Category Archives: Essay

My 2012

Bangkok, or Krung Thep in Thai, meaning ‘City of Angels’. I’ve been living here for a year and two months now. Setting aside trips to Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, and the U.S. in that time, this is the longest I’ve stayed in one place in the last 5 years. And, in all likelihood, I’ll be here for a total of two years before I move on to somewhere completely new and unknown again.

I’m not entirely thrilled with the idea of staying so long in one place, but for now it makes the most sense. Completely apart from the financial situation I need to be in before moving on indefinitely again, I do have a good thing going here at the moment. Bangkok provides a fantastic center from which to explore all of SE Asia. I enjoy my job, have a great circle of friends, and am never in want of something to do.

January

That said, this year began in a haze of wonderment. I was living in a foreign city for the first time. Working in a foreign city. I still had little grasp on all the going-ons of everything around, despite having been in Thailand for 2 months. This resulted in a lot of nights out, attempting to try something new everyday, and all the while trying to do the Photo-A–Day challenge on Facebook.

The Photo-A-Day didn’t last too long.

February

February was a quiet and low-key month. The chaos of being thrown into midterm exams without a clue was over. Final exams were the next month. I had gotten more familiar with my new surroundings and was starting to settle into a bit of a routine. Not all that exciting and I needed something to break it up.

Enter the random weekend trip. This time to Kanchanaburi.

March12

March12-2

Most notably, March was a month of things winding down. My brief first semester of the job was coming to an end. Christy and Sarah, two great friends from my ATI course were leaving after only 3 months to return to the United States. So, a cooking class at May Kaidee’s concluded my time with Sarah. A week later, a party at Mulligan’s Bar on Khao San with coworkers marked another goodbye to Christy.

We commemorated this with a traditional Bangkok scorpion tasting.

April

Thailand’s New Year, Songkran, is in April. I wasn’t there for it. After 4 months of waiting I was off on the road again completely open to my own whims. Unfortunately, it only got to last about 3 weeks before I had to be back to Bangkok. Still, I saw a good deal of the Malay Peninsula, found a new Lost City, and experienced my first Full Moon Party.

May

Come May, I still hadn’t gotten the bug for travel or Lost Cities out of my system after going at random through three countries. This ended up in me attempting to get to Ayutthaya on one trip, but only finding a bus to Lopburi instead. The following week, I hopped a bus to Sukhothai, the first capital of Thailand and spent the time exploring the ancient ruins of Old Sukhothai and Khampaeng Phet.

July

A year before at this time, I was returning to an Island in Michigan that I had been 3 years in a row and had little to no desire to return to again. This time, my June and July became about exploring my new surroundings more. I had done Khao San Road to death. It was time to take in more of the city, something I hadn’t done in great detail since my first week here in November 2011.

So, often joining with friends I knew from both work and now a more extended circle, I was further introduced to areas of the city I had little seen before. Chinatown. The river ferries. Random Sukhumvit alleys. Sukhumvit dance clubs and restaurants. Hidden basement comedy shows. The massive Bangkok shopping complexes. It was all there for the exploring.

August

August2

Still the hottest time of the year, I decided to head to an island I had heard about in passing while travelling through Isan in 2011. Supposedly an empty island run by solar generators and no cars, it was supposed to provide a level of isolation I hadn’t yet experienced.

I had done the island with no cars thing before, but this was completely different. Being the hot time of year, half the island was abandoned, and the few places that were open were nearly empty, giving it about the closest feeling to a deserted island I could have hoped for. There was still good food, and occasional Internet access, but while there, I really began to feel the spirit of the Thai islands.

September

I had decided to stay yet another semester, meaning it was time to give myself a level of comfort I hadn’t had until then. At the beginning of September, I moved into an apartment in central Bangkok. Up until then, I had been living in the far northwestern suburb of Bangyai. The amount of times I had to take a taxi back at night by myself was ridiculous, as everyone else I knew lived in the city.

I also treated myself to a luxury I hadn’t had in just about a year: a working iPhone. Somehow, though, this one just doesn’t seem to measure up to my first one.

The end of September brought the departure of more friends who were all moving on to somewhere else. Unfortunately, that’s something you have to learn to deal with when in this lifestyle. Just as I had been moving on continuously the last few years, so does everyone I knew here

Much more than in the static lives that most live when they remain close to home, abroad everyone is moving in different directions, at what often seems vastly different paces. You have to learn to deal to the fleeting nature of these relationships, or it will eventually get to you.

October

October was . . . a mixed month. Of work and adventure. Of discovery and pain and loss. The first 2 weeks were limited hours at the school I work at. The second two I was off to the north to Laos. It was further and more remote than I had ever gone before.

