insert hotdog weiner pun here

One of the first foodie events we accompanied boots in the oven to was this hotdog tasting party hosted by the friendliest local food writer, Addie Broyles. She was researching for an article she planned to write in Austin's newspaper. Simple in theory- a blind taste-test of 15 hotdogs.

Because we aren’t that Kobayashi kid of Nathan’s eating-competition fame, we chose to try niblets in round 1.

We jotted lots of greasy notes. Then came the vote, recorded on a midget chalkboard, where we unanimously separated the pleasantly oily, plump, crisp, flavorful weiners from the mealy, oddly uniform, limp dogs.

After narrowing it down, we threw the finalists back on the grill (along with the Hebrew National which lost on the flavor vote but was resurrected by Jewish lobbyists) and this time we tasted them dressed on a bun.

While the bread definitely toned down some of the saltiness and overpowering flavors in the various dogs, I still preferred the same hotdog from round 1…surprisingly, Andy and I were in agreement…even more surprising was the brand we chose-the HEB grocery store’s Texas Heritage Original Beef. The group of food bloggers voted again. Turned out that our taste buds weren’t too intoxicated by Tecate to pick the ‘weiner’ (c’mon, had to…).

Our fave tied for the overall number one with Nathan’s Famous Skinless Beef. No wonder that Kobayashi kid can eat so many…


Check out the professional’s recollection of the event in this newspaper story complete with cute pics: http://www.austin360.com/food_drink/content/food_drink/stories/2009/05/0520hotdogs.html