quote:Originally posted by seafarer john
I'm in a complete state of confusion now as to what is a chili dog, and what isa coney, and what is a coney island dog. If, you'd asked me a few weeks ago, i would have boldly stated , as I think I did, that a coney island and a chili dog are the same animal. Now, I'm quite sure I was wrong.
I'd like to hear from Raodfooders all over our nation, a relatively detailed description of a "Coney Island", A "chili dog", and a "coney ".
I'll start off with a description of a chili dog (Texas Hot wiener) here in the Mid Hudson Valley of New York State. First you walk into the place and ask for
"One (or two) with everything". This gets you a mediocre mildly flavored steamed hotdog, slathered with mustard, a relatively spicy chili sauce ( no beans, sometimes ground beef), and chopped raw onions, all in a bun kept warm in a steamy atmosphere. For those of us brought up on those things it is sheer ambrosia!
Cheers, John
What I am about to say should not be taken as gospel. However, as someone who has lived in Ohio for the past 33 years I can give you my take on the so-called Coney Island hotdog as served by the Cincinnati icons such as Skyline and Gold Star. I can also provide my recollection of a chili dog as served in California and Texas, and in my house.
The Coney, named for the former Cincinnati amusement park, Coney Island, is a very small hotdog, perhaps three inches long (mostly made specially by Kahn's of Cincinnati). It is steamed, then barely grilled on a flat griddle and served in a steamed bun. The standard Coney comes with mustard, onions and a sauce flavored with cinnamon, salt and pepper, among other things. The sauce is sort of brownish and contains ground meat in grains similar in size to sand, not fine sand, but sand. This concoction is known as Cincinnati chili. It is as mild as a soft summer afternoon. Most people I see ordering them also have them topped with shredded cheese -- a very mild, in fact flavorless, yellow cheese. These Coneys are very good. They are not, however, in any way the same as chili dogs.
Chili dogs, as I know them, are full-size hotdogs that actually have flavor of their own. However they are cooked they are served with actual chili -- meaning identifiable chunks of ground meat in a sauce that tastes like, and this may be hard to believe, real chili. These can usually be ordered with mustard and chopped onions, and even cheese.
I realize that what I have said will lead to vicious attacks from aficionados of the Cincinnati-style Coney, and from at least one New Yorker who insists that the Coney originated at the Coney Island Amusement Park in Brooklyn, but I am strong of heart and willing to suffer the onslaughts from these wounded supporters of the hot dogs with gravy that are passed off as food that usually follow such truths.
And so, I now await my fate, fearless, but humble, knowing that I have, as Zarathustra, done spake the truth.