And then the emails came. In Luang Namtha, waiting for the bus to Muang Sing, a small frontier town near the China border, I got the flood of messages that Jeff Alexander, my best friend for 10 years, had died in Michigan. It wasn’t unexpected. In fact, it was a long time coming after 3 years of cancer, but it still hit me in a way that affected the entire trip. It became about that thing that becomes so common in the fleeting relationships I am now used to: a talent for moving on.

In Muang Sing, I met a group of random travelers who I had a fantastically fun drunken night with in this small town in the middle of nowhere. From there on – near broken wrists at the Plain of Jars, breaking out of my guesthouse in Luang Prabang, being stranded at the Naga Fireballs – it became about living for what he and I had always both wanted to do, but only I was ever able to. And part of me still feels some guilt for that.

RogueRiver

Then November came.

The second week in, I came down with a leaky eye infection I figured was pink eye. After two days of dealing with it and having to cover my eye half the day, I finally took a couple days off, went to a local doctor, got some antibiotics, etc.

The next morning, 9 am my time and 9 pm their time, I got a call from my mother in the U.S. My father had died. And I couldn’t just go. I had to arrange the days with my job and then go to immigration for a re-entry permit so as not to void my Thailand visa when I returned.

And I planned to return.

That night, at midnight, I was on a flight out of Bangkok through Tokyo to Chicago and on to Grand Rapids. My mother (10 years divorced from my father) picked me up and brought me to her house.

From then on, it wasn’t a homecoming, it was a cleanup. The time I was there, I spent primarily at the home of my father and grandfather (who he had been taking care of) going through his meticulously kept files and possessions.

During all of this, the reality of the situation never seemed to hit me the way Jeff had. Jeff, as much as I hated the idea, I had known about for a long time. My dad, amidst all his things, so suddenly, and not seeing him in a year . . . it just seemed like he had vanished. Not that he was gone.

The time I was there coincided with Thanksgiving, an occasion which saw my mother and stepfather join my aunt, grandpa, sister and I for a very pleasant dinner.

December

Back in Asia, this became a month for starting over. Two of the most important people I have ever known are no longer in the place where I grew up. There was already very little semblance of ‘home’ there for me, as I’ve never felt a great connection to that city, only to the people there who love me so unconditionally.

When I returned to Bangkok, I brought a number of books and clothes with me. In one of the pockets of a jacket I hadn’t worn in over a year, I found a note written by someone I don’t remember saying, “Moving forward”. It sounded like a good idea.

So rather than wallowing around in Bangkok, I decided to look forward. To improving things. I began rebuilding this blog for a new website domain. Instead of heading to the middle of nowhere for my break, I decided to take a SCUBA course, something I could continue to use around the world. I’ve begun to re-learn Arabic already with more effort than I ever put into learning Thai.

December started me onto 2013 – a year to better everything. A year to better myself.

2012-end

My 2011, more than just another year.

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“Sometimes there’s airplanes I can’ t jump out
Sometimes there’s bullshit that don’t work now
We are god of stories but please tell me
What there is to complain about”
- OneRepublic, Good Life

2011 has been a year that I never would have expected. Like every year, I suppose, there were many things that could have gone much, much better. And then there are those fantastic moments that define not just that place or time, but help to further define you. To paraphrase Lynn Hall, not to grow, but to become more clearly yourself.

Goodbye to Grand Rapids.

This year had all of that, the terrible and the tolerable and the marvelous and the mundane that make up each day. But this year had so much more of it all. 2011 was a year that I lived. Started anew. Whatever it should be called, this was my year to try it, and not always, but when I feel it counted, succeed

In many ways, I cannot help but feel that I lived more in 2011 than in the last few years combined. So many important and life-altering things, and I hope that I was able to capture at least some of them properly in this blog.

Many firsts; swimming in an ocean even though I had been to plenty, whitewater rafting, riding a motorbike down a mountain at night, among others.

Marquette Harbor in Lake Superior, on a mild day. Where I spent the winter.

After several months of Monster.com resumes and office interviewing, it became clear to me that I had no desire to pursue a job like that.

I spent the winter living on Michigan’s third coast along the frozen shores of Lake Superior.

I left and later lost touch someone I truly cared about. I had never wanted it to happen like that.

I lost two grandparents. And came close to losing a third, my last living grandparent. Luckily he pulled through a heart surgery on 30 December and is doing much better now.
Pina Coladas, a lifesaver at Isla Verde beach in San Juan.

I ran. I hate to think of it like that, but given everything that was going through my head this spring, that’s all I really can call it. And it turned out being the best thing I could have done.

