Every time I eat a Corn Dog, I seriously ask myself, why did I just eat that corn dog? I then say to myself I will never eat another Corn Dog again. Inevitably, it is like watching the movie Ground Hog Day with Bill Murray. I repeat the same question and statement year after year, never quite learning my lesson.
I do not particularly care for Corn Dogs, but I still eat them on occasion. There is nothing healthy about a Corn Dog, a heavily processed pureed meat impaled on a stick, dipped in corn meal batter and then deep fried in hot oil. I do not even care for the flavor, but in my pursuit of finding excellence in food, I continue to try. There has to be somewhere the perfect Corn Dog. How can there not be? Corn Dogs have been a part of American cuisine from the 1920’s. There was even a patent issued in 1929 for the “Combined Dipping, Cooking, and Article Holding Apparatus, describes corn dogs, among other fried food impaled on a stick…”.
Corn Dog with Mustard (CC Image courtesy of Andreanna Moya Photography on Flickr)
Yet despite all of my protests, I still eat Corn Dogs. Corn Dogs are the grandfather of all foods stuck with a stick, covered in batter and deep fried for our delight at county fairs and carnivals. Before there was deep fried Twinkies and Snickers, there was the Corn Dog. I have eaten Corn Dogs at sport arenas, airports, food courts in malls, gas stations and company cafeterias. They are everywhere and even available in the frozen section of the grocery store.
Recently while driving through the Panhandle of West Texas, I stopped on Perryton, TX and ate a Dixie Dog. I asked the order taker if the Dixie Dog was hand-dipped. She replied yes and without hesitation I ordered a Dixie Dog.
Dixie Dog – Perryton, TX
She was correct; it was hand-dipped with all of the deformities that a machine produced corn dog cannot hope to replicate. Interesting enough, the batter was not corn meal, but more like the batter used for donuts. Was I disappointed, of course I was, but I still dipped the Dixie Dog in mustard and ketchup and at it all.
Hand Dipped Dixie Dog – Perryton, TX
I will find the perfect Corn Dog one of these days and maybe even have to try to make them at home. Until that time, I will continue to order a Corn Dog on occasion, knowing that I will continue to be disappointed, but still searching for that perfect example of the original American easy, convenient, quick fried food on a stick at its worst.