I know cabbage-based creations such as sauerkraut are popular with wieners worldwide. However, when I moved to Quebec, I noticed something new when ordering hot dogs all dressed: coleslaw.
All dressed here seems to mean mustard, relish, coleslaw, and sometimes onions. (I often have to ask for onions.) No ketchup, something else I have to request.
This was never the case when I lived in Ontario. No coleslaw on hot dogs to be seen, at least in my experience. The ketchup thing is still contentious, it seems, but Heinz - or some other company - sells hot dog condiment packs that include ketchup, mustard, and relish, which leads me to believe this might be the norm.
So what’s the deal? I don’t mind non-creamy coleslaw on my hot dogs, but is this a regional thing? And what’s with the ketchup/no ketchup thing?
I can remember in the 1950’s getting cole slaw on hotdogs in Danville, Va. With a coney-type sauce. Chili or sumptin’. I lived in Arlington, Va. at the time and never had it there. I never got it in NC in the late 60’s or 70’s. Never saw it in NOrthern Ohio in the 1970’s-2000.
I’m gonna guess that cole slaw is originally a Southern US thing. How it migrated, lawd knows. Maybe some transplant took it with her/him.
To give some etymological background, the original phrase was cold slaw which was borrowed from the Dutch. It was spelled as cold slaw in the US up until about the 1860’s, when it started to be called cole slaw. Cole was a kind of cabbage in early English.
And, coleslaw on BBQ is the way I would eat it. That combo definitely is from NC/SC and goes back a ways.
We now return you to the hot dog/cole slaw thread.
Yeah, “coleslaw” comes from the Dutch koolsla (kool=cabbage, and sla is some short form for salad. You German speakers will also note that kohl, pronounced “cole” is cabbage in German as well.)
I’ve never seen this on hot dogs. However, about ketchup, it is absolutely forbidden on hot dogs in Chicago. ALthough the ketchup industry seems to have gotten to the new generation, and many hot dog stands will begrudgingly supply you with ketchup.
Unfortunately, he wrote another great article about the ketchup hot dog issue in, I want to say May 1992 or 1993. But I can’t find that online, and it’s only available through Lexis-Nexis. (Which’ll costya $3.)
There’s got to be some sort of conspiracy here, that Chicago’s two greatest columnists of all time both wrote impassioned pieces against ketchup on hot dogs. Coincidence? I think not.
I’ve never had cole slaw on a hot dog, but coleslaw on any kind of sandwich is divine, and I imagine it would also be on a hot dog… I think I may go to the store tonight and explore this wonderful new idea.
My mother (who was born and raised in Pennsylvania) loved hot dogs with cole slaw and chili. I can only remember having one that way once, but I thought it was pretty good.
My usual hot dog, however, is with ketchup and, sometimes, cheese. So there. I can’t stand mustard on anything.