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Hi guys! This weekend I found myself in Los Angeles again, for one day, and we stopped at the most charming little hot dog place before leaving for the airport to go to Lake Tahoe for a Yoga/Music Festival. Let me get back to talking about these hot dogs.
Actually before that, I can try to give you a little background on this place. Scheid and Chris Duffy breifly mentioned before we got here that this aparently had been a really hot spot for rowdy drunks to go to after attending punk and hardcore shows at nearby clubs. It was common catchphrase at some point after a rowdy show to say “see ya at oki dog’s”.
After some mild googling, I learned that the “oki dog” was invented by an Okinawan, named Sakai “Jimmy” Sueyoshi, who moved to America in the 70s, and eventually opened up a hot dog stand to make a dollar. It was open late and located near Hollywood nightclubs and featured a signature dish: a burrito filled with 2 hotdogs, pastrami, and chili cheese. This is exactly what you want when you are sweaty and wasted, right? He is so smart. You can read more about the history here.
Anyway, we went on a hot afternoon, for most of us including me, this was my first meal of the day, so it was a little intimidating. I love this menu so hard, because everything about it rules.
I went for the Oki Dog with a Pepsi, one of the more intense breakfasts I’ve ever had. The Oki Dog seriously looked at me in the face with its hotdog EYES and laughed at me with its pastrami LIPS as I bit into it. I looked at it back straight in its eyes, and it still intimidated me. I felt fear for one of the few times in my life at the fact that my food was looking back at me, staring me down like a champion heavyweight contender, and winning. It beat me, too. I only made it halfway through. I left with my head hanging down, defeated. I’ll be back for a rematch next chance I get.
Oh, and for one more dollar, you can get french fries comparable in quality and quantity to the ones from the Dirty O in Pittsburgh. Except krispier.
I liked this sign on the wall telling you what is in an Oki Dog. PS, you’re eating 3 variations of meat at once. Check out MUST tard. And the smily faces. And the creative spelling. And the penmanship of this sign totally belongs to someone who is constantly saying “Fuck Yeah!!” to himself in his head :
I realized in no other city do I enjoy hot dogs more than I do in Los Angeles. Not a nathan’s hot dog, a papaya dog, a hot dog from Steve’s in Cleveland, a coney from Skyline in Cincinatti, compare to these LA street dogs. The night before going to Oki Dog’s, before going to bed, I had a very sinful eating experience. I wandered around looking for snack around 230 am and saw a lady selling delicious hotdogs from a little push cart very similar to the ones I had outside of The Smell last year. These big dogs are grilled, wrapped in bacon, topped with grilled peppers and onions, and ketchup, mustard and MAYO!! I thanked her graciously and brought it back to my hotel room and ate it in bed.
Ok…I didn’t forget about the NYC restaurant weekly review thing. I did say, however, that I am lazy. I do have two very different places to review and they are both tasty! (one is VEGAN and one is certainly not!)
I wanted to take a moment to let everyone know that people in NYC are sometimes a**holes. (Crap! Can I say that on here?!) Granted, you may have known this already because there are a multitude of reasons to think that. I was referring to the fact that sometimes we will be convinced, like the hipster idiots we are, to spend a ton of money on something because it’s “organic” or “green”. I am guilty of this – BUT this time, it was totally worth it. (and let’s be honest, a lot of times it IS worth it because it’s tasty and good for you but the whole time you’re eating your grass-fed burger you can’t help but think it’s so freaking expensive and how you’re kind of an idiot for buying it)
Enter the fancy, pretentious organic ICE CREAM TRUCK! If you are a NYC resident chances are you’ve seen one of these around town. The company is called VAN LEEUWEN ARTISAN ICE CREAM and they drive around town in big, yellow trucks. Recently, one of these trucks has made it’s permanent summer residence around the corner from my workplace, in front of the Standard Hotel in Manhattan. Conveniently located right off the Highline and also in a neighborhood where people have lots of $$ to spend.
Here is a photo of their truck I found online. So last week everyone at work kept coming back with ice cream and talking about this truck. It was one of those killer 89 degree days so I took a stroll around the corner to track down the EARL GREY ICE CREAM everyone was talking about. They also have other, pretentious flavors such as: Red Currant, Ginger, Hazelnut and something called Giandujia.
