The Hot Dog Post Part II

Well, we decided to give it another try. In Madison Square Park there is a place we found called the "Shake Shack". Their menu includes a "Chicago Dog" as well as a "Second City Chick-wurst". Let's start with the latter. They take a chicken and apple sausage and add chicago hot dog toppings to it. First of all, no self-respecting Chicago dog and burger joint would ever serve chicken and apple sausage. Second of all, you put those toppings on a hot dog and that's it. Other sausages get topped differently.

I didn't get one anyway so let's move on. I got a Chicago dog which cost $3.25, no fries included. To the credit of Shake Shack, the hot dog tasted decent. It was boiled (correct) and was kosher all-beef (advertised as Vienna) but was small in length and circumference. I am convinced that Vienna has special hot dogs that they only sell to Chicagoland hot dog places, some internet research supports this theory.

They had the correct toppings (cucumber, sport peppers, tomato, onion, relish, pickle, mustard, celery salt). However, it was a cucumber spear instead of slices, you had to search for the relish, and the pickle and tomatoes were sliced wrong as well. That being said, the sport peppers were excellent. Overall it was a 7/10 for a hot dog outside of Chicagoland. If you served it in Chicago you would get lynched.

BTW, in case you were wondering the fries were excellent and the shake was unbelievably good. Probably the best ever but cost $5.25 which is ridiculous. The line was very long which we thought could be attributed to the fact that it was a Saturday in the summer but it's apparently popular year-round. They even have a webcam to see how long the line is before you leave your apartment.

The Hot Dog Post

Well, after a brief hiatus I'm back. Certainly, I wanted my first post to be about my new home in Manhattan. After a brief time here I knew that it would have to focus on food. While Chicago is certainly known for its food, NYC is generally regarded as the best of the best. While 2 weeks in the Big Apple is certainly not enough time to make a final judgement, I'd like to make a few early observances.

First of all, we moved to the Upper West Side which has rendered watching reruns of Seinfeld a whole new experience. So far, our cuinary experience has been less than satisfactory. Let's remove the whole price issue (not an easy aspect to ignore) because that would be unfair. Clearly, New York is super expensive, even in comparison to Chicago. It is hard to not get angry when you pay $20 for you and your fiancee to each get a sandwich and something to drink and the sandwich couldn't hold a Potbelly's Wreck's jock. I used to get a Wreck, chips, and a chocolate shake for $8. Surprisingly, for that same price in NYC you can get a really crappy panini and that's it.

Let's move on. Perhaps the problem is the restaurants that the UWS has to offer. That may be. We went to Taboon in Hell's Kitchen last Monday and each had an excellent Halibut (although expensive). So, again, way too early to make a final judgement on NY dining. But...

What's the ultimate test? Not the pricey, top of the line restaurants in my opinion. I'm sure Nobu is great as are all the famous super-expensive restaurants. But what about the ultimate average guy's meal? The hot dog? Well, we are "lucky" in that we live just a few blocks away from what the majority of New Yorkers vote as the "#1 hot dog in NYC". Gray's Papaya.

Today I had the "Recession Special" which is 2 dogs and a drink for $3.50. If you, like me, are from Chicago, you may want to make sure you're sitting down for this next part. Their hot dogs come topped with brown mustard (ok), sauerkraut (umm...), and cooked onions covered in BBQ sauce (WTF?)!!! Seriously, I know I'm biased but who are the ad wizards that came up with this campaign? The dog itself tasted okay. It was certainly edible, way better than an Oscar Mayer dog or the pork crap you get at a baseball game if you don't get them from the one Hebrew National stand in the corner. But compared to a real Chicago dog? Not even close.

I know there will be those that disagree. If you put ketchup on your hot dog then I am wasting your time anyway with this post as we clearly come from 2 different worlds, yours being the one where an opinion on food carries no merit.

So far, I have concluded that while New Yorkers may indeed have their finger on the pulse of fine dining, that when it comes to real food, the food of the common man, New Yorkers simply have no clue.

More to come...