[Hoot Gibson]

Is there a difference is hotdog sauce and hotdog chilli?

Yes, I have heard the chilli\sauce the Paintsville Dairy Queen is legendary.

I think there is a difference, but everybody has an opinion about what makes chili chili. I believe that real chili is heavy on chili peppers, chili powder,and beef. It may have onions, a limited amount of tomatoes, cumin, cilantro, etc., but real chili never includes beans.

My perfect hot dog sauce contains no beans, has a slightly sweet taste with tomatoes, tomato sauce, and/or ketchup. It usually contains only ground beef and its meat and the beef should be finely ground.

The perfect hot dog to put under a coat of hot dog sauce should be of Hebrew National quality as a minimum. My preference is one of the upstate New York brands (Rochester, Buffalo, or Syracuse) such as Zweigle's or Hoffman's.

Call me a hot dog snob, but that's the way I see it.

The best hot dog-ish sandwich that I have ever eaten is a half-smoke from a tiny restaurant/store named Meats and Foods in Washington, DC. The restaurant is owned by a couple who started making sausages at home as a hobby before opening their restaurant. Washington is known for the half-smoke (half beef, half port smoked sausage), which Bill Cosby helped make famous. Ben's Chili Bowl, Cosby's favorite DC restaurant, has hosted several U.S. presidents treating foreign dignitaries to half smokes.

I have never eaten a Ben's Chili Bowl half smoke, but Costco's sells them and I have fixed them at home. They are good, but I prefer the ones from Meats and Foods.