It's Hot Dog Season

Hot dogs around the country, food recs and BBQ recipes!

Cannibis Contaminated Haribo

Customers in the Netherlands who recently purchased Haribo Happy Cola F!ZZ gummies, got more buzz than fizz after consuming the gummies. Turns out they had somehow been laced with cannibis and were immediately recalled by the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA).

The company is currently investigating how this contamination happened, but some fans are like hold up. DO NOT throw out the gummies. Sadly the gummies were only sold in the Netherlands so attempts to get a bag of two dollar gummies in the US won’t be happening. But honestly maybe the cannibis gummy industry need to do more collabs? Although it might be a bad idea to have cannibis gummies that I want to binge eat. I’ll stick to my pineapple habanero ones.

San Francisco Food Journal

I took a trip to the Bay Area last week and had some really good food.

There is no shortage of great dim sum places in SF, so this charming spot in Berkeley was a nice surprise if you need a spot in the East Bay to grab lunch.

The stand outs for me were the Green Beans, the Beijing Noodles, the chili pork dumplings and the har gow.

Another lunch spot in Berkeley that I enjoyed was Tacubaya, a casual taco spot. I had their great house salad and some delicious Tacos al pastor. Again not the best tacos around but a solid spot to get a quick meal.

The other East Bay spot I tried was in the charming town of Point Richmond, called Raymond’s Pizzeria. It was going for an East Coast pizzeria vibe and the pizza was pretty good! They also had some decent garlic knots, something I’ve found near impossible to get since I moved to the West Coast.

In San Francisco I had some excellent fish and chips at Hook Fish Co. in the Outer Sunset. That area is getting so cute and I can’t wait to go back and try some more of their restaurants. The fish was super fresh and they have an excellent hot sauce you can get on the side.

My big night out was at Original Joe’s in North Beach. When we couldn’t get a rez at one of the more trendy hot spots, we decided to go for vibes and this place was perfect. Shiny red leather booths, gigantic espresso martinis, just a perfect old school spot. And you know what? The food was good!

For me the first clue about what kind of food I’m about to eat is when they bring out the bread basket. Original Joe’s won me over with their basket of chewy fresh sourdough and butter that was soft. We got the spinach artichoke dip as an appetizer and it was cheesy as hell and delicious. For dinner I tried one of their house specialties, the Spicy Rigatoni, a kicked up take on vodka sauce. The pasta was fresh and perfectly cooked and the sauce had a real spice to it, I was really happy, but also sad that I did in fact fill up on bread and couldn’t devour the whole dish.

Snack Rec

I must take a moment to give a little recommendation. I’m not really a Tostitos girl but I am a salsa verde girl, so when I saw this while shopping I took a chance and man, did it pay off. These absolutely slap. The flavor, the texture and crunch of the chip, just an A+ snack.

Hot Dogs Around the Country

There are numerous hot dog debates. Mustard or ketchup? Beef or pork? And the internet classic: Sandwich or not? I mean, obviously the answer is no. I’m not sure why I think this, but I feel adamant about it — and no, I don’t want to debate you, debate me guys! People also have strong opinions about what toppings should (or shouldn’t) go on a hot dog. Anything to make you forget you’re deep-throating pig anuses, I guess.

Now, I was very familiar with classic “next-level” toppings like chili, cheese, sauerkraut and slaw, but I recently came across a graphic of how people do their dogs around the world and was blown away by some of the regional faves in the U.S. alone, styles that range from demented to get that in my fucking piehole right now.

From hot dogs nestled in a baked potato to fusion dogs that bring us the worst of both worlds, there’s a hot dog style out there that’s sure to offend everybody. So before Summer 2019 is a distant White Claw-fueled memory — enjoy Labor Day weekend! — here’s a look at some of the more unusual regional hot dog combos that you may or may not want to add to your BBQ repertoire.

THE SCRAMBLED DOG

If you’re in Columbus, Georgia, you can hit up the Dinglewood Pharmacy, an old-school pharmacy/soda fountain and try its signature dish — the Scrambled Dog. The pharmacy has been around for more than a century, and they now sell over 600 Scrambled Dogs a week. So what is it? It’s basically a chili dog topped with jalapeños, sour cream and oyster crackers. Sounds exactly like the hangover fusion cuisine we all need after hours of day drinking.