be doing. How's uh how's Vancouver Island? Any bizarre Vancouver foods that you have, uh Vancouver Island foods?
Any like, you know, locally raised things that shouldn't be raised there? Nothing bizarre. No. All right, we'll get to it. I can't talk about this on here finally.
My emu farm. Okay. All right. So for those that don't know, Quinn has made best buddies with an emu farmer in Vancouver Island. Who knew?
And uh apparently he leased his land, lost a lease. So now he's packing up his birds and leaving. Well, he they they didn't they didn't lose the lease. They just they want to own the land they're on one day. So they will never own this land because of the price.
So they've decided to move. I see. I see. And can we start the false rumor that it was Pamela Anderson who owned the land and wouldn't allow him to buy at a reasonable price? And therefore, can we start that rumor?
Is that allowed? Now that like we live in a world where we're allowed to say anything, whether it's true or not. Can we st can we start that? I know I know it's demonstrably false. That's up to you, I guess.
Alright. Uh all right. And uh special guest in the studio today, we have Faraday Sadigan, the author of the hot dog cookbook. 50 recipes. There's more than 50 recipes in this though, aren't there?
Or is it exactly 50? There's exactly 50. Oh, because it seemed like you were hitting a lot of the states, and then you have like all like like originals and then internationals, and it's still 50, huh? Yep, just 50. Maybe a little breakout recipes in between, you know, like there's like a barbecue sauce here and there.
Yeah, you don't, but you don't count, but you count those or you don't count those? So those are hot dogs. 50 plus. Yeah. No, just 50.
Just 50. No, 50 hot dog recipes plus some ancillary recipes. Yeah. Yeah. Yes.
The one that everyone wants to know about is from New York. And by the way, we'll get into the hot dog book later. Is did you first of all, for those of you that have never been to New York City? I mean, come on, we're still here. Don't worry about it.
You know what I mean? But like my point is, like uh, we are, for better or worse, like known for our hot dog carts. It's one of the things that we're known for. But unlike other places in this country and abroad, our hot dogs are pretty simple. You know what I mean?
The one thing that we do have that you will not find anywhere else is the onion goop. Which I'm not a huge fan of. I love the onion goop. Do you? I mean, not I'm look- look, I I'm a I'm a I spent most of my life around the New York New City, you know, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Major Metropolitan Area.
So I'm sauerkraut and mustard guy. Yeah. That's it. Like, you know, like what do you want in your what do you want in a hot dog? Sauerkraut and mustard.
And what else? I can use some more sauerkraut, maybe a little more mustard. You know what I mean? It's like that, but that's me. You know what I mean?
Even when I go to places like Detroit, I'm like, this is great. Can I also have one with sauerkraut and mustard so I can see what your hot dog tastes like? But this is me. Uh but I have a soft spot for the onion goop. Now, have you side-by-sided Sabrett's onion goop and your onion goop recipe?
Is it close? I think it's pretty close, yeah. Um, although I will say, so talking about onion coop in that way, like I think that Gray's papaya, like, so in order for me to enjoy the onion goop, I think it goes well with the papaya juice. You know, have you like like do you have you paired those like that? Because I I don't drink I don't drink uh caloric non-alcoholic beverages.
Fair, yeah, totally fair. And let me look, I mean, I drink sometimes I I make non-alcoholic cocktails, I'll I'll drink them sometimes. You know what I mean? But in in general, like that's my you know, everyone has to have dividing lines. Totally.
It's a good pairing, though, I think the onion with the papaya. Like I was always a bit skeptical, you know, about that. And then you go to Grays and you try that, and it just kind of like it together they sing. So, like, in order for me to enjoy the onion goop, I think it pairs better with like the salty hot dog and the sweet papaya. Yeah, but but Gray's is Grays flat top or are they roller?
I don't remember. Flat top. Flat top. So I used to go to a place because you know, I couldn't afford Gray's papaya, it's so fancy, you you people. I went to Mike's, and Mike's was back when I was in grad school, was two dogs for a dollar.
Oh yeah, that was their recession special, but didn't include any drinks or anything. You just walked in and you just and what was amazing is if you walked in there and handed them 20 dollars, in like 13 seconds somehow, you had 40 hot dogs. So, like for parties and stuff like that, my standard lunch was five dogs. I was a I was a I was a 250 lunch guy. You know the recession special at Grays now is like seven something.
What kind of recession is this? No, or that's the worst. But I can't remember whether Mike's was uh roller or flat. I think it was flat with a tinfoil situation, aluminum foil. Not tin four.
I don't know why. My generation still calls it tin foil, never made of tin. Has never made it. It's always been made of aluminum. You know what?
That's right. That's so that's crazy. I think I I'll say tin. I'll say both. I'll say tin or aluminium foil.
Oh my god, what are you saying? Aluminum foil. Yeah. All right. Son of a bitch.
Uh Joe, what are you? Are you an aluminum foil or a tinfoil man? Uh aluminum foil. Yeah. You can't ask Quinn because he's Canadian.
It's a whole different country. Who knows what they call it? You don't you guys don't use any British pronunciation for that, do you? That didn't poison its way over to your soil, did it? No, no.
Yeah, good. And also, I mean, I'll say aluminum foil. Well, I'll just say foil. But it's like we're not gold foiling anything in my house. Not yet.
Like if we say foil. Not until there's a locally locally made Vancouver gold foil. I'm sure then you will wrap it in gold foil. You should be like, it doesn't ever tarnish. Gold is amazing that way.
When you go to a museum and you see gold and it's like, you know, like like a thousand years old and it's still bright as hell, you're like, what the hell? This is why gold is so cool. Shout out to the gold museum in Bogota, Columbia. Amazing place to go. I thought I would hate it.
I loved it. And all I think all the departments in Columbia, like some of the department many of the departments in Columbia have their own gold museum, but the I've only been to the one in Bogota, and it's choice. You know what I mean? Like adding it to my map. Yeah, oh my God.
When you're uh I don't know about their hot dog situation. You have a Colombian hot dog. Listen, South America really goes hard for like any hot dog. I think every country down there. Like it was actually very hard.
So we could have done more than 50 recipes in this book. Obviously, there's a lot missing. There's a lot of anxiety for me and putting out a book about hot dogs because everyone has an opinion. But like South America, every country down there, and like even within the country, they have like little variations. But I'm like, okay, this is like the main kind of one.
Now the Colombian one was what? Was that the pineapple vinegar? Yeah, like a pineapple um like sauce, which is delicious. All right. Um, a lot of people argue it's like pizza.
Do you put pineapple on pizza? Pineapple on a hot dog is kind of weird. But it again, it really goes. I like pineapple in general. It's like one of my favorite fruits.
I think on a pizza it's great, and a hot dog, it's better. And then they also do like a salsa risotto, which is like a mayonnaise ketchup, which is a good combination. And like chips and chips. Chips is actually my favorite topping besides mustard on a hot dog, I think. What about which is the one you have here that's got the uh tiny riced potatoes in it?
