Hot Dogs and Wine

A post-birthday post. Rich and Kristina's adventure in Toronto food and drink...

During Rich's visit for my birthday, we found two things in Canada to be quite different from in the US: hot dogs and wine. No, not together. Canadians might do some strange things but certainly I've not seen anyone make the paring of hot dogs with wine. These two very opposite victuals, not surprisingly, generated two very opposite culinary experiences for us, here in Toronto.

First we'll start with the less than good: wine. The sale of alcohol is controlled very strictly by the government here and taxed highly. This means that the only people that you can actually buy alcohol from is the government. (Seems kinda strange to me since I always think of the government of trying to prohibit drinking, but okay.) There are a few places near me "The Beer Store" (basically the only place you can get a variety of beer) and "The Wine Rack" (which only sells kitschy, gimmicky wine). Rich and I discovered another general seller this weekend where they have a very limited variety of wines from France, Australia, and Italy and where you can buy actual liquor. The beer choices were dismally small; I guess we'd have to go to "The Beer Store" to get a good variety. In the end, it seems that I won't be doing much cultivating of my wine palette while in Canada unless it is by means of wine brought over the border from the States.

The good half of this post is the bit about hot dogs. Hot dogs in Toronto are more than just your off the grill piece of "maybe meat" with some bland mustard and ketchup slathered on top. Hot dogs are an experience, a world of choice, a taste bud sensation. Before you even order a hot dog from a street vendor you know this isn't your normal experience. You are first faced with the decision beef, chicken, polish sausage, or even veggie dog. Then you wait while your meat (or faux meat, if you so desire) is cooked up right before you along with a toasted bun. Once you've been handed the dog, though, is when the real fun begins. A variety of condiments awaits you from sauerkraut to green olives, ketchup to bbq sauce. There are so many possible combinations of flavors to add, I'd be surprised if you ever ate the same hot dog twice in Toronto! My approach to the condiment options was an attempt to decide what flavors would best compliment each other while Rich tried to see how everything tasted all together. In the end, most of what we had put on top of our dogs was on the ground or on our faces. I guess turning 23 doesn't mean that I've stopped eating like a little kid.

A technical note... I am still waiting on internet and crossing my fingers that it will come in today. That is another saga similar to the cellphone one but I'm sure we've all dealt with unreliable cable guys so I'll leave that up to the imagination.