Faulty reasoning signals

• Confirmation Bias - 2.5% (24 hits)
• Anchoring Bias - 0%
• Availability Heuristic - 18.7% (180 hits)
• Representativeness Heuristic - 3.7% (36 hits)
• Hindsight Bias - 0%
• Overconfidence Bias - 8.5% (82 hits)
• Framing Effect - 4.4% (42 hits)
• Loss Aversion - 2.8% (27 hits)
• Status Quo Bias - 0%
• Sunk Cost Effect - 0%
• Optimism Bias - 0%
• Pessimism Bias - 6.8% (66 hits)

Article text

Beyond Coney Island: Where are the best hot dogs in NYC?

It's the Fourth of July, and in honor of America's 250th, we now bring you a healthy guide to eating well on the holiday.

Okay, no.

Food writer Robert Sietsema joined us this week (with red, white, and blue streamers on his bicycle) to talk about that distinctly American creation that gets its biggest headlines on July 4th: The hot dog.

Yes they are all filled with nitrates, fat and the offal of pigs and cows, but they are as irresistible as they are unhealthy.

But not all dogs are created equal.

Weekend Edition host David Furst interviewed Sietsema on where to find the metro area’s best hot dogs.

David Furst: A lot of the hot dog experiences this weekend are likely gonna be centered around the grill, but you're here to talk about some of the most interesting hot dogs that the region's restaurants have to offer, and we're going way beyond Nathan's today.

Robert Sietsema: There are so many interesting hot dogs, and you may be just tired of the regular Nathan's hot dog, although maybe not.

But the first place I wanna mention is S&P Lunch, where they offer a hot dog that comes from, of all places, Plattsburgh, New York.

It's located at , 22nd Street and 6th Avenue.

In Manhattan.

It's formerly known as Eisenberg's, and it's one of our very oldest lunch counters, founded in 1928, and looks every year its age.

They're all-beef hot dogs with a really snappy kind of skin, so it pops when you bite into them, and they've been cooked on a flat top with maybe a little bit of tallow so they glisten.

Now, in Plattsburgh, and who knew, they eat a hot dog that's put in a kind of lobster roll piece of bread, and they put chili on top of it without beans, and they put chopped onions and mustard, and it is just the most delectable thing.

That would be the number one hot dog I would mention for the weekend and it's from New York State, too.

Okay, that's the Plattsburgh Special.

You can get that at Eisenberg's, now known as S&P Lunch.

Let's head to New Jersey next.

So many places to choose from.

Anyone that's listening from New York, please put your hands over your ears [editor’s note: Also your eyes if you’re reading this on Gothamist] but New Jersey is the hot dog capital of the world.

There's absolutely no question about it, although we have many hot dogs in New York worth eating.

If you haven't been to Rut's Hut in Clifton, New Jersey, which is a roadhouse dating from the 1920s, they have a hot dog called a Ripper.

What that’s a reference to is the fact that when they deep-fry it, the way they often treat hot dogs in New Jersey, a rip forms up the side.

That can be found at the famous Rut's Hut in Clifton.

Another New Jersey hot dog worth having: Boulevard Drinks in Jersey City, right across from the PATH station at Journal Square.

There’s a lot of new development happening there and supposedly this sainted place, which dates from the '30s, is going to be replaced by a Whole Foods.

So the people living in the condos above may be very happy, but people who depended on this for a solid hot dog with the usual New Jersey Texas chili (which is really like a cinnamony Greek meat sauce) this is an absolutely great place to get a hot dog, and really cheap.

So Robert, hot dogs are not healthy, so I sort of feel a little odd asking this question even, but what about a healthier hot dog option?

Sure.

I can easily provide that.

Although, I would be the last to say that vegan hot dogs were healthy, since they contain probably a similar chemical cocktail of ingredients.

But OK, let's pretend they are.

You can find a vegan dog at Dog Day Afternoon, which is in Windsor Terrace, and if it sounds like the name of a famous movie from 1970, it is, because it's located in Windsor Terrace on the very block where that, uh, movie was filmed.

And this is a Chicago dog.

I despair of New York having a hot dog as complicated as the Chicago dog.

They're always the same, and they include chopped onions, peppers, a green pickle spear, poisonously green sweet pickle relish, the poppy seed bun, celery salt, and I'm sure I'm missing one or two ingredients, but you get the idea.

Chicago listeners, let us know what we missed there (Let Robert know).

Where should we go to wrap up this culinary journey into the heart of America's patriotic eating habits?

Well, let's go to two places in quick succession.

Let's go to Chaat Dog in Dumbo, where they have a hot dog that is Pakistani in outlook, which has chutney on it that is excellent.

They have some options that include putting, I think, mango on there, or putting potatoes or corn on your hot dog, which is good.

And Dykeman Dogs up on Dykeman Street in Inwood has a number of, like, Latin American hot dogs where they reproduce the kind of fussy hot dog that they make in Latin America.

And in this case, it has potato sticks on it, and mayo, can you imagine putting mayo on a hot dog?

White cheese, onion, and shredded cabbage.

The whole idea is to make a single hot dog into an entire meal.

And I can sympathize with that.

Robert Sietsma writes about food for Gothamist and his Substack, Robert Sietsma's New York.

His full list of hot dog picks is up there now.