Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I'm not a fan of "meat on meat", unless it's a little bit of chili without beans. If the hot dog in the picture was set before me, my first instinct would be to ask for 2 pieces of rye bread for the pastrami.

There was a very popular place in Jersey called Amazing Hot Dog. While I'm not a toppings guy, this place had the widest variety of toppings and combinations I've seen at a hot dog establishment. Most I didn't care for, but some were ok. I usually had just mustard on mine because they served a high quality beef dog that tasted fine this way. But one of my favorite combinations here was the Reuben Dog. It was a deep fried quarter pound natural casing all beef dog (at times they used Sabrett, Best, or Pearl) with Swiss cheese, Sauerkraut, Russian dressing, and Caraway Seeds topped with paper thin Hot Dog shavings. No corned beef.

Katz's has perhaps the best pastrami on the planet and one of the best hot dogs. When I've gone, I've sampled both, but not together. To do so in my opinion would lessen each.

Katz's hot dogs (Sabrett natural casing 9 to a lb) are perfect with just their deli mustard. When I went with a newspaper panel to judge hot dogs in New York, I was the only one (out of 8) to sample my dog with just mustard. Everyone else had chili on theirs. All 7 said it was the worst chili they ever had.

Dolfin Dark Chocolate with Pink Peppercorns - not super-spicy, but a nice little kick and I like the gritty texture that the peppercorns give.

Cowboy Ciao in Scottsdale, AZ has this amazing spicy chocolate pot de creme--cuppa red hot chocolate. It is uh-mazing.

The Lake Champlain is one of my favorite bars! I only let myself buy the little ones. I'm a freak for spicy chocolate.

It wasn't until I went to college in Hawaii that my love for spam emerged. As the first post indicates, the Spam Musubi is one of the greatest spam vehicles ever--it just works. Growing up in Maine, we had it as breakfast meat for egg sandwiches. English muffin, fried egg, American cheese and a griddled piece of spam. It was good, really good. Who doesn't like fatty salty pork products..? Well, except for vegetarians. :)

'You've got to be a real elitist jerk if you dislike Spam." What kind of jerk do you have to be to dislike caviar?

I cube my tomatoes, toss them with olive oil, basil, and pepper, and then stuff them into a hot dog roll. Avocado is nice, but not essential; thin sliced red onion is a plus.

Grilled sourdough bread...nice slather of homemade pimento cheese made with Duke's mayo (holla. NC!)...thick slices of a homegrown heirloom tomato, sprinkled with salt.

Perfection

I keep it simple.

White bread.
Mayo.
Tomato.

Eat.

Yikes. Tomatoes are my one food aversion I've never overcome. The idea of just eating a tomato sandwich to me is very yucky. I've tried everything, but I am just not a raw tomato eater.

a tomato sandwich has thick slices of tomato, a piece of cheese (whatever is handy), lettuce, butter on one slice of bread, and a little mayo on the other.

I prefer to grill it and make a tomato grilled cheese, though, if i access to a pan... (no mayo, another slice of cheese, butter on outside only, and no lettuce).

as for the bread as long as its hearty and not falling apart when i butter, i dont care.

1. bread, mayo, sliced red tomato, salt and pepper.
2. bread, mayo, sliced yellow tomato, salt and sprinkled parsley.
3. bread, mayo, sliced german tomato, salt and pepper and parsley.
with a glass of real cold milk. delish.