Nathan's in Coney Island, NY

I was in New York. I had just rode thirteen miles on a unicycle from the Brooklyn Bridge to Coney Island. The end of this epic ride was in front of the original Nathan's Famous hot dogs. It was time to eat and a hot dog seemed like an appropriate food.

The inside of Nathan's was very busy with lines stretching out of the building. I got the feeling that most people in here were tourists, just like me, coming to get their taste of a famous Coney Island food.

I ordered a hot dog with sauerkraut. It was exactly as I expected, just like what is served at the countless other Nathan's locations around the country. It was a hot dog, nothing more. The sauerkraut did dress it up a bit, but in the end it was still a pretty standard hot dog.

Nathan's hot dogs are highly overrated, but a visit to Nathan's in Coney Island isn't really about the food. It's about the whole experience of going to a fast food landmark. Just don't throw up your hot dog when you get sick on the Cyclone or Wonder Wheel afterwards...

Bite in Longwood, FL

Tomorrow is July 4. Seems like Independence Day in the United States has become one of the biggest hot dog days of the year (mostly due to the Nathan's contest). Because of the holiday, I suppose a blog post about hot dogs is in order. One of my recent excursions into the world of hot dogs was at Bite in Longwood. Bite is connected to Jeremiah's Italian Ices and does mostly hot dogs and burgers.

I tried their Chicago dog. The dog was topped with tomato, onion, relish, peppers, celery salt, and mustard on a poppy seed bun. Normally dressing a hot dog up vastly improves a plain hot dog, but the toppings didn't do much for me in this case. The amount of toppings seemed skimpy to me and they ended up making the bun really soggy. Some pretty good fries were served on the side.

The Southern slaw dog, topped with cole slaw, jalapenos, and fried onions was also ordered at our table. I personally didn't taste this one, but heard good things about it.

The hot dogs at Bite were okay, but not anything extraordinary. They seemed a bit small for the price and the menu here really didn't do much for me. It really couldn't compete with the menu at Mustard's Last Stand in Melbourne. I did notice a review of Bite on Yelp mentioned hot dogs that were no longer on the menu that sounded a bit more interesting than what they serve now. I'm not sure if I'd go out of my way to return here.