Food Detective: Savoring the Sonoran hot dog

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

Former pushcart vendor Blanca Diaz opened her modest Pilsen restaurant to offer what she'd previously sold only streetside: wieners wrapped in bacon and topped with tomatoes, chopped and fried onions, jalapenos, mayo, mustard and (Chicago forgive her!) ketchup - unexpectedly scrumptious.

Visiting Tucson last week, we stayed at the Arizona Inn, an elegant boutique hotel that ironically had the major strategic advantage of being located near many humble vendors of Mexican hot dogs, more commonly called "Sonoran hot dogs," including El Guero Canelo, allegedly the originator, and Ruiz Hot Dogs, a popular stand.

On top of the fundamental condiments, many Sonoran-style hot dogs are garnished with squiggles of a creamy green sauce, pinto or black beans and one charred yellow chile on the side.

At street stands in Tucson, I was thrilled to come upon local variants: the Hermosillo (with lettuce, cheese and chorizo or ground beef), Sinaloa-style (in a butter-brushed bun) and Chipilone (in a toasted bun).

Tucson hotdogueros tend to wrap franks in thin bacon; this ensemble is griddled, drained and held in a metal container until ordered. This holding period tends to fuse the bacon to the wiener, so it's sometimes difficult to discern whether there's any pork belly at all beneath the multi-colored accoutrements.

At Tucson's J-Bar and Downtown Kitchen + Cocktails, James Beard award-winning chef Janos Wilder presents his tasty take on the Southwestern dog with red onion and chorizo - but without bacon.

Seth Zurer, co-founder of last weekend's Baconfest Chicago, says he is "taken aback and appalled" at this bacon-less riff.

"That's like a francheezie without the cheese: a disappointment at best, an outrage at worst," he says.

At Baconfest, I was knocked out by chef Jared Van Camp's "Tijuana Dog." The snaptastic house-made sausage sported a fresh jalapeno and lime aioli that perked and cleansed the palate.

At Big Star, 1531 N. Damen, chef Paul Kahan, another Beard winner, serves a deliciously messy and massive version. A normal-sized mouth would be challenged to accommodate the imposing circumference of the big oval bun and the dog submerged beneath a tsunami of sauces.

As I hunched under the brilliant Arizona sunlight devouring Mexican/Sonoran hot dogs, I found myself drooling fondly as I recalled the chilly, damp Chicago night when I first ate at Delicias Mexicanas.

Diaz's wieners were simpler than these more authentic and artistic Tucson versions, but they gained greatly by bathing in warm bacon fat for hours, rendering them rich and juicy.

Hers remain the most satisfying rendition of this Southwestern snack I've found, no further south than 26th Street.

David Hammond is an Oak Park writer, Chicago Public Radio contributor and founder/moderator of culinary chat site LTHForum.com. Questions, comments, tips? E-mail detective@suntimes.com.