Santee Street Style Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs

One of the best parts of living in LA, is the amazing access to some of the best food available.  LA has the best variety of ethnic food and fusion food around.  Part of the miracle of being in a hub of cultures mixing with one another is the variety of food you can find here in Los Angeles.  Hands down.  Koreatown, Little Tokyo, Thai Town, Little Ethiopia, East Los style tacos it's all around and you can't go wrong.

Street Hot Dog carts run aplenty in Los Angeles.  You can smell 'em a mile away and are a welcome sight when you stumble out of a late night sporting event, concert or just shopping around downtown LA.
Ever been to or hear of Santee Alley in Dowtown LA?  It literally is an alley and you can find anything there for super cheap.  Here's more about this iconic, cultural gem.

I've had my fair share of bacon wrapped hot dogs, but the one that stands out the most for me, is the one I had while shopping on Santee one Saturday.
So without further ado,  Santee Street Style Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs!!!!! (the crowd goes wild....or maybe just I do).

The main cast:

    Hot dogs

    bacon

    buns

    onion

    bell pepper

    jalapeno

    mustard

    mayo

Supporting cast:

   onion

   tomato

   avocado

   cucumber

   lemon

   salt

   pepper

 

How many hot dogs you cook depends on how many you plan to eat.   I'm usually pretty happy with one.  To be fair, by the time I'm done making it, it's pretty loaded.  

I use my much loved cast iron skillet for this culinary adventure.  Street carts literally use a baking sheet atop a propane burner.  Genius!  But I don't make 20 at a time....not yet anyway.  I'm making three here.  One for me and two for the guy I live with (more about him later....or maybe not.  LOL).  

Use low to medium low heat for cooking.  Slow is key here.  We're in no rush.  So while your skillet or pan is heating, prep your bacon and dogs.

I use toothpicks to secure my bacon to my hot dogs.  It looks like this:

 

By this time, my skillet is ready.  And it sounds like this:

 

Meanwhile, time to cut up your onion and bell pepper and jalapeno.  

This is how I cut a bell pepper. I used to cut off the top and scoop out the seeds.  But I hate getting the seeds everywhere.  So now I do this:

Slice off the four sides...

 

 until you end up with this and throw away the core.  boom!

Slice up your onion into the same sized pieces as your bell pepper.  I'm also grilling a whole jalapeno that I sliced in half lengthwise.

By now, your bacon wrapped hot dogs are sizzling nicely and you can turn them using tongs. In the same skillet, I add my sliced bell pepper, onion, and jalapeno.  The idea is to cook your sliced veggies in the fat that's rendering off the bacon....yeah.  Don't judge me.  Salt and pepper your veggies now.  Right about now, the smell is gonna be insane.  Trust me.

Since your skillet is cooking on low or medium low, you can flip your bacon dogs to get all the side of the bacon cooked and crispy as your onions, bell pepper and jalapeno grill up nicely.

As all that's happening, I chop up more onion (about half a medium onion), medium tomato, half a large English cucumber and a medium avocado.

 Keep all your chopped veggies the same size.  I go smaller because it's like a fresh salsa and I don't want to bite into huge pieces of raw onion.

I scoop out the insides of my cucumber because I don't want a lot of liquid in this salsa.  Just cut in half and use a spoon to scrape out the seeds.

And I use a small sharp knife to cut my avocado horizontally and vertically then scoop out using a spoon.

I also scoop out the inside of the tomato before chopping because again, I don't want the extra liquid.  Except I forgot to take a picture of it...So just squeeze your eyes shut and imagine it....okay?  Good.

 Add all your chopped ingredients into a bowl.

Squeeze the juice of half a lemon all over you veggies and toss with salt and pepper.

Viola!  Add cilantro too if you have it.  I forgot to buy it.  But the show must go on...so no cilantro this time.

