Play Ball!

Today baseball season officially begins in Chicago. While the wind and rain blew around Wrigley, the Cubs opened their home-schedule with W this afternoon.

Wrigley Field is an all-around traditional stadium. There is a non-electronic scoreboard in the outfield and an organist plays between innings. While there are a number of baseball traditions, one thing that goes hand in hand with baseball is a hot dog.

The Windy City has its own style of hot dogs. After living here for 4 years, I just found out its touristy of you to eat your dog with ketchup. That offends this Heinz girl.

So for your next Chi-Town visit or to make at home, here’s the deal on the Chicago Dog.

According to Wikipedia, “A Chicago-style hot dog is a steamed or boiled, never broiled all-beef hot dog on a poppy seed bun.”

The dog should be topped with the following ingredients:
- Mustard (yellow)
- Onion (chopped white)
- Sweet pickle relish (usually a dyed neon green)
- A dill pickle spear (kosher)
- Tomato wedges
- Pickled sport peppers
- A dash of celery salt.
* Sometimes cucumber slices are added.

Like I mentioned, ketchup is prohibited.

The hot dog brand of choice is Vienna Beef, which was first sold at the 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The typical dog weighs 1/8 pound.

Vienna Beef has a sweet little Periodic Table of a Vienna Chicago Style Hotdog Condiments on its web site. You can access that here.
Enjoy!

(Sources: Wikipedia, Photo: HotDogChicagoStyle.com)