The Tour de Frankfurter – A Report from the Field

Hey, it was the wackadoos at Toastedrav.com who came up with the idea of the Tour de Frankfurter: eating 24 hot dogs at 24 places in 24 hours…I was just a willing participant at a stop along the way. See the route here. The official Tour bus (a loaned Jim Lynch Hummer) rolled into Carl’s Drive In at 11 AM today – it was stop # 6 out of 24. I had agreed to pontificate on the subtle nuances of Carl’s Curly Q Hot Dog, an ingenious little invention created by scoring a foot long dog along one side at equidistant intervals and then tossing it into the deep fryer…resulting in a circular dog that just happens to fit perfectly on a warmed Carl’s hamburger bun. The extra surface area created by all those cuts gives the dog its unique--and addictive--crunch. Condiments of choice are placed on top of the dog and into the “well” in the center of the bun. The eating method is to proceed around the sandwich, not through it, so if the condiment mix is not just right, just take a supplementary nibble from the center of the bun. Every bite is perfectly balanced, every time. Ask any kid (or editor) who’s eaten one. The 3 official participants of the Toastedrav.com tour approved of the creation, washed it down with some homemade root beer and were still in good spirits when they took off. My guess is that chipper attitude may be replaced by foot long faces when the tour concludes at 5 AM Friday. Too bad Grone’s Cafeteria is no longer in business…woulda made for a great last stop. – George Mahe