User-Agent: tin/pre-1.4-980226 (UNIX) (FreeBSD/2.2.5-RELEASE (i386)) Xref: alexander.INS.CWRU.Edu chi.eats:4564 alt.food:18589 Someone wrote: > If you find yourself in the wilds of the Pacific Northwest and yearn > for a Chicago hot dog or Italian beef, just head to Elkton, Oregon. > There you'll find a hot dog stand called Man Bites Dog. You may find > a retired physicist named "Jose" (actually Joe, from Yugoslavia) > playing his accordion out front. Behind the counter are Denny and > Roni Borlek, originally from Chicago. They make the real thing. > Denny imports all of his supplies from Chicago; I grew up in Chicago > and I'll stack his dogs and beefs against anything I've eaten in my > home town. > His hot dogs have Vienna beef, mustard (NO ketchup), relish, tomato, > chopped onions, pickles, peppers, and celery salt. His Italian beefs > with hot giardiniera peppers makes my mouth water just writing about > it right now. IMHO and to the best of my knowledge, this is the only > place west of the Mississippi where you'll find some real Chicago > food. > I'm not affiliated with his business in any way--I'm just an > enthusiastic customer, grateful to have found this treasure in this > land of bland, cheesy "food." Check out his web site: > http://www.exposureplus.com/hotdogstand.htm Green, green relish I presume? Jude
Oregon
Man Bites Dog--real Chicago Hot Dogs and Italian Beefs in OREGON
t M. wrote: > Would it shock you to know > I've never had an Italian beef Yes. I'm shocked, horrified and appalled! Seriously, I truly consider the Italian Beef to be Chicago's greatest contribution to street food. In my mind it's way above and beyond the Chicago hot dog (which I can't get too excited about, though I'll eat one every now and then--yes, with the bright green relish). You really owe it to yourself to try a beef. Not just any beef, but the best. My recommendation would be to wait for a hot weekend night, maybe 10 or 11PM, then go to Al's on Taylor Street for a beef (hot, dipped). In addition, Al's has very good Italian sausage (nicely charred over real coals). You can have the sausage sandwich dipped in the beef gravy (a spicy au jus) and get it with the same great hot peppers (an interesting variation on giardiniera) or with good sweet green peppers. My personal preference is hot with beef, sweet with sausage. The beef and sausage combo isn't a bad way to go either. The fries are pretty great too, in their own greasy-salty way. The reason you should wait for a hot night is so you can go across the street to Mario's for a lemonade (lemon ice). They make a pretty good basic lemon but they also have other fruit flavors some of which have the real fruit (like big chunks of melon) mixed in. Be sure to ask. If you hit them on a good day when the fruit is perfectly ripe it can be fantastic (unfortunately it's not always perfectly ripe). If you go on a hot Saturday night there are usually large crowds and traffic jams on Taylor. I'd be hard pressed to think of a more real-Chicago experience. When I leave this city, Italian beef will definitely be one of the things I'll miss. Now, I imagine my mention of Al's will bring suggestions of other favorites. There are a number of very good places. I'll post a list of my personal favorites separately.
NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 22 Apr 1999 17:26:04 CDT Xref: alexander.INS.CWRU.Edu chi.eats:4695 Rene G. wrote: > t M. wrote: > >> Would it shock you to know >> I've never had an Italian beef > then go to Al's on Taylor Street ... During the day go to Vittori's a few blocks west (about 1/2 block east of Racine). I think the're only open for lunch, but they really have the BEST Italian Beef. (Just thinking about it makes me want to go there tomorrow....yummm). Karen (Opera Buffa) What I know about opera is laughable. Send e-mail to hopi517 at aol (dot) com