The Queen Bee. Just a little small town cafe, with the best coney dog I ever ate. Walk in the door, plunk down your dollar (that's right $1) and watch as 8 steamed buns get stacked up along the preparers left arm. Then 8 dogs would be pulled out of the steamer and poked into the buns. Next came the finely chopped onions, mustard and finally the meat sauce. The preparer would then layer them in a small paper bag, 2 dogs in, a piece of precut waxed paper, then 2 more dogs and another layer of waxed paper until the bag was full. A one block walk home past the fire station with it's 6 cent Coke machine and supper was served. And what a supper it was. The dog's were made from pork and beef, the coney sauce had probably bubbled in the pot all day and was the best I have ever had.
But there were others in town that were great also. Tegeo's Restaurant sold coney's also. Their sauce was spicier. The New York Lunch completed the trifecta. Again it was a great dog and their sauce was good as well. Over the years, the Queen Bee closed, as did Tegeo's, but the New York Lunch still sells lots of dogs everyday. My only problem is that it's a thousand miles away. I'm stuck in the midwest where everybody thinks a "Chicago Dog" is the best thing on earth. They just never had a good old Queen Bee hot dog.
There are a couple of pretenders in Peoria. Louie's Drive in tries and so does Velvet Freeze - and people think they are great, but these people have just been deprived of the real thing. Over the years I've tried a lot of different recipes to create a sauce as good, but I never have succeeded. The only part of the recipe that I have gotten right is that you boil the hamburger to get that really finely ground consistency. Also all you need is chili powder and the secret ingredient nutmeg. Don't think about putting any tomato sauce in it. The trick is getting the proportions correct. I've come close, but not close enough. Feel free to play with the mix, boil the hamburger, stirring all the time to break up the clumps until it is really fine. Pour off most of the water, stir in enough chili powder to turn it BLACK, then a little nutmeg to make your tongue wonder "What the heck was that?" I guarantee it will be good - just not quite as good as the Queen Bee's.
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2 comments:
Huh. Who knew that my father could write? Makes me want hotdogs...and, well, we all know I don't EAT hotdogs.
There may be nutmeg in it,but you have left out a key ingredient: cumin. This is a must if you want to replicate the recipe from Velvet Freeze. I make a sauce that is almost identical to their's and my family says is even better. I get requests to make it all of the time.
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