Do you remember like fried rice potatoes on top? Because that's in the in a Cuban fritas, th those things are amazing. Those little like fr like tiny striplets of the is that the uh cutoro quente, the Brazilian one? Yeah, I don't know. Like here's like I say, like I'm reading the topics, I'm like, this is a great, great, great.
Uh but then I'm like, you know, uh at the end, I'm like, ah, sauerkraut. You know, yeah, I had you know what I mean but uh all right. One other thing, uh so I I emailed my family, or not text out email, please. Come on. Uh texted my family in Seattle.
Because okay, in here is a Seattle dog. And it sent me down a catastrophic WTF hole because apparently, and people brace yourselves. Apparently, the Seattle hot dog, which was I guess invented in the 80s, you said or something like this. Yeah. Uh a little late to me inventing your dog.
Just gonna say. New dogs coming up all the time, you know? And it's like a very regional, like regional specific kind of thing. You know, the cream cheese. Cream cheese, and then here we here was the thing.
The cream cheese, I was like, okay. But then, like, what what blew my mind, or just like made me like like bang my head against the computer screen, even though I was reading it in book form, uh, was uh originally came on a biali yes, bun type situation. And then I went on the internet and it John Brace, Biali stick. What the hell is a biali stick? Surely no idea.
It's not a thing. Yeah. A Biali stick is not a thing. A Biali is a Biali. For those of you that don't know, because why would you?
Because no one makes bialys anymore. They are a usually made in places that also make bagels. Yeah. However, they are not boiled, they are much flatter than a bagel. They do not have a hole in them, they have a depression.
They have like some onion, not goop, it's like dryer, yeah, sometimes poppy seeds. Yep. And they must be eaten instantaneously. It's like you make a biali, you go, you buy it, right when they make it, you eat it. Like that's how it works.
Yeah, absolutely. You know what I mean? Yeah. And they don't even really make them in New York anymore. I live in the Bialli Stoker neighborhood.
I live in the Lower East Side, like literally Bialli Stoker Plaza is right there, the Bialystoker old folks home, like all the stuff, Kosar's Bialis, which actually used to be a Biali shop. Yeah, you know, back in the day. And if you go in Wikipedia and look up Bialis, they're all from Kosar's, but back when Kosar's was the original Kosar's people, yeah, not two owners later, no shade. I'm just saying it's not. It is so funny though, because you're like, Seattle, how the heck did you guys get Bialis out there?
And like, what are you talking about? Like everything about it is great, and then like this hot dog, but then you're like, I don't get the Biali part of it. But that's the thing about hot dogs, is the way that things just have traveled around this country. But again, back when hot dogs first kind of started traveling, it makes sense the way, like, you know, Coney dogs end up in Michigan or New York systems or in Rhode Island, you know, and they're all over the place. But the Bialy in Seattle in the 80s still honestly can't.
I was like, what the hell is that? There must have been a New Yorker who was just like, you know, over there, and they're like, you know what would be good? This, this. They've never seen this before. We're gonna do this for them.
But do you think that you just took like a standard, like, you know, God's Biali and just fold it in half and put a hot dog into it? Or they use one of these. Well, what the hell would a Biali stick even be? I don't, I don't actually, you know what? I don't even know.
It's bizarre. You know, people don't even like the first my first actual, you know, with you know, the whole area is uh the character from the producers, Max Bialy Stoker. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Um which is a great movie.
I think that's his name. I mean, I got didn't go look it up. Um, that was a weird one. That sent me wasted a lot of time. Like, and then I was like, should I read?
Should I go buy Mimi Sheraton's Biali book again? The Biali Eaters and read it. I'm like, don't have time, no time. No, can't do it, can't do it. Can't do it.
Um we love a rabbit hole. Yeah, I love um I'm more in the Biali. Okay, the other since we're on book, well, first of all, this is the portion of the show. I missed it, I skipped past. We started talking about hot dogs already.
Apologize. Hot dogs. There's a lot, this you know what? Hot dogs, hot dogs, hot biggity dogs. Yeah, one of the people who uh is you know a friend of the show is in Norfolk, uh, Virginia.
We're not gonna get into it, we'll get into it later. His literal freaking Instagram handle is a hot dog's a sandwich. Oh. P.S. I read your uh wait, wait, it's not a sidebar because it's a whole page.
Because it's a it's a it's a narrow long book. So it's not a sidebar, it's like a side page. Yeah, little how don't you eat pull out? Sure. Sure.
Uh on is a hot dog a sandwich. And while you don't come down on a side, you clearly favor hot dog as a sandwich. No, I don't actually. Actually, I think that actually a hot dog's its own thing. All right.
It's my thing. We'll get into it later. We get into it later. Okay. This is the portion of the show where we discuss the happenings of the past week or so.
So what do you guys got in the culinary or non-culinary world for the past week? What do you got, Quinn? You always got something good for us. Uh let's see. I made a really nice uh first spring risotto.
My dad bought too many fresh green peas. Uh 25 pounds. Holy. Love it. Uh wait.
When so wait, 25 pounds already shucked? Or in pot and some knucklehead had to sit down. Oh, okay. That's not as bad. So what is that?
Like five peas when you're done? Yeah. Yeah. All right. So how many peas did you how many pounds of peas did you and I appreciate you still using the pound unit?
How many pounds of peas did you end up with after they were shucked? I don't know if we quantify it because it was done in uh you know stages, not all at once. My dad does about five pounds. You know, he's l live texting me as we talk. I see.
Five. So you're you had 20% yield? Love it. Lerv. This is why I don't do this stuff, because it's so depressing.
Oh well, although well one thing we did do, we made a risotto. And for the birth of the risotto, it was uh blended cherry tomatoes, strained, and then infused with a bunch of the pea pods. Pretty good flavor. All right. Flavor fine.
What the hell color was that? That was like an orange color from the cherry tomato. Okay. Um, all right. Now I will say this.
I love fresh peas. Vancouver saffron, no joke. He buys Vancouver saffron. I told him, go on the internet, buy a small quantity of real Iranian saffron, especially because he's in Canada. He doesn't even have the freaking problems that we have.
I'm like, what are you doing? What are you doing? As an Iranian here, I'm very insulted that you're not using Iranian or even Afghani. Yeah, but we just do a side by side. Yeah.
Oh, hold on. We've had this conversation a billion times. Oh, you know what? There's a family. There's a culture off the coast of Canada.
And they pick their carocus pistols. No, that's not how it works. You know what I mean? Like, like, I think it would be amazing if you actually did the side by side and you could describe the taste differences. You know what I'm saying?
That's all I'm saying. Someone, listen, someone who can hear me can send Quinn some free freaking Iranian saffron. Dave, you've got my address. You're welcome to do it. Can we even get the real stuff here now?
We can, right? I don't think you can. I I have a friend who has brought me I've given money to, and I'm like, please bring me back some saffron from Iran. Yeah. So yeah, yeah.
Also, low key. Okay. Sorry, this is a nice little sidebar for you. One of my roommates, this is years and years ago, my dad gave me a jar of pre-ground saffron. And it was in a cumin jar, ground cumin.
And she was making um hummus. And I was like, how do I make hummus? I'm texting her how to make it. And she, I'm like, oh, I'd some cumin and stuff. And then later I was like, how'd it come out?
