Hot dogs are hot right now! I have some tips on how to "Zolafy" your dog the Plan Z Diet way.
Chief Dieter
Plan Z Diet
We’re living in a sausage-centric society. (I dare you to try saying that three times fast!)
Restaurants are popping up all over Chicago that focus on the mighty sausage and all types of charcuterie. Sausages, once confined to German restaurants, are spreading across the tonier parts of the city.
Chefs are lauding their grand dogs. At one of the more chi-chi restaurants in Chicago I once ate a $21 hotdog. I just had to try it. Handmade, the thing that probably boosted the price to $21 was the fois gras on the top. BIG YUM!
Originally called frankfurters, after Frankfurt, Germany, hot dogs as we know them today, have been around since the 13th century. Call it a frankfurter, a wiener, a sausage or a hotdog, they are all making a popular comeback.
There’s an unfussy place here called Hot Doug’s. I’ve never gotten in. The lines are so long. People stand in the pouring rain waiting to get into Hot Doug’s. Doug was a pioneer in the fancy hotdog business. In fact, he’s retiring this year. Doug’s not old. He’s just bored. He says it’s time to do something else. Fans of Hot Doug’s fans will miss those dogs, but there are plenty of other options to replace Hot Doug’s now.
Publican Quality Meats is a restaurant on super-cool Randolph Street that has plenty of sausage options on the menu. On Sundays if you don’t have a reservation, you’ll never get in. It’s full by 11:30 AM. At The Publican you can even eat in a pig pen. They have booths with tables built into them that are replicas of pig pens. They even have a pig pen door. You have to open the big pen door to step inside your booth. It’s either that or jump over the top. Just like in the barn.
Here’s a picture of the pigpens at the Publican. Take a look!
The newest offering is called Tete Charcuterie, also in the Randolph Street corridor. The irony being that area used to be full of meat packing warehouses. Now it’s listed as one of the hottest restaurant neighborhoods in the country. But I digress.
Tete offers all manner of sausages, salami and even pickled beef cheek.
They have hotdogs from America of course, but also France, Germany, the Philippines, Morocco (their sausage is called a merguez) and Italy. The Italian one is flavored with squid ink and garnished with cuttlefish. Go figure.
On the Plan Z Diet I sometimes venture into gourmet hotdog horizons but I probably won’t order that Italian one. My favorite way to eat a hotdog is practically “illegal” in Chicago. I like mine with ketchup. Some hotdog joints won’t let you order a hotdog with ketchup. They don’t even have a bottle of ketchup on the premises. I have learned to like a Chicago-style hotdog though. So today I’m giving you the recipe.
A normal Chicago Dog is usually a boiled hot dog on a poppy-seed bun with dill pickle and cucumber spears, sliced tomatoes, sweet pickle relish, pickled peppers, diced onion and yellow mustard. Sprinkle with celery salt. Some people add french fries on top too.
Now Plan Z Diet Zola-fy it!
You can have a little of most of these ingredients but go easy on the pickle relish. It’s full of sugar. Choose a good mustard and consider no bun with all hotdogs.
Zola Trick: I eat maybe two bites of bun and then push the hotdog along and eat it off the end. Toss bun. Don’t even think about those french fries! You won’t miss them with all the great ingredients on top!
And you’ve got yourself a Chicago-style hotdog.
Want more ways to Zola-fy hot dogs for the Plan Z Diet?
View our Plan Z Diet Quick Guide to Healthier Hot Dogs by clicking on the image below:
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