Here is my delicious, melting cone. I must say, the EARL GREY rocked my tastebuds. It was amazing. And they are actually reasonably priced when compared with other ice cream places in town:
Van Leeuwen Small: $3.95 (which was a good amount for me)
Red Mango Small (no topping): $2.95
Mister Softee Small Cone: $1.95
So despite the fact that it seems pretentious, the company is really good. They only use “paper products” made from sugar cane husks and corn husks, and they donate money to charities. Their ice cream is also truly delicious so I suggest sucking it up and getting one next time you feel like a piece of frozen heaven.
Here is their cute, yet flash heavy site: http://www.vanleeuwenicecream.com/
Also on a completely UNRELATED note, a few of us had a Harry Potter themed dinner party to celebrate the midnight release of the the new movie Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. We made things like “Quaffle Pie” and “Sirius Black Beans and Rice“.
By far the best was the topping Jed and Elias made for their sundaes – a picture is worth 1,000 words:
!!!!
Hi everybody! It is still so freaking hot as HELL outside, and since HELL is affiliated with Satan, and Satan is affiliated with Evil, and Killing is Evil, and a lot of times when that happens, BLOOD is involved, I decided to make some SANGRIA tonight, and it is delightfully easy and refreshing! And when you make some, you can think about how it’s like, you know, you’re chugging blood, and that’s so cool.
Hey! It’s really easy, this is how I made mine. First, I got some fresh fruit:
Oranges, slice them thin or chop them into chunks!
These are Italian sugar plums! Do the same to these bad boys.
And strawberries! Slice these up as well.
To destroy some illusion, here’s a picture of me taking a picture of the strawberries.
Get some RED WINE! A red table wine is good! I was highly recommended this bottle at the liquor store by the nice store clerk. This is a very sweet Italian red wine. It is very delicious and so sugary and is as close to candy as red wine can get I think. The unicorn on the label is also a nice drawing.
And finally, my final ingredient is SPRITE!!!!
There are of course infinite variations on making Sangria, but this batch I made this evening was especially refreshing and chug-worthy.
I made myself a big glass of it and drank it alone and watched Home Alone 2 with my boyfriend. I put the chopped fruit on the bottom of the cup. Then a couple ice cubes on top of that. Then I poured on the red wine, enough so that the fruit and cubes were submerged, and then a nice good splash of sprite. Finally, I got some chopsticks and aggressively poked and mixed it around so that the fruit penetrated the liquid much better. Here is the cup that I am chugging right now:
Typically, you can add additional sugar to the mix, but the wine I got was already candy level sweetness. If you are looking to get wasted faster, you can add more booze to it as well, such as brandy or triple sec. Also, use whatever fruit you feel like. Other fruits that work well are nectarines, lemons, pineapples, apples, berries, peaches, honeydew could be rowdy, whatever.
I love sangria, because the first time my mom ever served me wine, I thought it was sangria. It was a fizzy red wine that was so refreshing and sugary. When I asked her what it was, she said it was MERLOT and MOUNTAIN DEW!!! It was WILD!!!
Here is a picture of my mom picking some greens from the family garden a couple weeks ago. She is so wonderful!
It is so HOT and HUMID today. WHAT A HOT JULY EVENING!! As a fun little refreshing treat, I made some fruit soup. It is very easy to prepare as you will see.
First, choose 3 exotic tropical fruits. Mine came in cans. I chose RAMBUTAN, LYCHEE, and JACKFRUIT. The bonus of fruit in cans is that it comes with a delicious fruit infused syrup, which is a great addition to the soup.
Get a large bowl, and dump the contents of the three cans into it, syrup and all. Put the bowl in the fridge to chill.
While that is chilling, I would like to introduce you to a very great thing. This is a small bag of multi-colored 5-minute tapioca pearls:
As you can see, it was $1.69. To prepare the tapioca, get a huge pot of water going and let it come to a boil. Empty the bag into the water and start gently stirring it around. They’re ready when they start to float.
