In Vancouver, new kind of hot dog is big hit

VANCOUVER - Leave it to sportswriters.

Surrounded by myriad dining options in a city that arguably is one of North America's culinary capitals, we line up at a hot dog cart on Burrard Street.

But give us credit for this much: The Japadog is no ordinary hot dog.

We're not talking foil-wrapped, soggy ballpark dogs here. Or the water-boiled, kraut-topped street-vendor ilk. These heated canines are haute cuisine

That's why the all-day lines at the two Burrard Street carts are the longest this side of Canada Hockey Place - or anywhere Molson's is sold.

And soon an indoor Japadog - the first of many, its creator hopes - will open in a storefront near crowded Robson Square.

"You have one of these," said Ed Hamilton of West Vancouver, as he waited recently in a 20-deep lunchtime line at the cart outside the Sutton Hotel, "and you'll never want a regular old hot dog again. Believe me. I have one just about every day. Sometimes two."

The Japadog is a unique by-product of Vancouver's unique culture. This Pacific Coast city sometimes, and in some places, seems more Asian than Canadian.

Noriki Tamura arrived here from Japan in 2005 and was immediately struck by that cultural duality. Being a former advertising executive in Tokyo, and inspired by British entrepreneur Richard Branson's book, he looked for ways to capitalize.

Asian-fusion restaurants were as commonplace as hockey fans. While he researched, he vended traditional hot dogs. After a few weeks, he hit on his brilliant concept:

Why not combine North American and Japanese cuisines in a fast-food sort of way?

Voila! The Japadog.

Tamura's homemade sausages are concocted from various meats - some turkey, some pork, some Kobe beef. They're delicious in themselves, but the secret to why the Japadog is hotter than a Vancouver winter is in the toppings.

Wasabi, seaweed, bonito flakes, daikon, nori, and such sauces as teriyaki, tonkatsu and soy. Tamura used them all in creative combinations.

Among the varieties of on-the-site grilled Japadogs are the Misomayo, a turkey sausage topped with radish sprouts, sesame miso, and a Japanese mayo; the Kurobuta, a pork hot dog smeared with soy, daikon relish, and seaweed; an Oroshi, a traditional bratwurst topped with green onions, grated daikon, nori, and teriyaki sauce; and an Okonomi, a flattened Berkshire pork sausage garnished with cabbage and bonito flakes.

No surprise, the Japanese journalists and competitors at these 2010 Winter Olympics were quick to discover Tamura's downtown carts. And when one Tokyo TV reporter asked if he had anything honoring Japanese figure skater Mao Asada, the Mao was born.

While most of the dogs sell for between $4 and $7, the Mao goes for $10.

The dog itself is made from expensive Kobe beef. Tamura sprinkles it with tonkatsu sauce - a ginger-flavored dipping sauce. He tops that with tiny shreds of red and gold yuba - a variety of tofu - cut into the shape of tiny Canadian maple leafs.

"I think I can take Japadog around the world," Tamura, by now accustomed to being interviewed, said as he grilled a row of dogs on an oversize hibachi. "You can see. The Canadians love it. The Americans love it. The Japanese love it."

As far as anyone can tell, there's just one problem with Japadogs: The "fast" in fast food might be something of a misnomer. Tamura and his helpers painstakingly grill and top every individual dog. Customers, particularly those at the back of the glacier-paced lines, often drop out in frustration.

"That's OK," said Hamilton. "You don't want something that's been sitting around for hours, do you?"