SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The Chicago dog, a hot dog the Chicago way, has been front and center through this week's Democratic National Convention here. It's been served at many parties, depicted on welcoming billboards, beaming bright red in a white bun below neon-green relish, glowing sport peppers and rain-slicker-yellow mustard.
All right, some Chicago dogs, please. And I don't even want to see a packet of ketchup anywhere nearby.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: No worries. We don't serve it here.
SIMON: But it's not just a red hot with no ketchup. The Chicago dog is American history on a bun. And to hear that saga, we went to Devil Dawgs Gold Coast on the Near North Side. I meet up with Monica Eng of Axios Chicago, who's also been a James Beard Award-nominated food writer. She took us through the history.
Top to bottom, what do we see?
MONICA ENG: You would have a steamed poppy seed bun. Then you would have an all-beef frank, a Vienna frank, in there.
SIMON: And this, of course, has Chicago antecedents, the all-beef frank.
ENG: That's right, because the original hot dog vendors in Chicago were pushcart vendors, and they were Jewish Americans from Maxwell Street. And they would not be selling a lot of pork products.
SIMON: Let me ask about the sport peppers.
ENG: Some people believe they came from Louisiana because they're very similar to the ones you find in McIlhenny island for Tabasco sauce. Others believe they came with a Colombian exposition with Mexican tamale sellers. But they definitely come from the Delta - these types of peppers that are very spicy and very pickly (ph) and small, and they add just the right zip.
SIMON: Yeah, and the neon-green relish?
ENG: I mean, we do know that there were a lot of British settlers here in Chicago, and this sort of connects to piccalilli, sweet relishes, chutneys that were very popular among British and in a lot of British American cookery at the time. So that's their one contribution to the hot dog.
SIMON: And the dill pickles?
ENG: Dill pickle - definitely Eastern European immigrants who, again, gathered at Maxwell Street. I mean, this whole hot dog is the immigrants who lived around Maxwell Street at the turn of the century.
SIMON: Yeah. Celery salt?
ENG: You know...
SIMON: Now, that - this is, like, one of the real distinctive ingredients.
ENG: Absolutely. Chicago was once the center of celery production. At the turn of the century, people were crazy about celery. They thought it cured everything. There were celery tonics. You could ship this health ingredient out to all parts of the country with our railroads. And so to add a sheen of health and some nice flavor, we put the celery salt at the end.
SIMON: I mean, now I'm fixated on the fact that the Chicago dog, because of the addition of celery salt, could actually be kind of a health tonic for us.
ENG: That's right. Yeah, I'm feeling healthier all the time after I eat it.
SIMON: Yeah. Oh, my gosh. All right, mustard - and boy, it could be a traffic signal - right? - between how bright the neon-relish is that's green and then the mustard.
ENG: Absolutely. And that comes, again, from the German and Austrian sausage-makers who were in that area. And, you know, German and Austrian sausage - always eaten with mustard.
SIMON: No ketchup, right?
ENG: No ketchup. Why? Because think about it. When you have sweet, when you have sour, when you have tangy, when you have sharp - all together, what does that taste like? Tastes like ketchup. And this is this beautiful balance of sweet, sour, hot, cold, crunchy, mushy, fresh, preserved, all in one. Why would you mar that incredible symphony of flavors with a big (imitating plop) blotch of heavy sweetness and flavor that would kill it all?
SIMON: Yeah. Are you going to join us for a Chicago dog?
ENG: I have not eaten breakfast. This is going to be my Chicago breakfast.
SIMON: All right.
ENG: All right. Here we go.
SIMON: Mm, mm, mm. Oh, my God.
ENG: Oh, it's so good. Isn't that the best? I mean, why - if you put ketchup on this, it would ruin it.
SIMON: God, that's good. Monica Eng of Axios, thanks so much for being with us. Oh, my word.
ENG: Thanks for giving me an opportunity to Chicago dog.
SIMON: Ah. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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