Hot dogs are a strange food. Like anything else, they can be made well or poorly. The nasty things served to kids in school lunches and sold by the super-bulk-pak at big-box markets are, in my consideration, not food. On the other hand, a hot dog is a frankfurter sausage, and the same rules might apply to any sausage that had the mass-market forces of the humble hot dog driving it relentlessly toward the bottom line.

The most important thing about a hot dog as a foodie experience is never the sausage; it's all about who you're with and where you are. There's nothing like a hot dog with a seldom-seen cousin at a backyard cookout, or enjoying a hot dog with a 10-year-old at a Cape Cod League Baseball game!