Hot Dog Fever: A Topping Contest

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Admit it, America. You have Hot Dog Fever. It's summer, it's time for grilling, and it's unavoidable: dog days are here. They're everywhere, actually -- on NPR; on Serious Eats; in art. Heck, I've caught Hot Dog Fever, and I don't even eat meat!

Inspired, or shall we say infected, by Bon Appetit's Global Hot Dog Guide from last year, I teamed up with a few friends to take our dog delirium a step further, with a hot (or veggie) dog topping contest. Because although the dog may be an American classic, there's nothing more American than fusion! Here's a look at what we came up with.

The winning recipe was a Vietnamese bahn mi-inspired dog:

^{This looks time-intensive, but it's worth it. Put your dog on a grilled bun and top with:}

<sup>- Thinly sliced red onion
- Fresh cilantro
- Some mayonnaise
- Scallions
- Sliced cucumbers
- Bean sprouts
- Pickled carrots (see below)
- Drizzle of sweet and sour sauce (see below)</sup>

^{For pickled carrots: In a bowl, sprinkle a generous tablespoon of sugar and a tablespoon of salt onto a large, julienned carrot, and knead gently until some liquid has released, about three minutes. Rinse with water, pat dry, and put in a bowl with equal parts rice wine vinegar, white vinegar and water. Sprinkle in some salt and sugar and refrigerate in an airtight container for up to four days.}

^{For sweet and sour sauce, combine the following in a bowl: 2 teaspoons soy sauce, 2 teaspoons fish sauce, 2 teaspoons lime juice, 2 tablespoons Thai sweet chili sauce, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 teaspoon chili oil, 1 teaspoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon minced Thai chili pepper.}

Have you caught Hot Dog Fever? I'm sorry to hear that, except I'm not really sorry, because now you have no choice: the only remedy is to concoct your own dog topping and upload it to our Flickr pool with the recipe in the caption. We'll choose a winner based on creativity and, if feeling extra feverish, an empirical taste test. Copyright 2010 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

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