The Very Simple Reason Twitter's Most Divisive Hot Dog Exists
An unexpectedly volatile situation could be brewing in the world of food. Lengthy periods of peace broken only by the occasional weird food trend might be about to come to a shattering end due to a revelation publicized on Twitter.
It cannot be easy for hot dogs and burgers to exist together because let's be honest: What makes them so different? Both have sliced bread filled with meat (or a substitute, if you'd prefer a meat-free option) and are commonly packed with onions and cheese. The only real difference is that one is long and straight whereas the other is short and round. Now there's a comedy duo in the waiting.
But those painstaking decisions of having to choose between a burger and a hot dog as the food vendor waits impatiently are over – there's a solution in town. As shared on Twitter, it turns out that you can buy hot dog burgers. But, in true social media style, they're proving a little controversial.
Hot dog burgers aren't popular on Twitter
What could be easier? Squash hot dogs and burgers together to create a menu item to suit all fast food tastes. Rastelli's makes circular cuts of beef flavored with paprika, smoke, and celery powder. (They may also be made with beef and pork). Dubbed round dogs, they were created after the company received a request for pre-sliced hot dogs to improve their flavor through enhanced caramelization when cooking, explains Food & Wine. They're not cheap though, costing $35 per 12-pack.
Twitter produced a mixture of intrigue and despair when presented with the round dogs. User @ErinLodes declared them "an atrocity," adding, "I can never unknow this what have you done." And @EmzeesWhimzees called them "disturbing, at the least." User @iamzeeeggman concluded that "nature is not healing." Outright support is harder to come by, although one commenter claimed "the future is now, and I want to take a bite out of it." Many people questioned what makes this meat different from bologna. Rastelli's told Food & Wine that it uses a patented process that differs from how bologna is made and smokes round dogs "similar to an Old World-style hot dog."
Perhaps market penetration is a factor. About 50 billion burgers are eaten in the U.S. every year, reports USA Today, while the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council estimates the figure to be 20 billion for hot dogs. Combining hot dogs and burgers, therefore, allows a bite of each booming market.