Putnam County Hot Dog Joint: Worst. Dogs. Ever. at Teays Valley Foodland

As you might expect, the gang at WVhotdogs.com gets bombarded with friendly recommendations regarding the quality of hot dogs at all sorts of locations across the state. Sometimes those suggestions pan out, but other times we are left scratching our heads.

Some of my friends in the Teays Valley had told me that the Foodland on Teays Valley Road makes decent hot dogs, so I figured that I'd at least give it a shot. These are friends that I have always trusted.

No more.

The Foodland is, of course, a supermarket and not really a hot dog joint, per se. The dogs come from their deli area located in the back of the store. When I pulled up to the deli counter, I first noticed that the weenies were floating in a greasy bath. While I like my dogs boiled and am not totally adverse to them hanging out in hot water for a bit before being served, I was reminded of why I would rather not actually see them doing so before hand.

The dog was prepared quickly and with a smile, which is always nice, and the price was right ($.79, by far the least expensive dog that I have reviewed thus far). but it goes downhill from there.

The bun was a straight-outta-baggie special and, as you can imagine from my earlier description, the weenie was less than stellar (this might have been a psychosomatic taste reaction as much as anything, however).

The sauce was thick-but-fluid and consisted of finely ground beef in a tomatoey base. Its flavor was very very sweet (too sweet, in fact) and a strong undertone of green pepper (imagine a crappy Manwich). 2 weenies.

The slaw was essentially sugared cabbage chunks with little mayonnaise. Sweet cabbage + sweet sauce = bad idea. One or the other, please. 1 weenie.

The best part of the dog was the mild onions and the mustard (which cut the saccharinesque taste of the dog thankfully and dramatically). It's never a good thing when the best part of a WV hot dog is the yellow mustard.

Overall, this is one hot dog to avoid and I only give it 1 weenie. Even at $.79, I still felt ripped off. Go to the nearby DQ or, better yet, hit up the Tudor's Biscuit World just down the road if you are in TV and want a dog. If you only have a buck and can't afford a dog at either of those places and are tempted by the the price, I would still recommend rummaging around in the gutters for dimes or just going hungry. Whatever you do, don't get their dogs.