pink's

pink's, melrose & la brea, los angeles

1."THE OZZY SPICY DOG - Spicy Polish Dog, nacho cheese, American cheese, grilled onions, guacamole & chopped tomatoes"
2. "PASTRAMI REUBEN DOG - Pastrami, mustard, swiss cheese & sauerkraut" 

I'd heard so much about Pink's famous hot dogs when I was living in LA, I knew I had to eat there before I moved.  But I had also heard it was popular among tourists, and that there was frequently a long line.  So, after putting it off for a long time, I made it a point to at least go ONCE before I moved- that was over a year ago.  I got some nice pics of my dogs, but then during Halloween of last year I lost my bag that had my digital camera in it (still pretty mad about this).  Since I didn't have the photos anymore, I decided to draw the hot dogs I had eaten, along with a little representation of it.  The first one is the Ozzy Dog- I did that Ozzy from memory and I think it turned out to be a pretty good caricature.  The second is the Pastrami Reuben Dog, and yes, I really did hear a dude walking down 16th Street in San Francisco loudly saying this to his friend, in the middle of the day.  Although I ate these over a year ago, I remember liking them both quite a bit.  The Ozzy Dog was bigger- more like a sausage- and the Pastrami Reuben was thinner like a hot dog.  I only ordered two because I knew it was likely to be the last time I'd go to Pink's in a long time.  The Ozzy Dog was crazy and indulgent (guacamole AND nacho cheese AND american cheese!!).  The Pastrami Reuben was indulgent too, but not quite in the overwhelming way that the Ozzy was.  The lines weren't TOO bad, either- I'd say I waited about 15-20 minutes to order.  I'd definitely go back to Pink's for a special treat next time I'm down south.

hungarian sausage at rosamunde (the OG location)

rosamunde, haight & fillmore, san francisco

Recently my turnaround time from "sandwich consumed -> sandwich reviewed" has been pretty slow.  There are sandwiches I wanna write about that I ate months ago!!  But, for reasons I will elaborate on later, I gotta tell you about this lil' dog I picked up at Rosamunde in Lower Haight last night.  First off, to the transient woman who wandered in (reeking of piss) and scared away the yuppie couple, thereby freeing up their seats for my friends and I- thanks!  Good looking out.  Given that this is the original Rosamunde locale (and not the new fancy-pants Mission joint (review forthcoming)), elbow room was scarce.  This was doubly true last night, since BEER WEEK is in full effect and big things were going down next door at Toronado, the sister bar to Rosamunde.  In fact, that event was what brought my companions and I out to Rosamunde in the first place.  I decided to go with the Hungarian sausage, a smoked pork sausage I hadn't tried before.  I figured I wanted something kinda straight-forward, so I could get a taste for Rosamunde's toppings and condiments.  See, then NEXT TIME I get a (crazy-ass) sausage, I can be prepared.  Gotta plan ahead.  I wasn't disappointed with my selection; the Hungarian was indeed well spiced and smokey, nothing too wild, just a plain tasty sausage.  It's not quite as dense and salty as the Beer sausage, which, come to think of it, would have been a much more appropriate choice.  Ah well.  I picked sauerkraut and spicy peppers as my toppings, the two of which teamed up for an excellent vinegary bite.  Then, too, spicy brown mustard and ketchup.  Like I said, nothing fancy.  But!  This was nevertheless a great sausage.  I scarfed this down quickly and immediately wished I had ordered two sausages instead of one (the lamb did sound pretty tasty...).  However (and this brings us to the purpose of my timely entry), I was glad I left room in my stomach, because next door at Toronado the brewery of the night was Russian River and hot-DANG was it a good time.  I got to try all sorts of mind-blowing beers with crazy wild yeasts and bacterias and flavors like WHOA.  So yeah- this isn't a beer blog- but by all means, if you enjoy a tasty adult beverage, consider going to the beer week website and catching one of the events this week.  You might even get lucky and find a tasty sandwich nearby.  And oh yeah, if you dig beer, I highly recommend checking out Beer and Nosh, probably my favorite SF food blog.

bacondog

bacondog vendor cart, 22nd & mission, san francisco

ahhh, one of the finest delicacies of the Mission. to be honest, it had been quite a while since I last had one of these- I used to usually eat them when I was running late for work and had to grab a quick bite. but today I decided I wanted one, and so like Toucan Sam, I followed my nose. the smell from the carts, of bacon and grilled onions, is one of my favorite things about walking down Mission street. the availability of these has fluctuated quite a bit recently, in part I would guess because of winter and the weather, but then I also seem to recall an article in the Guardian or Weekly a couple months back about beat cops cracking down on the carts. while I understand that they aren't the most hygenic food purveyors in the neighborhood and that they may represent a health risk, there is a very simple way to not get sick eating street food, which is to not eat street food. anyway, I decided to check one of the usual spots for a cart, and got lucky. they were just setting up for the friday night rush, and so I ended up with what I assume was one of the first dogs they had cooked today. usually its a little bit better if the hotdogs and onions have grilled a little longer, soaking up the flavor of the bacon grease, but this bacondog still got the job done. I like them with everything, including loads of pickled jalapeños. if you go out looking for these, they can usually be found (starting in the late afternoon/early evening, and frequently only on weekends) at:

-22nd & mission
-23rd & mission
-22nd & capp
-16th & mission (is this cart still there? I avoid 16th & mission like the plague on weekends)
-16th & valencia (same question applies here)

i've also seen them, though not recently, at:

-25th & mission
-17th & valencia near the Elbo Room

if anyone knows any more locations, I'll add them to the post.

tabouli hot dogs

JoJoJoJo and I were eating some hot dogs the other night, and she offered me some tabouli (which honestly, I had never eaten before) on the side. I tried a bite of it, liked it, and lacking pickle relish, decided to try some on my hot dog. now, I don't know if this is an offensive use of the salad- perhaps my brother, who is more knowledgable about Greek culture can tell me- but I thought it tasted great. a couple of days later I tried it again, and the result are the photos above. lacking feta, I added some queso fresco on top, but that turned out to be a mistake, as it was a particularly strong flavored queso fresco and I wanted more to enjoy the flavor of the hot dog and tabouli. also, I didn't use ketchup or mustard this time around, although I thought they worked well the first time, and I would probably use them if I made this again. one last note: we were using turkey dogs, which were tasty, although pretty puny. I'd be interested to try this again with a different hot dog.