stevez wrote:
IMHO, the tomato slice and cucumber (although not the dill pickle) are Johnnies Come Lately to the Chicago Hot Dog Scene. When I was a kid, hot dogs came with mustard, relish, onions and (sometimes) a hot pepper or two. I never even saw a tomato applied to a dog until I was at least 10 years old. This tradition (including the greasy, single fry/packed with the dog style of fries) is carried on to this day by Jene & Judes and, it appears, by Polk & Western. I'm looking forward to a visit.
Steve:
That's interesting about the condiments and, indeed, it seems the owner of P&W is conscious and proud of a simple and very traditional, no-nonsense approach to the Chicago style hot dog (see further Gary's and Rene G's notes). Despite all the grease, I found the fry-and-dog combo all wrapped together somehow charming (if that's the right word). Plus some of the grease rubs off on the bun...
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Kman:
What appears possibly to be a cucumber or some other such halesome titbit is in fact none other than the second of the twofold team of sport peppers adorning each sausage. The condiments that come at P&W in response to the request "with everything" are, as noted by GWiv and Rene G, "[s]ame [as at Gene & Jude's] simple condiments: bright yellow mustard, green (not fluorescent) relish, chopped onions, and sport peppers." And in this humble Jerseyman's opinion, this is the optimal combination. I would have liked the peppers to have been a little spicier, though perhaps only because they looked so much like some sinus clearing pickled
chiles güeros I have in the fridge. That being said, though, one of the four was pretty piquant and added a nice extra element to the pleasure of eating the second half of the polish.
Kman wrote:
For shame on that youngster for applying ketchup to the dog. I admire those establisments that either simply don't have ketchup and say so (loudly) or make a half-hearted gesture with their heads that it's over there and you can put it on yourself. I'm firmly convinced that people that put ketchup on hotdogs are not from this planet. When the big alien-human wars come (and they will!) I plan to use this tell-tale to my advantage.
The person -- alien life-form, perhaps, in your view -- in question was a thirty-somethingish woman who seemed, at least superficially, to be human or at the very least strongly humanoid (no antennae, no gills, no extra mandibles, no suction cups on the appendages,; pretty much the basic set of arms and legs and such).
I can see your point, perhaps, but I think P&W is being extra-cool; so secure are they in their own sense of identity and comfortable with their rôle in the maintenance of local culinary culture, that they see no reason to humiliate a paying customer, no matter how benighted she be.
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Annieb:
I went to Western Avenue Shrimp House once last fall and was so unhappy I have felt no inclination to go back (but again, I generally prefer to cook at home and so my desire to go out or get take out is not all that strong anyway most of the time). To be specific, out of a sizeable bag of shrimp, I would say fully 40-50% of them had the strong taste of iodine, which I associate with a lack of freshness and/or non-removal of the euphemistically named 'vein'. To my mind, NO shrimp should taste like that but I've had many here in Chicago. A similar experience with shrimp (ca. 30% tasting of iodine) from Lawrence Fisheries on Canal (just north of Cermak, on the river) has inclined me to eschew all places that call themselves "shrimp houses" around here, though I know I've seen reports of good shrimp houses on the board; those notwithstanding, I'm sceptical about them.
All in all, I'd have to say that for the moment Gary's assessment, that Western Avenue Shrimp House is only "mediocre at best," should stand, though with fairness in mind, such a negative judgement needs to be confirmed with one or two more experiences. Any volunteers?
Antonius
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