My first attempt at making tabouli–a Middle Eastern parsley salad that I’ll describe in a separate post someday soon–with the help of a packaged mix by food company Casbah.Parsley is an herb that doesn’t really work very well when dried, tending to adopt a musty odor and dusty texture.
To find a more readily available brand of hotdog for budae jjigae (see most recently 6.073 Budae Jjigae)–Hebrew Nationals often being out of stock at my local supermarket here in Manila–I conducted a taste test of 6 varieties* that looked most promising.
I’ve always preferred boiling hotdogs, which leeches out some of the salt–compared to grilling them, which seems to make them saltier.
*In a typical supermarket here, processed meat products comprise the greatest body of inventory, particularly hotdogs/franks/sausages, sometimes including a hotdog/frank/sausage bar (see for example 5.054 Spaghetti), so I had a dizzying array of options to choose from.
The candidates [from left]: (1) Farmer John Dodger Dogs, (2) Farmer John Jumbo Premium Beef Franks, (3) Highlands Angus Beef Franks, (4) King Sue Hungarian Sausages, (5) Pure Foods Chick’n Chili, (6) Pure Foods Beef Franks with Angus.Tabouli (2.0)–the fresh parsley wasn’t enough to compensate for the dried; even the color remained kinda swamp icky.Ketchup + Mayo + Sambal Oelek–YUM!
The candidates are presented in ascending order of preference as follows:
Pure Foods Beef Frank with Angus (1.0)–pasty in texture; not a lick of beef flavor; doesn’t even look like beef.Highlands Angus Beef Frank (1.5)–beefy, but not in a good way, as if made from older cattle.Pure Foods Chick’n Chili (2.0)–too spicy, but otherwise okay.King Sue Hungarian Sausage (2.5)–not bad per se, but more sausagey than hotdoggy, so maybe not appropriate for budae jjigae, though I wouldn’t mind it with sauerkraut and dark mustard.Farmer John Jumbo Premium Beef Frank (3.0)–beefy, in a good way, reminiscent of Hebrew Nationals, so it would be the best choice for an actual hotdog with bun and toppings, though perhaps a bit too intense for budae jjigae; despite the name, the smallest of the bunch.Farmer John Dodger Dog (3.25)–classic hotdog flavor and chewy texture; the clear winner.
