Yikes...Man eats dog

Warning! The following content may be disturbing. Reader discretion is advised.

I have been hearing some very disturbing rumours about men (women and children too!) eating dog. Wait, don't panic, hold your horses. Let me do some sniffing and digging among the humans to see if there is any truth in it first.
It really is quite exciting to play detective - just like the famous Sherlock Holmes. Together with Dr Watson (aka. mum), my sidekick, we digged out some information on the internet and reviewed the evidence. Here's what we found out:

1)This dog is apparently one of America's favourite foods (gasp!).
2)Every year, Americans consume on average 60 dogs (yikes!)
3)There is a dog stand on almost every street corner in New York City
4)The dog is sold in every baseball game and amusement park
5)Coney Island has its very own Coney sauce for its dog
6)There are dog eating contests
7)Dogs are very popular during summer BBQs

Yes, you guessed it - it's the hot dog (also known as the sausage, frankfurter or wiener)!


Joke aside, the dog series has given me the opportunity to carry out some digging and learn some new information (do take it with a pinch of salt coz not everything on the net is true). I for one, was curious about how the famous hot dog got its name and what, if any, are the linkages of the "dog of the food variety" to the "dog of the canine variety".

Well, the origin is unclear. There are many myths, a popular (but disputable) one refers to a cartoon by a newspaper cartoonist, Thomas Aloysius "TAD" Dorgan. He apparently illustrated the sale of frankfurters by a food concessionaire, Harry Stevens at a New York Giants game back in the 1900's with a drawing of a daschund (probably just like Lorenza) between buns. And because he couldn't spell frankfurter, he called them "hot dogs".

There may be a darker history to the hot dog. Apparently, the link between sausages and dogs may go as far back as the 19th century in the US. Barry Popik of the American Dialect Society who supposedly did extensive research on this matter found a popular song of 1860:

Oh where oh where has my little dog gone?
Oh where oh where can he be?
Now sausage is good, baloney, of course.
Oh where oh where can he be?
They make them of dog, they make them of horse,
I think they made them of he.

Of course, the hot dogs of today aren't made of dogs. They better not be...GRR...Instead, most are made with pork, beef or chicken and served with a tantalising range of condiments ranging from mustard, tomato sauce, saurkraut, chilli peppers, etc, etc. If you fancy a simple recipe to spice up an ordinary dog, check out Mama's "Vienna Sausage Wrapped with Bacon, Homemade Onion Rings and Potato Salad" recipe.

Bon appetit!

P.S. This post was inspired by the comment left by Dughallmor Beagles on my last post. Thanks guys!

"Dog" Series
1. It's a dog's life
2. Fighting like cats and dogs(Beagle Identity Crisis)
3. Gone to the dogs
4. Let sleeping dogs lie
5. It's dogged as does it
6. The Underdog (vs. Top dog) (The Awesome Blog Award Nomination)
7. Every Dog Has Its Day
8. Dog Star