Afterwards, I strained and ran it under some cold water, so that they are cold and not hot anymore.
So now, all you have to do is dump the cold pearls into your fruit bowl in the fridge, and THEN, you grab a can of coconut milk , shake it up, and open it with a can opener, and then dump THAT into the bowl as well. Give it a GOOD STIR!
And that’s it really. It’s really good. To serve, I ladled into rice bowls and added an ice cube or two to the soup. It makes it extra cold, and also, the soup is quite sweet and rich, so as the ice melts, the cold broth becomes extremely chuggable. Easy!!!
I hope you guys caught the feast last weekend, the fried dough was off the chain. For $4.00, you could have purchased a paper sack FULL of fried ecstacy, and drenched in the finest, whitest, purest powdered sugar. I mean, I’m sure it’s pretty hard to fuck up fried dough, but oh man, how greasy and crispy on the outside and how chewy and steamy on the inside! Sorry, I don’t have a picture, I ate it all before I even thought about it.
Here are other fun pictures from the feast in Williamsburg.
I know I hyped up the fried dough pretty hard, but the italian sausage on a hoagie was also excellent. I am enjoying it here with a grilled bell peppers and onions, and also a chili pepper that stretches the entire length of the bun. I also know that this pictures is sideways as hell.
Okay, if you still want fried dough, and you are in Williamsburg, I would HIGHLY recommend going to TONY’S PIZZA at 355 Graham Avenue. The dough they are frying is pizza dough, and it is still piled mile high in powdered sugar. It rules. They taste almost as good as those beignets at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans, except way greasier. Okay, maybe I’m exagerating, they are not amazing, but they will suffice if you are fiending for fried dough and you are in the neighborhood. I can’t think of what else might be better for dessert after eating some pizza.
Their pizza is also cheap and delicious offering both NY style thin crust and midwest style poofy crust. Here is what their sausage and pepperoni slice looks like:
These are the fried dough balls. I washed this all down with a can of coke, and will definitely be on my way to getting fat. See ya later!!!
I’m taking what I hope will continue as a yearly summer work session in sunny western PA. The worst thing about western PA is the food. It is so glutenous. Western Pennsylvanian cuisine was founded in Ranch Dressing and built around wings and chicken -n- dumplings. Then it was wrapped in ham and cheescake and deep fried. OMG it is stupid delicious. My most recent wild grease consumption was with the Pittsburgh Pizza League at their #1 hang spot, Vincent’s Pizza, an establishment with great signage and great pizzas that you can eat with a spoon.
little kitty cat hands!
holding a pizza dough cloud with two sticks
Phil and Brett put on their pizza muscles
a pile of pizza
and here is a video of the saucy, wet Vinnie pie fresh out of the oven. after we finished this pizza, some chose to soak their crusts in the leftover lakes and rivers of red red greasy pizza leavings. mmm. accidental dr. pepper plug. but you know what i like dr p so it stays in.
Shit will be going down.
Tonight, (Tuesday), 11:15pm on the Independent Film Channel.
I’m really bad about blogging: I go to a great restaurant, eat amazing food, even take photos and then let them sit on my camera for months. Well, not anymore. Time to play catch-up. Let’s start with my most recent visit and a notorious Manhattan fixture: SHAKE SHACK.
Shake Shack is literally a little shack or kiosk in Madison Square Park located at 23rd and Madison in the Flat Iron District of Manhattan. There are a couple of other locations but this is the original. Here is a nice view of the Shack and the tables in the park. (Visit their cute website: http://www.shakeshacknyc.com/ – featuring a webcam live feed of the line. creepy cool!)
So when you get to the park you just stand in line. I went with 2 other first timers and we just went with it. There is one line and it is LONG so just stand in it. Unless you are getting only custard or concretes (their equivalent of a blizzard) then you can stand in the B-Line or Express Line. If you want burgers and dogs and shakes, suck it up and get in line. I suggest coming with people who are good conversationalists or bring a book or crossword. Maybe not a good idea for first date awkwardness. Or maybe if you like that kinda thing. We clocked ourselves at 1 hour, ten minutes to place our order. Once our order was placed we waited approximately 3 minutes. Very fast!
