Tuesday, October 21, 2008

What I Had For LINNER: A Texas Chili Dog!!

Ok, so this past weekend me and my dude went out searching for home stuff. You know, rugs and furniture and knick knacks. Even though I live in Brooklyn, there's something to be said for New Jersey's lower sales tax, so when making big purchases, the $10 trip over the Vary-Vary, that's what I call the Verrazano Bridge, is worth it. It was Sunday, so we did our best to leave early to catch the full abbreviated shopping day, which meant skipping breakfast. Why, I dunno. What I do know is my smile decreases as the hours increase with no food intake, same with my dude. So, we agreed to not get short with each other while shopping if we felt hunger pains come on. Here we are hungry, but not so much that we'd eat over shopping and right when we pulled into our destination in Vauxhall, NJ, I saw what was for lunch! I have never heard of this place before, but the outdoor sign said "Manny's Texas Weiners", there's no website, but another location has one. Now, just in case you don't know ... anytime you are in a Texas-style place, there's no beans in the chili. I haven't been able to get over-the-counter chili without beans since my days eating at Coney Island Restaurants in Detroit. In fact, in a new run of shows I did my bean less chili recipe and gave love to both Texas and Detroit during the show. All I could think about while shopping was, 'I know it said Texas dogs, but I wonder if the chili is made without beans?'.

When we could take the shopping no more, we crossed the street and headed inside to be greeted with the most overwhelming menu I've ever seen other than the Cheesecake Factory (what is up with the 1000 menu items??) Take a look ....


Luckily, we sat down and got a hand-held menu that was less overwhelming, but still crazy packed. I asked our waitress and was very pleased to find out the chili was bean less, so I ordered a chili-dog with onions and mustard, fries, a side of chili and shared onion rings with my dude. He had fries, half the onion rings and a burger he kept commenting on after each bite, good stuff. Said it tasted like a cookout burger. The onion rings aren't seen here because after we thought for a second, we ordered them and they arrived a bit after everything else. They were real onion rings, which made the former Sonic worker in me happy. I gotta go here again take a look at how dark and non-tomato-ey the chili was ...
My hot dog had a great pop from the casing, which is totally a love/hate thing for some hot dog lovers. Needless to say, it was my one and only meal Sunday. We got back home and neither of us got hungry the rest of the day which is so true to the word Linner, our Texas meal was lunch and dinner combined ... even breakfast ... what would that word be?

Hope you are having a good day so far ... I just came back from the city. Finished up a voiceover for Dear FN, a holiday series that begins airing I think next month??? It was plenty of fun, so when I get word on the actual air dates, you know I'll share :-) ...

16 comments:

The CDM said...

"our Texas meal was lunch and dinner combined ... even breakfast ... what would that word be?"

How about "bruncher"?

As far as the chili dog goes, que, nada con queso? Darius knows what I mean there. I must agree with the "what's with the 1000 menu items". You can overwhelm you customers while trying to serve up variety. The thing looks like a wine list. As long as the food is good, hey it all works out.

Sunny Anderson said...

complaint dept. mgr., queso es muy yummy, but i think i was so excited when i heard about the no bean chili, that i lost all composure. my brain actually asked for cheese on the fries, but stopped wondering if it would be slices or sauce (i got caught out there with slices last week and was mad lol) ... and i could've asked, but wanted to quit while ahead lol. and i'm feelin the "bruncher" can i add a "muncher" to that? and really, i love variety, but "in and out burger" has the most simple menu, like what? 4 things?? soda, burger, fries, shake and they KILL IT!!!

t2ed said...

You're really making me hungry for a Koegel Vienna from a real Greek Coney Island.

Preferably from the downtown American Coney Island after a long night in Windsor!

Anonymous said...

The DH and I have always used the word "lupper" for a meal in between lunch and supper. We tend to use the word supper instead of dinner for the night-time meal here in my neck of the woods.

houstonmacbro said...

Hey Sunny, great post! Listen, (I think) you lived in Texas for a spell and I live here now (Houston) so you know ... we don't eat all that much chili down here.

People think we eat it (and Mexican food) morning, noon and night, but it just ain't so.

In fact, since I moved back here (2004) I can tell you I have not had chili, or really even seen it on the menus of most places.

Oddly, I have seen 'gravy' (it's not as gross as it sounds listed on a lot of Mexican restaurant menus, but that is a little different and completely different from what most people think of as gravy.

Anyhow, thanks for the great post, and for a slice of NYC!

Sunny Anderson said...

pluff mudder, "dh"? i'm dumb, tell me now and i'll never need to be reminded. i always wanted to know where supper was used instead of dinner, i loved calling soda "pop" when i lived in detroit . . . made it feel special teeheehee

houstonmacbro, what?! do u go to paris and not get a crepe? lol . . . nah, i feel you, i was in san antonio for a total of 5 years and had plenty of bean less chili, but the coney's in detroit really did me in, the best ever. take a flick of that 'gravy' i wanna see it, sounds interesting.

t2ed, awwwwww shux! now you are talkin! actually my fave after hours spot was plaka in greek town. always crowded, but if you want pancakes and opa! yelled at 2 in the morning, that's where to go! windsor . . . ahhh those were the days! ever hang on belle isle?