As I was chopping up the veggies for my salsa, I was turning the bacon dogs so that all sides were cooking and in addition, I was making sure to move my onion and bell peppers around so they didn't burn.  Because we're cooking on low/medium low the onions and bell peppers get a nice caramelized thing going on with out actually crisping or burning.  

Now it's time to build your bacon dog! But first!!  Remove toothpicks.  Remember the ones we used to secure the bacon to the dogs?  Yeah.  You can't eat those.

 I toast my buns because I feel like if you're going through all the trouble to wrap your dogs in bacon, slow cook them, caramelize onions and make a fresh salsa topping, then you should toast the bun.  Plus, I feel like it makes the bun a little stronger to handle all the stuff I'm going top it with.  I just split the bun and place in my toaster.  You can also pan toast them without oil in a frying pan.

One time, after a U2 concert in Anaheim, I was standing in line for a bacon dog when the couple behind me were freaking out about the mayo that was being offered as a topping.  I just remember them saying, 

"Ew.  Why would you put mayo on a hot dog?!"

and I remember thinking,

"Why WOULDN'T you put mayo on a hot dog?"

I've given this a lot of thought.  Because, well it's an important issue. In a lot of countries, mayo is pretty much a given.  In the neighborhood where I work, they sell elote or corn on the cob.  If you order it fully loaded, it's butter, MAYO, Parmesan cheese, chili powder and lime.  It's pretty much the shiz and I consider it to be a huge cultural asset.  In Korea, mayo is a given on any burger.  As much as ketchup or mustard is "normal", mayo has its place in many cultures.  I think here, its gotten a bad rap.  

I love mayo.

There.  I said it.  Not Miracle Whip. Uh, no.   Mayo, yes!  I like to dip my fries in it.  I love it on sandwiches with tomato, it's the base for many dressings.  I embrace it.  I  like to mix it with BBQ sauce, hot sauce, ketchup and it goes in my ever beloved All Purpose Green Hulk Sauce recipe.

It's not for everyone.  My sister never fed my niece mayo when she was little.  I did that one day while babysitting.  She stopped eating, pointed at her sandwich and asked, "What's this white stuff?".  I panicked a little..."Uhhhhh.  It's mayo."  

"It's good!  I like it!"

Phew.  Thank God.  She's definitely my niece.  Crisis averted.  

If you don't like it, then just don't use it.  But I think it adds a lot of flavor so I use it adoringly.  You don't have to.  (You COULD try it...or not.)

Most street vendors will put the dog in the bun first and then put the mustard, ketchup and mayo on top.  There's a lot going on as I build this sucker, so I choose to put it on the bottom.  Your choice.

Look.  Let's be honest.  I could have put the mayo in a squeeze bottle and made it all pretty and zig zaggy.

Who has time to do that? It's gonna end up chewed up and in my stomach anyway so yeah, here it is blobbed on in all it's glory. 

 Next, I add a generous heaping amount of the grilled onion and bell pepper.

Then, it's time to put the bacon dog to bed and lay that on top of the grilled peppers.

To one the side, I add a heaping spoonful of the cucumber, tomato, onion and avocado salsa.

Lastly, I top with half the grilled jalapeno...

Soooooo.  Clearly we have girth issues here and there's no way you're going to pick this up and eat it.  I guess I could just ease off on some of the grilled peppers and salsa....or I could just use a knife and fork.  Yeah.  That works.  That makes it classy, right?  

Enjoy!

Crab Mac Salad

As promised in my Hawaiian Scampi post, here is the recipe for my Crab Mac Salad.

 

Fantastically simple and yet so good, Mac Salad is a great compliment to Hawaiian Shrimp Scampi or any Hawaiian plate lunch meal.  

This version uses real crab meat, but you can use Krab meat (yes, that's crab with a K meaning it is an imitation crab product using fish).

OR, you don't even need to use any kind of protein at all if you don't want to.  