Eventually you get to one of the free standing menus. Then someone comes by to give you a taste of custard. Then you get really excited. So what’s the deal with this place? Best shake/burger combo in NYC is the rumor. If you like diner style, no bullshit burgers and dogs and custard, you have to try it. If you can read the menu you will see they have a small but varied selection. They are also reasonably priced for NYC: I got a Shack Burger, Fries and a Black and White Shake for 12.75. Not bad.
Krinkle Kut fries rule. I also found the portions to be just right for someone my size. I snack a lot through the day and when I eat a meal I prefer to be delightfully sated. Like, almost full. But not bursting, bellyache full. This was the right amount of food for that.
So as you can see I got a cheeseburger (Their Shack Burger) with LTMayo. I added ketchup and mustard as well. Good burger. Chargrilled. A bit greasy but not too greasy. Perfectly melted cheese. Not too thick bun. God, I’m salivating thinking about this again. It was really good. The fries were perfect – not soggy, not underdone, not old/stale – just right.
As for the shake…I can tell you a shake made with custard is thick, creamy, delicious, and very pleasing. You really need to suck it up your straw. I like that. I opted for the Black and White shack (chocolate vanilla) because sometimes all chocolate is too much. This was really good. Maybe it could’ve been more chocolately, less vanilla-y, but that’s what I get for not ordering a full on chocolate.
Happy customers!
Can you see the joy in my eyes? Truly, it was a beautiful thing.
So, was Shake Shack worth the long wait? Does it live up to the hype? My clean plate says yes.
This is a tomato-tamarind soup, with pork-crab-shrimp-egg meatballs, served with rice noodles, fried shallots, scallions and water cress. This was my first boot leg attempt at making “bun rieu,” another amazing Vietnamese soup. Typically, there would also be fried tofu puffs, pork blood cubes, shredded iceberg and bean sprouts instead of water cress, etc… But man, it was really good! I’m still eating it on Day 3!
Okay, I will do my best to remember what I did, but the best part of bun rieu is definitely this meat part. These measurements are slightly arbitrary, but it consists of :
- 1 lb peeled, raw and minced shrimp (save the shells for the stock)
- 3/4 lb ground pork
- 1-2 cans crab meat
- 1-2 eggs (depending on how soft you want these feathery meatballs to be. I like them a little firm, so I use 1 egg)
- chopped scallions
- Very Important: 1 can of this shit (it’s minced shrimp/crab soaked in soybean oil with garlic, chilis, other stuff):
The broth, I filled a pot a little less than half way with water, and I started out by boiling the shrimp shells for about 45 minutes, and then I strained it and threw the shells away. I added maybe two more cups of water and added about 3 tablespoons (or more depending on how tart you like it) of tamarind paste to the pot, along with a handful of dried shrimp, about 4-5 plum tomatoes (wedged), and half of a vidalia onion (sliced). Let all this simmer for about 40 minutes or so.
If you want to multitask right now, you can also boil your rice noodles at this point.
The funnest part of making bung rieu is dropping in the meat balls. They do not need to be balls, if anything, the whole point is that they are loose. You can use a cereal spoon and spoon up a spoonful and drop it into the broth. Do this until your bowl of raw meat is empty. They will not take very long to cook. Once they are, you turn the heat down very low just so it stays warm, and you can season it with fish sauce and white sugar.
Pour the broth over rice noodles, top it with fresh ingredients such as bean sprouts, shredded lettuce, scallions, mint, shiso, whatever. Finally, I like to squirt with a wedge of lime, and add a little spoon of these two things right before I chow it down:
That first sauce is made with millions of ground up teeny tiny little shrimps that look something like this:
Oh yeah and of course they are fermented until they smell REALLY INTENSE!!!!!!!
SO GOOD!!!! Also try using this shrimp sauce as a dip for sour apples, it’s really really amazing.
