Hot Dogs « Two Fat Bellies

Posts Tagged ‘Hot Dogs’

NC – Cooking at Home

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 by virginia

My brother and sister-in-law are very hospitable hosts and they prepared a really delicious lunch for us after we got back from church on Sunday afternoon. My brother grilled up some awesome filet mignons and hot dogs while my sister-in-law made garlicky and tasty mussels.

For the filet mignons, my brother used Paula Deen’s house rub recipe to season the steaks. The rub is just salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and is really flavorful despite the simple preparation.

Simply seasoned and grilled filet mignon

He cooked it for just a few minutes on the bbq grill and it was a perfect medium rare.

Flavorful and juicy steak

For the hot dogs, he slathered them with a spicy chili sauce, ketchup, and soy sauce mixture and then grilled them, which gave them a nice kick and an Asian twist on flavor.

Hot dogs covered in a spicy chili sauce and then grilled

To prepare the mussels, we scrubbed and de-bearded them, making sure to discard any that appeared dead or had cracked shells.

Huge bowl of mussels ready to be cooked

Then we chopped up one small onion, a couple of garlic cloves, and measured out some butter and white wine.

Garlic, white wine, onions, butter

My sister-in-law then sauteed the onions and garlic for a little bit before adding everything into a huge stock pot, letting the mussels gently steam open. The result was a huge bowl of garlicky mussels with lots of flavorful broth in which we dipped toasted pieces of bread. Yum!

Delicious steamed mussels with garlic and white wine flavor

Tags: Hot Dogs, North Carolina, Seafood, Steak
Posted in Recipes, Travel | No Comments »

Guayaquil Day 1 – Tenedor de Oro

Saturday, October 10th, 2009 by virginia

Josh and I took a super early morning flight to Guayaquil so that we would get there early enough to see some of the city. Guayaquil is a pretty large city and the most populous in Ecuador. There are lots of different neighborhoods to explore so as soon as we dropped our bags off at our hotel, we took a taxi straight to the Malecon, the riverfront area.

There are lots of food stalls all along the Malecon, and we couldn’t decide where we wanted to eat. There were many different options to choose from but we wanted to stick with typical Ecuadorian cuisine. We ended up going ordering from Tenedor de Oro, which I think is a chain because we saw several of those stalls all the way down the Malecon. We hadn’t eaten breakfast or lunch on the plane and we were starving since it was early afternoon at this point, but we had dinner reservations already so we decided to just split an entree and two sides.

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We started off with two cold Pilseners, which are Ecuadorian beers. Not bad, a bit light though in flavor. We prefer darker and hoppier beers. In afternoon heat though, these beers really hit the spot.

There's nothing better than cold beers on a hot day

What's better than cold beers on a hot day?

I was excited to see salchipapas on the menu, as I had just tried them at Pio Pio (post coming later) and absolutely loved them. The french fries were ordinary but they were hot and freshly fried. The hot dogs were cut into the shape of baby octopus, which I thought was cute. That also gave the hot dogs more surface area to crisp up when they were fried, and I really liked this dish.

Salchipapas - hot dogs and french fries

The ketchup, however, was really strange! It was pink and almost translucent, with little specks in it. It was also very sweet and mild in tomato flavor. I definitely prefer Heinz over this ketchup.

Fluorescent pink ketchup

Our other side dish was fried plantains, which we call tostones in NY but they call patacones in Ecuador. These were also freshly fried and not too starchy but they didn’t give us any sort of sauce to go along with them. We asked if they had any salsa picante, or hot sauce, and they seemed a bit confused. We ended up with a little container that I think had mayo and ketchup and some sort of chili sauce mixed together. Not exactly what we were hoping for, but it wasn’t terrible.

Fried green plantains (tostones/patacones)

Our main dish was arroz con pollo. It was tasty enough, kind of like fried rice with peas, carrots and peppers mixed in, but there wasn’t a whole lot of chicken. They gave us a huge platter of it though, more than enough for the two of us, and it came with pieces of maduro (sweet plantains) on top that I enjoyed a lot. The dish kind of needed a bit more salt but I liked that they sprinkled fresh herbs on top.

Arroz con pollo

Overall it was a nice quick “snack” and a good introduction to Ecuadorian food. The total for this feast? $7, including the beer. Unreal! They use U.S. Dollars in Ecuador so no need to exchange money or worry about conversion rates. I’d definitely recommend this place to anyone visiting Guayaquil for the first time. Sitting outside next to the river on the Malecon was a scenic and relaxing way to get acquainted with the city and the cuisine.

Tenedor de Oro
Guayaquil, Ecuador

Here are a few highlights from our walk along the Malecon:

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Tags: Beer, Ecuador, Fries, Hot Dogs
Posted in Restaurants, Travel | No Comments »

Pretzels and Pretzel Dogs

Saturday, July 4th, 2009 by virginia

I saw this great recipe and fun pictures on Food Mayhem for pretzel dogs, and I knew immediately that I would have to try it out since the recipe had simple ingredients and didn’t seem too time consuming. My only reservation was that I suck at baking. I don’t know why, but I have very little success when it comes to baking, even though it is the only time I follow recipes to the letter. Even my attempts at no-knead bread have failed miserably. Oh well, practice makes perfect, right?

I had all the ingredients on hand and figured there’s no better time to make hot dogs than July 4. I used my often-neglected Kitchen Aid stand mixer to do all the hard work, then set the dough in an oil bowl to rise.