And she's like, well, the cumin, you never got the flavor of it. And it just turned this color. And I'm like, oh my God. She used like a teaspoon or something of my saffron, my Iranian saffron. I was like, that is so crazy.
That's so expensive. I'm so upset. So, anyways, note to self. Do not relabel your jars properly if you're putting saffron in a different jar. And I moved that jar of saffron into my sock drawer.
There you go. Yeah. Uh the time that I got into uh label problem was when someone handed me an unlabeled from my you know kitchen at the French culinary, handed me an unlabeled container of lye and I tasted it. That sucked. Oh my gosh.
So these are two reasons. Two label. Two reasons, label. Label your things, guys. Always label.
However, if you're working in a professional kitchen environment, always remove the label before you take the thing to dish. Always always remove the label before you take it to dish. If you value yourself and your crew. Yeah. Um, even at home, it sucks like fishing those things out of the bottom of your dishwasher.
Exactly, the drain or whatever it is. Just boil it off. I know what I'm waiting for. Like, they have invented laser fruit markers. So so that they can quickly go and like label fruits without putting those grated stickers, stickers on it.
Because I get it for when you're selling to a supermarket, but when you're buying for a restaurant and you get cases of fruit with labels on it, doesn't that piss you off? Yeah, it's super annoying. Yeah. Crap on labels. Yeah, yeah.
Yes and no to labels. You know what pisses me off is when I get food delivered and they use staples. Oh, yeah, but like just to keep the thing shut. I don't care. I don't want any metal near any of my food.
Yeah. I feel it. I feel it. Uh weird story from this week in cooking for me is uh my new hood, I really like it. And one of the nice things is it's got removable, removable, you know, slats like a professional hood would that fit in a human being regular person's dishwasher, which is nice.
Nice. But my wife, I have magnets all stuck to the side of it because I have like my my bread, you know, razor blade. I never know whether I'm supposed to pronounce the E or not at the end. Am I supposed to pronounce the E at the end of that? Is it is it a LAM or it's got an accent they go on it?
No. My Francophile friend blade, lum. Yeah. And uh, and you know, my cake testers, because you know, a k an a kitchen without those little cake testers. I mean, it's like a day without sunshine.
I use those things all the time. You know what I mean? Yeah, and so you know, we we put it back up and we knocked a bunch of the magnets off. Now we can't find them. And my wife's like, are they gonna be in someone's food?
It's gonna stick in someone's intestine. I'm like, we're good. It's gonna stick in someone's intestine. Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah, they're probably in the dishwasher stuck to the wall.
Probably. Yeah, look. Oh, look. I'm gonna look. I mean the dishwasher's metal.
Yeah, true. True true enough story. Uh how the hell do we get there? Oh, we're talking about Quinn and Saffron, and we got all the way to there. Yeah, yeah.
All right. So uh what else do you what else do you have? Uh how is the rest of the risotto? By the way, on peas, Trader Joe's sells fresh peas, and sometimes they're really good, and sometimes the radicals come out of the bottom, they start it growing and they're all starchy and they don't have that fresh pea penis anymore. But if you've never, folks, if you've never cooked a fresh pea.
Did you say fresh pea penis? Rat no, no. No, I don't believe I did. But they I get where you get that from. But if you uh never cooked a fresh pea, they are really good.
You know what I mean? But just get someone else to shock them for you. Maybe Quinn's dad. Yeah. You know what I mean?
Wow. First of all, it is they are not the generative organs. It's actually the whole plant coming out of the bottom of the pea. Um I'll never look at a pea the same. Yeah.
Okay. How close to the end did you add the peas? Very close. Like maybe four minutes. I don't mind a peas as a little el dente.
No, well, especially if it's, you know, if it's fresh, you want you better. I would say, like, not if you're talking to a French chef, where honestly, for them, veg a little over is a little better than under because they hate like an undercooked vegetable over there. But maybe not now, but back back in the day. Uh but I think with peas, I think you're right. Although, like, I I like them just when the starchiness goes away.
Like, yeah. Just when the starchiness goes away. Like, I don't really like raw peas, pea shoots. Yeah. We didn't really have a high ratio.
It was like 50-50, but like a lot of peas to rice. And then like a bunch of different uh new herbs that we just got uh you know, plants for in the garden. Oh, new to you, not like a little bit of clothing. Alright, nice. Yeah.
So it's he had cumin and saffron in one. Now you're triggering her. Exactly. You're triggering her. Not cool.
You could have just left it out. Oh boy, clothing, olive oil. Uh oh. Uh oh, Nick Coleman's olive oil. I got you.
Friend of the show. I love him. Uh wait, so on the peas, here's a question that I don't have the answer for. So since 90% of the peas that we all use are frozen peas. I have not figured out a way to get those things not to wrinkle as they cool off after you do them.
Is there a way to get them not to wrinkle up? The frozen ones? Yeah. No, I don't think there is. They always do.
I love frozen peas, though. I mean, they're so great. They're fast. Yeah. They're fast as hell.
Toss them in. I always like pasta. Anytime I'm making pasta, I'm like, I'm just gonna throw some peas in the water at the end. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I love them in my chicken pot pie.
Oh, yeah, chicken pot pie, delicious. Yeah. We know who you know what John turned me on to the frozen freaking peeled pearl onions. That's a life changer. That's that is I've actually never used those.
Oh, it's a good call. Yeah. Although some of the brands, they're a little too big. I like the ones that are like not the ones that are too big. You know what I mean?
Why do I want to if I want a pearl onion that's like this big, I'll just what the hell is that? You know what I mean? That's too much. It doesn't fit whole in the pot pie. If I have to cut it, you don't want to have a whole bite of like at like a big too much.
No, like, so I had a brand and they it was getting to like uh cippellini size. I'm like, if I wanted a tripolini, I'll buy that. Exactly. You know? Oh my god, I hate peeling those.
Does anyone sell those things peeled? I have no idea. I don't think so. Check the freezer section. I hate working with them, love eating them.
Yeah. Um, a lot of things are like that. I ain't cooking favas at home. Not gonna happen. Uh all right.
Uh who else is what do you got, John? What do you got for me? Uh not a whole lot. Just been prepping, we're waiting for Department of Health inspection. So just getting ready for that.
And yeah, six-day week. So yeah, today's my day off. Sweet. Yep. All right.
Well, uh, I was in Rochester, which will come up again later because we have a a question. But I finally went to uh Flower City Bread and Public Provision. Uh Keith Myers, friend of the show, gives us our our bread hats. Although I found out, he's like, You want another hat? I'm like, no, my wife will kill me if I bring home another hat.
But they have a flower hat. And since I spent like half my time now thinking about flour, she's like, You didn't get a flower hat? I'm like, wait, you're telling me that I should get another hat? I should have gotten a flower hat. Should have gotten a flower hat.
What's what's special about this flower hat? It just is no. So like their marketing is all like very like, you know, like blocky, sans, serif, like right now. So it's there, like and it's like it just says flour. So it like it's they're actually not branded at all.
