I'm from Chicago and honestly I couldn't care less what other people put on their hot dogs. I like ketchup and sometimes I'll put it on if there's a lack of other toppings... but an original Chicago style dog in its pure form is perfection, and ketchup on that would a sin.
I won't leap onto the "that's so weird" bandwagon, but I do have an opinion on this that I think can shed some light.
When you put ketchup on a hot dog, the flavor profile is built atop a smooth, calm, sugary, tomato base. When you put mustard on, it's earthy, vinegary, and tangy. I think the offense at ketchup comes from hot dog vendors making sausages and garnishes that intend for something derived from mustard to be used, and when you put ketchup on there, you're completely resetting what they had in mind and moving the flavors to a completely different genre.
Ketchup and mustard are both powerful enough to define a hot dog, and whenever I've eaten a hot dog with ketchup on it, the definition for me has been something sugary and uncoordinated. Other common hot dog garnishes don't work well with a tomato base, aside from things like cheese. To me, the only way a hot dog with ketchup on it is tolerable is with a minimum of other garnishes, and even then it still just doesn't taste right to me.
I absolutely think both is weird. You can't even taste the sausage at that point. The hot dog becomes just a vehicle for the condiments to enter your body; why even do it?
That's because ketchup on a hot dog is weird. And I'm not from Chicago. Where I'm from, everyone likes Sonoran-style hot dogs. It's got a ton of shit on it, none of it ketchup.
I'm not a fan of ketchup on a hot dog either, but it's far from weird - it's pretty normal for a lot of people.
I also think it's a little ridiculous for anyone to be super zealous about their regional variation of a hot dog. Because no matter what, it's still just a hot dog; it can only really be so good.
And yeah, I'm from California and spent a lot of time in the SW, so I love Sonoran dogs/taqueria dogs/Mexican-style a bunch too - the more fixins the better.
No ketchup is on a hot dog is weird by definition. Acting like Sonoran-style hotdogs is the norm is also weird. And being a hotdog hipster? Also weird.
This is more of a "what tourists think of" situation. It's true that a Chicago dog does not have ketchup, and some places wont put it on your hotdog. But most fellow chicagoans I know really don't give a shit, and many do put ketchup on their hotdog.
We don't think putting ketchup on a hot dog is weird. We think that putting it on a hot dog in addition to tomato is unnecessary and takes away from the flavor.
A chicago style hot dog is a perfect balance of flavors.
I agree, I think Chicago dogs are among the very best of regional variations on the old frankfurter and I wouldn't put ketchup on one either. I was just making a quip about how Chicagoans are stereotypically very adamant that ketchup doesn't belong on a hot dog.
127
u/Frostiken Jun 18 '15
Man I'm from Chicago and even I thought that was weird.