By Kevin Finch on July 11, 2010
From down the street, it looked like the line waiting for a hot dog or sausage at Hot Doug’s spilled out the front door.
Talk about an understatement.
The full line not only spilled out the front door but twisted out of sight to snake back alongside of Hot Doug’s for half a city block. If it had been a little shorter I would have given up, but a line this long in the middle of a residential neighborhood usually means something epic. There was even a guy in line who had brought his own folding lawn chair… apparently the line was a normal part of the experience.
Then there is the fact that Hot Doug’s actually has a theme song with three separate mixes: rock, techno, and a hybrid. And the full name: Hot Doug’s: The Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium. I’ll stand in line to meet a guy who opens an encased meat emporium and hires a band to sing about jonesing for a hot dog.
One hour and 15 minutes later we get a glimpse of the line INSIDE and after a little over an hour and a half we are seated on stools along one wall with our hot dogs and hand-cut duck fat fries (a specialty Doug only offers on Fridays and Saturdays).
Was it worth the wait? Yes.
I ordered the basic hot dog ($1.75) and the duck fat fries. The dog was a classic Chicago dog with essentially a salad on top. I skipped the pickle (which I think overpowers the dog) and I tried Doug’s grilled onions rather than opting for the more common raw.
The verdict? A decent dog.
Yet it wasn’t life-changing. There are plenty of other spots around Chicago for a good basic dog. Next time I’ll spring for something you can only get at Doug’s… something like the “Game of the Week” sausage made that this week was made out of alligator.
I’d certainly get the duck fat fries again. I was braced for more ‘duck’ that there actually was. Yet after a moment of disappointment, I tucked into what turned out to be a great basket of hand-cut shoestring fries with just a hint of the exotic every few bites. I wasn’t expecting subtlety after Doug’s garish decor, but here it was in the last place I expected it: in the fries.
Doug is obviously doing something very right. I’ve never been in line this long where everyone seemed expectant and hopeful rather than angry or resentful. Doug also managed to get my daughter Megan and her friend Alyx to eat something clearly not vegetarian: encased meat and duck fat fries.
The Sausage Superstore and
Encased Meat Emporium
Posted in culture, dining, kitsch, travel | Tagged best Chicago dog, best hot dog, Chicago dog, Chicago IL, Chicago restaurants, duck fat fries, encased meat, fries, hot dog, Hot Doug's, Hot Doug's Encased Meat Emporium, Illinois restaurants, Red Hot, waiting |
By Kevin Finch on July 6, 2010
Of the hundreds of billboards along Interstate 90 for Wall Drug, I think my favorite driving east from Rapid City SD is one about 40 miles from the exit. It says simply “Pretty Near.”
On the food front, I was quite unimpressed with the grill food, but 5 cent coffee and a caramel pecan role will set you back less that $3 and might be one of the best deals on the premises beyond the FREE ice water.
Posted in culture, dining, kitsch, travel | Tagged buffalo burger, caramel pecan roll, coffee, Rapid City SD, tourist trap, Wall Drug, Wall SD |
By Kevin Finch on April 26, 2010
I enjoy menus with a sense of humor. Note the Deluxe Chicken Dinner on this menu noticed by Aly and Jim Williams at the Suds Hut in Helena MT. The question is whether they have the Dom Perignon on hand if you order it.
Posted in culture, dining, kitsch | Tagged chicken, Helena MT, humor, menu, Montana restaurants |
By Kevin Finch on March 15, 2010
Over coffee this morning, a friend slipped me a gift.
It is a form-fitting, plastic case designed to protect two Pop Tarts in pristine conditions. It didn’t say so on the packaging, but I suspect that every marine now serving overseas is issued one for packing emergency junk food rations. If I was one of the joint chiefs of staff, I’d see that every soldier had one. Two for those with desk jobs.
This friend knows of my fondness for frosted Pop Tarts and decided to poke a little fun at me. I think I can take it especially since it now means I can take two Pop Tarts with me just about anywhere. My only regret is that the case doesn’t appear to have seals to keep liquid out, so if you drop it in milk your Pop Tarts will still get soggy.
Posted in culture, kitsch, play | Tagged junk food, Pop Tarts |
By Kevin Finch on January 1, 2010
The second to last day of 2009 started with an early morning visit to Psycho Donuts for the Cereal Killer and my first ever “hamburger donut.”
Psycho opened in 2009 to community protest and picketers on the sidewalk of their tiny strip mall at the corner of Winchester and Campbell in California’s South Bay Area. It could have been the name. Or offense at a case of donuts with names like Jekyll & Hyde, Headbanger’s Evil Twin, and Psycho Panda. Maybe the protesters don’t like fried food.
