Weinermobile
Hot dogs made the news in Wisconsin some weeks ago, when the driver of an Oscar Meyer Weinermobile lost her mind and smashed the goofy vehicle into what used to be the lovely home of what used to be a happy person. (YouTube evidence here.)
As a child, I thought those wieners-on-wheels were cute and lively, although I never understood what they did exactly, except sort of putter around, spewing carbon monoxide. You don’t see many Weinermobiles these days; maybe they’re embarrassed about being so un-green. Or maybe people have become less responsive to the aggressive promotion of those pink tubes of pig shrapnel we call hot dogs, but I don’t think so.
Right around the time of the Oscar Meyer house crash, my friend Hannah saw a Weinermobile in Venice (no, not Italy). She had not seen one in years, and she seized the photo opportunity (see picture). That Wisconsin homeowner may have crossed wieners off his grocery list, but Hannah has not: she remains loyal to the hot dog.
Apparently she is not alone; the hot dog is happening. Local spots like City Bakery and Nate ‘N Al’s have awesome dogs on the menu and people are lining up to eat them.
Pink’s on LaBrea is in its 70th year of serving hot dogs and business has never been better. Hannah and I went to The Stand in Westwood where they serve all hot dogs, all the time. I got the chicken dog (yes, I’m a wuss), but Hannah went traditional (see other pic). Delish all over.
So, if you see a Weinermobile headed towards your home, evacuate. But don’t give up on the dog: it’s hot.
Check ’em out:
Pink’s Hot Dogs
The Stand
Nate ‘N Al
Whoops, City Bakery has closed its Brentwood location! they supposedly will open again somewhere else but it’s a mystery at this point.
Oh Lord, is there ANYthing better than a hot dog at certain moments in life??
(and since we eat them rarely, we need not eat CHICKEN dogs, which are a desecration, like this insane idea of putting pineapple on a Pizza…don’t get me started on that one)
The key thing, however is that the Hog Dog MUST be Kosher…no, no am not Jewish, do not keep Kosher, but there are some things that are unassailable and a Kosher Hot Dog is one. So get a package of all beef Hebrew Nationals,
put anything but pineapple on it, and by all means, enjoy!
I must say that it has always been a dream of mine to drive the Wienermobileâ„¢. But you make a good point about the toxic nature of the vehicle. What does it carry around in there? Wieners, one presumes. Maybe it’s time for a hybrid Wienermobileâ„¢. I could justify the occasional use of fossil fuels to bring joy to the world.
I really am sad I’m missing the NY Fringe Festival because it’s featuring a one-woman show “My Salvation Has a First Name : A Wienermobile Journey”!
http://www.wienermobileshow.com/
This summer one of my jobs was to make a drawing of a hot dog taking a nap in a bun. It was an organic hot dog made by Applegate Farms and it actually tastes like an unorganic hot dog, i.e. unbelievably delicious, in fact, I served them for dinner last night!
They come in regular beef and a turkey variety which I have not tried.
p.s. love that wienermobile!!!!!!!
When I was a child growing up in the 50s I was ice skating on a pond in Delafield, Wisconsin on a Saturday afternoon when a wienermobile (which I had never seen before) pulled up alongside the pond and served us hot dogs and hot chocolate for free. Oscar Meyer, by the way, died at the age of 95 on July 6th of this year.
There’s a full tilt love-on in Vancouver for Japanese hot dogs – called Japa Dog – served up at a trio of (very busy) stands. Anthony Bourdain declared his love for these on one of his shows during a rainy-day visit to the city, and the main stand has photographs of people like Ice Cube, Peter Stormare and Steven Seagal chowing down on them. Japa Dog offers several varieties of hot dog (turkey, beef, Kurobata pork) teamed with accessories such as Japanese mayo, seaweed flakes, daikon sprouts, sauteed onions, teriyaki sauce and so on. It is Japanese owned and staffed, and they even have a “Japa Dog Blog” (in Japanese, of course). I rarely feel a yen for hot dogs but these particular concoctions are delicious, and anytime I find myself in the city near one of them the temptation is mighty. I doubt you’ll ever see tube-shaped vehicle associated with them, but that’s perfectly okay.
When I was a little girl, our family lived in Queens, not far from the World’s Fair, so we went pretty often. We always visited the Oscar Meyer Weiner Pavillion, sitting thru the little filmstrip that they screened in what I recall was a miniature child-sized theater. After the screening, we’d receive tiny plastic weiner whistles. LOVED them!