Letting the Kitchen Aid do all the kneading

I was surprised that the dough actually did double in size, and my hopes for a successful completion of a baking recipe rose.

Started off at this size...

Now it's double the size!

Next came the fun part – shaping the pretzels and pretzel dogs. I pulled the dough from the bowl and quickly shaped it into a rectangle, taking care not to handle the dough too much. Using a wide flat blade, I cut the dough into 12 pieces, setting aside seven pieces for the number of Hebrew National hot dogs that come in a package (why seven?).

Strips of dough ready to be shaped

The dough was soft and springy so I just pulled it a bit to stretch it out into long strips; there was no need to roll it into a snake. It took me a little while but I eventually figured out how to form a pretzel without manhandling the dough too much. Then I dipped them into the baking soda water and placed them on the cookie sheet.

Dipping the pretzels in a baking soda/water mixture

For the pretzel dogs, I patted each hot dog dry with a paper towel then twisted the dough around it. I had a few scraps leftover from each that I quickly kneaded together, let rest for a bit, then made into regular pretzels. These turned out to be a bit denser than the other pretzels, but still tasty. Baking took longer than the eight minutes stated in the recipe – it was actually closer to 10-12 minutes. I also found that eating the pretzels right away made them taste too fluffy and bready.

Hot pretzels right out of the oven

Once I let them sit and cool down for a bit, they shrank a little and became crispier on the outside and chewier in the middle. The pretzels were also a little too sweet for me (they reminded me of the honey wheat pretzels), so I might cut back on the sugar next time (hopefully that won’t affect the rest of the recipe! Like I said, I suck at baking, and I have no idea how baking works).

Almost ready to eat...

The pretzel dogs were my favorite. The salty hot dog and the sweet pretzel, plus a dipping sauce of ketchup and mustard, really hit the spot.

Pretzel dog innards - yum!

Overall, this is really a great recipe to make, and I even I managed not to mess it up too badly. I actually found that they tasted better reheated. I don’t know if the it’s because of the butter and salt you brush on when they first come out of the oven, but the texture was much crunchier on the outside and chewier on the inside after a quick reheat in a 375 degree oven. I can’t wait to make them for our next cocktail party!

Tags: Hot Dogs, Pretzels
Posted in Recipes | No Comments »

Chicago Day 3 – Portillo’s

Sunday, June 14th, 2009 by virginia

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We had some time to kill before our early evening flight back to NY so we decided to drop our bags off at the airport and take the train into downtown Chicago. My original plan was to find Hot Doug’s but unfortunately they’re closed on Sundays. No duck fat fries for me, sadly, but I still wanted to try a Chicago style hot dog. The train ride from the airport into the city takes a while, so we had time to do some internet research on Josh’s iphone (seriously, what did people do before iphones?). We found Portillo’s, which is a chain restaurant but had good reviews and a branch that was conveniently located near a stop on the airport train.

We’ve been to Chicago once before and luckily the area where we got off the train was near the hotel we stayed in the last time; we were able to find the restaurant without any trouble. This particular branch of Portillo’s was an homage to Maxwell Street. There were fake building facades and mannequins hanging about. There was also lively jazz music playing over the speakers, giving the place a festive atmosphere. It was kind of like dining at Disney World.

Festive and jazzy atmosphere

The restaurant is set up cafeteria-style, with different stations for hot dogs and sandwiches, pasta and pizza, and alcoholic drinks. We were after the hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches so we only had to go through one line. After you order, you can watch the workers assembling your sandwiches through glass partitions.

Watching the hot dogs being assembled

Josh and I each got a Chicago style hot dog with everything, which includes mustard, relish, chopped onions, tomato slices, sport peppers, and a pickle spear, all served together on a poppy seed bun. The bun got a little soggy from all the toppings, but everything tasted really good together. Usually I like ketchup, mustard, and a little bit of sauerkraut on my hot dogs, but I liked the fresh ingredients on the Chicago style, and the pickled vegetables added a nice zing. We couldn’t taste the difference between a vienna sausage (which Chicago style hot dogs are made of) and a regular hot dog though.

Chicago hot dog jam packed with toppings

We also shared an Italian beef sandwich with hot peppers. It’s like a Philly cheesesteak, minus the cheese. The thin slices of beef were topped with a mix of pickled vegetables, and the hot peppers were really quite spicy. I didn’t enjoy this as much as the hot dog because it was really heavy and greasy. I’m glad that we had decided to split a sandwich, as I could never have finished one by myself. It was really a gut bomb!

Italian beef sandwich with hot peppers and tons of grease

We also got an order of large fries, which were the frozen crinkle cut variety but freshly fried and tasty. They were so hot that I actually burned my tongue on the first one I tried.

Crispy crinkle cut fries

Overall I really liked the Chicago style hot dog, despite the soggy bun. It’s definitely something that I would put together here. I might still add ketchup though. I’m not sure if Chicagoans would find that blasphemous but I missed the sweetness of the ketchup. I wasn’t a fan of the Italian beef, however, as it was just way too greasy and the meat was too bland. The pickled vegetables helped a bit but not enough. I don’t know how Portillo’s version rates against other places but it seems to me that most Chicago style dogs would be similar, as it’s just the ingredients that make it what it is. I’ll have to try the Shake Shack’s version and see how it compares.

Portillo’s (multiple locations)
100 W Ontario St.
Chicago, IL

After our lunch, we took a walk around the city. We only had about two hours before we had to head back to the airport but I think we covered a lot of ground in such a short time!

Kayakers on the canal and the Sears Tower in the background