Here are the major players:

2 cups elbow macaroni (how much depends on how much you plan to eat/share/hoard)
mayo (oh how I love thee)
1 can white crab meat
onion (optional)
carrots (optional)
frozen hash brown (optional)
vinegar or vinegar based salad dressing
salt and pepper 

The only knife work needed for this recipe is to chop up any veggies or onion.  You don't have to add any veggies or onion, but I like that freshness and snap that fresh onion adds.  Having said that, I'm also not interested in large bites of raw onion so I super mince my onion for this dish.  This was about a quarter of a medium sized onion.  It's up to you and you can add as little or as much as you want.

Start boiling your water to cook your macaroni.  When your macaroni is ALMOST done, throw in a cup of frozen hash browns.  I like having some potato in my mac salad.  You can also throw in some shredded carrot if you want some veggies in your mac salad and it's up to you if you want the carrots semi-cooked or raw.  If you want them semi-cooked, throw them in now with your frozen hash browns.  If not, leave them for later and add them in when you are adding your pasta into your mayo.

After boiling your macaroni, drain off the water and while its still warm, add back into the pot you cooked it in.  At this point, add three heaping spoonfuls of vinegar or vinegar based salad dressing and toss around the macaroni to coat all your pasta with vinegar.

  I happen to adore this kind of salad dressing and use it for my mac salad:

 

Adding vinegar or vinegar based salad dressing adds a nice bit of acid into the mac salad and prevents it from being just overly creamy mayo salad.  I add it in while its warm because I like to believe it "sticks" onto the macaroni.  Whether that is true or not, I'll never know for sure.

In a large bowl, add your drained can of white crab meat 

(or chopped Krab meat, or chopped ham-yum ham). 

Add a generous amount of mayo.  I used about 3 heaping spoonfuls.  I like my mac salad moist but not overly mayo-ed (is that a word?)   You can always add more later if needed.

Add pepper and salt into your crab mayo mixture and the finely minced onion you chopped up earlier.  Add your vinegary macaroni pasta into the crab mayo mixture and mix away.

You can eat it now or refrigerate and serve later.  The macaroni will kind of absorb some of the mayo over time so you can always add more mayo if needed.  I like mine at room temperature so I eat it right away.

Oh.  Geste Shrimp Truck in Maui uses chopped black olives in their mac salad along with Krab.  I don't like black olives that much (green, yes.  Kalamata, yes.  black olives, no), but I liked it in their Krab Mac Salad.  But since I use real crab and don't want the olive to overshadow the crab flavor I didn't use it.  Feel free to add some if you want. 

Here it is with the Hawaiian Scampi and rice.  They make a happy trio.

Spicy Mapo/Korean Tofu

I guess you have to be Korean or know somebody Korean to have experienced Korean Chinese food.

Yes, there really is such a thing.  It's Korean food that's Chinese.  Or maybe it's Chinese food that's Korean....hmmm. Anyways.

 It's basically Chinese food, but catering to Korean tastes and using Korean ingredients.  There's a whole menu of really incredible food that you're missing out on if you've never had it.  Wikipedia has a nice article on this.  If you'd like to read more about it, click here.  If you'd like to EAT this kind of food, head out to your nearest Koreatown (hopefully there is one near you) and look for a Chinese joint that offers jajangmyeun or jjampong (that's how you'll know it's Korean Chinese).

Korean Chinese restaurants have their version of Mapo Tofu, a Sichuan dish also known as Pockmarked Grandmother's Beancurd.
No, I'm not making that up.  Look it up.  Seriously.

So THIS recipe is my Korean/American variation of the Korean version of the Chinese version....or something like that.  Still following along?  Okay! Great!  Let's continue!

For me, this is one of the dishes that really symbolizes comfort food.  There's nothing I like better than to curl up in bed with a warm bowl of this and binge watch shows on Netflix.

