In what seems like a concern straight from 2019, there is a new food at Disneyland that has completely overtaken the internet: a “pickle dog” that is part corn dog, part hot dog, part peanut butter (more on this later), and all fried. It is, in short, the kind of frankenfood that sparks intense debate between the people who must try it at all costs, and the people who are absolutely horrified it exists in the first place.
Obviously, I had to try it.
The pickle dog in question is available at Blue Ribbon Corn Dogs in Downtown Disney, and is accessible to the public. It’s a hot dog on a stick, inside a hollowed-out pickle, which is then dipped in cornbread batter, coated in panko breadcrumbs, and deep fried. The pickle dog comes with a side of peanut butter for dipping and a bag of chips for $13.
Each is made to order, and let me tell you, the woman making them was working hard, fighting a battle against a long line that just grew as the day went on.
There are those who can’t understand why someone would invent this food, but to me, this treat makes total sense. Disneyland’s giant $3 pickles and its $10 corn dogs are two of the park’s most beloved foods. Under the Joey Tribbiani Principle that I just invented — take “Custard, good. Jam, good. Beef, good.” and apply food variables as needed — this offering, before I tried it, seemed like it was absolutely going to work.
Did it work? I don’t know, you’re just going to have to keep reading.
The pickle dog is a hot dog inside a pickle inside a corn dog with panko breading.
By Jessica TorresThose averse to the pickle dog tend to fall into two camps: those who detest pickles, and those who can’t understand why peanut butter needs to be part of this deep-fried conundrum. Both of those were non-issues for me. I love sour pickles, especially fried. I didn’t have any hesitation about the peanut butter, either. For starters, it’s an optional dipping sauce. But mainly, I’ve eaten enough weird theme park food to know that if something sticks out as especially odd in a combination like this, it’s usually there for a reason.
“There are very, very few meals where peanut butter doesn’t belong,” Marnie Shure wrote in her pickle dog hot take for The Takeout. “I would never have thought a peanut butter and bacon sandwich was life-altering until I gave it a whirl, or that a peanut butter burger was such a must-order. But that silky, savory, just-this-side-of-sweet spread has proven itself as such a culinary Swiss army knife that no matter where I see it pop up, I trust it. And now I need the Panko Crusted Pickle Dog.”
For me, the main issue with the whole pickle dog situation was the hot dog itself. If there were a whole table of hot dogs and nothing else, even if I hadn’t eaten all day, I would turn one down. I have, actually. That’s how much I don’t like them. But I am nothing if not devoted to my craft.
So I ordered one. Watched it get made on the spot from dog to pickle to panko to fryer. Took it to a place where I could sit and safely take off my mask according to Disney’s rules. Took many selfies. Then took a bite.
Honestly? Not terrible. Actually pretty good. The cornbread to pickle to hot dog ratio somehow works to perfectly balance out the three strong flavors into one relatively mild, salty-sweet bite.
The peanut butter dipping sauce is the biggest point of contention about the pickle dog.T
By Jessica Torres“I’m not mad at it,” Jessica Torres said. She was there with me to take photos for this story, but if I was going down, we were going down together. We both liked it enough to eat a lot more than we expected to, but even together, we couldn’t finish it. That thing is huge.
Where we parted ways was the peanut butter. She didn’t like it, but I did. The addition of a tiny bit wasn’t great, but when I tried the next bite with a little more, the texture of the peanut butter added to the whole experience. Then again, I like dipping sauces in all forms. We both felt like the breaded panko coating was overkill, and we would have liked it better without. We also skipped the chips. There was enough frying oil in the equation already.
Each pickle dog is made to order.
By Jessica TorresJust like it is online, the pickle dog is an attention-getter in real life. People stopped me several times to ask me what it was, and where they could get it. “Ok,” a nice older man said once I explained what it was. “On the way out, that’s my lunch.” A dubious woman who had seen it trending on the internet asked me how I liked it. “I was thinking about trying it,” she said, “but they lost me at peanut butter. I love pickles and hot dogs, but I’m not sure about the peanut butter.”
I also spotted some influencers in the wild who were there trying the pickle dog “for journalism,” just like me. “I loved it,” said Kitra Remick, half of theme park vlogger duo Ordinary Adventures with partner Peter Sciretta. “I give it a five out of five. Even if you don't love pickles, don't be scared of it because it's not too pickle-y. It just has that nice pickle crunch.”
Though the pickle dog is available at Disneyland, it isn’t made by Disney. Blue Ribbon Corn Dogs is a kiosk operated by Working to Give, a company that operates under what they call a “50/50 principle” of reinvesting 50 percent of profits into the business and giving 50 percent away to charity. “It’s a win-win,” Sciretta said. “I don’t feel as bad about spending $13 on a corn dog.”
Blue Ribbon Corn Dogs is owned by a company that donates 50 percent of its proceeds to charity.
By Jessica TorresIt’s also worth noting that Knott’s Berry Farm had something called the “Dilly Dilly Dog” as part of their Peanuts Celebration in early 2020, which was a corn dog that had a pickle around the hot dog. It was part of their Peanuts Celebration of Charlie Brown and company, which also had peanut butter foods all over the park, like a deep-fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which must have been an absolute nightmare for parents of kids with nut allergies. It also explains why Disneyland’s pickle dog has the panko breading and the peanut butter on the side, as additional elements to make this offering substantially different. (Am I going down a rabbit hole of legalities right now? I am. It distracts me from thinking about my arteries.)
So all things considered, I give the pickle dog a thumbs up, not because I want to eat another one, but because I’m glad it exists. An internet obsession with a frankenfood like this feels very pre-pandemic. It harkens to a time when we could freely go do things. As Disneyland’s reopening nears, if some of us can spare brain space to care about a hot dog shoved in a pickle and dipped in goo, then breaded, fried and covered with some other goo, then nature is healing.
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April 04, 2021 at 06:03PM
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Disneyland’s fried pickle corn dog is taking the internet by storm — and I tried it - SF Gate
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