I’m guessing, though,that the protests just helped business, and I would humbly suggest that there might be more urgent targets for protest than a donut shop with a slightly deranged theme. Psycho Donuts staff wear nursing outfits reminiscent of Halloween, and they have an actual padded room inside the door (okay, it is more like a three-sided padded phone booth designed for photo opportunities).
Just for the title we had to try the Cereal Killer with its cargo of Cap’n Crunchberries on top.
The title is better than the donut truthfully. But just the opposite should be said for the Apricotology. It has my vote for the worst name on a menu with some other doozies, but the donut itself is brilliant. I’ll never eat another apple fritter again without wishing it was a Psycho Donut apricot monstrosity.
Yet there is another great reason to go out of your way to visit Psycho and cross the picket lines (if they happen to reappear). It is the Hamburger Donut. For the sheer cheek of saying you ate one, it is worth $2.50.
But the truth is that this donut actually works: a donut sprinkled with sesame seeds is sliced in half and slathered inside with honey butter and strawberry jam before several sliced of bacon are slipped inside. It is not what your taste buds expect of a donut, but by bite two or three, you just might have an epiphany and begin to ask why donuts are typically sugar bombs rather than pastries that combine sweet and savory in creative ways.
Or you can dismiss me as ‘nuts.’ You won’t be the first or the last.
Posted in culture, dining, kitsch, play, travel | Tagged apple fritter, apricot, Campbell CA, Cap'n Crunchberries, donuts, fries, hamburger, protest, Psycho Donuts, South Bay Area, South Bay Area food |
By Kevin Finch on August 21, 2009
St. Regis Travel Center Edition: Western Montana travel kitsch seems to lean heavily on huckleberries and outhouses for the local items, but a number of more generic items also caught my eye in the food-related kitsch category. Weigh in with which of the items you think should take top honors.
Entry #1: “Chili Makins” that claim to not to contribute to global warm or ozone depletion.
Entry #2: Silicone bakeware with a conscience. “Let them eat cake” takes on new meaning.
Entry #3: Ice cube nostagia for the early video game addict.
Entry #4: Possibly the strangest of the items in the expansive local huckleberry line-up.
Entry #5: For the butter challenged who appreciate single season, single action gadgets, comes the Butter Boy. I believe it runs on ethanol.
Entry #6: When just a state-branded shot glass won’t do, go for the one with the miniature bear camped inside.
Entry #7: The Celene Dion soundtrack is optional.
And our final St. Regis Travel Center entry, #8: The moose-chugger bottle holder.
Your votes please.
Posted in culture, drinks, kitsch, travel | Tagged Butter Boy, coffee, Gin & Titonic, huckleberries, Ice Invaders, Montana, outhouse, Peace of Cake, St Regis, travel kitsch, western Montana |
By Kevin Finch on August 21, 2009
I tend to be a bit incredulous on my way to the bathroom at most travel centers. Why? It is the nick-nacks offered for sale.
Yesterday though I decided to take a more studied approach to travel center commerce. On the way from Spokane over to my parents home on Flathead Lake, I determined to try find the MOST OUTRAGEOUS food-related item offered for sale wherever we stopped to visit the loo. I did just this, took pictures, and intend to let you vote on what you think should be #1. Yet just the idea of looking for the most outrageous item on display gave me a new clinical distance that offered up general observations as well as some real kitsch contenders.
Observations First: Travel kitsch tends to fall into categories. There are all the locally-branded items from tee-shirts to mugs and shot glasses. My favorite in this category yesterday was the Montana mug trying to impersonate a tree trunk.
Most of this seems to be made in China, but is intended to evoke a sense of place far far from Shanghai. Second there are all the vanity items embossed with your name. My son Peter’s name is always available on key chains, pens, pipe bombs and the like. Daughter Megan’s name is equally popular. It is only our third child, Brendan, who is left out. Apparently there are enough Brandons in the world to justify a print run, but the Brendans are out of luck.
The third category is the humor category: items intended to make you laugh enough to forget you have no place to put said sign or item when you get home. For some reason a high percentage of the travel kitsch in the humor category seems to skew toward the crude.
Fourth comes the cheap home decor category with a line up of items destined to gather dust on mantle pieces (much of it with a country/folk/old fashioned feel).
Fifth are the toys guaranteed not to break only until at least the next exit on the Interstate.
Sixth: jewelery.
Seventh: unique local items… often food like hot sauce, jams, candy, and a pancake mix supposedly made by Aunt Alice. In the case of western Montana, apparently the critical ingredient is a huckleberry. Maybe in Minnesota it is a walleye trout.
What I’m curious about at the moment is what categories I might have missed. The specific kitsch from St. Regis should show up for comment soon, but right now let me know what classic travel kitsch categories I’m missing.
