July 4 - Taste of Chicago

In Chicago, July 4th used to be synonymous with Taste of Chicago. Millions of people crammed into Grant Park, stuffing themselves silly in the unbearable heat/humidity, getting drunk and watching fireworks over Lake Michigan.

Unfortunately, when the economy tanked, they downsized the festival. And if I'm not mistaken, they canceled the fireworks! In the ol' days, every restaurant in town had booths. Giant turkey legs, pizza, ribs, cheesecake, you name it...now it's only 40 food vendors. Sad.

But to be honest, even though there used to be every kind of food under the sun, I usually only ate hot dogs anyway! Here's a shot of me from a couple years ago, lovingly preparing a Vienna Beef dog, from one of my fave's Gold Coast, for devour-ation.

Camden Yards

Baltimore

I love going to different ballparks all over the country to watch baseball but more importantly taste ball park food, especially to sample regional hot dogs. One of my favorite yearly trips when I lived in NYC was to drive to Camden Yards to see the Orioles lose to my White Sox.

Camden Yards is the coolest stadium I've been to. It was the first to be designed "old-school" when all the ballparks were getting facelifts. I love the new Comisky (I refuse to call it The Cell) but they missed the boat when designing the exterior. I mean, look at Camden...

Okay, let's get to the important part -- the food! Camden Yards has excellent hot dogs and Polish sausages. I can't believe they can get away with calling their stand "Polack Johnny's"

 

Camden Yards also has incredible pulled pork in the outfield and fresh soft homemade pretzels. I completely pig out when I go here because among the parks I've been to, it has the second best food (Comisky's is amazing and I'll post pics after I go to a game in August).

Here's me stuffing my face like an animal at Camden Yards...

I've been to Camden with my friend Paul, my ex Sophie and best of all my dad and I did a road trip from NYC together I will never forget. We stopped along the way and had fresh crab at the famous Cantler's near Annapolis. Then we pigged out in our amazing seats at Camden. The Orioles used to be so bad that you could get first row behind the White Sox dugout for $70. At Yankee stadium those seats would be $1500.

Here's some awesome shots from that incredible trip, my amazing brother Brett (I call him Bert) caught us on TV and took screen shots...

Crif Dogs

East Village, NYC

I mean, I adore this place, it's in my top 3. According to legend (and the owner Chris) the name Crif is actually how you say the owner's name with your mouth full of hot dog.

I have so many special memories of Crif. Before Shake Shack, it was my go-to place when I needed a good hot dog. It was my go-to place when I used to drink my face off at Duke's on Ave C. In our wild poker game days at my buddy Paul's apartment, we ordered in Spicy Rednecks, Philly Tubesteaks and tator tots from Crif's after everyone smoked a ton of weed. For the record, I just liked when they blew it in my face...

My nephew Buster would only eat plain hot dogs until I took him here. Then he tried a dog with pineapple and cream cheese and he became a hot dog nut, too. He's headed to NYC this fall to go to the New School and I hope he eats here at least five times a week.

This place was experimenting with different flavors before everybody started doing that. They did morning dogs and southwestern dogs and teriyaki dogs first. One of my favorite dogs is the Jon Jon Deragon, which has bacon, green onion, cream cheese and is topped with everything bagel seeds. Yum.

Hot dogs: ****

Tator tots: ****

Root beer: You have to here

Betty White is a Hot Dog Lover

Food Truckin'

LA has amazing food truck culture. So far, I've only tried Dogtown Dogs, when it parked outside of Old Navy one day. I had the Morning Commute with bacon and a fried egg and it was delicious. I follow them on Twitter now, along with the Greasy Wiener, and I'm waiting with bated breath for them to head back to the South Bay.

It's my dream to own my own hot dog stand one day. I will. Someday...

Legends of Chicagoland

Hot Doug's

Chicago, IL

So, here's another stand that is often voted best in Chicago. They have a line out the door before they open in the morning, especially on Fridays, when they cook their fries in duck fat. They also have unique sausages, brats and polish sausage.

This will not be very popular, but I'm not a huge fan of Doug's. To be fair, I've never eaten the sausages (named after local celebs like Steve Swisher) and I haven't yet had the fries in duck fat. But I have had regular dogs and fries there and I think they're mediocre.

What I just said is sacrilegious but since four people will read this, I'm probably okay...it's just that other places are more my fave.

Doug's regular dogs: **
Doug's regular fries: **