I am an American and I Eat Hot Dogs

Saturday, October 30th, 2004, Spike’s, Allston, MA

1 x Chili Cheese Dog, $2.65

So the Red Sox won the World Series. I drove back from Poughkeepsie, NY at 2am to make it to Boston for the parade. It was worth it. We rode bikes around all day in the rain. The parade was way cool (I know that sounds contradictory, but it was true!). We got to ride down the middle of Storrow Drive because the whole city was shut down. Then we rode over to Spike’s and had a hot dog to cap off the season. The hot dog was good, even if it wasn’t really that good.

Friday, October 1st, 2004, Café de Fenestra, just outside the castle main gate, Prague, Czech Republic

1 x Hot Dog (parky) with mustard, 25 Kc (roughly $1)

OK, I was pretty psyched for a Czech hot dog, but it didn’t really do much for me. It was slimmer than our bloated American dogs, but it tasted pretty much the same. I got this one at a little window café in a really touristy part of town. Normally I would avoid these places, but we hadn’t had anything to eat all day and it was about 4pm. So the place was named Café de Fenestra, which I though was pretty clever. Firstly, because it was just a window and “de Fenestra” translates to “of the window.” But also because the name alludes to the infamous Defenestration of Prague, which happened just a few blocks from this Café’s location. So I was somewhat proud of myself because I figured that there were plenty of crappy places to eat in this city, and at least I picked one with a clever name.

But yeah, the hot dog wasn’t anything special. It was loaded with some nice German-style mustard and served on a tiny bun (about half the size of your standard New England split top). I slammed it down without thinking much about it at the time because I figured I still had a few more days left and I could probably get a decent hot dog somewhere else if I was really trying. But that never happened. Before we left Prague, I bought a few packs of dogs at a supermarket. I figured we could have a nice tasting upon my return. I made the stupid mistake of declaring them at customs and they got totally confiscated by the Department of Agriculture. A totally drag. I’m sorry I don’t have a better report on the hot dogs of the Czech Republic.