Hello to everyone out there in the blogosphere! Welcome to another edition of Mastication Monologues. Today I will be telling you about a small establishment called Huey’s Hotdogs located at 1507 W Balmoral Ave (between Clark St & Ashland Ave) Chicago, IL 60640 in the Edgewater/Andersonville neighborhood. NOTE: Even though some websites say that they only take cash, they DO take credit cards now.
This food adventure was born out of my fellow classmate’s desire to try a classic Chicago hotdog, but there was a certain caveat that drove us to this specific place: she’s a vegetarian. Ergo, we decided to give Huey’s a try due to its large selection of vegan friendly dishes like hot dogs, burgers, chili, and salads. I, however, was looking for something beyond the typical Chicago hotdog, brat, Italian beef, or cheeseburger. Instead, I was drawn to a strange option under the Sausages header on the chalkboard menu: Turducken. No, it is not some sort of mystical animal that comes from the dense jungles of Grant Park, but rather a Frankenstein-esque creation of Thanksgiving proportions. What it consists of is taking a chicken stuffed with spice rub, stuff it into a duck with more stuffing, and then put it all into a turkey with, you guessed it, more stuffing. All of the birds are de-boned, and in the end you enjoy a three-layered meat monstrosity. Given all of this information, you can now see why I was curious to see how they could synthesize this hybrid meat into sausage form.
All dressed up and definitely has a place to go: my stomach.
When they brought it out to me, I was somewhat underwhelmed by what I was faced with in my plastic basket. It was served on a typical white bread, poppy-seed covered bun, and the tawny white sausage itself seemed to be grilled along with being cut in half/scored on top. The actual taste of the meat was very rich with some fatty undertones from the duck and backed up with the heartiness of the turkey, but was somewhat difficult to taste due to the cranberry and horseradish sauce that came on it. As strange it may seem, this thick scarlet comforter did not taste as terrible as one would may think. Unfortunately, I thought that it sullied the sausage because the cranberry element completely smothered any horseradish flavors and also almost comprehensively drowned out the Turducken. However, I was pretty impressed that the bun was not soggy with how much of this cranberry jam they put on the top of it, but it was thick enough to stay on the sausage for a surprisingly clean dinner. As for the fries that came with the sausage, I was pleasantly surprised at how delicious they were. They were a medium to dark golden brown and on the softer side with a fluffy white inside, but they had a rich aftertaste that made it seem like they were fried in a different sort of oil. I actually enjoyed them more than the sausage which was somewhat sad.
As a whole, Huey’s really is like any other basic Chicago hot dog stand aside from their vegan menu. So unless you’re a vegetarian, you can get basically the same food elsewhere like at Gold Coast Dogs or Wiener Circle without having to go so far north.
Mastication Monologues 