Here's the line up:

1 package of tofu
1-2 pounds of ground pork
heaping tablespoon of crushed garlic
fresh ginger
chili oil or crushed dried chili
soy sauce
onion
mushroom
Korean squash
water chestnuts
frozen mixed veggies
cornstarch

 tofu and ground pork

Korean soybean paste (dwenjang), chili oil, chili garlic sauce, garlic

onion, fresh ginger, king mushrooms, water chestnuts and squash

A word on Korean soybean paste or dwenjang....Not for the faint of heart.

While out to lunch in Ktown with my best friend and wifey Mike, I ordered dwenjang jigae (a soybean paste stew).  When our food hit the table he said,

          "Something smells like socks."

To which I replied,

          "That's our lunch, sweetie."

I'm not trying to scare you off.  Because in actuality, dishes using Korean dwenjang are delicious.  We use it for stews and soups to seasoning sidedishes (banchan), dipping sauce for veggies, smeared in lettuce leafs and eaten with Korean BBQ, and in old times was used for keeping away infection on cuts and bruises.  It's fermented soybean paste and is a staple of Korean cuisine.  It has been used for hundreds of years.  It's basically the song of my people...just kidding.  It's similar to Japanese miso.  But stronger and darker.  It's like miso-zilla.

If you run out to your nearest Korean grocer, you will be overwhelmed and in awe because of the variety of different brands.  I use this one:

But I don't always buy this brand. I'm not committed to just one brand.  Just make sure it says "soybean paste" and not red pepper paste.  That's a whole other playing field that we will get into another time.  I should also point out that you don't have to commit to a 6.6 pound container either.  Only people who have huge families or run restaurants buy this size.  

To be honest,  I didn't even buy this one.  I inherited it from my non-Korean friend Brooke (who knows how to cook Korean food better than me!) when she moved to Chicago and that was like 2 years ago (right, Brooke?)!  Since I don't eat Korean food everyday, this block will probably last me until I start collecting social security.  I just keep it in the fridge.  There's enough salt in that puppy to prevent it from going bad.

The recipe I'm about to walk you through feeds me and my co-workers for days.  So you can HALVE this recipe and feed 4 people fairly easily I think for one meal.

I start with about 2 pounds of ground pork.  I always get my ground pork at the Korean market.  It's way cheaper and it's just a better quality than anywhere else.  Not overly fatty and no gross chewy bits in there, if you know what I mean.  I use a caste iron skillet.  If you don't have one, make sure you use a fairly large frying pan.

To my skillet, I add chopped onions, garlic (as much or little as you want) and finely minced ginger with the ground pork.  I happen to really love ginger so I add a chunk about the size of my thumb to this recipe.  If you don't like ginger, don't add it. But I think ginger goes really well with pork and garlic and you will be missing out if you leave it out completely.  Get your pork, onions and chopped garlic going on medium in your skillet while you work on the ginger...

Ginger is easy to work with.  Just remember to PEEL it and mince it as much as you can into tiny pieces.  Or you can throw in huge chunks into your pan and fish out the pieces later...

Using your knife, peel it like you would a piece of apple.  I guess you could use a potato peeler if you're not too sure of your knife skills...

Then slice the ginger into the thinnest slices that you can.

Stack the slices on top of each other and julienne slice your ginger rounds.

Next, turn the slices and finely chop the ginger into small, minced pieces.  If you want to go even smaller, just use your knife to go over the ginger over and over.  Tah dah!

Add to your already browning skillet full of pork, garlic and onion.

You should season now while the meat is cooking.  I use chili oil that I made, but you can use store bought chili oil or maybe even just crushed chili (like the kind you get with pizza).  Depending on how spicy you like your food, put in as little or as much as you want.

Koreans use soy sauce to season their food.  And this is a good example of using during cooking.  I like the base of this dish, the pork, to be nicely seasoned so I make sure to season it as it is cooking.  I add about a tablespoon of soy sauce.