I spent 2 weeks in the tropics, re-vitalizing myself to that freedom of travel.
A cloudy day in Central Park.

I spent 2 weeks on a boat in the open Atlantic, relinquishing that freedom.

I sailed through the Bermuda Triangle.

I returned to Boston, the city I had idealized since I was 13 and gave serious consideration to staying there. But, New York and more beyond that called. Maybe someday.

I returned to a place I have been too many times, and found it as repetitive as ever.

Jeff and I at a bonfire party my first night on Mackinac Island. Before all the predictability of another season set in.

I restarted my life, twice, in different parts of the world. I’m hoping this second one takes.

“And so, ever an end but never the end,” my toast to New Year’s this year. Out with 2011 and on to New Year’s 2012, recognizing what has come, while knowing that more is coming.

"I had something better waiting ahead. I try to take control of my heart." - Story of the Year, Page Avenue

Humans, the Lonely Gods: An Essay on Our Artificial Oversoul

An Introduction to Hostels

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To promote the education of all . . .
by encouraging in them a greater knowledge,
love and care of the countryside
and an appreciation of the . . .
cultural values of towns and cities
in all parts of the world . . .
to develop a better understanding of their fellow men,
both at home and abroad.
- Hostelling International Mission Statement

One of the things I miss most when not traveling is the hostel scene. For many people who have never stayed in one, and it seems for Americans in general, the concept of spending a night in a hostel is a bit foreign. For those used to staying exclusively in hotels or bed & breakfasts, it is certainly a change.

There are two main ideals that hostels try to sell themselves on over anything else. The first is budget travel. Any hostel will be significantly cheaper than a hotel in the same area, with most ranging from $15-25 per night.

The common room at the Huckleberry Finn Hostel in St. Louis.

The other ideal is socializing. Almost all hostels are sorted out into dorm-style beds rather than individual private rooms. The number of beds per room varies from hostel to hostel, though I’ve found most seem to have between 4 beds (2 bunk beds) to 8 beds (4 bunk beds). Almost every hostel has a shared commons area (living room, kitchen, dining, etc.) for its guests to socialize.

The bathrooms may be where many used to having their own private facilities may be turned off. The communal nature of the hostel usually extends to the restrooms. This can be in one of two forms; either a single private bathroom which the guest take turns in (usually more than one in this case), or a more shared bathroom with several showers and toilets in it. The latter may be more off-putting, but once you get used to the more communal lifestyle in a hostel, it’s a small step to the short amount of time you spend in the bathroom. And in the vast majority of hostels, the bathrooms are cleaned and restocked very regularly.

My bed at the Swiss 1291 Hostel in New York.

and the rest of the room.

However, the quality can vary greatly from different locations. The vast majority of hostels that I have stayed in have been an overwhelmingly positive experience.

I have only ever had one absolutely awful hostel experience and that was in the city of Heraklion, Crete. (I intended to tell this story in this post, but it ended up being a longer than I expected and not entirely relevant to hostels as a whole. Next post.)

The best part of the hostel experience is the people you meet during it. Whether you’re the American in the random American city hostel meeting the foreigners traveling your country, the American abroad coming across foreign travelers on the same path as you for different reasons, or the American who comes across another random American randomly in the same place as you. Every one is a new story, and is someone who has something in common with you that you wouldn’t find otherwise.

Who are they? Why did they leave where they are from? How the hell did they end up here? All valid questions to ask, and all that most people you meet will be more than happy to answer, and then some.

In Athens, I met an American brother and sister traveling the world together in remembrance of their parents who had died in a car crash 4 months before.

In New Orleans, two random German guys with backpacks who happened to get on the streetcar I was on, I helped find our common hostel, and we spent the next week hanging out in the French Quarter.

In Boston, a lone English traveler who had just finished a “delightfully hellish” 2-month holiday around the USA on Greyhound.

In Montreal, the French mining/geology student who could hardly stand Quebec French after 3 months studying at a university there and provided me some wise words on the inherent conflict between relationships and travel.

These are just an example of characters to be met, and that is the true treasure of the hostel scene, and why I truly wish they were more prevalent in the United States.

Sometimes the beds are a little less than desireable.

Many hostels also have a few long-term guests. Much of the time, these are temporary staff that do work around the hostel in exchange for a free bed.

Other times, they are simply staying indefinitely, as I did at the India House Hostel in New Orleans as I worked at the Crescent City Brewhouse. Or like a Boston girl I met at the HI Boston, who was staying there until she could find a new apartment.

Then again, some hostels have a limit on the amount of time any guest may be able to stay with them for, trying to maintain the atmosphere of rotating travelers.

