Asia Dog

...has set up a booth at the "Eat at Madison Square Park" fest for the month of May. The dogs are $4.50 or 2 for $8. I had two all beef dogs: a Wang Ding (with pork belly) and a Vinh (banh mi style).

Service is a bit slow because dogs are made to order, but both were very good.

Japadog - Vancouver

The first day I arrived in Vancouver I walked by the storefront branch of Japadog at 530 Robson Street and there was a long line of anxious customers. Later in the week I noticed a busy downtown Japadog cart.

Curiousity got the better of me and I had to try one. I tried the Okonomi -
Kurobuta pork with bonito flakes (CA$6.25). It was a very large hot dog and the bun was nice and soft. The flakes gave it a slightly fishy salted taste.

Governor's Island and Etsy

I went to Governor's Island to check out the Etsy shop, but it was small and had mostly jewelry.

I stopped by the Water Taxi Beach and had a hot dog ($5), fries ($4) and a bottle of water ($3) before taking the ferry back to Manhattan.

Veuve Clicquot Polo Match

This polo match was held on NYC's Governor's Island on Sunday, June 27th. Prince Harry from England participated and proceeds benefited his charity.

A nice crowd showed up for the free public seating area. There were 3 food vendors. "A" and I both had a hot dog ($8) and fries ($4). I also had a soda ($3). Later on we both had Il Laboratorio Gelato ($5/each) - "A" had chocolate chip and I had lemon.

We both bought a Veuve Clicquot bottle stopper in a cute little bag for ($10) for souveniers.

Someone from the other sponsor, Piaget, was also throwing out these foam balls into the crowd during halftime and I caught one.

NYC Food Film Festival

Last night "C" and I attended the free Festival at the Water Taxi Beach in LIC, Queens, NY.

We watched several short films and received complimentary tastes of the foods featured in the films:

- Jarlsberg cheese

- pig ear sandwich (very fatty)

- smoked ground pork sandwich (tasty)

- french fries with ketchup (nothing special)

- coriander bacon with mustard on toast (tasty)

- all natural 4 ingredient sodas: vanilla bean, juniperberry, rhubarb, lemongrass (not very flavorful)

- ice cream: cabernet, spicy peanut, chocolate chip pancake, banana nut chocolate (very good, rich and decadent)

The tastes were far and few between (plus the audience would descend like locusts upon the servers as soon as they appeared with trays of food) so in order not to be trampled we supplemented the night with a hot dog each ($3).

It was a fun night to be outside watching short films about food while eating food.

Nathan's

The original Nathan's is located on Surf Avenue in Brookyn, NY's Coney Island.

I had an original hot dog ($3.95), small fries ($2.95) and bottle of Nathan's water ($1.50). The hot dogs are grilled so they have a nice "snap" when you bite into them. The fries are thick little wedges served with a red 2 pronged plastic fork. This is the traditional meal when you visit Coney Island.

Bill's Bar & Burgers

Bill's is located in NYC's Meat Packing District at 22 Ninth Avenue.

"T" had the Sunset And Vine - Bill’s classic with cheese topped with lettuce, tomato and special sauce. I had Bill’s Classic With American Cheese served with lettuce, tomato and pickles on the side (each $5.95). We were both happy with our burgers - flavorful and juicy, but not messy.

And for an appetizer we split a New York Hot Dog onion relish, sauerkraut, mustard (Hatfield All-Beef Hot Dogs. Crispy And Caramelized On Top Split Bun) - $3.95. The hot dog had a nice snap quality when you bit into it.

We asked the waitress is we could get a half order of each and the chef agreed:
Beer Battered Onion Rings (full order $3.50)

French Fries (Hand Cut Daily, Top Notch Kennebec Potatoes, Sprinkled With Sea Salt) - full order $3.50

I had a Specialty Shake (made with hand dipped premium ice cream) -

Oreo vanilla ice cream, loads of oreos, chocolate syrup $6.95. It was very thick and there were lots of cookie chunks.

There is a full bar and "T" ordered a margarita.

We skipped dessert because nothing sounded too compelling and 3 out of 4 were ice cream based. Since I had a shake I didn't want to be redundant.

Service was friendly and quick. The manager stopped by several times to check on us. We will be sure to return.

Open Dog

Visitors at the US Open in NYC's Flushing Meadow Park are pretty much a captive audience. That explains the outrageous prices for food and beverages with the tennis complex.

I broke down and ordered a foot long hot dog (with complimentary saurkraut) for $6 and small Evian (500ml) for $3.75.