Notes from a New York City Foodie Trip
NYC is famous for its hot dogs. Should it Be?
As part of my foodie trip to New York City, I wanted to try some of the city’s most iconic foods: New York style pizza, New York cheesecake, New York bagels, halal truck food and hot dogs.
Watch any movie or show based on New York City, and chances are you’ll see the protagonists getting a hot dog from a hot dog cart. These “dirty water” hot dogs – called that as they are boiled and rest in water before being moved into the bun – are famous, not only because they serve as a good prop for movies, but because they are supposed to have a special flavor due to being boiled in NYC’s superior water (maybe it’s all those tiny shrimp). But are they as good as the claims go? On our next-to-last day in NYC we set out to find out.
Finding a hot dog cart in Manhattan proved harder than we thought. There were plenty of halal trucks serving hot dogs – but then, that’s not exactly the same concept. It took us walking several blocks from our hotel to find a hot dog cart per se. And then, in Mike’s words, we had the whole New York experience by being charged $5 for the smallest hot dog ever. To add insult to injury, it just wasn’t that great.
Don’t get me wrong, the hot dog was fine. But then again, most hot dogs are fine. The $1.50 hot dog that you get at Costco was probably better, three times as large and comes with a soda. Of course, that’s a loss leader and you have to deal with the inconvenience of going to Costco, but that’s pretty much the only time I get hot dogs anyway.
The hot dog we got was from a cart labeled Sabrett – which is the same brand of hotdogs that seems to be for sale at most halal trucks. Maybe a Nathan’s hot dog would have been better. Or maybe, the allure of NYC hotdogs was the same than their 99-cents pizza slices: they were cheap. Now that they aren’t, it’s time to move on.
Sabrett branded hot dog stand Corner of 7th Ave. & West 53rd New York City