Lys said...

Ahhhh - so one crosses state lines to get the good deals. Quick thinking, Ms. Sunny! Hope things are going well in the new abode!

Ahhh - a chili dog, sans beans - now that would hit the spot.

Sunny Anderson said...

lys, teeheehee yes, i've been frugal since before the frugal gourmet ... i like saving and allllllways ask for a discount or deal. i used to date one dude that got embarrassed by me doing that lol, but i gotta tell ya, more than 80% of the time, just a simple question can save you big bucks. sometimes there's no tax if you get the items delivered to ny from nj, so that's even better. and yeah, that chili dog was right on time! i made chili last week and we ate it with homemade tortilla chips, but the dog is what it needed!!!

Lisa said...

Hi Sunny, have you ever had a WV style hotdog? Further down South they call 'em slaw dogs. But here in WV, we assume just saying hotdogs will include slaw! lol It also needs some non-bean chili on it with the slaw but don't call it a chili dog! :D

There's an awesome blog about real WV hotdogs and joints in the state. In case you ever find your way here, you'll know where to go :) http://wvhotdogblog.blogspot.com/

Sunny Anderson said...

mise en place, hmmm i've had slaw on a dog, but never chili and slaw together. that sounds interesting, you would have to send me this after i finished off the rest of some chili i froze last week. had it for lunch, the reply above reminded me i had it, so i went and heated it up! now i know i could've made some slaw real quick and given it a try ... darn. it's gonna happen soon now, thanks for the link, i'll check it.

Anonymous said...

I have to stop reading this blog before I've had dinner. And you know here in San Jose, CA there won't be no chili dogs with no beans in the chili! Sigh.

ken said...

hey, u...i see that you have found a koney island....i no you must of been smiling from ear to ear...hey when you walk into the place....i no you dont even have to tell me...i no it must of felt like walking into heaven....(thats whats up)...its true what they say....its the little things in life that brings us the most joy...i no you love you some koney island....but you no theres no better koney than that....detroit koney thats that taste that makes it great...you no i'm right....when the superbowl was here in detroit thats all people was talking about detroits koney islands...o yeah and the game....i dont no but i think we are the only city with a gas station and a koney island on every other block...hey that menu is a trip....i think i might of had just about everything on the koney island menu here...so i started to order the same thing but with a little twist to it like....try this sunny (onion rings with chilli cheese on them) you will thank me for it...i have other combo but i'll wait to share those with you at another date....wink wink...

yeah sunny me and my family and friends was in new york a while back...about 4 or 5 years ago some time in december....doing some holiday shopping in the ny hot spots at the corner warehouses on the side walk in the different apartment building...now peep this after the shopping in ny ( shout to new york love yall my first time there love the fast pace atmosphere )....we all left to go to the new jersey mall over the bridge...we were so broke from buying up everything from clothes cd jewery shoes you name it we bought it on the ny city streets....that we were so mad when we seen the prices there at that mall little to no sale tax if we only new...the mall looks like fairlane mall here but larger....hey sunny a penny saved is a penny earned...i live by that saying....i rather have 20 bags than one bag from macy's...which i have done but i like the 20 to 1 odds....well thats two of the things at the top of my list that i like to do...shopping and eating....dude better hurry up and put a onion ring on your finger...before i do....ok sunny aka miss koney...let me get before i start a some what kinda of a 3rd paragraph....ken aka mr koney...

Sunny Anderson said...

mrs. l, i don't even watch the network while hungry ... i'll find myself running out to get stuff instead of going with what i had planned, so i know the feeling. sowwy :-( teeheehee, and you know, picking the beans out just doesn't give the same effect ...

ken, i know right? it felt just like a coney with bfast being served 24/7 and all ... pretty neat comparison. only difference is there was no bullet proof glass. that was such a culture shock when i moved there. you are talking about paramus mall, that thing is huge ... i think the biggest one i've been in was in texas, after that lenox in atl ...

Darius T. Williams said...

Ahhh - you're so lucky...this is a great food find!

Sunny Anderson said...

dtdub, dude ... feel meeeeeee ... i can't wait to go back. i think next week when we pick up the stuff we bought. i'm gonna see about a large order i can take home and freeze, i love my chili recipe, but on a lazy and cold winter night, poppin this out of the fridge would be nice. mine is dark, but this is daaaaaark.

Sunny Anderson said...

marisa, didn't post your comment bcuz it had personal info on it. looks like of all the jillions of military bases you were @, none match mine. I was in bad kreuznach and heidelberg. We lived off base at both, nussloch is the name of the city we were in outside of heidelberg and bk was just the burbs of bk. been to soul fixin's! you guys have to try "the pink teacup' ... a former co-worker would go there often and he'd make me laugh by saying the biscuits "taste like the earth" lol .... very yummy. welcome to nyc!