Perhaps hot dogs are different than a
hot dog. You don't grow up
eating a hot dog, but you grow up eating hot dogs. There is a
difference.
When I was a kid, there was always a package of them in the
refrigerator. Mom would cut slots in them and microwave them for
lunch
in the summer, when all we did was lounge around the house and swim in
the pool and play our games all day. And yes, I went through a
phase where I thought they gave me headaches. And actually, they did,
because they're very high in sodium, and if you are eating a lot of
salt and also a lot of hot dogs, you're bound to feel sick at some
point. I guess I figured out how to eat well somewhere along the
timeline, because it doesn't bother me anymore.
I can't count them all. When I was in pre-school, they would serve
half- hot dogs without any ketchup, on a half-bun (with badly-heated
canned corn and generic fruit cocktail). They were served
occasionally for elementary school lunch, whether I brought it from
home or bought it for 80¢. At least Ada Lineweaver Elementary
School had ketchup and mustard on the table. My grandmother
baby-sat me a couple of times and she boiled
them -- how I hated that! I'm not sure how, but it was definitely
different. My father occasionally grilled them on the tiny gas grill
we had, but that was very rare and probably not appreciated. To this
day, the tastiest way to make hot dogs for me is to microwave them.
One for 45 seconds, two for 1:30. I later found out that it
didn't matter, because they were already cooked. My friends used to
harass me for eating them "raw" -- they taste strange that way, not
because of a cooking issue with the meat, but because all the
grease
is coagulated.
The hot dog stand, as famous an American institution as it is, was never a
part of my life. I've eaten two, maybe three hot dogs from hot dog
stands, total. I didn't discover sauerkraut until I saw it in the
store
and wondered what it was. Pickle relish was for making tuna salad.
Chopped onions were for creamed hamburger.
This is what I can call American food. It is culturally important
to me. Americans tend to lose their cultural perspective, because the
history, economics, and politics of the United States encourage
Americans to think of themselves as individuals, with no group
identity and no unity. America is so heterogenous, especially in my
quarter, that we don't really consider Chinese, Indian, or Mexican
cuisine to be "foreign" -- we're all sharing this space, and your food
is welcome. The hot dog,
not surprisingly, was neither invented nor significantly altered by Americans,
but it doesn't matter. And contrary to popular rumor, hot dogs contain
nothing yucky or weird -- the FDA doesn't allow it. It's decent
meat,
if odd-tasting, bland, and not very good for you.