# Coleslaw on hot dogs: a purely Quebécois phenomenon?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 16, 2002, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138 "2002-08-16T02:56:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@scott\_evil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scott_evil)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2002, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138/1 "2002-08-16T02:56:50Z")
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?
(It’s all actually quite good, BTW.)
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2002, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138/2 "2002-08-16T03:07:49Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2002, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138/3 "2002-08-16T03:36:17Z")
I don’t know about hot dogs, but at Big Daddy’s restaurant in Des Moines, I was introduced to cole slaw on a barbecue sandwich. Deeeelish!
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### Author:  [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2002, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138/4 "2002-08-16T03:36:23Z")
Slaw was big in North Carolina when I lived there
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2002, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138/5 "2002-08-16T03:57:34Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2002, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138/6 "2002-08-16T04:22:19Z")
Actually, “slaw dogs” are also popular in the Deep South - I know at least here in SC and in GA, not sure how far west it goes.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2002, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138/7 "2002-08-16T10:27:24Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2002, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138/8 "2002-08-16T10:38:41Z")
This atrocity is also committed in the pub near my office in Dublin.
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2002, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138/9 "2002-08-16T13:21:01Z")
My favorite hot dog: chili, mustard, slaw, and onions.
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### Author:  [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2002, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138/10 "2002-08-16T13:28:37Z")
Mayonnaise is the jelly of the Devil!
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### Author:  [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2002, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138/11 "2002-08-16T14:00:09Z")
Cecil has covered the “ketchup on hot dogs” question before – and, interestingly, the question orginiated from Quebec. [See it here.](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_095.html)
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2002, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138/12 "2002-08-16T14:01:52Z")
Thank you, Scott. I have been trying to lose 20 pounds, and when I read those words, I threw up everything I have eaten since 1974.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2002, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138/13 "2002-08-16T14:07:27Z")
And, of course, the great Mike Royko on [ketchup.](http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/730735.html)
> [@](#):
>
> No, I won’t condemn anyone for putting ketchup on a hot dog. This is the land of the free. And if someone wants to put ketchup on a hot dog and actually eat the awful thing, that is their right.
> It is also their right to put mayo or chocolate syrup or toenail clippings or cat hair on a hot dog.
> Sure, it would be disgusting and perverted, and they would be shaming themselves and their loved ones. But under our system of government, it is their right to be barbarians.
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.)
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### Author:  [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2002, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138/14 "2002-08-16T15:04:45Z")
Here in Atlanta you can get a “slaw dog” at [The Varsity](http://www.thevarsity.com).
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### Author:  [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2002, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138/15 "2002-08-16T15:22:11Z")
Mmmm. hot dogs. _steamé_ all-dress with frites.
Dammit **scott** , now you made me hungry 3000 km from anywhere I can get a steamie!
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2002, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138/16 "2002-08-16T18:20:59Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@knarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/knarf)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2002, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138/17 "2002-08-16T19:18:31Z")
Slaw dogs are somewhat popular in Alabama too. I’d never heard of them when I lived in Michigan.
Never tried one with both slaw and chili - I’ll have to give it a shot.
Ketchup on a hotdog is an evil thing.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2002, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138/18 "2002-08-16T20:06:11Z")
**Lib** said
> [@](#):
>
> My favorite hot dog: chili, mustard, slaw, and onions
Picks up Lib file, dusts it off, adds new page, moves it to front of filing cabinet. Marks it _important_
Separated at birth.
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### Author:  [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2002, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138/19 "2002-08-16T21:04:08Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Doubting\_Robert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doubting_Robert)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2002, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coleslaw-on-hot-dogs-a-purely-quebecois-phenomenon/124138/20 "2002-08-16T21:29:49Z")
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.
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