It doesn't have like public provisions or like flower city, because like Rochester, where they are, by the way, their bread's good. Go, by the way, long story short, go eat their bread. They do a great job. It's delicious. You know, family, it's you know, him, his son, his daughter, like it's a great place.
Please go. Um, yeah. So their branding isn't branded really, because it's not like public, you know, you know, public provisions or flower city. Like I say, Rochester was the flower milling capital of the United States. They took over, they they took over that rain from Baltimore, actually.
Uh, because there was a in that kind of Genesee area, they were growing a lot of soft wheat and they have a lot of falls, right? A lot of waterfalls. Yeah. Really big one, really nice one. The Genesee brewery area overlooks it, so you can hang out on the Genesee River by the falls, have a beer.
You know, it's more nostalgic. Jenny cream ale's like whatever. Uh so because the Erie Canal opened up, they could get their flour down to the New York City area. So they had the power, they had the wheat, and they had the transport. So starting in like the 1830s to 1840s, 50s, all the way up until the advent of um roller mill and the Middlings Purifier when like hard wheat and like when they tilled over all the grasslands and started planting hard wheat out in the plains, you know, Dakota's Kansas, you know, Minnesota up there, that's when Minnesota became the world capital for flour milling.
But yeah, Rochester held the title for a while. Wow. Yeah. So Flower City. It was called Flower City, which then switched to also Flower because they have a seed company there, apparently.
I don't know if it's seeds because I have no land. Yeah, I feel like I need to get the flower hat. Yeah. Someday when I go back. And we'll get to it later.
But of course, well known, have a great hot dog brand, Zweigels. And by the way, I'll just get to it now. Oh, is one of my favorites. They're good. They're so good.
And hard to find, honestly. Oh, but here's the uh Wegman's now has them. That's what I was about to say is I'll order them on Wegmans and stuff. That's I had a, I mean, I every year, not every year, but the last couple years I've done a uh Fourth of July party, and I get those. I'm like, I order them, I'm like get them delivered, and I get chicken because I'll do like chicken and like hot dogs, and Zweigels is the one I do.
Yeah. Were you red or white? I get both. Yeah. They're so good.
They just like burst, they plump, you know. They're always get those dogs. So from Rock Baker. Hold up real quick. Just to throw out in the Discord, Quinn's dad posted a picture of all the peas.
He's got three quarts of shucked peas. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Let's see the pile of let's see the pile of pods.
No picture yet for that, but that's a lot of peas. That's now their entire backyard. Yeah. Oh, we have a caller? Caller, you're on the air.
We lose them? We lose them, Joe? You can call back. Yeah, just punch them in. If you get them, punch them in.
So Rock Baker wants to know why is the Pop Open Zweiggle's white hot dog the best dog? I don't know, Rock. I like a red as much as a white. I know. I think that I I like them both so much.
I don't think you can go wrong. All right, here's here's okay. First of all, just a note to all of you out there. The garbage plate is not one of the 50 hot dog variants. Which, and by the way, I gave this same like guff to George Moats because he doesn't include that in his hamburger thing either.
And I'm like, okay, fine. And I was just in Rochester and I wanted to get up just the dog, not in plate format. And my one issue with the Rochestarians when you're going to places where tourists are gonna go, you can't just get a regular freaking, they always cut it in half. And Swiggles has great snap. You know what I mean?
Yes. I don't want to cut it in half. Yeah, you don't want to do that one. You know, oh, I have so many opinions about that kind of stuff. So like there's there's a time and a place for splitting it and butterflying a dog, you know.
Um have you been to Walter's in Meredith? So good. Oh my gosh. So freaking good. Walter's is one of my favorite hot dog stands.
And so do they use? Who do they use? What are they, what dogs? They make their own um they do their own blend. You can actually get them on like gold belly and stuff.
So they ship nationwide. Um, they also do their own mustard, which is like a mustard relish mixed in. It's delicious. It's so good. And they split their dogs and they put them on the flat top, and like they have um a press that they use, and it gets like nice and colored and crisp, and you can get a double, like so.
They do a double dog, and do you get the puffy? You get the puffy, so it's these like potato puffs that they also can they'll smash and like put on the dog and their mustard, and it is perfection. One of my new favorite things. And part of the problem, all right. I need to do like like George Motes, I need to do multiple versions of this hot dog book.
The hot dog book is mainly about regional kind of like recipes and stuff, right? But there's also a lot of like lore and history and like you know, BS and stuff. Fun, it's a fun book. It's it's fun. I didn't want to include hot dog stands in the back or brands because there's so many.
Right. And like you just can't, you can't really touch on all of them, but we obviously had to. And so I think there's like 20. And I'm so disappointed in myself for not including Walters, to be honest. Cause I actually hadn't been there when I was writing the book.
So I like one of the things I'm doing after since the book has come out also is um on like social media, I'll go and like do little deep dives um into different hot dog stands and hot dog like just I don't know, different styles of hot dogs, um, and do little videos. And I did one about Walter's. I think I was posted last week actually, and yeah, I was like, it's it's my way of like recognizing some of the places that maybe I didn't cover in the book or that I wanna like highlight more or whatever. But Walter's Mamarinek, you have to go up there. Also beautiful building.
I should be yeah, old Chinese American uh takeout building. Huh? It's no, you know, he designed that. The like that they didn't inherit that building, yes, which is so wild. So it's an old pagoda that I guess it was uh copper roof because now it's that green.
Um and so you would think you're like, oh, like, because why is this Sicilian immigrant making like a pagoda-shaped hot dog stand? But um I think according to the Nat like is it third or fourth generation Catherine who I was speaking to a lot when I was doing the when I was going up there. They're always named Catherine. What's it? Do you say do you say third generation Catherine?
No, third generation of the family and her name is Catherine. I think she's like a grand great-granddaughter or like great great or something, maybe third or fourth generation. I love the idea of just Catherine. It's all Catherine's Catherine the Third. Yeah.
Um, she, I think that he built it because I was like, well, why why? Like, why did the did he do the Chinese? But I think it was like in the year, I think it was 1918 when they built that hot dog stand. I think it was just he thought it was like really beautiful and cool, so he built it and it's like really cool pagoda shape. It's incredible.
You have to go up there. I think it's like a um national landmark. How far off I 95? It can't be too far. Mamarnex the size of this book.
It's like I mean, from here it's probably so off I 95, eight minutes off 95, a new Rochelle, probably, yeah, same off Mamarnik exit. The only uh I 95, like uh New York, Connecticut corridor place I've been to is super duper weenie. Uh place is great. Oh, yeah. Nice.
Delicious. Although when I went, like they're like the you know, they're they're very good, but I was like, it was all complicated dogs. Yeah, I think so it's interesting, and that's also again, there's so many places that do really interesting hot dogs, and I wanted to kind of keep it more like specific, like regional ones. So like there's a lot of places that yeah, everywhere does a hot dog, but it's not like a regional like thing. Do you know what I mean?
Like if that makes sense, I'm like, well, I'm not gonna include that necessarily. But I think there's a place for like a hot dog book of like, here's all the like just a lot more different crazy things you can do, you know? Now but simple, I think I like a little bit more simple. Yeah, the when they do simple, it's just a lot like a super duple we need. Yeah, the the amount of ingredients they put on is what makes it too much.
