Hot Doug's-- the music of changes

Doug Sohn, "Hot Doug," has long been recognized as one of the key innovators on the Chicago food scene, albeit one usually relegated to a lesser position than the fine dining innovators— Achatz, Cantu, D'Angelo, Gras— because of lingering prejudice (rooted in 19th century aristocratic notions of what constitutes food art) toward common foods such as hot dogs and sausages.

Nevertheless, I think one of his new works represents a breakthrough for Sohn which catapults him into the ranks of Chicago's most formally innovative and structurally incandescent chefs. I was fortunate enough to experience it today and, though I'm still digesting my experience (figuratively, not literally, as you'll see), I have some initial thoughts which I think should encourage any of you to repeat my lunch sooner rather than later.



I noticed the surprisingly bare celebrity sausage board (as well as the uncommonly low price for a special) as I walked in. "What's it like?" I asked Doug as I reached the front.

"A little bit of everything," was his cryptic reply.

Curiosity piqued, I ordered it along with fries and a drink. "Be sure to have the special first, before you get into the fries," Doug urged me.

A few moments later I heard "Mike G?" and I turned around. As the guy who works the floor handed me the tray, he looked at me and said, "It's not a mistake. This is how it's supposed to be."

As soon as he set it down, I saw where the confusion might arise:



We often speak of minimalist hot dogs but clearly Doug was pursuing this to an entirely new level. I stared at the meal, trying to comprehend how to eat it— which end to pick up, where to begin, whether ketchup was appropriate.

And as I stared at it, a curious thing began to happen. Though I wasn't eating personally, I began to take in the eating all around me— the kids sucking on the sticks of their corn dogs, the guys from the gaming company chomping into spicy pork sausage and bacon-cheddar elk sausage.



As I listened more closely, I began to pick out individual notes— the crunch of sauerkraut, the beery tang of St. Jacques mustard, the sweet-tart cherries on a pork sausage. Flavor after flavor came at me from all directions, and the lack of anything on my own plate meant that I could savor everything in the restaurant.



In many ways it was almost overwhelming to experience so many flavors simultaneously. I felt my vision begin to expand, I seemed to take in all of the restaurant at once.



The experience lasted a little under five minutes and then the sensations seemed to subside and I ate my fries and drank my Pibb Xtra while contemplating, a little shaken I must admit, the extraordinary synesthetic experience I had just had.

Doug has long been a playfully radical innovator, selecting ingredients by casting the I Ching or sometimes by playing canasta, but this meal exposed a new side of him, the hot dog artist as shaman, as trickster and mendicant, opening the doors of perception by bringing into question the very meaning of such concepts as "sausage," "lunch," and "value meal." As much as I've enjoyed my past meals at Hot Doug's, I felt that this one took it in new directions which have for me completely redefined the experience of eating sausage. I emerge from it reborn and grateful for the changes it has wrought in me for what is, unquestionably, a very small price for such, dare I say it, genius.

This was like the movie "Mulholland Drive." I don't get it but I think I like it.

Is it a coincidence that the iTunes Music Store's "Discovery Download" yesterday was the first movement of Cage's 4'33"? I doubt it

Thanks, Mike for an entertaining post.

jtobin625 wrote:This was like the movie "Mulholland Drive." I don't get it but I think I like it.

Help found here.

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applause

Sadly, I sat here for 30 seconds waiting for the post to load...

Did he actually charge you 4.33?

I'd have paid twice as much in Köchels!

turkob wrote:Did he actually charge you 4.33?

This is the same question I have about the whole experience.

Santander wrote:...






































applause

I agree 100% with this rebuttal.


PS- Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2006 10:45 am
Posts: 433
Location: Logan Square

Hi,

I just came back from Hot Doug's. I saw the special, then wavered when I couldn't figure out what to look forward to. Instead, I had the bleu cheese pork sausage with the dried cherries, a thuringer with everything and chipotle sausage with a mole sauce. Yes, I did share. While you experienced it, I ate it and very likely my meal was shared with others who ordered just like you.

I wish I had been braver.

Regards,

I think its genius... A joke perhaps... But a good one.

Food isn't always about what you toss into your mouth. It's also about the town it's in, the neighborhood it falls into, the street it's on, the building it occupies, the person that owns it, the hands that make it, the crowds that follow, and the friends you eat it with. It's the experience as a whole!

If I were still in Chicago I head over to Doug's right now and pay $4.33 for the John Cage experience.

Great post Mike G...

~GS

This is a serious step forward for Mr. Sohn, but I am disappointed that accompanying your meal were conventional Cage-free fries. Should only encased meats be advanced in this fashion, I fear that sausage hegemony over fried potatoes may well prove irreversible.

My doctor has me on a no fried foods diet so I was only able to appreciate half of the special. I must say that the interplay between thick, bubbly saliva and self-referential tongue was an amazingly refreshing experience.

I can't top that...april fools champ of 09' goes to Doug.

Jayz wrote:I can't top that...april fools champ of 09' goes to Doug.

Do you think it was Doug's idea?

I don't think the special comes with fries, for what it's worth

As intrigued as I was by this amazing meal I took some time to do some research and discovered that the sausage that was served was first created some twenty-five years ago by a Hungarian professor, Dr I Lirpa.

At the time he was a guest researcher in particle physics at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Institute for Advanced Thinking in Plano Texas and was living alone as his wife stayed back in Hungary to take care of their school aged children Imelda and Isaac. Lirpa had always had his wife do the cooking, and Einstein like eccentric that he was, he had no patience for the more mundane necessities of life.

One day after a very long stint in the lab he accidentally put a hot dog in a hard vacuum chamber instead of the microwave. The sausage disintegrated leaving a dish that not only predated Doug Sohn's creation but started the entire molecular gastronomy movement as he created the world's first quantum foam sandwich.

As intrigued as I was by this amazing meal I took some time to do some research and discovered that the sausage that was served was first created some twenty-five years ago by a Hungarian professor, Dr I Lirpa.

I see it's also on the menu at Folo.

David Hammond wrote:

Jayz wrote:I can't top that...april fools champ of 09' goes to Doug.

Do you think it was Doug's idea?

I guess not...but it sure works.

April Fools!

April 2 being here, I can reveal that Hot Doug, clever a fellow as he is, was not involved (except unwittingly) and the opening signboard was all Photoshop. Today's special, which contains actual food, is The Herman Franks, Knockwurst with Michael's Mustard and Lancashire Cheese.

What I want to know is how you kept the juice from your Thuringer off the tray...

Ha! I thought it was Doug's prank. Well played!

Maybe Nina from Zagat's could stop by for a new dining experience.