Get Yer Red Hots On!
Tonight we're having hot dogs. This is a good thing.
My mom used to call it tube steak. Funny.
I love a good hot dog now and again. There's so much you can do with one.
Before I married my bride, we took a trip to Chicago for a long weekend. That's when I rediscovered my love for the Chicago Style Hot Dog.
Wendy's sold the specialty dogs in the summer of 1988, and I scarfed them up often. I was mesmerized by the combination of celery salt, mustard, pickled hot pepper, dill pickle relish and tomato that was globbed onto the tube steak, which was nestled in a poppy seed, thick bun.
Then the Wendy's promotion ended and it wasn't until our 1991 trip to the Windy City that I found a place that sold them. Chicago Style Dogs weren't plentiful on Metro Detroit menus, I came to find out. You know---our love affair with the Coney Dog and all.
The place in Chicago was called Madison Avenue Dogs, and they used their acronym to name their Chicago Style Dogs.
MAD dogs were a hit with us. Plus I loved the atmosphere in that place.
MAD was connected to a Thai Restaurant, and by the looks of things, Thais ran the hot dog joint, too.
You'd place your order---they offered many types of dogs but MAD dogs were by far their specialty---and the order taker would yell out, "TWO MAD!", "THREE MAD," etc., depending on how many you wanted.
My wife and I have dabbled with making our own MAD dogs at home. It's still a work in progress.
The Chicago Style Hot Dog
But I can go for any type of hot dog---boiled, grilled, what have you. I like the hot dog because it's one of those foods that turns into your own personal canvas. The hot dog is similar to the pizza in that regard, or a trip to the salad bar. Almost anything goes.
Diced onions, chopped up hot pepper, relish, mustard, you name it. Except for ketchup.
I don't do ketchup on hot dogs. My wife does, unashamedly. I just can't get into the flavor combo.
At old Tiger Stadium, the hot dog vendors carried with them two containers of mustard and none of ketchup. Someone once told me that was because the sugar in ketchup attracts flying insects.
Maybe it's just that mustard is the only proper condiment for a hot dog.
In the TV show "King of Queens," Kevin James' Doug Heffernan ate a hot dog with mayonnaise on it in one episode. His friend Deacon called him out on it.
"Who puts mayonnaise on a hot dog?" Deacon asks incredulously.
"I do," Doug responds. "And one day, so will everyone."
Um, no.
As far as I'm concerned, other than ketchup and mayo, you can put anything on a hot dog.
Our local Home Depot gloriously serves hot dogs for a couple bucks a pop. It's difficult to walk by the stand on your way in or out of the store and not stop for a quick tube steak.
But when we have the time and the ingredients, there's nothing like once again dabbling with the celery salt, peppers, tomatoes, mustard et al.
Isn't that MAD?
My mom used to call it tube steak. Funny.
I love a good hot dog now and again. There's so much you can do with one.
Before I married my bride, we took a trip to Chicago for a long weekend. That's when I rediscovered my love for the Chicago Style Hot Dog.
Wendy's sold the specialty dogs in the summer of 1988, and I scarfed them up often. I was mesmerized by the combination of celery salt, mustard, pickled hot pepper, dill pickle relish and tomato that was globbed onto the tube steak, which was nestled in a poppy seed, thick bun.
Then the Wendy's promotion ended and it wasn't until our 1991 trip to the Windy City that I found a place that sold them. Chicago Style Dogs weren't plentiful on Metro Detroit menus, I came to find out. You know---our love affair with the Coney Dog and all.
The place in Chicago was called Madison Avenue Dogs, and they used their acronym to name their Chicago Style Dogs.
MAD dogs were a hit with us. Plus I loved the atmosphere in that place.
MAD was connected to a Thai Restaurant, and by the looks of things, Thais ran the hot dog joint, too.
You'd place your order---they offered many types of dogs but MAD dogs were by far their specialty---and the order taker would yell out, "TWO MAD!", "THREE MAD," etc., depending on how many you wanted.
My wife and I have dabbled with making our own MAD dogs at home. It's still a work in progress.
The Chicago Style Hot Dog
But I can go for any type of hot dog---boiled, grilled, what have you. I like the hot dog because it's one of those foods that turns into your own personal canvas. The hot dog is similar to the pizza in that regard, or a trip to the salad bar. Almost anything goes.
Diced onions, chopped up hot pepper, relish, mustard, you name it. Except for ketchup.
I don't do ketchup on hot dogs. My wife does, unashamedly. I just can't get into the flavor combo.
At old Tiger Stadium, the hot dog vendors carried with them two containers of mustard and none of ketchup. Someone once told me that was because the sugar in ketchup attracts flying insects.
Maybe it's just that mustard is the only proper condiment for a hot dog.
In the TV show "King of Queens," Kevin James' Doug Heffernan ate a hot dog with mayonnaise on it in one episode. His friend Deacon called him out on it.
"Who puts mayonnaise on a hot dog?" Deacon asks incredulously.
"I do," Doug responds. "And one day, so will everyone."
Um, no.
As far as I'm concerned, other than ketchup and mayo, you can put anything on a hot dog.
Our local Home Depot gloriously serves hot dogs for a couple bucks a pop. It's difficult to walk by the stand on your way in or out of the store and not stop for a quick tube steak.
But when we have the time and the ingredients, there's nothing like once again dabbling with the celery salt, peppers, tomatoes, mustard et al.
Isn't that MAD?
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