Last week I spent three days in Gimli, Manitoba in Canada working on a story for Minnesota Public Radio. A future blog post will detail events from that day, but during some downtime north of the border, I had the luxury to happen upon a food cart offering footlong hot dogs. My attention and hunger immediately became focused on acquiring one and soon after it was decided that it would make a perfect feature on a future dog blog post.
After I shelled out eight Canadian dollars on a bottle of Diet Pepsi, a Kinder Egg (delicious/awesome) and the footlong wonder, I sat down to photograph my lunch and future blog post subject. I was like a kid in a Candy shop waiting to devour this monster, but I was really on a bench put out for lunch breaks of employees at the local grocery store. My anticipation to eat this stemmed from the fact that it was an international hot dog and my intense hunger. I spent about three minutes photographing the hot dog before devouring it. My hopes were soon dashed as I finished off the footlong hot dog and began to reflect on my experience.
Size: It was a footlong so you can’t argue with that. However, the size of the hot dog relative to the bun was a complete travesty. A hot dog should not be drowning in the bun. The bun should be bursting at the seams trying to contain the hot dog. In this Canadian hot dog, the bun was stealing the show.
Taste: Strangely enough, this tasted like it was boiled. Footlong hot dogs should not be boiled. Standard preparation of a footlong hot dog is roller-style while exceptional preparation comes on a grill. The boiling of the hot dog created a lack of juicy goodness when biting into the footlong and created a weak outer shell of the dog itself.
Condiments: Standard. Ketchup, mustard, sweet relish and mayo. I’m pretty much a ketchup guy, but I do take note of what condiments were offered. I was unable to determine the brand of the ketchup so I can’t comment any further on this topic.
Containment: The bun was overwhelming and falling apart at the seams. The hot dog bun by the last few bites more closely resembled a hamburger bun because it split down the middle creating a top and bottom portion. The bun itself was crunchy and not from being grilled or roasted, but from being old and slightly stale. Finally, the size of the bun relative to the hot dog was massive and stole the show.
Overall: 5/10. This was one of the less enjoyable hot dogs I’ve reviewed here on the dog blog. I’m going to chalk this one up to being the device of a food cart, which are always unpredictable. It also didn’t help that I was excited as the first time I ate a Chicago hot dog in Chicago or a slice of New York style pizza in NYC. This dog brought the excitement, but lacked the goods.
Drowning in the bun. This dog didn't stand a chance.
Rocks were required to hold down the wrapping due to high winds. Something tells me the Canadian gods did not want me to review this guy.
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