{"id":110687,"date":"2021-07-23T10:09:48","date_gmt":"2021-07-23T14:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=110687"},"modified":"2021-07-31T09:08:41","modified_gmt":"2021-07-31T13:08:41","slug":"the-round-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=110687","title":{"rendered":"The Round Dog"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Little did I realize that July 21 is \u201cNational Hotdog Day.\u201d  {extended side note:  Who gets to decide these \u201cNational Days\u201d anyway?  And if we\u2019re honoring the Hotdog, wouldn\u2019t July 4th<\/sup> be better suited?  After all, that\u2019s  when Nathan\u2019s in Coney Island stages its annual \u2013 and now televised on ESPN \u2013 Hotdog eating contest!  By the way, if you join Hotdog Eating Fantasy League, make sure you get Joey Chestnut on your fantasy team \u2013 he downed a nifty 76 Nathans & buns in 10 minutes.  Getting back\u2026 maybe it\u2019s a Congressional thing subject to typical finagling and horse trading by the various states\u2019 delegations to get these \u201cDays\u201d onto the national calendar.  Massachusetts wants a \u201cNational New England Clam Chowder Day.\u201d  California wants a \u201cNational Garlic Day.\u201d  Louisiana insists on a \u201cNational \u00c9touf\u00e9e Day.\u201d  One thing for sure, this is not a \u201cRed State\/Blue State\u201d thing. Every State by agreement is probably entitled to its signature food stuff.}<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it turns out I had just placed an order for hotdogs from a purveyor in New Jersey and my shipment arrived on July 20.  Unexpectedly, good fortune favored me! But before proceeding further a question needs to be addressed: What the hell was I doing ordering hotdogs from across state lines? <\/em>Don\u2019t they sell Hummel\u2019s (my favorite) at the local Stop & Shop?  Had they run out?  (No. In stock and very available).   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I took the extra step of ordering 16 Hotdogs from Rastelli\u2019s of New Jersey because of an advert  w\/photo that was inserted into my Facebook feed showing a round <\/em>disc of a hotdog sitting on a hamburger bun, stacked with lettuce, a tomato slice & pickle chips.  {a shorter side note: I get these types of adverts because I have responded & purchased on line from a select group of things-to-eat concerns: Nebraska Bison, Eastern Standard Provisions pretzels, Virginia Diner peanuts, Wolferman\u2019s English muffins & Cajun Grocer\u2019s turducken & live crayfish}.  That advert popped up on my feed for three days running before I decided to pull the trigger and place an order.  I tarried because while the photo intrigued, I found the condiment assemblage<\/em> to be an affront that bordered on sacrilege. Tomato, lettuce & pickle chips?  Isn\u2019t that a Chicago thing?  The Windy City is also known for producing a sub-standard pizza style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But once I got past that horrific depiction and read the associated text, and I warmed to the concept of the round <\/em>dog.  Better for getting a good char on the grill.  Better platform for containing your favorite toppings (the correct<\/em> ones).  Eliminates the need for two different types of cook-out buns.  Ok,  it was worth a shot, even if I had no idea that there was a National Hotdog Day in the offing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It should be noted that these Rastelli folks offer far more than weird shaped hotdogs.\u00a0 A full range of meats, poultry & fish.\u00a0 And their shipping container? It looked like Rastelli\u2019s could have been shipping me nuclear waste products.\u00a0 A box arrived the size of a small table (this is for 16 3oz hotdogs), with enough insulation to safeguard Covid-19 vaccines, and then within the outer box, a nested smaller box, and then within the smaller box a rather impressive (Sandy said, \u201coutrageous\u201d and \u201cfancy-shmancy\u201d) frozen-food zippered freezer bag containing enough dry ice to keep a steer\u2019s hind-quarter frozen,\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0my 16 round hotdogs.\u00a0 Well\u2026 no wonder why these franks ain\u2019t cheap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As to the dogs\u2026 as previously noted, I\u2019m a Hummel\u2019s man (pork).  But Sandy prefers beef.  The Rastellis\u2019 are a combination of Angus beef and pork.  Yes, the hotdogs look like<\/em> a slab of bologna, but appearance notwithstanding these are clearly hotdogs in taste and texture.  My preferred condiment choices for hotdogs are yellow mustard and green relish.  Sometimes I add sauerkraut.  My \u201calt\u201d hotdog is a chili-cheese dog.  Sandy\u2019s are sauerkraut and mustard & mustard and sauerkraut.  We are boring people.  We also share in the belief that people who order pizza with pineapple and ham should be deported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was July 21 and as it turned out, I was fully equipped to honor the day.  I made the decision to put two dogs into play.  One with my stand-by: yellow mustard, although I replaced the India relish with dill pickle chips (which I reckoned didn\u2019t represent a violation of taste).  And one dog with chili & cheese.  I sourced the chili from LaBonne\u2019s Market (house made, good, but mine is better by miles, but I had none in the freezer).  Sandy stuck to mustard, kraut and added the dill pickle chips on a whim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our take on the results\u2026 Jim: Hey!  That was pretty damned good!  Sandy: It was a hotdog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sandy\u2019s lukewarm response puts me in mind of the story about an American tourist on seeing the Mona Lisa remarked, \u201cI don\u2019t think her smile is so great.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Post Script #1:  I opened a bottle of an Alsatian Riesling & a Walker Road Red from a Woodbury Winery to pair with our round dogs.
Post Script #2: Sometimes I enjoy my dogs “bunless” with a good sized portion of Bush’s Grilling Beans. In that instance, I think the aesthetics would be wrong with a round dog.
Post Script #3: Sandy, as it pertains to her<\/em>, disputes the \u201cboring\u201d characterization.
Post Script #4:  The pineapple & ham on pizza people should also have their eyes gouged out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Staging Zone:<\/strong>
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Draw back the curtain, dig in:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Little did I realize that July 21 is \u201cNational Hotdog Day.\u201d  {extended side note:  Who gets to decide these \u201cNational Days\u201d anyway?  And if we\u2019re honoring the Hotdog, wouldn\u2019t July 4th be better suited?  After all, that\u2019s  when Nathan\u2019s in Coney … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110687"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110698,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110687\/revisions\/110698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}