While in NYC to see Showgirls the Musical my friends and I stopped for a late dinner at JapaDog the home of the Japanese Hot Dog. Located on St. Mark Street in the East Village, JapaDog offers up some interesting variations on the American favorite.Matt and I ordered up some dogs and an order of fries. 

Kind of a funny story here. We waited in a short line to place our order. When we got up to the counter, an adorable young Indian girl took our order and yelled it back to the Japanese cooks IN JAPANESE. There were some Asian college kids in line behind us. They heard her Japanese and were impressed. "Hey that Indian girl spoke better Japanese then you, and you're Asian!" one guy laughs. I stifled my laugh. His friend spoke my mind "Uh dude, she is Asian. She's from India." It took a while for his buddy to put it together.

Meanwhile, in Foodland Matt and I placed our order. I got the Croquette - a Japanese croquette (fried mashed potatoes) with Arabiki sausage and cooked cabbage. I also got the Love Meat (I couldn't resist the name!) which is a hot dog topped with their meat sauce and cheese. Also ordered a side of black pepper fries but got the butter and shoyu fries. The mistake was ok, because I had already inhaled a 1/4 of the bag before I realized it wasn't what I asked for. I had no idea buttered fries would be so delicious! 

As for the dogs, The Croquette was delicious! The little croquettes have a little BBQ sauce on them. They are like these delicious tangy little potato pancakes! The sausage and cabbage was just perfect. The cabbage is prepared similar to sour kraut. I will be spending weeks trying to make some kind of similar crazy hot dog concoction at home. LOVED IT!

As for the Love Meat, it was a little disappointing. I think I was expecting something in the vein of a Japanese chili dog. That's not what this was. It was sweet. Too sweet for my taste. The meat sauce threw me off. I ate about half and gave it to Matt to finish. He, on the other hand, enjoyed the Love Meat! In fact, I would even say he loved the Love Meat. (Hahahahahahaha.) 

Now the Yakisoba Dog I did not try. It is Arabiki sausage with Yakisoba noodles and roasted red peppers. It looks very interesting. Matthew gave it rave reviews and said now he wants to make every hot dog with Yakisoba noodles on it.This is something I may need to get creative with at home! Better start stocking up on Yakisoba!

Japanese hot dogs are A-maze! But we also had some seriously yummy cake! Matt's birthday was this past Monday. For a couple of years now I have been getting cakes from my super sweet  friend and Jillian Lyons Designs model Sara Kenny of You've Been Cupcaked. This year Matt could not decide what he wanted to order from her. She emailed me a 14 page list of flavors - I shit you not, 14 PAGES! Every time he landed on something he wanted to try, he would panic and change his mind. He kept saying 'it's so much pressure!' Ultimately he decided on 1 dozen of 2 different flavors: Raspberry Lime and Orange Cream Fizzy, but with a zombie theme...

_____________________________________________________________________

Jillian Lyons is the quirky girl you all know and love as well as a small business entity. Show her some love! Visit Jillian Lyons Designs.