As an American you are going to experience the desire for a hot dog every now and then. It seems like such a simple food but for whatever reason, South East Asia just can't seem to get the dogs themselves to be reasonably good. Coming from the US where basically any pack of dogs at the supermarket are decent and taste good for a hot dog, it has always been quite perplexing that this is a nut that the SEA market just can't seem to be capable of cracking.
If you combine this with the fact that Vietnam has adapted a bread style that is similar to a baguette, in that it is crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and you have a delivery mechanism for the dog that isn't the right kind of thing.
Every single hot dog I have tried here in years has been an abject disappointment. Until now.
Now I am not a fan of the excessive use of sauce, which is something they do with just about anything over here in Vietnam because I guess the locals like to drown almost anything in sauces. Seriously! If you order a pizza it arrives with a dozen ketchup packets as well. I never would have thought about putting tomato sauce on something that normally is swimming in tomato already.
The best thing about this dog, which I will order with significantly less sauce next time, is that the bread is just like a hot dog bun "should be" according to an American. USA doesn't have a lot of native foods but I think we can safely say that Americans are the world's authority on what a hot dog "should be."
I think this is about as close to a USA hot dog as you are going to get over here.
The best thing about it is that even though some degree of care and research was put into making these properly, they do NOT carry a premium price with them. The one I had on my plate was the OG, and 25k VND is right around $1.
The little warm cup of herbal tea that is on my table as well was given for free.
This is just a little stand outside of a minimart, so you do need to sit on these tiny little chairs around portable tables and considering the amount of time that it takes to eat a hot dog, this is just fine with me.
If you are in Da Nang or plan on being in Da Nang, I highly recommend that you patronize this place. Here is their location.
I hope that this guy can make enough money to stick around because it isn't often that anything unusual or good ends up in this part of town, or this city for that matter.
