Eat & Drink
Junction shop makes the best hot dogs in the world
When you think of Iceland, you're probably more likely to think of vacation killing Volcanoes or that singer who wore a swan before hot dogs come to mind.
Those who have made the voyage to the sparsely populated, wildly isolated and McDonalds-less country all come back with tales of intensely beautiful geography, nightless summers and...hot dogs? Iceland's capital Reykjavik is indeed home to what is supposedly the worlds best hot dog at dockside shop Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur, or literally, the best hotdog in town. They are so good in fact, none other than Bill Clinton himself dropped by to try one as you'll find proudly mentioned in any google search of "Icelandic Hotdogs" you can find.
The Baker clan, made up of married Mjolk shop owners, Julie and John and brother Frank, decided it was high time for Toronto to experience famous Icelandic hotdogs and set up shop for one night only during the Junction Design Crawl on Friday night.
John and Frank stood decked out in retro style aprons and caps while a massive queue nearly a block long formed down the sidewalk. To recreate the experience, the duo imported the authentic condiments straight from Iceland. Special mustard, remoulade mayonnaise, ketchup, and the key ingredient, frizzled onions, were shipped in and nearly didn't make it after being held by customs for over 2 weeks. The hotdogs, normally made with lamb and boiled in Icelandic beer LAVA, couldn't be imported, so regular Canadian style dogs were boiled up in the specialty beer.
The crowd could have easily doubled as the "I've been to Iceland" club as nearly everyone I spoke to had already had some experience with the original famed dogs. Everyone raved about the originals and, even though these ones were made with wonder bread and regular hotdogs, they were a pretty great recreation of Iceland's favourite street food.
After two and a half hours and a couple trips back to the grocery store for more supplies, the guys sold about 200 Canadianized Icelandic hotdogs and would have kept going if the store didn't close. Looks like Toronto may be in store for more Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur next year.
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All said, big thanks to the Mjölk people for their tasty contribution to the Junction Design Walk.
awesome.
Yeah, what's your point? I don't eat them because they're good for me, but rather that I like the taste. I've heard the stories about what goes into them from a guy I went to highschool with who worked in the Maple Leaf plant and it still hasn't stopped me :)
Also, FYI: you can't even import hot dogs due to strict regulations (maybe you can as a private citizen for personal use but not for public consumption).
Why is everyone so annoyed that people want authenticity? All you are asking for is for someone to go that extra step to do their job the best they can. I'm sorry but no frills hot dogs don't excite me in the least. They had enough time on their hands to go get the silly hats and cart and wait 2 weeks for frizzled onions, why not some authentic meat? I personally don't like when people do a half azzed job at my work, do you? "Well at least they tried" is not acceptable to me.
We could NOT import hot dogs and buns because of a) strict regulations, b) even if we could, it would have rotted before getting to us, being stuck at the border because of strict regulations.
The best we could do was spend extra money on Organic Rowe Farms hot dogs. We didn't anticipate such an incredible demand, so once we ran out, we didn't want to disappoint the people waiting patiently in line, so we topped up on hot dogs.
We imported all the toppings. Last time I checked they don't sell Remulaði, dried fried onions and Pylsussinnep at No Frills.
We actually put a lot of effort, time and care into our event.
Thank you to all of our supporters and friends. We, as a neighborhood, were really pleased about the turn out and we're glad so many of you had a great time.
I am so grateful that people are actually making an effort to come up with interesting events in our city. There was a great turn out, the people were friendly and it was an awesome night.
I am sorry that people on this blog are such downers. Thank you to the Mjolk people for coming up with such a cute idea, I know that most people were enjoying their hotdogs. The rest of the venues also did a great job. I wish it could have gone on all night!
You have an idea? Go for it, you'll always have community support.
Another great example is vintage black & white film screenings in the Junction, we saw films like King Kong and Sherlock Holmes under the stars, someone had an idea that Junction should have free outdoor films and so we did! Farm Fest? No problem, another truly unique event in the Junction this Summer, everyone enjoyed themselves. Thanks to ALL the creative people who are not afraid of the lazy negative haters, Junction wouldn't be the same without you.
Irina
They make "their version of an Icelandic hot dog" and it isn't even something you can get every day as it isn't really a "shop"
Thanks to the folks at Mjolk. You guys did a great job, and you have a fun and fantastic store, as well. It's enthusiastic people like you that make Toronto great, not compulsive whiners on the Internet who should be creating something of their own rather than endlessly critiquing others.
"We actually put a lot of effort, time and care into our event." - I don't doubt your passion or effort, just the execution. The meat to me would be one of the most important parts of the hotdog. I am not cheering against you here. I really do wish that extra little bit of something would have been there because everything about the article really interested me. I admire that you tried to bring something we don't get often/ever, but for me it wasn't enough for a BLOG TO article claiming "best hot dogs in the world" which clearly is no fault of your own.
If you want to visualize how boorish your comments are, imagine that instead of typing them on the Internet, you were at the hot dog stand the night of the event, and that you started loudly telling the people who were doing something fun and nice how you make hot dogs at home and how it's so easy to do so and that everyone in line is a sucker for even daring to think that an event like this is interesting?
It doesn't make sense to me to put time and effort into ordering in specialty products, and then serving it with low end garbage. What they were trying to accomplish was brilliant was inspired.
Visualize this, An "ARTICLE" on a restaurant pushing store bought frozen pizza crust with flown in lobster and fresh truffles on it claiming it was the best pizza in the world. You would probably say WTF right?
Holy Morga!
The allure of hot dogs has nothing to do with their homemade taste. They're a guilty pleasure! Making your own hot dogs strikes me as strange--why bother?
Why so much negativity around an event that was meant to be fun?
I just like to know what is in them. That's all. Its kinda fun. It is strange, I'm not gonna lie. When I tell people I do this they think I am insane. They are probably right. I do also enjoy a good Toronto smog dog once in a while though. I'm not a total snob.