The hot dogs come in three sizes: regular, double-dog, and MOAD (pronounced MO-add). Thanks to Saddam Hussein, we all know what the first three letters mean. The MOAD was well over 2x the length of my phone (which is 4.4" long) so I'd estimate the length at 10"+. That may not sound like much, but the sausage is twice the diameter of a regular hot dog and it's smothered in their special chili sauce which is basically a bunch of nicely flavored ground beef in a relatively small amount of sauce. Frankly, I and my friend's husband who ordered the same dish both were skeptical of our chances of finishing the entire concoction. The sausage has an outstanding snap to it, with a loud-enough-to-reverberate-in-your-skull audible confirmation of each bite and a clean tear each time. The sausage has excellent tooth, with far more density and heft to it than a typical mass-produced frankfurter; there's little if any filler and it's clearly an actual sausage rather than just something to put in a hot dog. [Wikipedia indicates that it's a Hungarian sausage called kolbász, similar to kielbasa.] It's not super-strongly spiced but has a definite umami sausage flavor. I had to pre-cut the MOAD into 4 pieces in order to stand a fighting chance of eating this monster and remarkably, each section maintained its physical integrity during the 3-4 bites required to consume it. Buns are a critical component of hot dogs (and burgers!) and I didn't expect this bun to withstand the dual onslaught of the rebound from biting into a snappy sausage -- I'm trying to find another term to use instead of "snap" but nothing else captures the concept -- and the drenching with the meat-saturated chili sauce. But the bun held up each time and the entire MOAD went down with an ease that was slightly unnerving post facto. My dining companions had also mentioned how good the pickles are; my friend from St. Patrick's Day specifically ordered the Sweet Hots flavor of their pickles so I could taste them. The sweetness is restrained and appears late on the tongue, while the heat is also controlled, coming a bit earlier on the palate. The flavor palette of salty/sour/sweet/hot is covered in totality with such balance that I can't remember having a better pickle and I picked up a jar to savor later. Definitely check this place out if you dig hot dogs and pickles. They also have a great tradition -- started by Burt Reynolds in 1972 -- of having celebrities sign actual hot dog buns, which are displayed throughout their original location in Birmingham(OH) [there are 5 locations in Toledo now].
There was a fair amount of rain driving through Ohio and into Indiana. The day had started out very promising weather-wise but actually got progressively colder and unfriendlier; this is apparently not unusual for the area. This video was taken along I-80/90 and shows the view to the left (south) vs. the view to the right (north).
Last note about Toledo. The local baseball team is called the Mud Hens, and they're the AAA affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. Their stadium in the middle of downtown is quite lovely; it was built in 2002, named the best minor league ballpark in America by Newsweek that same year, and in 2007 the Roost section of the park was rated by ESPN.com as the best seats from which to watch a minor league baseball game. The name of the stadium is Fifth Third Field, after a regional bank. Turns out that the bank's unusual name is the result of a merger in 1908 of two banks: Fifth National Bank and Third National Bank. Because prohibitionist movements were gaining popularity at the time of the merger, it was decided that "Third Fifth" would not be an acceptable name, so they went the other way. I was tickled to learn from my friend's husband that Toledoans refer to the stadium as "The Fraction".
Dinner was also pretty darn good. We ate at a Hong Kong-style restaurant named Sun Wah in a Vietnamese section of Chicago; you pretty much know you're going to have a good meal when you see glistening, roasted ducks hanging in the window. The restaurant is family-run and has been around for 22 years. My friend and his then-fiancée have gotten to know one of the daughters who handles the tables so we had a ongoing conversation throughout and after the meal. All of the dishes we had were quite good but special mention must go to their version of Peking Duck. 3 major differences from the usual experience: 1) the duck is brought out whole and skillfully carved tableside, 2) soft white buns are used instead of pancakes, 3) the bones are taken away and used to make both soup and fried rice. The soup and fried rice were duckilicious and combined with the skin, meat, soft buns, julienned green onions and carrots, and pickled radish, made for a highly non-trivial quantity of food. [I had some of the voluminous leftovers for breakfast and it's just as good the morning after.] I'm a sucker for duck and can't think of a time I've eaten it and didn't really enjoy it, but this did qualify as an above-average experience. The bonus was chatting with the server and her younger sister and seeing how much thoughtfulness they're putting into their family's business (it also doesn't hurt that they're both easy on the eyes). From attending culinary school, testing out new dishes and desserts (we were guinea pigs for some really good homemade strawberry sorbet), to scoping out the competition, they're clearly not content to just maintain the status quo. We chatted a bit about some of the marketing and operational challenges of adding dessert options (education/awareness vs. preference, what do people want after a serious meal of Chinese food, how do you ramp up production of time-consuming-to-prepare-but-perishable products, etc.) but the key is that they make fundamentally good food; it's just a matter of getting people to try it. I hope everyone seeks out these kinds of places and supports them, as it is good for the universe to have people who care about what they do and do it very well be rewarded.
Miles driven: 240 / 715
Large bottles of Kirin Ichiban consumed: 2
Pieces of gum chewed: 3
Fingerprints wiped off of GPS navigation unit screen: 26
Strangely, that hot dog looks kind of good and I'm so NOT a hot dog person! I can't believe you ate the whole thing. I think you should re-title your blog "Eating My Way from DC to LA"!!
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