Hostelling International

One of the most prevalent names in the world of hostels is HI or Hostelling International. Usually listed as HI *name of city*, I first thought this to be a single company, a la a Holiday Inn, in the hostel scene. I’m still not sure of its exact nature, but its hostels are usually held to a higher standard, and usually, a higher price than independent hostels. They are also run much more business-like.

Not to say I’ve ever had a bad experience in an HI hostel, in fact, they often go above and beyond for their guests. In HI Boston, there was a schedule of weekly event, including a group museum tours and a brewery tour. At HI New York, they had almost everything you could imagine; a movie room, courtyard, live comedy show, restaurant, key card access, and who knows what else that I didn’t even notice.

All that said, I’ve found that I personally enjoy staying in independently-owned hostels over HI hostels. With very few exceptions, I’ve found that they seem to have more character. The owners and staff are usually amazingly interesting characters to meet and get information from. And the people staying at independent hostels are the ones who didn’t necessarily rush to the blind familiarity of the HI name, but were willing to try something else.

Of course, that is just my feeling on it.

Grand Rapids Coney Dogs – A Complete Guide

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Most every city seems to have its own token snack food. In my home city of Grand Rapids, that tends to be chili dogs. There are enough Coney dog places around the city to rival even Detroit, with it’s distinguished Coney scene. Within the last decade or so, the Coney scene around Grand Rapids has revitalized itself as old ones have faded out.

(RIP Red Lion).

A Brief History of “Coney” Dogs

Nathan's Famous hot dog stand in Coney Island, New York.

Despite what the name may lead you to think, the Coney Island style dog did not really originate on Coney Island in Brooklyn. I found this out to my dismay when I recently visited New York City, expecting the city’s beach resort to be hopping with chili dog stands. Instead the only one is the landmark Nathan’s Famous dogs, which began as a hot dog stand rather than a “coney” stand, adopting the concept of a chili dog later on.

My authentic Coney Island coney dog from Nathan's Famous

I purchased a chili cheese dog here and was surprised to find beans in the sauce. The idea is not uncommon for chili itself, but for the sauce on a hot dog, it’s something I didn’t come across while eating at 23 different joints in Grand Rapids.

I asked around about more dog stands in the area, only to find out that there weren’t any. The Coney Island dog was not a Coney Island, New York invention, but one from Michigan. Invented in Jackson, Michigan and heavily influenced in its history by Detroit’s Greek immigrant population, the chili dog has an inextricable link to Coney Island, New York, but is a Michigan dish.

The Michigan Coney Dog has since developed into two different styles of chili sauce: Detroit-style and Flint-style. The Detroit sauce is usually a sort of red, meat sauce with varying degrees of consistency and thickness. The Flint sauce is more of a thicker ground beef topping than a sauce and it is extremely well seasoned.

Coneys in Grand Rapids

In recent years, Grand Rapids has witnessed a plethora of new hot dog joints opening all around the city, many with there own twist on the coney dog. Inspired by the lackluster reviews done on the topic by Josh Leo (WanderWestMichigan) who only went to 4 places and John Serba’s best burgers of Grand Rapids which for some reason includes the nationally uniform Red Robin burgers, I set out track down every single one to create a singular reference.

I ate a chili cheese dog at each of these restaurants, something simple enough that all of them would have. Given the large number of chili dog restaurants I came across (23 of them) and the subtle, sometimes non-existent difference between them, I didn’t feel that I could rank them like I originally wanted. My top 5, in no particular order, are:

1.) Filling Station
2.) One Stop Coney Shop
3.) Jonny B’z Dogs & More
4.) Papa’s Dogs and More
5.) Mad Dogz

However, the most famous of these restaurants in Grand Rapids is undoubtedly Yesterdog, a sliver of a restaurant wedged between Wealthy St and Lake Dr and staple of the Eastown neighborhood. A nod was given to it in American Pie as the characters’ hangout Dog Years.

Yesterdog
1505 Wealthy St SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49506
616.336.0746

According to their own website, Yesterdog “has won Grand Rapids Magazine’s
Best Hotdog category every year since 1991, the year hotdogs were included in the poll. It has also been awarded the Gold Townie Award for Best Hotdog so many times we’ve lost count!” I cannot help but feel this is a result of the long-standing nostalgia this establishment holds rather than the product that it sells.

The atmosphere is hard to beat at times. However, that isn’t what I was looking for.

A Yesterdog "cheddardog"

In all actuality, and in many reviews ranging from Urbanspoon to Trip Advisor, the hot dogs here are under par when it comes to being compared to others around town. The size is normal for a chili dog, however, it falls short on almost every other aspect. The dogs are so-so. Small, nothing special, but they do have a somewhat unique taste/texture to them (whether that’s a good or a bad thing, I still haven’t decided). The buns are pulled right out of the bag in front of you, no special preparation, unlike other places around town who may steam or grill their buns.

