It's Curious City, where we take your questions about Chicago and the region, and investigate, report, explore, from WBEZ.

Hey, I'm WBEZ reporter Monica Aang, and over here at Curious City, we've noticed certain questions that show up in our mailbox a lot.

They deal with Chicago buildings, city streets, racial politics, and, well, hot dogs.

Over the years, we've gotten at least five questions on the history of the Chicago-style dog alone.

Here are a few.

Hi, my name is Jill Westerfell House. I would like to know who made the first Chicago-style

hot dog. Hi, I'm Gus Lopez, and I wanted to know when did the Chicago-style hot dog

come into being. Hi, I'm Nina Diehl, and I'm from Oak Park, and I wanted to know how all the different

ingredients got onto a Chicago-style hot dog.

Now, if you're not from here, when we say Chicago hot dog, we're not just talking about

a dog in a bun.

We're talking about a very specific collection of ingredients, dog bun, and seven toppings.

These ingredients came from a diverse group of immigrants.

It starts with a snappy all-beef wiener, nestled in a steamed poppy seed bun,

then topped with a mild yellow mustard, chopped onions, sweet green relish, two slices

of tomato, a dill pickle spear, two sport peppers, and a final whoosh of celery salt.

To learn about the origin of this iconic local food, I meet up with hot dog historian, Bruce Craig.

Hey, Bruce. Thanks for joining me.

Okay. Hot dogs, anytime you say hot dogs.

Craig's the author of Man Bites Dog, and Hot Dog, a Global History.

He takes me to a hot dog stand in Oak Park. Here, we dig into the questions, but also a couple of Chicago hot dogs, of course.

So who put together this odd combination and when?

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