Heyo!
Welcome to the dang Move. Let’s get right to it: I know a lot of you are Angelenos, so here’s a hot take about the city: L.A. is a baseball town. Not basketball. Not football. Not soccer. Baseball.
Of course, Los Angeles is far too diverse to be categorized as this or that, but I can’t help but see it as a baseball town. It’s the fireworks shot through the air after a Dodgers win. It’s the baseball memorabilia hung on the crusty walls of my favorite dive bars, and the amount of times I’ve locked eyes with Orel Hershiser while taking a leak. Most importantly, though, it’s the prevalence of hot dogs. L.A. is undeniably a hot dog town, and by authority of the great and almighty beef frank, it must also be a baseball town.
Baseball and hot dogs run together. They are enmeshed. It’s not baseball and a smash burger, or baseball and a mortadella sandwich (though the latter is quickly becoming associated with the city). Hot dogs are baseball. Baseball are hot dogs. Grammar not good but me like hot dog!!!!!!
L.A. and baseball are also both silly and fragile games. A game of baseball is often delayed by the whimsy of a loose squirrel, much like the infrastructure of Los Angeles crumbles with the threat of a few raindrops. Baseball, even with its new rules, takes its time and doesn’t rush. It is the laziest game. L.A. is as leisurely as it gets. Both have a certain unseriousness to them. And the hot dog? Probably the silliest food out there. I mean it’s called a hot dog for Christ’s sake.
So no, I’m not shy at all when I refer to Los Angeles as Hot Dog City. This is the land of milk and honey beef tubes and griddled bacon. It reminds me of my favorite song. If you know the lyrics, go ahead and sing along with me!!
🎵🎵Take me down to hot dog city where the grass is green and the franks are girthy🎵🎵
Girthy! Gross! Sorry. Anyway, there are tons of great hot dogs in Los Angeles. The bacon wrapped Danger Dog and the old fashioned chili dog are iconic, sure, but that’s not all. Venezuelan street dogs, Chilean completos, and Sonoran hot dogs are more common than your average Polish or German brat. Hell, you’re more likely to get chicharrón on your hot dog here than brown mustard. In Los Angeles, the hot dog is represented strongly by South America and Mexico. Much like….well, you get it.
And to this catalogue of well-traveled L.A. hot dogs, I’d like to add a new one. It’s got Chinese and Japanese influence, and by golly, it might be the best hot dog I’ve ever had in this great big stupid city.
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