What Anthony Bourdain Actually Thought About NYC's 'Dirty Water Hot Dogs'

The late Anthony Bourdain lives on forever thanks to his acerbic wit and pronounced opinions on everything from why brunch is the worst meal to his belief that scrambled eggs should be kept simple (no dairy component needed). He also traveled far and wide, seemingly enjoying home-cooked, family meals just as much as Michelin-star delicacies. And then there was a special place in his heart for street food, from the stalls of Vietnam to his home city of New York, and its street specialty: dirty water hot dogs. Of the infamous wieners, sold out of carts or stalls set up NYC sidewalks, he told Insider Tech, "That's what we do. Yeah, I like a dirty water hot dog as much as anybody else" (per YouTube).

However, he qualified this statement by saying, "It's not the best hot dog in the world, by any stretch of the imagination," and adding that he'd be more likely to hit up Chicago for the best dog. Still, there is clearly something special to NYC's dirty water dogs, beyond any nostalgia Bourdain might have felt for food that was native to him.

NYC's dirty water hot dogs aren't actually cooked in dirty water, in case you weren't sure (there's actually an NYC bagel myth that the water is so good, it makes the bagels some of the best in the country); no, they get their name from the muddy-looking liquid that is seasoned with all manner of spices and flavorings (including juice that the hot dogs themselves expel), which the hot dogs are then added to and served up from. They are the descendants of late 19th and 20th-century boiled hot dogs, which vendors began selling when open-flame cart models posed too much of a fire hazard.

Today, visitors to NYC might find that true dirty water hot dogs are hard to come by. Vendors have harnessed the power of heat through grills and griddles, but there are still a few stalls that sell their wieners straight from the soup — if you know where to look (as Anthony Bourdain apparently did). Perhaps the most famous and certainly one of the most beloved is Billy's Hot Dog Cart, typically located at Central Park West (just follow the sizable line that leads to the blue and yellow Sabrett umbrella). Not only does the eponymous Billy serve up tasty dogs (for a jaw-dropping $3 — up a dollar from last year, but still pretty darn good), but his friendly personality is the icing on the cake for many customers.