FYI: "Hot Dog" in Boston Herald ("1900, at a polo game")

[bapopik at AOL.COM]

Maybe Gerald Cohen can write in. A baseball game at the Polo Grounds (the TAD cartoon in 1906 was of a 6-day bicycle race at Madison Square Garden) becomes a polo game? This never ends. This is the 21st Century, so no one can possibly check.
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The Boston Herald

August 21, 2005 Sunday
ALL EDITIONS

SECTION: THE EDGE; Pg. 035

LENGTH: 401 words

HEADLINE: THE BIG QUESTION;
Meating of the minds with Kayem hot dog boss

BYLINE: By NICOLA HASSAPIS

BODY:


If anybody knows hot dogs, it's Matt Monkiewicz of Kayem Foods in Chelsea.

Founded by his great-grandfather Kazmierez Monkiewicz, Kayem Foods is the top-selling hot dog brand in New England and also exports to such farflung locations as Haiti, Russia and the Middle East. Kayem Foods produces 1 million hot dogs per day.

Monkiewicz, whose boyhood dream was to be a pilot, describes himself as ``a late bloomer in the hot dog business'' who is primarily interested in food marketing and advertising.

** What's really in a hot dog?

Despite lore, there is only fresh-cut whole muscle trim. What you trim off a roast, we grind down. Hot dogs are 70 percent lean, so the whole ``mystery meat'' thing is completely untrue. Anything other than whole muscle trim must be labeled.

** Corn dogs. What are your views?

I've never been too much of a fan. A lot of our products are sold at fairgrounds and do get converted to corn dogs at the site of consumption - they are tasty, but I prefer hot dogs.

** Do you go home smelling like hot dogs?

No, I'm far enough away from the ovens, but you can smell it when you drive up to the factory in the morning. I don't have any stories about dogs coming up and licking me.

** Have you ever considered cashing in on the reality show trend and making your own show set in a hot dog factory?

No, but that's a great idea. I think there'd be a market for that!

** Why do hot dogs come in packages of eight and rolls come in packages of six?

Here's my theory: The typical protein portion is two ounces. Eight to the pound is the perfect size for a hot dog - it's not too wide or too thin. The meat business measures in pounds, so that's how we get eight in a pack. But everything bakers do is in dozens.

** How did the hot dog get its name?

There are several theories. It's like trying to find out where Jimmy Hoffa's buried. The story goes that in the 1900s there was a cartoonist from the New York Journal who saw these things called ``red hot dachshunds'' being sold at a polo game. He wanted to make a cartoon out of it but he couldn't spell ``dachshunds,'' so he called them ``red hot dogs.'' But there is evidence that they were referred to as ``hot dogs'' in Germany 100 years before that. All we know is that somehow, somewhere, it's connected to Germans and their dachshunds.

** Describe hot dogs in three words.

Convenient . . . delicious . . . fun.

Nicola Hassapis is a teen correspondent.

LOAD-DATE: August 21, 2005