Every city has something to make its place in the history of great culinary contributions. A place as big and as varied as Chicago is bound to have a number of them, but one that people keep coming back to is the hot dog. For some, this might be a dubious honor, because of the hot dog’s place in the scale of great foods of the world. However, a truly authentic Chicago dog is absolutely worth all the attention it gets, because the ingredients are of a superior quality.

It does have a working class connotation, and so does ratatouille. In cultures all over the world, the folk cuisine has the potential to make it into the gourmet realm with a little bit of practice. It’s because the tastes appeal to a mass of people, but they also contain just enough difference to make them shine.

It doesn’t take a hot dog to make a ball game, and the shine comes from it not raining, but there are plenty of good reasons to visit a 4 star hotel in Chicago . One of these is centered around the likelihood of tasting the local hot dogs, and ball games certainly are the preferred location. But there are plenty of street vendors serving these up, and sometimes the ones from the carts can be better than anything served indoors.

An open mind isn’t really necessary, because the hot dog should do the convincing. There are some good things to know before tasting these, so one can know what to expect, and when to recognize it’s being done correctly.

It’s all in the layering. A hot dog is steam cooked, and placed on a poppy-seed bun. Then it’s topped, in order, with mustard, relish, onions, tomato wedges, a pickle wedge, peppers, and finally, a dash of celery salt . That’s the works, and it’s a kind of local ordinance that it has to be made in this order, because this way insures that a bit of every flavor will get in every bite. They are a bit of a sacred cow, or dog, here, and one bite will explain everything.