Bangla Hotdog Recipe

Hotdog never caught up with the masses of Bangladesh. Even now, hotdogs are seldom available. There are no hotdog stalls, the bakeries that sell hotdog are of mediocre quality at best. Good hotdogs aren’t really a thing in Bangladesh. 

I say that hotdogs are not a thing in Bangladesh, but the two key ingredients sure are popular. Sausage and the long hotdog buns are everywhere. Supershops and grocery shops alike sell frozen sausages. But in Bangladesh these sausages are used for cooking other dishes, rarely for making hotdogs. Noodles, ramen, English breakfast – are common dishes made with sausages. Even burgers with sausages are more popular than hotdogs. Even before writing this, I had a “Chicken and Sausage Delight” (names are not the strongest suit of Bangladeshi restaurants) before writing this piece. And the hotdog buns are filled with anything but sausage. In normal Tongs (roadside tea stalls) the hotdog buns are consumed with tea and cigarettes. In my case, these buns work as a great treat for stray dogs. And then there are many factory manufactured butter buns. These are just hotdog buns filled with different flavored creams, chocolate and vanilla being the main two. These are also very popular with the common Bangladeshis, but not a great dog treat. 

Now, this is complete speculation, but I think the reason hotdog never became popular in Bangladesh is because of its name. Because burgers have always been popular in Bangladesh. The burgers back in the days were just a Shami Kabab inside a bun, but that fulfills the criteria of being a burger. And if you are wondering what Shami Kebab is, or if you are looking for a recipe, Moni Dadi has you covered. She wrote down a recipe for Special Shami Kebab, and tasting it blew me away. 

Now back to my hypothesis, the name hotdog probably made Bangladeshi people think it is made of dog meat. So they never adapted to the street food culture. And having dog meat in food is still a serious accusation that is thrown around. So nobody made and sold hotdogs in Bangladesh. Theory closed. But Moni Dadi being way ahead of her time in terms of culinary arts, did attempt to make hotdogs, and gave it her own spin. 

My theory about why hotdogs are not popular is backed by the fact that even New Yorkers thought it was made of dog meat during its inception. Now the years vary according to different sources, but German immigrants brought the dish to New York in the last 1800s. They were sold as “dachshund sausages”. In 1901, some vendor was selling hotdogs, or dachshund sausages as they called it. He shouted “They’re red hot! Get your dachshund sausages while they’re red hot!”. Hearing this would probably attract me to the stall to get one while they were still hot. But a cartoonist saw this and decided to make a cartoon instead. He drew barking dachshund sausages in a warm roll.  But he couldn’t spell dachshund (can’t blame him, I can’t either) so he just wrote dog instead. And that is where the name hotdog comes from. And the cartoon, or the name, did make people think it’s made from dog meat. But the misconception did not stick, thankfully. 

So What Makes This Bangla Hotdog? 

Now you can see from the pictures that Moni Dadi’s hotdog is not a typical hotdog, hence the name Bangla Hotdog. She used keema instead of sausages to make the dish. So I am not sure if this qualifies as a “proper” hotdog, but the keema sure tasted good. The bread we sourced did hold back the dish a little, so we would recommend getting good hotdog bread. Apart from that, the recipe is simple and delicious,  a solid snack option for whenever you desire.