Then reality hit: Roy had double knee surgery and missed a third of the season, Aldridge played like a beast but got hosed on the all-star nomination so that David Stern could pay off his new house mortgage with some extra advertising revenue that just happened to be laying around (not that I'm bitter), and Oden had some more knee surgery and missed another full season.
One of the highlights to the season was that Mary and I flew out to Chicago to attend a Blazers away game against the Bulls. It was the home opener for the Bulls, and little did we know that the Bulls were destined to have the best record in the league come April and the MVP. In hindsight, the 20+ point blowout in favor of the Bulls makes a little more sense now.
Shifting away from basketball, and instead towards stuffing our faces with food, Mary and I decided that it would be foolish of us to not sample the two delicacies that Chicago has perfected: Chicago-style hot dogs, and deep dish pizza.
The Chicago-style hot dog consist of the following: poppy-seed bun with mustard, white onion, tomatoes, whole pickle spears, celery salt, sport peppers, and the most fluorescent green relish you've even seen. It's like a meat salad topped with mustard. And it is delicious.
Our last day in Chicago became an impromptu tour de force of hot dogs. We thought that the best way to truly enjoy the Chicago-style hot dog was to try them at as many locations as possible. Behold:
Tour Stop Number One: Wrigleyville Dogs
The first stop of the day was in the shadow of Wrigley Field. It was a solid start of the adventure. The one misstep was the lack of celery salt and the fact that this conversation took place:
Isaac: "One hot dog please."
Dude at the counter: "Do you want everything on that?"
Isaac: "Yes."
Dude "Do you want peppers?"
Isaac (internally): "Did I miss the memo that says 'Everything' doesn't actually mean 'Everything'?"
Isaac (externally): "Yeah...."
Tour Stop Number Two: The Weiner Circle
The Weiner Circle was pretty tough to find: we stepped off the bus, walked about 6 feet, and then were inside ordering. Rigorous. This hot dog was fantastic. It hit all of the necessary ingredients, plus an extra pickle spear, and the hot dog was charred on the grill. This place was not as exciting at 12:30pm on a Monday afternoon as it is after the bars close apparently. Needless to say, their hot dogs are better than their singing.
Tour Stop Number Three: Budaki's
Mixed reviews with Budaki's. The polish dog they used was superb, however they neglected the poppy-seed bun and we got sucked into that strange alternate reality where saying you want everything on the hot dog doesn't actually mean everything. I guess the fact that I burnt my tongue on the hot dog and didn't' even care is testament enough in its deliciousness though.
Tour Stop Number Four: Gold Coast Dogs
We finished strong with our final stop: all the right toppings were present, and "everything" actually meant "everything". The real story here was that the hot dog was so tasty, that when Mary dropped the last bite of hot dog on the airport terminal gate floor, I still ate it. In my defense, the hot dog fell bun side down, and we were sitting on chairs that were up against the terminal windows, and since the hot dog piece fell between the back of the chair and the window, I figured that area didn't get a whole lot of foot traffic anyways. And I'm alive today to tell the tale.
Clearly, I had to try my hand at reproducing my own Chicago-style hot dogs. So I started with making my own poppy-seed covered buns:
While the relish I ended up using was not the hue of radiator fluid, the final result rivaled the hot dogs we had in Chicago in my opinion:
And just in case you were concerned, I did eat the above hot dog off of a plate like a civilized and sanitary person would, instead of the floor.
--Isaac.
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