The chili sauce is where they really can’t measure up though. It has got to be the runniest, wateriest sauce that I have ever come across at a Coney restaurant. If it is near the edge, it’s going to run out of the bun. If it’s tilted toward your mouth, it’s going to run out of the bun. And in the process, it soaks the bun (not moistens it, which adds a more delectable element to a dog) and turns it into a soggy, floppy mess in your hand.

I hate to open by being so hard on what has become a Grand Rapids staple, but when their reputation is what every other hot dog joint in the city is competing against, Yesterdog needs to compete as well, which they don’t seem to be willingly doing.

All American Chili Dogs
6630 Kalamazoo Ave SE #A
Kentwood, MI 49508
616.656.5670

Opened up on the south end of the city opposite of M-6 from the Celebration Cinema South, this joint has been getting nothing but rave reviews on sites like Urbanspoon. Like the Corner Bar in Rockford, they also have a hall of fame, though nothing quite as extravagant or extensive.

Their dogs and buns are average size, though they also have the option of any dog to be an all-beef dog. They then top it with mild cheddar and their own unique chili sauce.

All American’s chili is a thick, saucy chili with a bit of a different texture to it. My best guess to that texture is that there are crushed beans in the sauce. I’ve never been a fan of beans in chili, but here, they only serve to thicken the sauce and add an interesting taste element to its consistency, without overwhelming it.

C’s Dogs N Dairy
44th St SE
Wyoming, MI 49548
616.530.9706

Located at a little seasonal drive-in stand on 44^th street just east of US 131, C’s also doubles as a Christmas tree vendor in the winter. I visited here a few years ago to check it out and hadn’t been back since. My experience there this time around seems to have reminded me why.

The chili cheese dog that I bought here was exceptionally underwhelming. The dog was an average boiled dog. The bun was normal, perhaps a little stale. The chili was a ground meat sauce, but there was a familiar texture to it that I couldn’t initially place.

Then, about halfway through the dog, it hit me. The coney sauce tasted like blandly seasoned taco meat, a la Taco Bell. The thinly shredded cheddar cheese sitting atop this meat did nothing to help the taco analogy either.

Coney Island
4606 S. Division Ave
Kentwood, MI 49548
616.531.3435

Opened a little over a year ago in an old drive-in style building on South Division, Coney Island is a friendly operation which has a loyal set of customers who appreciate its combination of chili dogs with some small Chinese dishes for take out, such as egg rolls.

Their chili cheese dog is another that is unique among ones in Grand Rapids. It’s a small/average dog and bun. However, this dog is wrapped in a slice of American cheese before the chili is poured over it. This melts the cheese into the bun and all around the dog.

The Coney sauce is a thicker, saucy chili with a little touch of nice seasoning in it. These dogs have to quality and taste of a hot dog concoction one might have come up in his or her own kitchen, albeit, a very tasty one.

The Corner Bar
31 North Main St
Rockford, MI 49341
616.866.9866

The Corner Bar almost has the reputation of Yesterdog around Grand Rapids. Its well-established spot on Main St. in Rockford is most famous for its Hot Dog Hall of Fame, a list of names which now covers well over four walls in the restaurant. To receive your name on the wall requires that you eat 12 or more dogs in one sitting, though there are some names that have upwards of 40 dogs. It’s a challenge I’ve attempted twice in memory, but never made it past 9 chili dogs.

The dogs here are average in size and in a regular sized bun. In all size aspects, very comparable to Yesterdog. However, their toppings certainly separate them from Yesterdog.

To start with, their chili is not saucy at all, but almost entirely a finely ground meat sauce (Flint-style). This gets into the bun surrounding the dog and creates a nice layer of seasoned flavor around the dog, similar to at Johnny B’s. The cheddar cheese that the use to top off their chili cheese dogs is so finely grated that it stays solid on the dog, but will melt on your tongue the second they meet.

Cranker’s Coney Island
454 68th St SW
Grand Rapids, MI 49548-7115
616.827.1919

Just south of the M-6/US 131 interchange in Cutlerville is Cranker’s Coney, a full sit-down restaurant with wait staff. The chili cheese dog that was brought to me here appeared a long, thin dog sticking out of a small bun. It was topped off with a thicker-cut cheddar cheese poured over with their chili sauce.

The first bite into the dog gave the signature snap of a grilled or seared dog. The chili here is also, for a saucy chili, very thick. It also has a hint of that same texture that All-American Chili Dogs’ sauce does that tasted like crushed beans.