Veggie time!  Chop up and add veggies.  I chop the mushrooms and the Korean squash and add into the skillet.  It doesn't matter how large or small you chop your veggies are as long as you are consistent.  Even cooking only occurs when the veggies are all the same size.  

If you've never worked with Korean squash, its like a zucchini but not as moist and more spongy.  I would say its similar to eggplant in texture.  It cooks nicely and soaks up flavor.  For this recipe, I used half of one, but depending on how much you like, you can add more or non at all.

Simply slice in rounds, stack the slices and cut into strips and then cut evenly across the strips to create cubes.  

Like this:

I also threw in a handful of frozen mixed veggies because I like veggies and I like the color it adds to this dish.

Okay.  Let's get one thing straight.  I absolutely adore spicy food.  Not like, "Hey.  Let's just pour this hot sauce on top of my food" kind of spicy.  But really, well seasoned food with spice cooked INTO it.  So for me, of course I would add more hot sauce at this point. 

The love of my life is sambal olek.  It's a garlic chili sauce.  It has the rooster in the label and a green lid.  Not Sriracha sauce. No, no, no.  Sambal oelek chili paste.  I ALWAYS have one in my fridge and two on deck in my pantry.  If I'm short any in my pantry, I panic a little bit.  If you read my Jambalaya post, you'll know I add it into my jambalaya too.  For my jambalaya recipe click here!

It has two different versions.  The gold label is fresh chili paste and the other is chili garlic paste.....(I love you *whisper voice).

So, I add it now.  You can too.  You don't have too. As much or as little as you want.

Remember that stinky sock stuff we just got done talking about?  It's time to bring out the big guns.  Dwenjang!  Soybean Paste!  MMMMMM!

Add one tablespoon to your skillet now.  If you're unsure, start smaller and add more as you go. It looks like...uhhhh...brown mud.  I used about a tablespoon.

I used 2 ladles of beef broth that I made.  You can use canned store bought (I have) or even water.  Two ladles is about half a cup.

Word of caution- Make sure your soybean paste is dissolved completely.  If you don't, you'll end up with undissolved chunks of soybean paste and that is NOT pleasant to bite into. 

As it all begins to simmer, chop up your water chestnuts.  Never had them before?  They are crunchy and delightful and if I don't have them,  I won't make this dish.  You can buy them whole, sliced or chopped.  I buy sliced and chop them up myself.  Sometimes, I'll add bamboo here too.  But not this time.

Let the whole concoction simmer while you add the tofu.  You almost forget there was tofu, didn't you?  I almost forgot there was tofu.  Sheeez.

I like this kind.  You can use whatever brand you want and whichever firmness you want (ranges from super soft to extra firm).

This package has four pieces of tofu.  I used all four pieces for this recipe. You can use more or less.  If you're HALVING the recipe use two.  

Tofu is really easy to cut because its so soft.  I like the cubes to be on the smaller size, but you can do large squares.  It's all a matter of personal preference.  Just be sure to stay consistent and cut evenly and consistently to ensure even cooking.

I cut one piece of tofu in half lengthwise, lay the two halves on top of each other and then cut in even strips and THEN finally cut into small cubes.

Throw the tofu into the party so they can simmer and get yummy...

Simmer for about 10 minutes.  Add more liquid if you need it.  Lastly, I throw in a little cornstarch mixed with cold water to thicken into a glorious sauce and eat with rice. You can eat it over linguine too.  It's sooooo good.

Oh wait.  Are those chopped green onions I threw on top before serving?  Yes.  Not a must but a "why not" since I had some on hand and it tastes good and looks nice.

If it's easier for you to chop everything up ahead of time, you can.  I just prefer to chop as I'm cooking.  Not everyone cooks that way.  Just remember to cook your onions and garlic with the meat, your veggies next and then add chestnuts and tofu last.  Why?  Well your veggies don't need as much cooking time as the meat and you don't want them to get too soggy and the tofu doesn't need to cook for too long either.  

Okay.  Go!  Eat!