HOT DOG!

Billing himself “your official hot dog historian,” four-legged tour guide Frank de Wienerdog trots out the tale of the “bun-derful” street food.

Leaving out mentions of animal casings, pink slime, or any references to how hot dogs are actually made on an industrial scale, Van Zandt focuses on the history, beginning about 500 years ago with the first records of recognizable sausages in Frankfurt and Vienna. She covers their arrival on U.S. shores in the 19th century with the flood of German and Austrian immigrants as well as their subsequent identity as an “all-American food.” Noting that the number of dogs consumed annually now would encircle the Earth 75 times, she explains how the term hot dog came into use. Then, following nods to associated figures from early popularizer Nathan Handwerker to Eleanor Roosevelt and modern professional eaters Joey Chestnut and Miki Sudo, she goes on to mention toppings, regional variations, and alternative meats (and non-meats). Salerno illustrates it all with sunny cartoons featuring a long dog in a Tyrolean hat and a multiracial, multigenerational human cast in cities, ballparks, and other settings all happily chowing down. Topped by a timeline and a recipe for “curly snake dogs” (hot dogs wrapped in pizza dough), this pun-derful tribute to the tube steak is sure to make salivary glands sit up and beg.

A “wiener” for young foodies.