The Lunch Encounter

Fans with fervor. Lookie here! Get a load of the visual to accompany

Cognac-Infused Smoked Pheasant Sausage, boys!

Hot Doug’s dogs are the piped pipers of sausages. Yikes!

And then! A large toast landed ~ crunch ~ on my windshield and I had to enable the wipers to dislodge it! Where is that soft butter when you are most in need?

ENCASED MEAT EMPORIUM – Hot Doug’s!

Alacritous Chicago correspondent Bottle Rocket(s) fan Linda weighs in on Hot Doug’s:

Doug sets the bar high….for instance, check out the daily specials. (We’ll wait.) Nope, yer not seeing things! He REALLY serves “Bacon Sausage with Wine-Infused Grainy Dijon Mustard, Herb-Garlic Eurocrème and Crispy Fried Onions.”

[imagine!]

SWOON.

And that just skims the surface. I usually have the rabbit sausage with blueberries and goat cheese.

This is serious artful deliciousness served up friendly, and easy on the pocketbook. And, best of all, no fuss.

People actually do line up around the corner for a serving…in ALL weather and conditions: rain, snow, high heat, even in the polar bear weather we had last Saturday when we reached a high of 5 degrees, I believe. Their dedication on Saturday warmed my soul. And it’s worth getting in line for. Kind of like queueing up at the box office for your favorite band’s concert tickets.

(Notorious trivia: Doug was the first to be fined in Chicago for violating the foie gras ban.)

Sure, Chicago is known for being the home of Vienna Beef Hot Dogs, (the Hot Dog Culture pulldown menu at the Vienna site cracks me up!) but Hot Doug’s is one classy casual humble hot dog emporium. Not to be missed! Filled with tourists and more indie rockers than you can shake a duck fat french fry at.

Hot Doug’s dogs are the piped pipers of sausages. Yikes!

ZING!

Bottle Rocket(s) fan Linda sez:Didn’t see this very palatable spot listed on your site; for your consideration:

ZINGERMAN’S!

Consider it considered. With every bonk of the wild-eyed catalog dropping into my metal mailbox. That catalog makes my head spin. The menu for my college-years waitressing gig, all 22 pages of it, in a blinding scrawl, is a mere ditty compared to the Zingerman’s catalog.

It’s in Ann Arbor. Forgive me for saying so, but Ann Arbor is not on the way to anywhere. And it’s a very large lake away from Wisconsin. Not to say I wouldn’t want to go there, cause I would. Just waiting for the invite that would turn Ann Arbor into a destination.

Well, waaaait a minute, browsing the website. Under EVENTS. Get this. In Zingworld Hard Cheeses are an event. An event. And, on the sandwich menu (dedicated), – pant, pant – seven assorted corned beefs, hot dogs that pop, Niman’s pastrami and Nueske’s bacon. My kinda deli. W/ pork. Ha.

Linda, lucky girl, lives in Chicago, where the hot dogs pop, and the swing to Ann Arbor is just a hop, skip and jump!

Photo © by Renee Comet

Foodstyling by Lisa Cherkasky

Under a soggy snow tarp.

Watching men duck their snow wet heads and bow into the Blue and White for lunch. No line today. Assembly line style. Tall man in, tall man out.

Then just me thinking about a bologna sandwich – a cross section of a dachshund – $1.30. One dollar and 30 cents!!?? I have never opened my wallet for a bologna sandwich, and could have kept a clean record by digging for loose change in my pockets.

Cept the streets are covered in concrete flavored slurpee and I wanted something hot. Pork chop sandwich and collard greens, with everything. $4.70. Two chops, with bones for gnawing. Sticking to the meat, finger dented, white bread keeps your hands clean. With everything. $4.70.Everything in Blue and White world is lego-size onion diamonds, hot sauce and vinegar. On a raw day, what more could you need?

Sandwiches rock so hard. They are sort of a maligned artifact in today’s cusinary.

Cusinary?

How true. I didn’t say it and I agree.

American Sandwich turned up in my mailbox today in a plain brown envelope. A Gift?! For me?! And this postcard. Jenn in LA always knows what to do. A real class act, she is.

There are, oddly enough, no pictures of sandwiches in this book. Budgetary, I’ll betcha. However, loads of old postcards grace the pages and cusinary puzzlers, true headscratchers.

• Hot Hamburgers. As opposed to what?

• The Hippo. Extra long toothpicks required.

• Cheese Frenchee. With American and Swiss cheeses.

• Fleischkuechle. Fleisch looks so much nicer than meat. Sensuous.

I’m digging this book and plan to use it as a roadmap, glove compartmented. Rolling for Pork Roll!

It’s only January 10th or 11th and just the faintest sliver of 2008 has passed. My resolution, to read more, is fresh. Fresh enough that there is a mist of condensation beading on the top of the bag, hovering over the top crust. My resolution has been sealed airtight, but it is still warm from the oven and smells of growth, of yeast.

To read more. That’s all. Simple. Contingent on someone else around here reading more, which he does, and will. Perhaps he will read the following instructions, take them to heart, then hand, and make me one, a sandwich. I’ll take anything. Blue and pink marshmallows swaddled in cold bread? Mmmmm. I can read to that.

Shouldn’t I have this?

Original, signed Chris Mars Horseshoes and Handgrenades print available [#45/1000]. This is a sweet deal at $500 USD framed. Especially considering that his paintings sell for gonzo money [$14,000 – $75,000]. If have an interest in this amazing piece contact terra_bella773 (at) yahoo (dot) com

Pride of Springfield, Illinois – The Horseshoe. They say there is a sandwich under them thar fries.

You could toss a handgrenade around here and not hit a horseshoe. A horseshoe sandwich, that is. Close enough, I am not. The famous horseshoe, the kind you eat, is at least 3 states away, maybe four. I’d have to get out the atlas to know for sure.

As in love as I am with indigenous sandwich monstosities, the horseshoe never entered my field of vision until my binoculars were pointed in the direction of Springfield, Illinois by Amazing Bob on the Bottle Rockets message board.

Sandwiches buried in sauce would be a subset in my field guide. Yes, there are two pieces of bread, but a fork and knife are essential. Err, recommended.

From what I understand, if you eat a horseshoe in its entirety you may feel as though you pulled the pin and swallowed a buttered handgrenade…