I think. Because it's like it's the red sauce onions, it's sauerkraut, you know, it's like the ingredients that you get here. I think they just layer it up a little too much. That's my opinion. Their fries are delicious.
Okay. Wait, I had something about that, and now it's gone. Uh the I don't even know what we're talking about. You know, you know what my one of my sources of super embarrassment is? I've not been to like two of the famous most famous Connecticut dogs, and I've never done any of the New Jersey famous hot dogs.
Oh. Never had an Italian or a ripper. Yes, never had a ripper. I need to change that. Rippers are great.
And it's it's because it's yeah, and it's also the relish that they do, right? Like so a ripper, for those of you guys don't know, it's um you go to Rutt's Hut and they do um a variety. Well, there's three ways, I guess you can request your dog to be fried, and it's an inner inner outer where it's like kind of dipped in the oil and like whatever. And then there's like a I forget all the names actually, but there's the cremator or the weller, and it's like bursts open like completely over fried and deep fried. But the relish is like really nice.
I have a recipe for the relish in there as well, but I think that's what kind of makes it even more special, you know. Cause a lot of places do kind of you can deep fry the dog or whatever, but yeah, rippers is one of the, I don't know, rippers, sorry, Rut's Hut is one of the originators of the the ripper. Yeah, I need to go. I need to go. And then the other one, is that the one in Clifton?
What's the other one? That's in Clifton. Um, there's so there's Dickie D's and um uh oh my god, I'm gonna die that I just I can't remember the name. But the Italian hot dog that originated in Newark, New Jersey. Um, and why literally I'm drawing a blank on the name of the place that was the originator originator.
Dickie D's does it also, but the Italian hot dog, do you know about this one? Do you know? Only from the book. Uh well, so it's for those who don't know, it's um like a pizza bread, but you look at this pizza bread. So it originated um years and years and years ago, the owners, like the husband and wife, the husband was having like poker games in the basement, and the wife was making these hot dogs for the friends coming over, like to feed them while they're like playing games and hanging out.
Um, but the I'm in my head, I'm like, it's Johnny's hot. No, that's in that's in Philly. It's uh Jimmy Buffs. Jimmy Buffs, thank you. Jimmy Buffs.
So the great grandmother, or maybe it's like great great grandmother, again, all these generations cannot remember. Um, but the the bread, it's like this like leftover pizza dough, but really it looks like a giant bagel, like it's huge and like thick, and you do half you if you get a half of one, it's two hot dogs, or you can do a quarter with one hot dog, and it's peppers, onions, and potatoes. And at Jimmy Buffs, they do the potatoes in like coins kind of, and at Dickey D's, they do them um in like chunks more so. But they also at Jimmy Buff's, the way that he's they've like kind of engineered their flat top is that it's an angle, so the oil will pull at one end, and they kind of deep fry the dogs in that oil and then like push everything up, you know, um, as it's ready. It's they're really good.
And then they do mustard and ketchup on it. What's the speaking of oil, just so I can get it straight, because it seemed intriguing. What's the one towards the end of the book where they cook it in like not fry temperature oil, but like lower temperature, like oil poached. I forget where it is. You're like, it's like they're they're not like they're like they're like halfway between boiled and fried.
Oh, I don't know. I can't remember. Somewhere towards the end. See if my memory was just slightly doesn't slightly better. I couldn't remember Jimmy Buffs.
So there you go. One of the things uh when I was reading it, and then so I I'll ask you rather than fake try to figure out like why, but it seems like you made a clear choice to kind of be like you can make these recipes no matter what hot dogs you can buy. And so you're not be like, you have to get Vienna beef or so there's very and so like like people who come from areas where like the hot the actual brand of hot dog is super duper important. Use that hot dog, right? But in other words, like you're like you didn't want I think it seemed like it was a non-exclusionary situation.
Yeah, I absolutely so yeah, in the the way the book is, it's like in the front of book, there's um all the different ways you can cook a hot dog, all the ways you can cook a bun, and then there's all of the recipes, and each recipe, it's like, okay, they might traditionally boil this hot dog or deep fry it. So refer to page XYZ to do that method. Um, you know, I'll talk about with okay, Chicago. Obviously, Vienna beef reigns supreme there. So, like you might use that there.
But if you're not in Chicago and can't get a Vienna beef dog, but you want to make that hot dog, you should. You can get any brand you want, you know. There's so again, I didn't want to even do a lot of brands in the book because there's so many, and there's so many I haven't even tried. Um, but really regionally specific ones that are just very exciting. I'm like, you should you should absolutely get that hot dog, get the hot dog you want, cook the hot dog the way you want as well, and the bun, um, and then kind of top it however you like.
Like, here's a bunch of suggestions for how to top it. But the world is your hot dog, I like to say. So do what you want with it. I'm even okay, we can talk about ketchup, all right. I think like if people, I I'm a very anti-ketchup person, but I'm over like my hot take is I'm like, I'm over people shaming other people for ketchup.
You know, I'm like, if you want to put ketchup on your hot dog, by all means put the ketchup on your hot dog. If that makes you happy, do it. However, at the end, you correctly say there is only one ketchup. I know it's true. Because there is that's the only one.
I know that's another thing there. They were where we like put a bunch of resources of like here's some hot dog brands and buns and you know, mustards and stuff. But I was like, for ketchup, there is no other good ketchup out there. Homemade ketchup blows. If you give me a homemade ketchup, like remember when there was artisanal ketchup at all the restaurants and stuff?
Yeah. And that was just disappointing, you know. Like nobody wants that. So my son Dax always quotes Wesley Willis. Heinz, it's America's favorite ketchup.
Rock of a London or Rock Own Chicago. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, that's it. Heinz. That's it.
Pittsburgh got it down, baby. Yeah. That's it. It's true. And anyone else that makes ketchup is using them as a target.
So just go buy the bullseye. Yeah. You know what I mean? I think I know what you were gonna talk about before, by the way, is that we don't talk about the um the garbage plate. Oh no, I started that I started mentioning that.
I started mentioning that. I'm gonna put a pin in that. So it's a that's it's it's look, it's fine. It's fine. I just like, you know, uh, I feel like you know, that neighborhood could use a little a little love from outside culinary folk, you know what I mean?
Like, yeah. Uh I'll say this. Uh I took someone to Nick Nick, however you pronounce Tahoe, Tao, whatever it is. Like, I took someone there four days ago, uh, maybe five at this point, and they didn't understand uh that they didn't understand. Now, I think people who are from Rochester, they don't necessarily go get the original garbage plate there because everyone has their own, it's much like hot dogs in general.
Everyone has the one that they like, and if you get it a different way and you didn't like it, they're like, Well, you were wrong. Yeah, you did the wrong thing. You know what I mean? True. But whatever.