Posted in kitsch, play, travel | Tagged Flathead Lake, kitsch, Montana, travel kitsch, vanity items |
By Kevin Finch on June 27, 2009
A new category for periodic posts has surfaced recently that offers real potential alongside our Fortune Cookie Files and Food Service Typos. This category is Food Kitsch.
Kitsch is a classic German/Yiddish word that typically refers to art that is “excessively garish or sentimental… usually considered in bad taste” according to WordNet. Other definitions toss in adjectives like vulgar, trite, melodramatic, lowbrow, and tasteless. Some of what is clearly kitsch is simply offensive, but there are also examples of kitsch that are curious, over-the-top, and even wonderful in an odd or disturbed way.
Kitsch shows up everywhere, but one place with a particular affinity for kitsch is the kitchen. We consider this a true delight, and from time to time we’d love to pass along a few examples.
Today, that is a product about to hit the market called Season Shot.
What is it? It is food-grade ammunition for your shotgun.
I can’t say it better than the Season Shot website itself: “Season Shot is made of tightly packed seasoning bound by a fully biodegradable food product. The seasoning is actually injected into the bird on impact seasoning the meat from the inside out. When the bird is cooked the seasoning pellets melt into the meat spreading the flavor to the entire bird. Forget worrying about shot breaking your teeth and start wondering about which flavor shot to use!”
One of their slogans is: SHOOTS, KILLS, SEASONS.
Season Shot also celebrates the fact that their shot brings down your bird without any damage to the environment, and will be available in five delicious flavors: Cajun, Lemon Pepper, Garlic, Teriyaki, and Honey Mustard.
The target market? (chuckle) Men equally happy with large fire arms and oven mitts.
FOOD KITSCH METER: 7.5
excessively garish or sentimental art; usually considered in bad taste
1. Sentimentality or vulgar, often pretentious bad taste, especially in the arts: “When money tries to buy beauty it tends to purchase a kind of courteous kitsch” (William H. Gass).
2. An example or examples of kitsch.
adj.
Of, being, or characterized by kitsch: “The kitsch kitchen … has aqua-and-white gingham curtains and rubber duck-yellow walls painted in a fried-egg motif” (Suzanne Cassidy).
Kitsch (/kɪtʃ/) is the German and Yiddish word denoting art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art. kKtsch was a response to the 19th century art whose aesthetics convey exaggerated sentimentality and melodrama, hence, kitsch art is closely associated with sentimental art. Kitsch also refers to the types of art that are like-wise æsthetically deficient (whether or not it is sentimental, glamorous, theatrical, or creative), making it a creative gesture that merely imitates the superficial appearances of art through repeated conventions and formulae. Contemporaneously, kitsch also (loosely) denotes art that is aesthetically pretentious to the degree of being in poor taste and industrially-produced art-items that are considered trite and crass.
1 : something that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste and is often of poor quality
Posted in culture, kitsch, play | Tagged bird hunting, cajun, fun, garlic, honey mustard, hunting, kitsch, kitsch definition, lemon pepper, men cooking, new products, Season Shot, seasoned pellets, shotgun, shotgun shells, teriyaki, Yiddish |
By Kevin Finch on October 3, 2008
Last night in an old cardboard box at a rummage sale I discovered something terrible / wonderful / unbelievieable / bizarre. Tucked in amongst the spiral-bound church and women’s club cookbooks was a small, brightly colored hardback: The Twinkies Cookbook.
Just the idea of it boggles my mind.
It truly might become the first in a kitsch cookbook collection – the idea for which only occurred to me as I stared in amazement at the bright and irrepressibly cheerful cover. Did you know there is actually a recipe for Twinkie Sushi? And Pigs in a Twinkie? And Twinkie Lasagna?
In 1997 a writer for the Baltimore Sun said: “The Twinkie is the perfect post-modern artifact, a pop culture staple.” If that writer is even close to right, what does that make a cookbook about this legendary artifact with its epic shelf life?
What’s more, I just may be barred forever from membership in the Slow Food movement because I’m actually thinking about cooking one of the recipes: Twinkie Pancakes. Care to join me as an outcast among the eat local, organic, and whole food community?
TWINKIE PANCAKES
Jerry Ferrill, Columbus Ohio
Serves 4-6
6 Twinkies
4 cups prepared pancake batter
Butter (for serving)
Syrup (also for serving)
Slice each Twinkie crosswise into 8 thin slices. Heat a griddle or skillet over medium high heat and spray the cooking surface with non-stick cooking spray. Pour 1/4 measures of batter onto the hot griddle and set three Twinkie slices in each. Once the pancakes bubble and the bottom is golden brown, flip each and cook on the second side. Serve immediately with butter and syrup.
Posted in cooking, culture, kitsch, play | Tagged artifact, icon, pop culture, Twinkie, Twinkies |
