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Nothing’s More American than Hot Dogs…or is there?

I was fifteen years old when I first watched the Ken Burns PBS series, Baseball, with my father.  We watched all 9 innings (episodes).  Throughout the episodes you saw kids with their families stuffing their little mouths with hot dogs.  It was a part of the Great American past time and still is to this day, only now they’re enjoyed not just at ball games but also during other Great American past times such as the family BBQ.

But if you look at a Hot Dog as just another version of a sausage, then the true origin could date as far back as the day’s of Homer and his Odyssey.  I quote, “As when a man besides a great fire has filled a sausage with fat and blood and turns it this way and that and is very eager to get it quickly roasted. . .” (Homer, 850). And it became the German’s who would be known for their frankfurters and sausages.  It was they who would introduce these great meat products to the new world.

The origin of the name “Hot Dog” is hotly debated (no pun intended).  But most will agree that it was some where around the turn of the century and one man who stands in the middle of the debate is Harry Mozley Stevens.

The story goes that during a Giants game at the old Polo Grounds in Brooklyn, NY, Harry was losing money trying to sell ice cream and cold soda so he told his colleague to run out and buy all the “daschund” sausages and rolls he could buy.  Within an hour his vendors were yelling, “They’re red hot.  Come get your daschund sausages while they’re red hot!”  This would go on to inspire cartoonists to draw these “daschund” sausages wrapped in a bun showing four legs and tail coining the term “Hot Dog”.  Again, this is a lose translation of how it came to be but nonetheless, it’s a great American story.

Now that we’ve looked at a brief history of the “Hot Dog”, lets turn to Iceland.  “Iceland, you say?”  Yes, Iceland.  Amanda and I took a recent trip to the exotic volcanic world of Iceland.  One of her good friends from college lives and grew up in this viking land.  He just had his first child.  Great people over in Iceland.  A beautiful place both in landscape and in human figures.  Amanda and I both made our observations. There’s something pure and wholesome about the place.  The air is also amazing.  Very refreshing.  And if you ever go, DO NOT MISS the Blue Lagoon.  You come out feeling like someone slipped you a couple Valium and sat you up against a warm crackling fire.  In other words, you can’t feel any more relaxed then you do after three hours in the lagoon.

Upon meeting with Kristjan, we first met the little one but then immediately headed to the famous Icelandic hot dog stand known as Bæjarins beztu or The Best Hot Dog.  It’s been there since 1937.  It’s famous for having served Bill Clinton and about a week later he would have his heart attack.  So what’s in these bad boys that could induce such a joyous event one week and a horrific one the following?

If there is a dog in the states that I could compare their taste to it would be Hebrew Nationals.  Great snap but not as snappy as say a Nathan’s (my personal favorite).  The one unique factor of the dog was the bun.  Where as in the states the buns usually mold to the imprint of your hand, the buns in Iceland had a harder texture to them, but not in a stale way.  Maybe this was symbolic to the rough landscape surrounding us.

But if you’re going to experience a true Icelandic hot dog, you need to order “the works”.  This includes ketchup, sweet mustard (a relish of sorts) and caramelized onions.  But these onions were more then just caramelized, they were crunchy fried caramelized onions.  The crunch of the onion plus the sweet mustard was what won me over.

Is this the best hot dog I’ve ever had?  Not quite.  But it’s damn close.  And who would have thunk that in a world so mysterious and unknown to the American people that they would share such an historic past time as the hot dog.

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