I moved from Louisiana to Massachusetts four years ago and one of the biggest points of culture shock was finding out that proper hotdog buns are almost impossible to find in New England. In most of the rest of the country, hotdog buns are shaped like miniature french rolls; they are little independent units that have crust all the way around because they are baked that way. In all of New England, hotdog buns are basically a thick piece of white bread that has a slit down the middle. I love New England but this is gross! It is like sandwiching a hotdog between two pieces of Wonder bread. Does anyone know how this got started? Even the national bread makers seem to make hotdog buns this way for the New England market and I think that I am going to puke if anyone serves me another one. Don’t they know any better or is there some history behind this?
In northeast Ohio we have a bakery that makes these. I think they’re great! When I hand a child one of these, the kid squirts in the mustard, relish, whatever, and/or (shudder) ketchup, and the dog and the condiments all stay in the kid’s hand (minus whatever squirts out the ends). When I hand a kid a regular bun, the dog and each half of the bun are bound to go in three separate directions about half the time, the other half of the time the dog comes away from the bun as the two halves, firmly clenched by the kid, get vised together.
As to taste, the vast majority of supermarket buns are dry, crumbly, doughy concoctions, anyway. The ones from Nickles Bakery are actually better tasting than anything but a specialty bun.
Don’t know the story of their origins. (Probably too many English settlers to know what a good German, French, or Italian bun looked like when hot dogs became popular.)
Market Basket has normal buns. They’re called “hot dog rolls” but they’re just plain buns. At least they were when I lived in Haverhill a couple of years back.
Try a McDonalds Lobster roll. YUM!!
I think that you can butter both side of the New England bun and fry the bun in a frying pan. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect.
Now, for the rest of the US the only solution is to open the bun and butter the inside and fry it that way. Nearly as good.