Has anyone ever traveled the full length of old Route 66 and not paid a visit to Cozy Dog in Springfield, IL? “Oklahoma Joe” Hight, columnist for The Journal Record of Oklahoma City, traveled the route home from Chicago and made the obligatory Cozy pilgrimage, which he said was “like stepping into a Route 66 museum with food.” There were signs and memorabilia, maps and guides, old gas pumps and a library… and Cozy Dogs, which were inspired by founder Ed Waldmire’s visit to Oklahoma, where he spied hot dogs baked in corn bread. Mr. Waldmire came up with the idea of impaling them on a stick, and the Crusty Cur, later Cozy Dog, was born. Read Joe Hight’s column here.
Day: June 8, 2016
They put tomatoes in the barbecue sauce in western North Carolina, but in the eastern part of the state you’ll find a thin, peppered, vinegar-based sauce. Ideally, the whole hog is cooked with wood or coals, and then hacked up and doused with some of that sauce for trays and sandwiches. Unfortunately, true, wood-cooked pork is becoming ever more rare in the Tar Heel State. Jared Brumbaugh, reporting for Public Radio East of eastern NC, visits three classic eastern Carolina barbecue pits that still do things the old-fashioned way. Continue reading
The year was 1907. The town? Wilmington, Ohio. The place? Hazard’s Restaurant. Owner Ernest Hazard wanted to attract Wilmington College students to his eatery by creating a new, irresistible dish. He held a contest among his employees, a contest which Ernest himself won by laying a split banana in a long dish, laying in three scoops of ice cream, topping the scoops with chocolate sauce, strawberry jam, and crushed pineapple, and crowning the dish with whipped cream, nuts, and cherries. Looking for a name, he asked his cousin Clifton for help. Clifton came up with banana split, and an American tradition was born. Continue reading