HotDogs

I remember being in Venezuela and eating a version of their street hot dogs. I was in the city of Cumana. Its a colonial style city on the Caribbean sea. There's lots of plazas in the town, the biggest one being Plaza Bolivar. There are also long stretches of road full of commercial businesses. Here is where you'll find men on the streets selling shaved ice, hamburgers and hot dogs. The hot dogs are pretty much standard, it had the sausage (Frank, weenie) in a hot dog bun, ketchup, mayo, onions, tomato. But what made their dogs different was the potato chips, like Ruffles, crumbled on top of the hot dog. I don't know if it was all the sodium or grease but is was darn good.

I tell you that story to tell you this story. When I was very young my folks would send my brothers and I to spend summers with my grandparents in Mexico. They had a plaza in that little town where people with hot dog carts would sell what is known as Mexican hot dogs. These are the hot dogs  wrapped with bacon in a steamed hot dog bun with pico de gallo (chopped onion, tomato and coriander leaves), ketchup, mayo and jalapeño. As a child I loved this hot dogs, as an adult I don't know if they are made differently but I don't like them any more.

Now I told you that story to tell you this one. When I was in elementary school the area a grew up in had a festival of sorts every 5 de Mayo (May 5th). This consisted of a parade and a fair/carnival in the park. The festival was to celebrate our Mexican heritage. the park was full of carnival rides and different food vendors, and just outside the park where the hot dog carts. maybe about 6 to 8 carts around the park. These hot dogs were also wrapped in bacon, and had pretty much the same things the Mexican hot dogs had. the exception were the grilled onions and the hot dogs were bigger as far as I remember. These dogs are what we know as L.A. Street Dogs (yet still referred to as Mexican hot dogs).

This brings me to my oldest sons hot dog experience. It's pretty simple. we has two, we gave him a hot dog from Disneyland's ToonTown, he only eats hot dogs now. True Story. He's 5 now.

So now down to its origins (not 100% accurate, people didn't keep historic records on hot dogs). Hot dogs originate from Germany. They're a member of the sausages family. In the late 1800's hot dogs got their start in the U.S. Some dude allegedly was selling the franks and handing out gloves because they were too hot to handle bare handed. People started keeping the gloves so said mans wife told him to put them in a roll. allegedly a cartoonist came up with the term "hot dog".  That's pretty much it.

I don't know where you can get a hot dog outside L.A. but there are a few places here you can get good ones (so they say). If you ask the general public they'll send you to Pink's, off La Brea near Melrose. You can also find Pinks around L.A. being sold out of carts. If you're in south of L.A. a Pink's is opening up at the Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance. Then there are Dodger Dogs. These are the ones they sell at Dodger Stadium. You can get them at Arco's ampm. I've had them both, I did not not like them. Pinks has a large menu and different types of franks. Oh, i just remembered. I did visit Berkeley  Ca and had a hot dog from Top Dog. It was a long time ago but I think I liked it. Lastly there is Hot Dog on a Stick, I go for the lemonades but there corn dogs aren't bad.

As I did my research on this subject I sound out that every region of this country has their own style of hot dogs. There are reindeer dogs up north, sonoran hot dogs in Arizona, half-smoke in the capital, Chicago style, the coney dog and so on. New York and L.A. have large variations.

The only advice I can give anyone is...make it how you like it. Chili dogs, plain dogs, just ketchup, cheese dogs, veggie, with bell peppers and so on. Don't get me started on the types and variations of franks.