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.

]]> http://www.drockphoto.com/2010/06/11/the-dog-blog-no-hot-damn-for-canadian-hot-dogs/feed/ 4 http://www.drockphoto.com/2009/04/23/all-hail-the-marshall-dog/ http://www.drockphoto.com/2009/04/23/all-hail-the-marshall-dog/#comments Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:33:50 +0000 DRock http://www.drockphoto.com/?p=139 The Dog Blog is back and today we feature the king of all hot dogs:  The Marshall Dog.

I wouldn't have come across this hot dog if it wasn't for the urging of my former co-worker Rick Weegman.  He swore by the awesomeness of this hot dog and how it was significantly better than the Public Schools Stadium dog that I raved about and consumed every Friday night during football season.  Being the hot dog connoisseur that I am, it was necessary to give it a shot.  I was not disappointed.

The lines leading up to the concession stand should have given it away.  That or the regular announcements coming from the press box alerting those watching the game that the hot dogs were almost done.  I worked my way to the front and ordered one.  Immediately it became clear that this was going to be a hot dog like no other.

It was plump.  It was fresh off the grill.  It was steaming.  And it ended up being delicious.  The juices flowing from this dog were unmatched in any other hot dog I've tried in my time covering sports and concerts in the Northland.  The sheer size was also a plus.  While some hot dogs struggle to make themselves noticeable beyond the enclosure of  their hot dog bun cavern, it was almost the opposite here.  The hot dog was bursting the bun's seams, but it was not too small.  The condiments at Marshall were sufficient, but not to the level of a Cloquet Area Recreation Center or the concession stand at Mars Lakeview Arena, but for a man who prefers ketchup and little else, it was all I could ask for.

I meant to take a photo of the dog that day, but I was so hungry and it was so delicious that I downed it quickly.  Assignments later in the evening made it impossible for me to make it back to the concession stand and devour another one.  I didn't realize that would be the only game at Marshall we'd cover all year so that meant I'd have to wait 12 months before I consumed another one.  It was a sad moment when I realized it, but the wait would be worth it.

Fast forward to 2008 and we were back at the Marshall School football field for the same matchup--Duluth Marshall and Moose Lake/Willow River.  Weegman was there too and even went so far as to mention the hot dogs in his photo request.  They were that significant.  I got there early, but the grill was not fired up meaning I would have to wait until halftime.  I did and though I was extremely hungry and anxious to satsify my Marshall Dog Mania, I waited until my time came and remembered to capture the event with my camera.

As you can see, they are delicious and they are plentiful.  In fact, they were so good, I could not wait until I photographed the hot dog to take a bite out of it so that's why the hot dog appears with a piece missing.

The price for the "Hilltopper Dog" as it's officially called is $3.  This is a deal compared to the size of the dogs at Public Schools Stadium ($2) and the way in which they are prepared (microwave).  While the PSS dog is delicious, the Marshall dog just makes you feel so much better after eating it.  Maybe because it's made closer to the way early man made their meals--over an open fire.

The Marshall Dog sets the standard in my book for size, taste and price.  All are excellent.  As such it receives a 9.0 out of 10.  I'm not about to declare it the perfect hot dog, but in the Northland, it's about as good as it gets.

The "Hilltopper Dog" or "Marshall Dog" await the mouths of hungry fans. Pure deliciousness.

The dogs are delivered.

Ya... it was too tempting to not eat a piece of it before I photographed it. I'm sure I didn't raise any brows when I was photographing this hot dog on the ground with my 580EX flash. Nothing weird about that.

With this constantly evolving hot dog hierarchy, I was determined to write a newspaper article about my close encounters of the wurst kind.  That all ended when I was laid off, but now I am free to run amok on this blog talking about the various hot dogs that have captured my attention.   Rick Weegman, a sports writer at the Duluth News Tribune and former coworker of mine, would often ask me how the "Dog Blog" was coming along so the title of this post is a shout out to Mr. Weegman and his contributions to my world of wursts.

My first review is the Wild Dog, which can be had at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN.  Named for the arena's chief tenant--the Minnesota Wild--the hot dog has one thing going for it that 99% of other dogs out there do not and that is size...

Yes, it is that big.

This may not sound good, but when I was handed the Wild Dog the first thing that I thought was of Butterfest in Sparta, WI and the carnival because that is where I was introduced to the concept of the footlong hot dog.  Well this thing came in just shy of a foot and yes I measured.  The hot dog itself had a healthy thickness, was not undercooked in the middle and the accompanying bun did not drown the hot dog.  The condiments available were mustard, ketchup and relish, which meets the requirements of standard.  It took me 3:59 to eat the Wild Dog and it was very consistent throughout.  The bun itself was an appropriate size--not too long and the cutaway for the hot dog was not too deep.  The price was also solid.  At $4.50, it was actually a deal when its full size was taken into account.  At the University of Minnesota Duluth, you can pay up to $4 for a hot dog half the size.

What it did lack was spice.  What do I mean by this?  While the Wild Dog was solid on many fronts, it did little to set itself apart from the best of convenience store roller dogs.  I could actually argue that in my time I have tasted hot dogs that have come straight off the roller rack that have tasted better and had more spice.  Another setback was that the sheer size of the hot dog was almost too much for the bun to handle.  When the concession stand operator handed me the Wild Dog, the bun cracked in half under its enormous weight.  Could this have been a faulty bun?  Maybe, but a faulty bun is a reflection upon the hot dog.

All in all, this was a solid hot dog.  It did not crack the top three for hot dogs in either the small school or large school (the rankings post will come later) division, but it was a solid newcomer to my palette. This would receive a 6.5/10 on my rating scale.