Hot dog!

My Bob is from Chicago, and he is all about Chicago. He loves the White Sox and when he gets riled up or drunk he sounds like Mike Ditka. I love it.

One of the best things about Chicago is the hot dog. If you have never had an authentic Chicago dog, I don't think what I'm about to tell you will sound anything short of ridiculous. In Chicago, hot dogs are a way of life. There is a place called Portillos that has the best hot dogs in town, and we went there far too often when we lived there. We moved away from the Windy City just over 7 years ago, and we haven't been back yet. Therefore, Bob hasn't had a Chicago dog in 7 years. So for his birthday last year, his mother wanted to order her angel some hot dogs from Portillos. We were having a big 40th birthday party and buying "gourment" hot dogs for 40 people was a little too much even for her. We kept putting it off, until this past week and today the big brown truck pulled up and brought to us a humongous box from Portillos.




Inside was a packet of 10 hot dogs, with buns, hot dog seasoning, relish, pickles, tomatoes, onions and the cherry on top, the sport peppers. Apparently sport peppers are only available in Illinois and nothing else will do. So tonight I took to preparing the hot dogs...



The tomatoes had to be sliced just so, the onions had to be diced just right, and even the pickles required special care. The peppers were ready to go. Once I had it all on the table, my precious sat down and meticulously built the perfect Chicago hot dog.



And once the preparation was done, and the perfect hot dog had been built, there was only one thing left to do.



I have to admit, they were good. They were damn good. Was it worth the money that was spent to have them shipped fresh all the way from Chicago? That has yet to be determined. But for him, it was worth all that and a 2 liter of Coke.



And not to be outdone, the elusive Taco dog...