So, someone from Dublin Ohio had sent me a Facebook message about a very special sweet potato that they had found at their local grocery store, and thought it was a good idea to send it to me. I agreed, and I didn’t believe she would really send me, but sure enough, it arrived today in a Fed Ex box. First I was scared because I forgot about this interaction, and I had no idea, nor was I expecting a package from anyone. It could have been a bomb or poison, or a variety of other things, but to my sheer delight, I was welcomed with such a wonderful gift. Luckily I had a digital camera at hand to document my reaction. Thanks Danny B for taking these pictures.
I thought instead of eating it, I would like to have it live forever. So I put it in my pot so that it can grow and flourish for as long as I am alive. Thank you sweet potato fairy, for giving such a unique potato baby.
So, this weekend my new beau and I waited in the extremely long line that is the no questions asked norm at Hot Doug’s, one of Chicago’s premire encased meat specialists.
there's a line.. count on it
Now, we waited in line for at least 25 minutes, but for how long the line is there, it is always moving, and it’s generally regarded as “all part of the experience.” And it wasn’t all that bad, honestly. There were these kids in front of us in line, and they seemed to be trying their damnedest to live as though they were doing a summer stock performance of “Superbad.” But I digress. Dougs features a few standard dogs, many of which are named after celebs.For example: The Keira Knightly (formerly the Britney Spears) which is just a spicy hot dog. HA! get it? I think this is dumb, but I like dick, so the whole “spicy ladies” thing is just stupid to me.. but hey, with all the weiner in that place, I really have no room to complain. Anyway.. in addition to their basic dogs, which come with the works, and either steamed or grilled, they have their specials, which are nutz. Here is what was on special when we went:
Very Special Specials
I opted for “The Dog” from their standard menu, which is the classic Chicago hotdog. The first time I was introduce to the idea of the “chicago style” hot dog I saw it represented like this:
chicago's hot dog
and here is break down of what is illustrated here:
the real deal
“Sausage is German in origin and so is mustard 1, but buns are American—Germans would eat it with bread, but not a bun,” Kraig explains. “Sport peppers 2 are basically giardiniera, as is relish 3, which is Italian, while dill pickles 4 are German. Tomatoes 5and onions 6 are Mediterranean, so that’s Greek and Italian, and these came from guys that turned their produce carts into hot-dog carts on Maxwell. Chicago was a major producer of celery until the ’20s, and celery salt 7 became a substitute. The poppy-seed bun, which is Jewish and was introduced locally by Rosen’s bakery, didn’t appear until after World War II.”
(PS: this is taken from this excellent article from the chicago reader… get into it.)
Again I digress, I figured where better to experience my first Chicago Style Dog than from Chicago’s very own Encased Meat Emporium? SO , I got that and the Smoked Crayfish and Pork Sausage, topped with remoulade and goat cheese. Shawn opted for the B.L.T. and the Blue Cheese pork sausage (however his exact words when ordering were “I’ll have the pork sausage” which landed him with the Cherry Pork Sausage topped with a black-cherry cream sauce and satori-raspberry cheese relish.) We also ordered a large order of fries to split. This cost us a whopping 30 plus dollars for four hot-dogs! Which is sort of fine considering the quality of hand cased sausages and carefully crafted bun borne dishes we were about to enjoy.
the meal
Here is the order. For starters, the Chi-town Classic style dog is Unbelievable, there is so much going on, but it is so well crafted, it’s no wonder it is a staple here. It also helps that every one of the ingredients on this is picture perfect, right down to the neon relish. It is clear that they make this constantly, because it is almost mechanically perfect. The Smoked crayfish and pork sausage was also unnecessarily delicious. I had to take some of the goat cheese of for fear of gagging on all of the flavor, but i am not complaining. I am simply explaining how i survived the onslaught of taste that was this dog. Shawn’s choices were also good, although he was mildly disappointed in them for various reasons. One the reasons was that this was not exactly what he ordered, and therefor not what he was expecting to eat. The other that he found the B.L.T. to be simply underwhelming. I thought it was good, but unfortunately inferior to the crayfish and pork grandslam. The cherry dog was good, but it actually was so sweet it made me think what an amasing pastry it would make, rather than a bun based confection.
In closing allow me to say that in the race for the best encased meat, Hot Doug’s is a real weiner!
PS.. Eat a Weiner!
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