MICKEY'S
FIRST SPEAKING
PART, however, was in
1929's The
Karnival Kid. And it
established a trait for the much loved
cartoon mouse that is still a vital part
of his mythology.
"Hot Dogs, Hot
Dogs!" Mickey announces, as he pushes
around a cart at a carnival, selling the
sausage-based snack. The sausages
themselves sing (bark?) out the refrain,
as they perform a little dance routine
(scratch behind their ‘ears’?) atop the
cart.
Mickey’s eyes
fall on Minnie Mouse, who calls him over
and asks for a hot dog. He serves her,
but refuses to take any money as he's
already smitten by the carnival’s
"shimmy dancer". Minnie has a
troublesome time with her hot dog
though, it runs away almost as soon as
she takes a bite, and Mickey then gets
hold of it, spanking the sausage’s
bottom. The gags in the cartoon — that
the sausages act like dogs — speak to
how the dish got its odd name.
The origins of
the hot dog are disputed. Frankfurt and
Vienna (Wien) both claim that they
invented it, and cite the names the
sausage is also known by as proof:
frankfurter or wiener. But it is more
likely that a German butcher from Coburg
originated this particular sausage in
the 1600s, and popularised it in
Frankfurt during a subsequent visit. In
any case, sausages themselves date back
to the time of the Greeks and
Romans.
Early German
immigrants to the US brought their
"little dog sausages" with them. The
name is a reference to the German
Dachshund, which resembles nothing more
than an elongated sausage with tiny
limbs. The Germans sold the sausage the
way they had eaten it for generations:
wrapped in bread. How the moniker "hot
dog" came into being is unclear; while
some stories ascribe it to a New
York Journal cartoonist being
inspired by a sausage vendor at the New
York Polo Grounds in 1901, there is not
enough evidence to support this
claim.
Hot dogs being
sold at baseball games and amusement
parks, as also Fourth of July
celebrations, cemented their reputation
as an American good-time food. They saw
an elevation in status when President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt served the
visiting English monarch King George VI
hot dogs in a picnic setting at his Hyde
Park estate. The year was 1939, and
Europe was roiled in an impending war.
But the informal meal made for a great
story: two heads of state enjoying a
humble snack, going beyond the trappings
and rigid protocols of their positions
to connect at a more casual, friendly
level. Is it any wonder then that "hot
dog diplomacy" became a signature aspect
of US foreign policy?
Prominent
leaders like David Cameron, Nicolas
Sarkozy, Yasser Arafat, Nikita
Khrushchev are among those who have been
photographed eating the hot dog during
meet-ups with American dignitaries. Hot
dogs are on the menu for events at US
embassies all over the globe. This has
prompted many to brand the hot dog as
America's national food.
Americans
certainly consume a vast quantity of hot
dogs every year. What's more, each
region seems to be fanatical about their
version of the snack, and believe the
way it is served and eaten in their
cities is the only way it
should be eaten. In New York, hot dogs
are typically served with a pale yellow
mustard and steamed onions. In Chicago,
the mustard is a deeper yellow and is
accompanied by “dark green relish,
chopped raw onion, pickle spear, sport
peppers, tomato slices, and a dash of
celery salt”; further, the hot dog is
served in a poppy seed bun. Seattle tops
its hot dogs with cream cheese,
California with grilled onions and
peppers, Cincinnati with chili and
grated cheese, sweet vinegar slaw in
Philadelphia, baked beans or mustard and
relish in Boston, sauerkraut and melted
cheese in Kansas City, and coleslaw in
Atlanta.
Circling back
to Mickey, the Mouse and his gang of
friends are known to love corn dogs (hot
dogs that are skewered on a stick,
dipped in cornmeal/flour batter and then
deep fried). The hot dog itself is an
indelible part of their "Clubhouse" —
every episode features the song "Hot
Dog Hot Dog Hot Diggity
Dog", as an ode not
only to Mickey's favourite food, but
also the one that got him closer to his
sweetheart Minnie.
Sausage
scholar? We have plenty
on the subject
to whet your appetite.
Visit the Slurrp
website, or download the
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plans, kitchen hacks and
food
stories.
