There’s a New Dog in Town
Sweet potato dog, regular potato dog. Hot dog, hot commodity. — Oh K-Dog
[Disclaimer: Although Japan Fes is primarily about bringing Japanese food and culture to the people of NYC, the event also includes representation from other cultures as well (in short: not Japanese food, still worth talking about)!]
I’ve got a weird obsession with corndogs. I don’t know what it is. Because I can take it or leave it when it comes to most fair food. Batter and grease is batter and grease. Might taste “good” in the moment but it’s gonna mess. You. UP.
I don’t even like hot dogs. But there’s something about dunking humanity’s saddest excuse for a sausage in sweetened corn batter that just does something. I’m pretty sure that mysterious something is just the age-old standard of sugar and deep frying but oh well. A person can only be so strong.
Lo and behold, Korean-style corn dogs have hit the Western shores over the past few years or so, and NOBODY told me about it? Instead, I had to find out about through the Japan Fes site, when I, a sweet summer child, came across a picture of Oh K-Dog and their devious offerings. Ridiculous. What’s more ridiculous is that somehow a conglomerate of deviants and street food innovators have found a way to unequivocally perfect the humble dog.
The Korean corn dog innovates on the American classic by utilizing both a yeasted batter and the ever-important inclusion of panko bread crumbs to give the whole thing a remarkably crisp, crunchy, oily gold finish. The dogs are also rolled in cubed potato chunks to add just one more dimension of starchy goodness to this ultimate on-a-stick food. It’s like a hot dog swaddled in a bed of tater tots. Why are we even wasting our time with the dogs of yesteryear?
That’s not even the whole deal. In actuality, despite the name, k-dogs aren’t even filled with just a hot dog most of the time. It’s actually more common place for the filling to be a half-hotdog half hunk of mozzarella skewer (sometimes it’s just all mozzarella)! Are you keeping up? We’ve hot a corn dog + tater tot + mozzarella stick + heart attack super combo. Finish that off with optional dressings of powdered sugar, sweet chili sauce, ketchup, mustard, aioli, and scallions and frankly I’ve run out of praises to harangue. And if somehow my words haven’t convinced you to join the cause, this video by Joshua Weissman might shed some light.
In short, if you’re looking to harm your body with food sometime soon, scour the area for a k-dog vendor. In the meantime, I’m going to go camp outside of the Oh K-Dog stall.
I’m only human.
