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Blog
New Tricks for Old Dogs
April 2, 2008
I was describing the foot long hot dog that I had eaten at Dave Anderson's Key Lime Cove a couple of weeks ago when a debate of "best hot dogs" broke out. Debating favorites of any food is a tough thing to do. The uncontrollable variables will always be what you grew up with, the range of what you have been exposed to, and your personal taste preferences. Add to it what you were experiencing at the time you were eating the food and you have the potential for a wide-ranging discussion with a lot of emotion.
What I had especially liked about Dave's hot dog was the old fashioned, rectangular shaped butter bun that it was served on. It held up to the toppings and the all-beef dog and didn't fall apart as I was eating it. For me, eating a hot dog has always been an exercise in not wearing it when I was through. Since the bun is sliced open on one side, the potential for a well-dressed dog falling all over you is high if you don't eat it with a lot of care.
"Well, you should go to Prague in the Czech Republic and try their hot dogs," I was told. Prague? What would recovering Communists know about hot dogs? Apparently enough to teach us a new trick or two. Their hot dogs are sold on the street by numerous vendors and are probably more common and visible than the hot dog is in the U.S. What makes them so special is the bun. It is a soft French baguette which is placed vertically over a wooden rod which is used to make an opening through one end of the bun, leaving the other end closed. The toppings are then inserted into the opening followed by the hot dog. You end up with a dressed hot dog that is only exposed on one end and is easy to eat with one hand.
Now why didn't we think of that?
If you plan on going over to try one, you had better hurry. Apparently the city is cracking down on the street vendors in Wenceslas Square and banning their presence due to new regulations. Seems that hot dogs are not the only American tradition that the Czech's have embraced.
Posted by Lane Cardwell on April 2, 2008 | Comments (0)