It's so funny. So, I mean, all right, we've kind of talked about this. I don't even know if we talked about it today on air, but like we were talking about earlier, is that putting out a book like this that is so specific to people's opinions gave me massive anxiety because I know I'm gonna miss, you know, some places, you're gonna forget some things, um, and everyone will come at you, you know, like pitchfork. Thankfully, most people have been celebrating this book, so I'm it's been wonderful, and I can't complain. But that's like part of the beauty of like something like this that so many people have an opinion about it, you know.
Um a quick side note for you one of our listeners is saying in the Discord that the Los Angeles public library already has 12 copies of your book. Oh my gosh, look at that. I love it. That makes me very happy. I okay, from Maryland, and we were talking about well, you're talking about flour from Maryland, and we're talking about fried chicken from Maryland, which I don't even know if that's a thing.
But that was off air, but yes, we were discussing something that Maryland, besides crabs that we are known for. Well, first of all, there's a Baltimore hot dog. We put bologna on it. It's like, you know, basically a flattened hot dog with um, you know, hot dogs. You fry the baloney first, though, right?
You kind of like it's not fried, but it's like on a flat top pan. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it gets a little bit of color, but not.
Because please. Yeah. You know what I mean? Exactly. Exactly.
Yeah. Um, but one thing that we are known for, this is not hot dog at all. It's pit beef. Do you know pit beef? Yes.
Love it. Thank you. Thank you so much. I've been told to get it, but I have not had it. It's very good.
So outside of Baltimore, it like kind of started on Pulaski Highway. Um, all throughout, there's like roadside stands, and it's in Maryland, we say it's like our version of barbecue. You talk to anybody who does barbecue and they're like, that is not barbecue, which a hundred percent it's not. You know, like it's it's smoked and then kind of finished over a pit um and thinly sliced. So it does like pit beef itself looks similar to roast beef.
But okay, so I did a video about this about my favorite pit beef place that's in um Edgewater, Maryland, right outside of Annapolis, Bayside Bowl. Grew up going there. I love their pit turkey. They've got amazing ham. Um, everybody was like, that's not A, that's not barbecue, and B, that's just roast beef.
It looks like Arby's. And then a lot of people in Boston are like, you gotta go to the North Shore. I can't do a Boston accent, clearly. But and people out there from Boston listening, I apologize. I do I I love Massachusetts.
I was just in Boston last week, and I was like, I'm gonna go to the North Shore and go to Kelly's, which is the originator of the roast beef three-way sandwich. Do you know about this? I did not, but I after doing my pit beef video, went up there, tried it. And it's it's it's roast beef, you know. They do roast beef.
It's cold. Pit beef is served warm usually. Um do you like a cold roast beef sandwich? I listen, Kelly's was delicious. They do white American cheese and James River barbecue sauce.
That's the three ways. To me, if it's cold roast beef, it must have horseradish. For me. I so I agree with you. Like also a horseradish mayo, which in Maryland we have, it's called tiger sauce, basically, is horseradish mayonnaise.
Um, but yeah, they don't do they you can get that as an option, but the three-way original is the pit the excuse me, not the pit beef, the roast beef, the James River barbecue and the American cheese, white American, which is also cold, which I it was good, and it's the original location is in Revere Beach. There's a few locations now up there of Kelly's. But um, so and I just want to clear it for everybody. Like, it is not pit beef is not roast beef. I'm just gonna say that.
I want that to be clear for everyone. People shouldn't get all bent. Unless you've gone to a place and you're like crap on what you do. Yeah. Like uh, like what, like uh what uh I won't call crap on uh Chicago's uh pizza, but John Stewart did.
You know what I mean? Like I'm shouldn't. Which pizza is he talking crapping on? The deep dish? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, fair. Yeah. Well, it was it. Tavern style pizza in Chicago is good. Listen, I'm not gonna get into it because it's not it's like you're not gonna get into it other than when you do get to deep dish thing, they could cook it faster than that.
You know what I mean? You know what? Yeah, agreed. They know they're gonna make it. Yeah.
You know what I mean? You can bar cook it a little bit and just finish it. That's like, you know, it's like uh like the people who are the best in the world at like what they do, like like uh Maison uh Maison d'Andoy or whatever it's like. Oh yeah, Maison d'Ando. Yeah, you Belgium broke.
You you go there, and sure, you know, like you know the their waffle dough is only in good condition for a short amount of time, but because they sell infinity waffles, yeah, they're always perfect when they're always cranking. You're not waiting forty-five minutes except for the line. You know what I mean? Yeah, or like you know, you go to like the best Al Pastor places in Mexico City, and they're making infinity of them. You know what I mean?
Like that's the way. You go to them, and you're like, all you do is deep dish pizza, and I gotta wait 45 minutes, but I've already sitting at the table. What the hell? Didn't you know we were coming? You know what I mean?
It's true. It's true. You have problems filling the seats? You just start the dough? You know what I mean?
Yeah. Anyway, whatever. Not saying anything negative about the product. I'm just saying that it's it's the process. Yes, right?
Yes. Uh uh, it should not have gone down that tangent. But I'll throw my roast beef in. Uh, beef on whack, very good. The Buffalo one.
Yes, I know. That was another one that came up a lot of people were talking about, which I have not had beef on whack. Good. Uh it's not that the beef is magical, it's the it's the caraway and and salt rolls. Oh, that makes sense.
Yeah. Yeah, that make it that. And so, like, even though like I'm not gonna claim to make Buffalo style anything, you know what I mean? Like uh, I do make caraway and salt rolls as a result of being like that is a good idea. Yeah, you know what I mean?
But uh I have to try this pit beef and see what it is. I think I've uh you know what with first I heard of it was what on the wire, probably? Yes, 100%. Everybody's not a wire. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Great show. Yeah. I mean, still holds up. Yeah. I rewatched it recently.
Um it's a good show. Um, but on the uh crab meat, you also do a crab meat one at the end. Which works. It really does work, I think. A lot of people will see that and Marylanders who are like die hard Marylanders, which I am a die hard Marylander, but I think crab on a hot dog works.
It's that sweetness of the crab meat with the saltiness of the hot dog. I also, it's kind of like a I'm gonna say, listen, we're not crab boil people, but like we do steamed crabs or whatever, but I put corn in there and old bay, and the way I eat crab when I'm picking, and I'm a piler, if you know what this means. So, like instead of picking and eating as I go, I pile my meat. And then once I have a really nice pile, which takes a lot of self-restraint, I pour butter onto it and apple cider vinegar, and then I just eat it like in chunks like that, you know. So I'm like, you know, it's getting there full.
So for my crab salad on the hot dog, I put vinegar, apple cider vinegar, and butter, melted butter on it. Um, and old bay, obviously, and the corn, and it's delicious. Are you fast enough to be able to actually eat your fill of crab meat? Well, you here's the thing about eating crab is that it's not a fast process. The whole thing about eating it a crab is that it's a leisurely thing.
You're hanging out, you got the newspaper, the the brown paper down, and you're picking and you're drinking some beers and you're you're getting like hush puppies and things on the side to fill you, and then it's a social situation, you know. So you're never really getting like full, or like, yeah, you will get full after like I'll eat like I'd say four to six crabs is like how many I want to eat. Show me the size of the crab that you're oh well, they have to be like you're not not those micro I mean that's I'm like doing the extension of it, like the the carapace, but yeah, like they're like big ones. You want to get the the jumbos, they're expensive. Yeah.
