Kosher Dogs for my 3rd-of-July Lunch at Subsational

Mike and I were recently talking about blogging and children. Since we both have some at this point, we have realized that there’s not much time for long-form blogging. I mean, it’s 11pm and this is the only time I have to do this? I should’ve been asleep an hour ago! So I will be trying to shorten things up with these posts!

Today I went to a local lunch spot called Subsational near my job in the Midwood section of Brooklyn. It’s an area with a variety of cultures all mashing together including Russian, Turkish, Uzbek, Tajik, Georgian, and Orthodox Jewish (I’m sure I’m forgetting some others). It’s been great getting a chance to have some awesome kabobs, Turkish kasarli pide, and Uzbek samosas during my lunch breaks. Subsational is a glatt kosher restaurant where you find a lot of young orthodox Jewish guys hanging out getting a quick bite to eat. I recently saw that they added a few styled hot dogs to the menu and figured it would be good to go there around the 4th of July. I decided to order the Chilli Dog and the Fiesta Dog.

 

Lots of available seating. I got there at a quiet time.

 

Served in a paper boat, wrapped in more paper, and fit cleanly in the paper pouch.

The dogs are all-beef (Kosher, remember?), sliced down the middle and put on a flat top to grill. The people behind the counter said that they use a brand of dogs called Solomon. They said they could not use Hebrew National, which I think is because the dogs are kosher but not glatt kosher. The fiesta dog is topped with chipotle slaw, honey mustard, salsa rojo, and tortilla crunch. It had an overall tangy taste, with different world colliding between the slaw and the salsa/tortilla elements. I liked it and found that these disparate tastes worked well together.

Fiesta Dog

 

The Chilli Dog. No way to make this look pretty.

My next dog was the Chilli Dog, which is topped with short-rib chili. I’m not usually a chili dog guy, but I decided to give it a whirl. I’m glad I did. Yes, the way it looks in the photo is kind of a mess. The bun couldn’t hold up to the weight of the chili, and I had to eat it with a fork and knife. But…that was some damn good chili! It was not a cumin-heavy chili, but was almost like a sweeter BBQ-like chili, with kidney beans, black beans, and the occasional shredded short-rib. I washed it all down with a small order of sweet-potato fries which could feed two people, and then headed back to work. I love that in a neighborhood filled with a ton of culturally diverse food, you can still find a great hot dog!

Subsational 1928 Coney Island Avenue, Brooklyn NY

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