Baby it’s cold outside: Try a Coney Island dog to bring on sunshine and summer

When I was in elementary school we had a monthly hot dog lunch fundraiser put on by what is now known as parent council.  My working mom would take the day off to be at every single one, passing hot dogs through the kindergarten class window to eager and excited students. I still remember those hot dogs as one of the tastiest treats and coupled with having Mom at school, a core memory was formed. To this day hot dogs conjure a time of playfulness, endless summers and fun.  That’s the thing about food — the taste is not always the most amazing thing you remember. Many times it’s the event associated with that food experience.

It's a proven fact that food is a powerful connector to memories. According to the Harvard Brain Science Initiative, “It just so happens that the olfactory bulb — located near the amygdala and hippocampus — helps us distinguish various flavours. Why is that important? Because the amygdala and hippocampus are responsible for the processing of emotion and the storage of episodic memory. And that's how food connects us with memories.”

So a couple of weeks ago when I wrote about Gryfe’s bagels and the new shop on Queen Street called Notlers’ bagels & dogs, I knew I’d be heading back to try the hot dogs. They are not a regular indulgence for me but if there is a picnic, community festival or backyard barbecue and someone is offering hot dogs, I’m in!

Jason Van Veghel-Wood, co-owner of Notlers’ bagels & dogs, told me they decided to bring in the best and found a partner in Nathan’s Hot Dogs.

According to their website, Nathan’s has been around since 1916 and was started by Polish immigrant Nathan Handwerker and his wife who opened a nickel hot dog stand on Coney Island. Van Veghel-Wood tells me, “it’s the best hot dog you're ever gonna have. The casing on it has that snap, I love it. I only had grocery store hot dogs before and I thought how much different can they be? It is night and day.”

The hot dog I tried was the classic house special: a Montreal steamy hot dog with dijon mustard and sauerkraut.  It was salty, savoury and indeed you kind of snap through the casing to a juicy, smokey, meaty centre.

“A customer just said that he grew up with Nathan's because he's from New York,” Van Veghel-Wood said. “It’s a memory going back to a Coney Island summer, on the boardwalk, you grab two Nathan’s and a beer and you sit and you watch people go by.”

And that’s just it — sometimes the food we eat takes us back to a simpler time, a special time or just gives us the feeling of sun on your face, sand in your toes and a boardwalk overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

I’ll take it!

Stay warm Niagara-on-the-Lake, and eat something today that will take you someplace special.

Joy continues her journey around NOTL to “Try It”. If you have any suggestions for what she should try next give us a shout.