Klaus's Wurst Haus, Victor Harbor

A fortnight ago I put the call out to see if anyone knew of better Adelaide hotdog than Wendy's (here http://theofficeeater.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/wendy-myer-centre-food-court.html).

Well, I found one. It's not quite in Adelaide - it's from Klaus's Wurst Haus in Victor Harbor and despite it being less of a haus and more of a essenwagen (rough google translation of food van) it's probably the best darn hotdog I've ever had.

I've had hotdogs from Klaus's before and this time I ordered the Vienna sausage with sauerkraut, fried onions, cheese and curry tomato sauce. You know how food often doesn't taste as good as you remember it? Klaus's bucks that trend - it actually tasted better. MUCH better.



Klaus's uses a sausage cooking method that I haven't often seen - boiling each sausage until firm and then charring on a grill. I really rate this method - although you can't see it the sausage developed a wonderful snap and had a noticeably smokey taste. Hot sauerkraut cut through the fatty richness of the sausage while the caramelised onions added some sweetness. Warmed in some sort of bun warming cabinet thingo the light white bun had the perfect amount of crunch and chewiness.

What really made this hotdog was the curry tomato sauce - sweet, savoury, deeply tomato-y and with curry flavour and heat to spare this sauce really packed a punch. No wonder currywurst is all the range in Deutschland.

I know Klaus's Wurst Haus is a bit too distant for most CBD 9-5ers to drop by for lunch but if you ever find yourself Victor this is the place to hit up.

Wendy's, Myer Centre Food Court

I had a Wendy's shake'n'dog combo for lunch today. For me, Wendy's has always been more about the milkshakes and hotdogs rather than the ice cream. Shun me if you will but Wendy's retains a certain magical high school nostalgia - more so than Hungry Jacks or McDonalds or KFC. In many ways, Wendy's represented the pinnacle of adolescent achievement. Because the outlets were less accessible you had have the means to get yourself there (a car and a certain amount of freedom) and once there you had to be able to afford to buy your meal (implying a high school job of sort) and the outlets were usually located by the beach or near cinemas (which often meant babes and dates).

Today's meal was my old stand-by of chocolate thick shake and a hotdog with butter, BBQ sauce, mustard and cheese.



Thick and cold and sweet and chocolatey the thick shake was just as I remembered it. Because I can hoover down a milkshake in 30 seconds I always order a thick shake. It might be smaller but it takes much longer to knock back and means you've usually got something to drink with the dry nub of roll at the end of the hotdog.

And this is probably the great flaw of the Wendy's hotdog - the final nub. The fourth to last and third to last bites are invariably the best. There's still some dog left and all the buttery/cheesy/saucy goodness has oozed down to the bottom to create a mouthful of ultimate flavour. The second to last bite probably still has some residual flavour ooze and is ok. But the last bite - just a disappointingly dry heel of bread. I mean, look how far the dog is poking out of the bun. No wonder the flavour doesn't reach the bottom.



Having said all that, Wendy's probably still do the best hotdogs available in Adelaide (but I'm happy to be corrected). I'm not sure whether that's an indictment on Adelaide's hotdog scene (does Adelaide even have a hotdog scene?) or my own tastes. Regardless, Wendy's will always take me back to those halcyon high school days of hot cars, hot babes and hotdogs.