"Uh Oh, Hot Dog!"

[Scott Semester]

Today was the day, my dear loyal readers. I got to go to King David Dogs in downtown Indianapolis this afternoon, as part of Indy's first TasteCasting adventure. And what an adventure it was!

I got there early, as I was going to try to scout out a place to sit, close to an electrical outlet, but that didn't really work out, so I settled for tweeting from my phone. Here's a brief rundown of how cool this experience was:

First, I got to know Chuck, one of the guys on the hotdog assembly line. He let me take some pics as he put together a Reuben Dog.

Then, I got to meet the gang from Trendy Minds: Elizabeth (taller than her Twitter avatar, shorter than I expected), Abbie (taller than her avatar, taller than I expected), Trevor (who shared a great story about his experience with rabbits -- more on why that's relevant today in a later post), Brooke (who was wielding some pretty sophisticated video equipment), and Nick (who looks astonishingly like Zac Efron's older brother). It is possible there was another Cool Kid from Trendy Minds that I met, and I apologize if I left you out, sir or ma'am.

Then I got to meet a bunch of other TasteCasters: Victoria, Tiffany, Diane, Chad, Nicki, Evan, Adrienne, Duncan, and David. Again, I may have left someone out, and I apologize!

We also got to meet Victoria's friend Deborah, who wasn't there for the TasteCasting but who sat with us on her lunch break and served as our guinea pig. We watched (and drooled, just a little) as she built her own hotdog with a side of baked beans; she said it was great, and next time she might opt for the Chili Cheese Dog to try something else from the menu.

After the initial pleasantries and introductions, Brent (King David Dogs's owner) told us a little about the history of the restaurant and the dogs themselves. They are 1/4-pound, skinless, all-beef dogs, made from the recipe his grandfather developed, like, 70 years ago. In fact, once Brent decided to pursue opening a hotdog place, he tracked down his grandfather's recipe in his great-aunt's attic and had the recipe translated FROM THE ORIGINAL GERMAN in order to get it just right.

And get it just right he did! Sweet fancy Moses, these are some good dogs. Also, they are huge. Here's the before and after on my Boom Boom Dog:

Left: before; Right: after

My table decided to do some sharing amongst ourselves, so I got to try my dog (a new menu item, the Boom Boom Dog = hotdog + fried egg, and I also added onions and jalapeño mustard), Diane's Chicago Dog, and Tiffany's Chihuahua Dog. Each one had its own unique identity.

Here's how I'd score them, on a scale from 1 to 5, 1 being low and 5 being high. (Check the menu for more info on what each dog is all about.)


In conclusion, lunch was awesome. And I haven't even talked about the Tater Tots -- my God, the Tater Tots! Cooked to perfect crispiness but with a tender bite that makes you think of all the good things about being eight years old. We also got to sample some of Carol's Cookies -- the famous half-pound cookies from Chicago -- in chocolate chip and cinnamon swirl. Yum! (Also: huge!)

And now, to end this post, an explanation for its title. For reasons I cannot explain, this is one of my favorite recurring characters on MadTV, and leading up to this adventure, I've been thinking about "Uh Oh Hot Dog!" quite a bit: