Forget Ketchup: Make Your Summer Hot Dogs Vietnamese Style

If you're looking for the next hot dog trend, look no further than the spiralized banh mi hot dog. Hot dogs are one of America's most beloved fast food staples, and banh mi sandwiches fill a similar niche throughout Vietnam, though their popularity is rising in other countries. Traditionally stuffed with grilled pork and slathered with mayo, banh mi also include a variety of fresh ingredients and flavors on a beautifully airy roll.

Fortunately for anyone living in the United States, this fusion dish is fairly accessible; most of the ingredients are available in standard grocery stores, especially with sriracha's rise in popularity. That makes it easy to make your own spicy mayo simply by stirring some sriracha into it to create the perfect flavorful spread as the base for this sandwich. It's also easy to find fresh herbs, especially in warmer months, so you shouldn't have much trouble finding cilantro, mint, and basil. As for cucumbers, English cucumbers are tender and don't need to be peeled, so they're perfect for banh mi-style hot dogs. 

The only real hiccup in sourcing ingredients for this delicious, Asian-style hot dog is sourcing store-bought pickled veggies. If your local grocery store has a fairly robust Asian foods section, or you live near a Vietnamese grocery store, look for "do chua," a combination of bright, delicious pickled radishes and carrots that comes in a jar. If you're not able to find do chua locally, it's easy to make something similar at home by letting julienned carrots and radishes sit in a bath of hot rice vinegar and a little sugar for a few hours. Try adding a little of this pickling liquid to your mayo for additional nuance, and don't sleep on using the leftover pickled veggies on other styles of sandwiches or in salads.

If you're looking for even bigger flavor, spiralizing your hot dog is a game changer. Though not a requirement, this technique opens up more meaty surface area to crisp on the grill, not to mention more open spaces for the tangy pickled carrots, fresh herbs, and piquant sriracha to occupy. However, it's also totally okay to leave your hot dog whole, butterfly it, or even slice it on a bias, depending on the texture you prefer.

Additionally, Vietnamese-style bread is essential to the banh mi experience, especially if you're applying it to hot dogs. These rolls are light, airy, and the perfect vessel for soaking up just the right amount of meaty hot dog flavor to complement the freshness of chopped mint, cilantro, basil, and paper-thin slices of cucumber. Normally, we'd also tell you to toast the roll for a hot dog, but the pillowy texture is part of the point. One bite, and this is one fusion food mashup you'll crave forever.