List Of Hot Peppers

Top that hot dog with anything but boring old mustard, ketchup

Mustard or ketchup?

If your hot-dog repertoire ends there, kindly slip into your plaid leisure suit and go watch Benny Hill reruns -- on videotape.

And take that petrified jar of relish with you.

Across the country -- heck, around the world -- and at innovative hot-dog emporiums such as Happy Dog on Cleveland's near West Side, the dog-in-a-bun routine has gone off-leash. Hot dogs, the original repurposing of meat, have been repurposed for a higher goal. They are now the blank canvas of the savory set, prime territory for regional and global flavors. And it's a bigger canvas this time, with room for a meal's worth of add-ons.

What do our toppings say about us? Check the charting of signature urban dogs online. In Phoenix, according to seriouseats.com , folks like "Sonoran" dogs heaped with mustard, mayo, tomatoes and onions, plus Mexican influences such as pinto beans and sliced, fresh jalapenos. Options, if you need more, include cheese and sour cream.

Dietz & Watson just issued a recipe for an Italianate/Bavarian "Philly Frank," with provolone cheese, chopped garlic, sweet and hot peppers, all on a pretzel bun.

And in Cleveland, the most popular way to eat a hot dog is . . . whoa, we're not about to leave our hot-dog pronouncements hanging out. But it's impossible to talk about hot dogs here without mention of the popular "Polish Boy," usually made with a kielbasa sausage, but frequently served with an extra-garlicky hot dog.

Add french fries, barbecue sauce and coleslaw -- yes, on top -- and it's pretty darned good, as long as you're thinking that it all ends up in the same place anyway.

At least give it a salute for bringing together the tastes of Cleveland's cabbage-loving Slavic cultures and barbecue-friendly African-Americans (and all Southerners) in one portable meal.

Of thee we sing.

Sometimes we forget that hot dogs, credited to Germans, are already a kaleidoscope of flavors.

Garlic, check. Salt and white pepper, check. Follow that with a long list of stealth combinations right out of Grandma's spice rack: paprika, marjoram, mace, nutmeg, coriander, cardamom, cumin, celery seed and mustard.

Dogs can start as pork, beef and fat, or just beef and fat. As much as 50 percent fat, water and salt in some cases, so perfectly blended they don't seem fatty at all.

They arrive in a natural hog or sheep casing (resulting in the characteristic snap) or are shaped and cooked in an artificial collagen wrap and then set free.

Red Hot Chili Peppers Join Long List Of Bands That Almost Broke Up ...

Flea, the rambunctious bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers has revealed through an interview with Spinner that he recently thought about quitting the band and leaving his tighty-whitey stage antics behind him.

He said he asked his compatriots for a two year sabbatical in order to regroup his thoughts. “We’ve been going really hard for a lot of years with small breaks here and there, but never a major break,” Flea said. “And I just felt like I wanted to take two years away just to really look and see if the band was something we should be doing.”

Flea attributes his friendship with lead singer Anthony Kiedis, which dates back to childhood, as an inspiration and big reason for his decision to continue making music. “I said, ‘Together let’s do this, let’s make this album, I love you, and let’s f**king rock.’ And as cliché as that might sound, I think for us as a band, and for he and I, both of us, we decided to do it.”

As most RHCP fans are already aware, the group plans on releasing their new album, I’m With You , on Aug. 30, their first with new ex-Warpaint guitarist Josh Klinghoffer – who replaces John Frusciante, who left the group in 2009.