There was nothing special to say about the bun other than it housed the toppings adequately. However, the cheese melting nicely underneath the chili and the grilling make for an overall pleasant dog.

Crazy Charlie’s
2184 Wealthy St SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49506
616.451.6720

This small East Grand Rapids location is easy to miss as you drive through Gaslight Village. The window decals don’t attract as much attention as they should, though this place has a fantastic corner location in the center of downtown EGR.

The first thing about their dog you notice as you pick it up and bit in is that they warm their buns, giving them a very soft, warm taste. It also helps to melt the cheese quicker.

The dog is relatively small and seems to get lost in the bun as you are eating it. However the chili is spectacular in its flavor, but they just didn’t put enough of it on as they are putting together the dog.

The Dam Dogs
25 S Squires Sq #B
Rockford, MI 49341
616.843.9565

These are thicker dogs in a large, semi-warmed bun. It’s then poured over with a chili sauce that takes up the rest of the bun. The cheese, which comes well over the top of the bun, is a layer thinly sliced Monterrey jack and cheddar.

The seasoning of the chili sauce is the best part of these dogs. It has a nice flavor and a very thick texture, though thick in a saucy sense. There are not a lot of large meaty chunks in it in this chili.

The Dog Pit
132 Monroe Center St NW
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
616.988.1503

Dog Pit was the first of the current hot dog joints to dot the immediate downtown area. It’s location at the head of Monroe Center makes it a popular late-night destination for those leaving bars like Flannigan’s and Raggs to Riches who don’t feel like braving the wandering hot dog carts.

Their dogs are also on the small to average size, kept in a hot pan until served on a standard bun. Their chili is also a saucy Detroit-style chili, only a little thicker than the consistency of Yesterdog’s. However, it has a significantly different flavor, including some visible pepper, and a noticeable tanginess to it.

One touch in constructing their dogs, which I appreciate, is that they pour their Coney sauce over top the cheese, rather than topping the dog off with cheese. This allows the chili to melt the thin cheddar down, where it soaks into the bun around the dog.

The Filling Station
4750 Alpine Ave NW
Comstock Park, MI 49321
616.784.6706

Located on the far northern stretch of commercial Alpine Avenue, the Filling Station now inhabits the shell of an old Red Lion restaurant. It has since been remodeled into a classic car motif, complete with the vintage signs and gas pumps one might expect along with it.

The dogs here were actually better than I expected though. They are seared, so it has a slight snap to it, though not the definitive one that One Stop has. And one strip of my dog did have a slight blackening, almost a burn, to it.

The chili was the best part here though. For anyone who has had Indian curry chicken before (and for those who haven’t I would strongly recommend it) that is what this chili sauce reminded me of immediately. It was a thick, well-seasoned sauce with a fantastic portion of meat in it. And it was generously added to the top of the hot dog.

The bun wasn’t anything special and was a little stale on the bottom. However, the very thinly cut cheddar cheese, which was under the chili, was already melted by the time I took my first bite.

The Grand Coney
809 Michigan St NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
616.776.5580

Grand Coney used to be among my favorite places in town, and certainly for late night junk food and chili dogs. They are a 24 hour joint and fill up between the hours of 1 and 4 am as the city bars are winding down.

The last few years, however, with its expansion and menu rewritings, the quality and variety of their dog selection has drastically decreased. While they still use Koegel all-beef dogs and have a great chili sauce, they just don’t measure up to what they used to be in every aspect.

Jonny B’z Dogs & More
638 Wealthy St SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
616.551.1108

Jonny B’z has reviews on Urbanspoon and Yelp calling it the new King of Dogs in Grand Rapids.

And indeed they have a fantastic new take on the bun for the dog. Rather than a small roll cut down the center, they butter up a piece of thick white bread and then toast it, wrapping the dog and the toppings to make the final product. This makes for a sensational taste and texture when the warm chili begins working its way into the crispy bread, while still leaving the outside with a nice, soft crunch.

The dogs they use, and you can choose all-beef or all-turkey, have a nice flavorful texture to them as well. They nestle into the bun as the chili soaks down around them in the toast-bun.

The only small detail I didn’t quite like about this dog was that the chili sauce was nothing spectacular. It’s of a medium consistency, not too meaty or too runny. There is no exceptional spice or seasoning to it though. However, the taste of it combined with the bun almost excuses this.

The Mad Dogz
3916 West River Dr
Comstock Park, MI 49321
616.647.9449

Open for a year and a half in Comstock Park, their hometown school spirit is evidenced as soon as the door is opened and the Comstock Park apparel is everywhere. However, I did find it curious how similar their logo-mascot appears to the Grandville and Byron Center Bulldogs’ logos.

