“From a culinary perspective, hotdish on a stick fails due to an ultra-grotesque overdependence on starches. We know, of course, that the thing’s got to be breaded in order to be fried. But do there really need to be super-ball sized tater tots interspersed with the bready meatballs? It seems impossible that anything could taste breadier than bread, but hotdish on a stick pulls it off.” MORE ➲

“The grand attraction to the annual Corndog Festival is, without a doubt, the glorious Corndog Styling Competition. Every year there are many incredible entries, with our panel of judges doing their very best to commend the outstanding entrants with fabulous prizes.” MORE ➲

“Chucks of deep fried alligator (tail part, battered in corn meal, seasonings, probably similar to snake recipe) served on a 10 inch wooden skewer. Seen mostly at outdoor festivals. Has a chewy consistency like undercooked pork. Tastes like alligator.” MORE ➲

“Deep Fried Twinkies are fun to eat on the fairway at your local carnival…” MORE âž²

…but now you can make them at home. And open heart surgery is fun, too, I hear.

“For delicious grilling without much fuss, I like to serve brochettes, which are essentially the French version of kebabs… Perhaps the biggest practical advantage to serving brochettes is that you can cut the food into pieces before cooking, eliminating the need for awkward carving later and allowing you to go straight from the fire to the table.” MORE âž²

“What’s the strangest thing you’ve EATEN in the N. East Asian region? I’d like to hear what kind of weird food delicacies are out there…” FIND OUT ➲

“Souvlakis are the hamburgers of Greece. At least they were until hamburgers arrived and now hamburgers are the hamburgers of Greece.” MORE âž²

“Shish kebab is a wooden or metal stick (a skewer in Turkish) with small cubes of any kind of meat, fowl, fish, fruit, or vegetable (usually a combination) which is roasted on a grill. The name literally means ‘skewer of grilled meat’ in Persian.” MORE âž²

“Anticuchos, is one of the most popular dishes in Bolivia and Peru. It is often sold by street vendors and accompanied by corn-on-the-cob and portions of cold boiled potato with a spot of chili sauce. Those whose tastes do not extend to trying beef heart may substitute any good cut of red meat, though this is not the authentic Bolivian/Peruvian style.” MORE âž²

“This [corn dog] booth had not just corn dogs and foot-long hot dogs, but it also featured the world’s largest corn dog suspended above.”

If that is the world’s largest corn dog, then the world is in desperate need of fixin’. VIEW âž²

“GoldenPalace.com has purchased a half-eaten egg-salad sandwich and corndog on eBay. The sandwich was Britney’s and the corndog was K-Fed’s, though she took a last minute bite of it. Both items are separately professionally vacuum sealed and meant to be kept as collectors items.” MORE ➲

“The appeal of stick cooking is its simplicity. No pots, no pans, often no cookbooks are necessary. It’s just the cook, the stick, the food, the fire.” MORE ➲

“Wow, it looked and smelled good. It looked like a powdered-sugar-covered, fat corn dog with a 12-inch wooden skewer in it… After letting it cool a bit, I took my first small bite, still afraid I would lose my sense of taste by burning all the taste buds off my tongue. It wasn’t as hot as I thought it would be, but it was almost completely liquified in the center — no trace of the semi-solid Snickers was left — it was all chocolate/nougat/caramel/peanut goo. And it was good…really good…extremely goood. Holy crap it was good! VIEW ➲

“There are two kinds of fish balls in Hong Kong. One is smaller in size, yellow in colour, usually made with cheaper shark meat, and is sold in ‘strings,’ each ‘string’ containing five to seven fish balls ‘strung’ on a bamboo skewer. MORE ➲

From the Food Network, here we’re presented with several options for customizing the classic batter/food/stick combo. Recipe summary: “Stick whatever ingredients you decide to use onto long skewers.” MORE âž²

Skewers of succulent chicken dipped in barbecue sauce, grilled to perfection over hot charcoals, then washed down with cold beer — it’s easy to see the appeal of yakitori after a hard day’s work. MORE ➲

1941: “In Muskogee, Oklahoma, I saw an unusual sandwich called “corn-dog.” This sandwich was a wiener baked in cornbread. The corn-dog was very good, but took too long to prepare. The problem was how to cover a hotdog with batter and cook it in a short time.” MORE âž²

Believe it: “Jimmy Dean full-flavored sausage inside a sweet pancake covering — it’s fun on a stick. Just pop these sweet treats in the microwave for less than 2 minutes and you’ll have a hearty breakfast or snack that’s not only filling but easy to eat and enjoy.”

I always think I’ll like things like this, but I never do. They always end up tasting so processed and soggy. That said, I actually haven’t tried these (or the chocolate chip variety!). VIEW âž²

Of course you already knew that National Corndog Day is March 18, right? MORE âž²

“Food on a stick is pretty self-explanatory. You’ve got some food, you put it on a stick. Brilliant.” MORE ➲

“In 1905, 11 year old Frank Epperson left his soda out on the porch, which contained a stir stick. It then froze to the stir stick creating a fruit flavored ice treat named the epsicle. He then waited 18 years for it to be released to the public.” MORE âž²

I invented the Picklesicle, but it was not such a great success.

“Food historians generally agree cornmeal-covered hot dogs served on a stick became popular American fair fare in the early 1940s. Who invented this item? History does not say. Who is responsible for making this item popular? Many people claim this title.” MORE âž²

Unfortunately I have decided to try to eat healthier in 2007, so I’m not sure how many of these delicious doggies I’ll be meeting and eating this year. (UPDATE: Mere hours after this was posted, I ate my first two corn dogs of the year at the St. Louis Zoo.)

A YouTube video featuring “a complete catalogue of all of the 59 foods on-a-stick at the Minnesota State Fair, 2006.” WATCH âž²

I know this made the rounds last fall, but… damn! I’d like to think that one day I will have a chance to eat everything shown in this video by BellyDuJour.com, but it doesn’t seem likely. I’ll either run out of money or arteries. Which first? Who knows.