Japadogs – Multicultural Hot Dogs
The office recently moved downtown, opening up a whole new set of lunch options. Luckily for us, the best hot dog stand in town is just around the corner.
Vancouver always touts its multiculturalism proudly, and so does Japadog on Burrard and Smithe, where “east meets west deliciously” as tastethehappy puts it. Its fusion food in a bun. More precisely, they serve hot dogs with a Japanese makeover. I know, its hard to imagine if you haven’t seen it before, and I had trouble explaining it to my coworkers without visual aid.
Take their Misomayo for example. Turkey sausage with Japanese mayo, miso sauce, and radish.
Or Terimayo, their #1 export, beef hot dog with Japanese mayo, special teriyaki sauce, and seaweed toppings.
Its more than just a gimmick, as these dogs taste pretty good with the Japanese toppings, and almost makes you forget what your momma told you about eating too much fast food. They do have other types of sausages, leaving the choice of condiments up to you. I also noticed their stand is cleaner than some restaurants I’ve been to, which is always a plus.
These guys are pretty famous too, making the news on numerous occasions, and proudly displays mug shots of B-list celebrities that have visited them, such as Steven Segal.
As far as hot dogs, cheap lunches, creative cuisines, and fusion food goes, this ranks pretty high up there.
Food: 8/10
Likelihood of returning: very high
Just in case you weren’t following up on hot dog related news, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut recently defeated Kobayashi “Tsunami” Takeru in Nathan’s hot dog eating contest by slaughtering 59 dogs in 10 minutes. That’s almost 1 hot dog every 10 second, and nearly 20,000 calories in total.
Fortunately for those two, I only had enough cash that day to buy one.
How do Chestnut and Kobayashi do that, its just insane! Great images of these Japadogs, they seem larger than life. Seen it many times but yet to try myself. Reminds me a lot of the localized takes on pizza and spaghetti that I’ve eaten in Japan. On first glance, sounds and looks strange to see certain Japanese toppings on western food, but they really do work! Looks like Japadog is in the same category here. Surprised there aren’t imitators out on the streets of Van, as there are so many “normal” hotdog vendors that must be cannibalizing each other’s sales, selling the same old same old.
shokutsu
@ http://foodosophy.wordpress.com/
Love the Terimayo!
# Japadogs consumed since the office move = 2
# Japadogs expected to be consumed by the end of 2008 = however-many-until-i-sick-of-them
PS: there’s a vendor at the Richmond Night Market that’s making similar dogs; not sure how the taste compares though.
I have to admit, I was really skeptical the first time I ate Japadog. But it does taste good. Oroshi was my fave.
On the street meat note however, have you tried any other hot dog vendors downtown? Im wondering if the dogs are pretty consistent, or if there is great variation in the quality. I really do miss the streets of Toronto and New York, where a cheap dog was a great, quick snack.
Sadly, I haven’t eaten any non-Japadog hotdogs in downtown Vancouver.
Now that you mention it, I’m also pretty curious if the hotdogs here are any good. Maybe we’ll try them out and do a little compilation blog post about them :)
I totally know what you mean though. I lived in Toronto for a year and grabbing some “street-meat” on Yonge (or anywhere!) was pretty much a weekend ritual for me :)
I’ve tried the hotdogs on the downtown streets and I usually find the vendors around Burrard and Robson the tastiest because of the competition. Don’t have a favourite as I’m not in the area very often (hate the lack of free parking).
Haven’t tried this one though. It sure sounds interesting. Will have to try it next time I’m downtown.
My husband and I were just there today! Had the Terimayo for the first time. Good stuff. Will have to run through the menu as well; our home is only a 5-minute walk away, after all.
I saw a knock off version of this, where else but the Richmond Summer Night Market. :)
Awesome photos, I was always curious about that Japadog stand and now I am definitely going to try one.
thanks!!
I finally got around to trying the Terimayo at Japadogs and was not disappointed.
Even on a cold wintry day, there was a bit of a line up. I didn’t figure out how to order until someone mentioned that you have to place your order at the front and then line up on the side to pick up. Needless to say, I got in the wrong line up of course.
But the wait was well worth it. My hot dog was tasty and I love the interesting balance of sauce, seaweed and hot dog. Also, I think I want to try the kurobata next time, as I’ve heard that the meat from specially raised black pigs is delicious.
I will definitely be back.
@holly
the line is always so neat and tidy I can see how someone walking up might feel compelled to ‘fall in line’.
Alas after my first try, I learned that one dog is just not enough, and need to get one of their special menu dogs and chase it down with a regular hot dog dressed in their many available condiments to get my fill.
If you’re a fan of wasabi, try their wasabi mayo. I love it.
It’s not very spicy at all – more mayo than wasabi – but it gives your hotdog a nice little kick :)
Look out for the squeeze-bottle of light-green stuff in their pile of condiments.
Terimayo has been my weekly saviour since moving here!
Welcome to Vancouver InstyleO. Enjoy the good eats!
I flew in from San Francisco last night and today was going through Yelp for an economical but tasty lunch in the downtown area. I came across Japadogs but wasn’t too enamored by the idea. As luck would have it, I happened to be in the neighborhood this evening and walked the extra block to Japadogs on Smithe and Hornsby; I had the Orishi and I hereby declare that this is the *BEST* hot dog I have ever had (with the disclaimer that I am not exactly a hotdog person and hence cannot claim to have had “hotdogs all over the world”).
I love the wasabi-mayo; it adds a zing and a kick and knocks the dog up quite a few notches! Skip the ketchup/mustard and go for the Wasabi-mayo; I can’t recommend it enough!
Tomorrow I am going for the much talked about Terimayo !
Bon appétit !
いただきます
ERRATA:
I meant to say “Burrard St” , not “hornsby” :p
@U Tgb
Their 2nd location opened up a while back on Pender and Burrard, outside the cactus club, with new flavors to choose from. Worth checking out.
Pender and Burrard? Are they there on Sundays?
I drove by today and couldn’t find it so I ended up at the orginal location and ordered their oroshi dog. It was very good. A crisp bratwurst that wasn’t salty, which I found the kurobata dog a little on the salty side. The grated radish was also a refreshing topping. I can see myself eating this one a lot in the summer.
One more special one to try, the miso mayo dog!
So far, so good.