They have a very large list of specialty dog toppings, including a special section for spicy dogs. Their chili cheese dog is based on a much thicker bun and dog than most places in town serve. It’s then topped off with a generous helping of their chili sauce and a very large portion of Monterrey jack and cheddar. The cheese was flowing so far over the bun when I got it, that most of it fell off when I first tilted the dog to eat it.

The chili here is extremely good. It’s much meatier than most places in town, with noticeable large chunks in it. The sauce in between also has a much deeper flavor to it than most of the sauces I’ve encountered, whether Detroit or Flint style.

Marilyn’s Malts
6749 Fulton St E #D
Ada, MI 49301
616.682.1698

This hidden location in a strip mall on the stretch of Fulton from the highway to Ada fashions itself after a Happy Days-esque soda fountain shop. Outside of the iced cream products, they also serve chili dogs, not so much as a feature menu item, but as one of the primary non-breakfast items available.

Marilyn’s dogs are large for the buns that they are put into. And then are poured over with their chili and covered with a layer of very thickly-cut cheddar cheese. It comes wrapped in an envelope of tin foil, which helps to melt the cheese more quickly.

Unfortunately, this cheese overwhelms the dog. The chili on it has a decent texture but almost no independent flavor of its own. When the thick shreds of cheddar melt into this, the chili taste almost disappears entirely.

Moe’s Coney and Grill
3603 S. Division Ave
Grand Rapids, MI 49548
616.514.1650

Another Coney spot popping up where an old Red Lion used to be, Moe’s keeps very early and limited hours and was closed on my first 3 attempts to go here. They are open early for breakfast and close at 3pm most nights of the week.

Like One Stop, they also grill their dogs here, giving it a small wait for the hot dogs. The dog I got here was grilled to the point where the skin was actually starting to shrivel, but there was no sign of burning. This provided for a nice, crisp snap with each bite. The dog was also a little longer than the bun, giving that first bite solely of the dog itself.

The chili sauce here consists of a finely-ground meat, but still a thick sauce rather than a Flint-style topping. It was served on a pretty average bun and topped off with a thin, shredded cheddar that melted in the thick sauce, but didn’t oversaturate it.

Monarchs Club
646 Stocking Ave NW
Grand Rapids, MI 49504
616.233 9799

Though they advertise beer and dog specials in Recoil, Monarch’s Club is not really known as a chili dog venue. Nevertheless, they do possess the chili recipe from Red Lion, one of the classic, last-generation hot dog joints.

I was at Monarch’s while they were cooking up a batch of the Red Lion chili, and the smell was fantastic. The Red Lion chili is a meaty one that has a bit of a tangy flavor to it. The meat is juicy enough that it moistens the bun around the dog, but doesn’t douse through all the bread.

The bun and dog are average, though the bun is warmed. The cheese here is very thin, but there was too much topping off the dog that I got. I had to peel off a layer to get to the taste of the chili.

One O One Cafe
1811 Plainfield Ave NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49505
616.214.7024

The first thing in the taste that stands out in One O One’s chili dogs is the larger pieces of meat found in its chili. My first impression on tasting it was that it has a similar consistency to that of a Hormel chili.

One welcome difference in their chili-cheese dogs is that, rather than the shredded cheddar cheese, One O One Café uses a melted cheese sauce to top off their dogs. While it may be a bit more unhealthy (and if you’re eating chili dogs, much less reading a review of them, you may not be too concerned with that small difference) it mixes in with the chili sauce and the bun, creating a much better flavor than the shredded cheese which may not even be warm when you are eating it.

For the size of the finished product, the dogs themselves make up a nice portion of it, not getting lost in the bun or toppings. However, the bun has no special preparation and seems pulled straight from the bag.

One Stop Coney Shop
154 E. Fulton
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
616.233.9700

Opened in 2009, One Stop takes a different approach to cooking their hot dogs than almost any other place in the city that I’ve come across; each dog ordered in seared on a flat top grill. Rather than boiling, grilling the dog this way gives it a clean, crisp “snap” when you bite into it. This means that the dogs take a couple minutes extra from the time you order them to the time they are set in front of you, but it’s worth the small wait.

One Stop's 2 Coney sauces; Detroit-style on the left and Flint Style on the right.

One Stop also offers veggie dogs or “ripped” dogs for any item on their menu. A ripped dog is when a hot dog is put into a deep fryer and cooks until the skin begins to rip apart. This cooking method makes the entire dog’s skin very crispy.

