Coney Island

Hot Dogs. American’s love them, but what are they exactly and where did they originate? Well, listen carefully and I’ll tell you.

A hot dog, in it’s simple form, is a German frankfurter in a bread roll, with added fried onions, tomato ketchup and mustard for whoever wants it. Nobody is exactly sure where and when the first hot dogs were sold in America, but a popular story is this: A German butcher called Charles Feltman had a small wagon from which he delivered fresh food to the bars and restaurants along the beachfront of Coney Island in New York. However, the bar owners also wanted to serve sandwiches to their customers, so Mr Feltman came up with the idea of putting a hot sausage in a roll. He designed a wagon that could boil the water needed to cook the frankfurters and with which he could travel up and down the beaches. It was an immediate success and the hot dog was born. This was in 1867.

Since then, Coney Island has become the unofficial home of the hot dog and every year hosts an eating competition. Who would want to watch that, you may ask? Well, let me tell you that in 2006, which was the 92nd annual event, over 30,000 people came to see the competition and another 1.5 million watched it live on TV. Incredible. Incidentally, the winner ate 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes – a Mr Joey Chestnut, who at the time was the world competitive eating champion.

Here are some more interesting facts and trivia about hot dogs: The longest ever hot dog was made in 1996 to celebrate the Atlanta Olympics – it was 1,996 feet long! 88% of adults prefer mustard on a hot dog. Children prefer ketchup. I like both, together. Baseball stadiums sell around 26 million a year. The Los Angeles Dodger’s fans eat the most. American gangster Al Capone loved hot dogs, especially those from Coney Island. And finally, the city of New York is the top hot dog eating city in America, spending over $100 million a year.