Chandler Goff of Atlanta holds the "Hamdog," a hot dog wrapped in a beef patty, deep-fried, then covered with chili, cheese, onions, a fried egg and french fries. I am not making that up. (Associated Press/John Bazemore)

Get ready for a bombshell revelation, blog readers: I love hot dogs. You can quote me on that. If you serve me hot dogs, I will be your friend for life; bonus points if you offer up my favorite toppings, which are chili, mustard and lots of onions. Apparently I lived in Coney Island or Michigan in a previous life — I say that because chili, mustard and onions generally made up a Coney Island hot dog, though that Coney Island style was originally made in Michigan. And that’s a hot dog fun fact for you.

If you love hot dogs as much as I do, and if you happen to get really hungry hours before lunch (as I did this morning), you might spend some time cruising the Internet looking for cool new ways to serve hot dogs. Or at least, that’s what I did. My first stop in the search for delectable hot dog recipes led me to Serious Eats, where Jenn Sit has a great post about regional differences between hot dogs in this great land of ours. All hot dog aficionados have the ingredients of a Chicago hot dog memorized — diced onion, tomato wedge, pickle relish, mustard, peppers, pickle spear, celery salt, NO KETCHUP — but Sit highlights some other regional hot dogs that got my tummy tingling. I was particularly intrigued by Sonorans from Arizona; these hot dogs are wrapped in bacon and then topped with pinto beans, chopped tomatoes, onions, mustard, mayonnaise and jalapenos.

The Serious Eats post mentioned Pink’s Hot Dogs in Los Angeles, so I headed there next to check out the truly diverse hot dog menu. Pink’s offers hot dogs that include a mushroom swiss dog, the Ozzy Spicy Dog (nacho cheese, grilled onions, guacamole, tomatoes), the Lord of the “Rings” Dog (barbecue sauce and onion rings) and the America the Beautiful Dog (a jalapeno dog topped with pastrami, bacon, lettuce and chopped tomatoes). All that, plus sometimes celebrities stop by to serve hot dogs.

Over at Epicurious, Esther Sung writes about New York City business Asiadog, which represents the intersection of hot dogs and Asian cuisine (a much-needed intersection, may I add). Asiadog serves hot dogs like the Ito, which features Japanese curry and kimchi applies, the Sidney, with Thai style relish, crushed peanuts and fish sauce, or the Vinh, with cucumbers, pickled carrot and daikon and jalapeno.

New York City has all the hot dog luck, as they’re also home to Crif Dogs, spotlighted by Brynn Mannino of Woman’s Day. At Crif Dogs, you can get a breakfast hot dog, though I’m more intrigued by hot dogs wrapped in bacon and accompanied by sour cream and avocado. Then, if you haven’t gotten enough of New York dogs, Mannino writes that you can head to Greenwich Village for a Ditch Dog, which is a hot dog topped with macaroni and cheese (the cheese in question being a blend of Gruyere, American and parmesan).

Lastly, I spent some time at The Gourmet Chili Dog’s Web site, where I procured these recipes, both tasty-sounding and questionable:
The Greek: hot dog with diced sun dried tomatoes, feta cheese, kalamata olives
The Cuban: hot dog with fried plantains
The Tarheel: hot dog with bbq & slaw
The Rocky Top: hot dog with sausage gravy

I feel like there are so many more hot dog toppings to talk about, like hot dogs covered in peppers and onions a la Philly cheese steaks, or Seattle dogs, which feature cream cheese and onions. And I haven’t even touched on the subject of bratwurst. But rather than continue to write about hot dogs, I’m going to open it up to you, dear readers. How do you spice up a boring hot dog? What combinations sound positively disgusting to you? Are you for corn dogs or against them? Where are the best spots for a road-tripper to grab a hot dog?

Of course, I shall leave you with some hot dog recipes from TLC Cooking and HowStuffWorks:
Octo-Dogs and Shells
Maple Francheezies
Dizzy Dogs
Hot Dog Cookies

P.S. Thanks a million to my co-blogger Cristen Conger, who named this post.