It's a it's a money. So good though. I went crabbing with friends on the bay last summer. Hey, what was your bait? Chicken?
Yeah, of course. The chicken necks. Yeah. Yeah. It's the best.
That's the only way to do it. So weird wow. Some people use hot dogs. Did you know that? Yeah, yeah.
One of my friends, they're like in in Virginia. They use they use hot dogs. There's some sheep. Uh all right. Uh back to hot dogs.
So uh split top or regular people. Split top for me. Split top buns. Yeah. I mean, yeah, like the pepperage farm ones are really good.
Or like um, like the New England style. Those are that's what I'm saying. These are hard to find though. I'm saying I think I I uh all the people who don't appreciate the New England style split top on, I think it's because they haven't had them. Yeah, it's I mean, I was just so I was in Boston last week, like I mentioned.
The reason I went to Boston last week was because the Orioles were playing at Fenway, and I'd never been to Fenway Park. And I mean, I make myself sound like a huge baseball fan and nerd, but I'm you're wearing a Knicks hat. I'm wearing well, I was at the Knicks game last night. Oh, fancy fans. I know.
I mean, we lost, which was a huge disappointment. Close. Still incredible. I mean, listen, we'll get into that, but the refs blew it for us. Um, but going to I was at Wrigley last summer.
Um, because you know, these iconic old stadiums, and there's something obviously nostalgic about baseball and hot dogs, you know. So you have it's in the book, by the way, you can read. Exactly. Exactly. Um, but going to Fenway, they do the Fenway Frank and they do the split top bun.
And um it the uh I'm saying this wrong, but the kayam, I think is the name of the brand. Yeah. Kayam, is that right? Yeah, I don't know. I know that yeah, K-A-Y-E-N.
Yep. Yeah. Um, really good hot dog because those are like I think they boil them and then grill them. So it is like yeah, you think you mentioned that yeah in the book. Uh I've never been to Fenway.
Uh but I will say this. If you have a lobster roll, I know we're not talking about lobster rolls, but if you have a lobster roll on a standard hot dog bun, you have made a mistake. Yeah. It's gotta be New England style. I know, you're right.
Yeah. And you can you can buy them online. And if you bake your own, they're easier to bake. Oh. I think.
I like looking. Uh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm for it.
Anyway. There's also a lobster roll style hot dog in there. I yes, I saw that. But I don't remember. Is it a hot lob?
It is hot hot lobster, right? I believe I I you know what I can't remember. I think it is, and then cold caviar on top too. It's the it's called the fancy like lobster roll dog or whatever. I was at uh so I mentioned I think last week, a couple weeks ago, I was at um uh Captain Scott's, I think it's Captain Scott's over up in New London.
And uh they do a lobster grilled cheese now. I was wondering whether that's a good idea. There's a couple of places that do that along the coast in Connecticut. Have you had it? Is it a good idea?
No, I haven't had a lot of things. No, it's it's kind of like I'll say this. I also don't love lobster mac and cheese, and that's feels similar enough to me. You know what I mean? That like, I don't know, sometimes the lobster tastes overcooked, you know, in those situations, especially like a mac and cheese.
Um I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, I'm not sure. I I'm trying to think of whether I would like it. I'm trying to also guess what kind of do they like try to go all the way and then with brioches, and then is it too soft?
Is it crunchy? Like ah I would just never if on on the same menu there's gonna be a lobster roll, and I would just always rather get that. Yeah. Also, what cheese are they using? Is what I'm curious about.
Right. Right. Uh this is random, but I've watched the original Devil Wears Prada the other day, and uh I didn't realize Adrian Grenier was in it. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Oh yeah, he makes the grilled cheese. He makes the grilled cheese. And I was like, you know, that looks good. Yeah. He looks like he did a good job on the grilled cheese.
They take a bite of it, and I hear, I'm like, man, I made a good grilled cheese. Yeah. Or at least their sound editor is really good. Their sound editor makes a good grilled cheese. You know what I mean?
Yeah. Yeah. There is nothing better than honestly. Not that's why I love a good grilled cheese. I'm not saying there's nothing better.
There's a lot of things better than good grilled cheese, but uh, you can't, it's hard to beat a good grilled cheese, you know? Yeah. My my uh my brother-in-law, slash the photographer I work with uh in what you know, in the one book I have, but when I've the theoretical other books that I've partially written, like uh he has had other than I think Hawaii and North Dakota, he's had a grilled cheese in every state. Wow. Yeah.
He's missing two. Wait, Hawaii and North Dakota? Yeah, he's never been to Hawaii, that's why. And I think he missed North Dakota, he's missing two. Interesting.
What's the I'm wonder I'm curious if like it's like do is there regional specialties for the grilled cheese as well? You know, that's the thing. When he was doing it, it wasn't like you know, George, you know, George Motes, he wasn't like collecting, he's just like he's vegetarian, he's on the road, and so like the one thing you can always get is grilled cheese. And so, like, because he's shot in so many states, you know what I mean, and like done all his stuff, that it's like just like that's he's like, Oh yeah, I've done it. You know, because it's like he's like, have I been there?
Yeah, I had grilled cheese there. Like, you know, I think if he was doing it now, maybe he would collect them or whatever. You know, but it's gotta be a book, you know. Come on. I mean, there's many, there's many grilled cheese books out there, let's be honest.
But I interneted this recently to try to just, you know, troll them a little bit. And uh, and like uh, you know, most of them are just ag aggregates, they're just like someone trolls the internet for like who's got the best blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, uh, no real work involved. And a lot of like grilled mac and cheese grilled cheese. What the hell is that?
I've never had one of those. Mac and cheese grilled cheese. It's like instead of like Yeah. What's that about? I don't know.
People are just getting to be too much with these stunt meals. Yeah, you know, and that's no that that I will say that's part of the thing. And there's people do that with hot dogs. I feel like hot dogs at the moment, first of all, to anyone out there who's my friend that's listening, stop sending me hot dog reels and all these hot crazy hot dog things. That's all my inboxes are the crazy things that people are doing with hot dogs, and I appreciate it.
However, I'm like, it gets a little too much sometimes, some of the things that people do with a hot dog. Because as we mentioned, I think simple sometimes is really nice. So you can taste the hot dog if it's like a good dog, get that snap, all the things, you know, like there's a lot of important elements to a hot dog, and I think less is more sometimes, you know. You don't like especially like because when you have a it needs to be transportable in a way, you know what I mean? That's the whole point of like the hot dog was invented.
It's like this very American thing that you know, for the busy person, um, you know, that's on the go to get lunch, it's affordable, they can grab it, go, and like not miss any work, right? So I think that like part of also with the book was that I wanted everything except for the scramble dog, and I think the curry worst. Everything is like you eat it on the go, like there's a bun or something, you know. So, like if it's too loaded up, like you can't hold that thing. If you're top with too many things, too heavy too many heavy things, you know, like it's it defeats the point.