Both types of chili sauces available at One Stop: Detroit-style and Flint-style. The Flint sauce is extremely well seasoned and flavored. The Detroit sauce is a thick saucy topping, which although good, just didn’t have the flavor that the Flint-style did.

One high praise I have to give them is that the buns were about the softest I’ve had. The cheese went all around the dog, and then the chili is put over top, melting it, creating very well-constructed and very filling dogs.

Papa’s Dogs & More
3012 28th St SW
Grandville, MI 49418
616.530.9044

Papa’s Dogs that opened in September 2010 takes a different approach than the usual hot dog restaurant, which the owner was more than happy to take to time to explain to me as a new customer. Rather than putting the dog into a bun and then loading up the toppings, the dog is wrapped in one of a variety of homemade doughs and then baked around the dog.

Behind the ordering counter, there is a large counter filled with all the staple condiments, including chili and a nacho cheese sauce. While the varieties of the baked-on buns make a fantastic deviation from the regular dog, they are also prohibitive in applying additional toppings to the dog. There is no space between the bun and the dog for anything more than a line of cheese sauce or ketchup and mustard, which is the only mild complaint I can muster about this place.

Red Hot Inn
3175 Leonard St NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49525
616.956.9425

Aside from Yesterdog, Red Hot Inn at Leonard and East Beltline is the last standing of the previous generation of hot dog joints in the city. The first thing I noticed about the dog was that it was a messy one. It was constructed with the cheese over the dog and poured over with a generous amount of their Coney sauce that overflowed from the two ends of the dog.

The chili had a similar flavor to the one at the Filling Station, a little peppery. However, it wasn’t as thick and was actually a tiny bit runny. The chili melted the cheddar beneath it into a large cheesy mass underneath it, but still on top of the dog. Unfortunately underneath the thick cheese later and chili, the actually taste of the dog became almost lost.

Ritz Koney Bar & Grille
64 Ionia Ave SW
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
616.451.3701

For having such a central location and a menu good any time of day, this place has one of the most difficult schedules to keep track of. It seems open half the time you wouldn’t expect it to be, and closed so many of the times you want to walk in.

Ritz’s top credit has to be its large variety of available dog toppings, including my favorite of crushed chips (Fritos or Lays) over the chili-cheese dog.

The dogs themselves are average, maybe a little bit on the thinner side. The come served in a warmed bun, which is always an advantage, and the bun is filled to the top.

The cheese, unfortunately never seems to melt on these dogs, and they put such a small amount of chili on their dogs (and on their walking tacos, a favorite of mine that no longer exists on the regular menu) that it can’t help the process much.

Wyoming Ice Cream Shoppe
4337 Clyde Park Ave SW
Wyoming, MI 49509
616.249.3696

This small pink ice cream shoppe has a great number of fantastic homemade ice cream dishes, however, like Marilyn’s in Ada, they also serve a number of hot dogs made right in front of you behind the counter.

The dogs are, overall, pretty basic. The bun comes straight from a bag, the hot dog is one of the softer dogs I’ve come across, and the Monterrey Jack and cheddar are longer shreds. The chili sauce has a good flavor to it, but there was very little meat in its consistency.

21 May, 2011 at 6pm: An Essay on the End of the World.

Michigan’s Ancient Copper Culture: An Essay on Speculative History

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Truth and Lies. Facts and frauds. The history of this planet is filled with both objective and subjective accounts of the events that have transpired throughout the millennia. The subjectivity comes from lone sources, perhaps a single person’s record of an event or conclusions drawn from incomplete evidence; whereas objectivity comes from the synthesis of an array of sources. It is to objectivity that we must turn for our final answer. But often, just as in any other situation, the objectivity and the subjectivity, the accepted and the radical, are in conflict with each other. In the realm of speculative history, this rings all too true as the conventions are shaken, or at least attempted to, by those who have alternate ideas of how history unfolded. One such example is unfolding right in our own backyard, as the idea of outside influence on Native American development is proliferating.

As accepted theory currently maintains, cultures of the New World developed independently and isolated from the rest of the world. New publications are pointing to evidence which they believe could overturn this longstanding idea and prove that Native America was indeed in contact with the outside world. For as long as Europeans have been exploring the New World and documenting the inhabitants of the Americas, conjecture arose about their origins, which in fact was simply an earlier incarnation of the speculative history genre. At times of first contact, they were indeed thought to be Indians, a term which still sticks to this day. Throughout the passing years, hypotheses came and went, such as they were survivors of the lost continent of Atlantis, migrants from the besieged Carthage, or descendants of the lost tries of Israel (Fagan 2005:31, Feder 1996:77).

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Paths Unwritten

in the currents of the world