You shouldn't have to have a knife and fork for this most of the time. Oh my gosh. I did a pop-up event in Boston, like I said last week, and there's a guy at the bar eating his hot dog with the bun with a hot and knife and fork. Was it Bill de Blasio? I was like, I was like, I can't stare at this person right now.
I won't, I want to be polite, but also like I can't not like stare at this person right now. It's pretty crazy. Yeah, just to listen, I'm one of those people like, you know, my mom was very busy growing up. She didn't teach teach me to eat neatly. She didn't have time.
She was, you know, busy saving kids' lives. You know what I'm saying? So I'm a messy eater, but still, I'm not gonna pick up a knife and fork to eat a hot dog. No, that's I mean, the whole thing with again, whole thing with a hot dog is that it's a handheld food that you don't even really need a plate because the bun is your plate. It's also your your cutlery, I guess, or your hands are your cutlery.
It's your it's your white glove if you read your uh section on the thing. Thank you very much. Do my homework. Uh okay, now one other thing from the book, and then uh there's one connection I'm not sure, I don't remember if you made it or not. The meat sauce is not chill, it's not standard chili, right?
Yeah, it's strangely, although different, strangely consistent from here. I've never had it west of Detroit. You know what I mean? But like the garbage plate, uh, you know, Nick's, like that's a similar meat sauce. Um, and you go all over these weird places and they have this, and you know, as you say, hot dog chili sauce.
Yeah, it's Greek origin, right? Is it related to Cincinnati chili, which is also I've never had Cincinnati chili, but for those that have taste it, and I and so the person I took to the garbage plate, they had the meat sauce in two different places because we went to two different places, and they're like, is there cinnamon in this? I'm like, Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah.
And so it's similar. Yeah. So it's so interesting. I mean, it's just it one of my favorite things is food ways, right? Like how food kind of like it gets around and where like and how it changes as it goes.
And so, you know, I kind of mentioned it at the top about um in uh Rhode Island, New York system hot dogs, they do a hot dog chili sauce also, and theirs is very spice laden, also like different kind of spice. I think theirs is more like cumin centric, whereas yeah, you go to Cincinnati and it has a little bit more um cinnamon in there. Um up in Detroit, like some of the versions that they do with their coney dog is there's like beef heart in it, um, depending on where you go. Um, but yeah, it's and then you've got down in DC the half smoke where they also do like a chili sauce and like bent. Is that also Greek?
Or is it that one that one's not really that Greek, but it is like a I thought that was like kind of a like a black American culture thing down there. And it's definitely more of like a um, it's it's still a chili sauce though, like not chili. So like a chili sauce is like a bit thinner. Um and also like West Virginia they do with slaw dog, and they do so one thing I actually really like about my when I make hot dog chili sauce is I'll blend it a little bit. Um, because you want it a little bit more finely ground.
There's no beans. Obviously, a lot of people don't put chili and beans anyway, but um they if you do put chili and beans, it's like to stretch it out a bit more or whatever, but with hot dog chili sauce, there's no beans in there and like making a bit thinner. So like I'll use an immersion blender and kind of thin it out. Yeah, so to speak. So but yeah, it's good.
So don't buy a can of hormels and dump it on your hot dog and think you is that what you're saying? Exactly. Unless you like it. You can get some good hot dog canned hot dog chili sauces. Yeah, nice.
Who makes a good one? I forgot I forgot there's a nice look in the book, in the book, there's a resources in the back. Uh so this leads into uh Michael writes in back to Connecticut hot dogs. Oh, yes, that's here. Uh what is the better Connecticut hot dog style with hot pepper relish like Blackies, which you brought us blackies, we tasted it on air.
It's not sweet, it's like a non-sweet relish. Uh or Capital Lunch meat sauce with onions and mustard. And I looked up Capital Lunch, but I've never been, unfortunately. In Bristol. Yeah.
Uh you've been? Yes. Yeah. Good? Yeah.
Okay. Um You're gonna have to tell us which is better. Well, so like, so Michael wants to know whether Martin uh Russell's or Hummel's, but those are the two most famous, I would say, Connecticut dogs. Yeah. And I've never really had I've never had Martin Russell.
Hummels I've had many times. Yeah. Hummels I've had many times. Martin Russell's I've had a Capital Luncheon uh in the book. Capital lunch, not Capital Grill.
Yeah, lunch. And um, but I looked up how they make their meat sauce, and get this. They they they okay. According to wherever I read it, but I don't remember, I just cut and paste. It says the signature ultra fine consistency is achieved by adding water to the raw meat before they brown it to make a sludge that they then cook off.
Oh, interesting. It's weird, right? Because you're like it must be double ground, fine, which it is, they're always fine, but and they also use uh cinnamon also uh all spice and clothes. So it's part of that Greek Yeah, the Macedonian Greek kind of as it like explores and goes up and round and all over. And everyone claims they invented it, but probably who the hell knows.
You know what I mean? That's that's that is my favorite thing, is the debates of who who invented what, you know, like the chimichanga or like uh whatever it is, you know. Here's my big money idea. I said this on air. Someone please do it.
It's the semi-changa. So you take a you take a burrito and you only fry the bottom half so that you can hold it. And then the top is soft, and then the bottom you eat like an ice cream cone, a semi-chonka. Like an ice cream cone. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Someone's got to do it. Uh wait, did I miss any? Did I miss any big hot dog questions?
We have a minute thirty. Because other than the hot dogs, a sandwich. Should we go out on a freaking? Oh no. Yeah, I got that question.
Uh Oshkosh Bagash wants to know how to stabilize their uh their Bur Blanc, which is made with Worcestershire sauce, but it's not, it's more liquid than normal, and I think maybe that's why it's breaking. Other than keeping your temperature accurate for uh holding, I would use uh a mixture of on your water base, 1.5% uh gum arabic and uh 0.15 to 0.12 Xanthan whisk it in, get it done. Then it should hold for uh a long time. I think that's your problem. Um Curtis B has a uh a chicken, uh a chicken broth that they want to remain uh uh liquid when it's cold.
Uh do a freeze thaw. So uh water it, the chicken broth down till it's just barely setting. Uh freeze it solid and then let it thaw over a bunch of layers of cheesecloth. The stuff that comes out won't have any of the gelatin left, you can then reconcentrate it. Uh Z Banks, we'll do your uh we'll do your your God's mojito next time.
37 seconds. Hot dog is a sandwich. I don't think so. I don't think so either. No.
No. It's not. No. No, it's its own thing. It's also I hate when people are like, or is it a taco?
Yeah, none of those. There's like the Venn diagram and stuff. Okay, there's some there's similarities here and there, but a hot dog is a hot dog, a sandwich is a sandwich, a taco is a taco. There we go. And I, you know, I wish we had more than like 15 seconds.
I was gonna go into a whole thing about like like how like you know, the uh bankrupt idea of the platonic ideal and the idea of definitions in general, I think, are kind of irritating, but we don't have time to go into Diogenes and plucked chickens now, maybe later. Uh Faraday, thanks so much for coming on. Coming on Ant. What should your friends send you wheels of? Oh, oh, ah.
I don't know. The next winning. Okay, okay. All right. Cooking issues.
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