For me, meatballs are the iconic IKEA food, but past experience tells me that a lot of Lifehacker readers believe that the el cheapo hot dog sold at the Bistro are a delight not to be missed. So when I planned my week-long IKEA eating experience, I made sure to include an evening visit to indulge in some non-Swedish dogging.
[related title=”IKEA FOOD ADDICT” tag=”ikea-food-addict” items=”7″]It’s certainly hard to argue with the price for a casual snack: $2 scores you a hot dog plus as much soft drink as you can handle. And it seems a popular choice. Even at 8pm there were more people at the bistro than at the main checkout queue.
The hot dog itself? It tasted OK — this is a hot dog, let’s not pretend it’s the ultimate gourmet experience. I was happy to eat something involving bread, since that’s a staple of my regular diet and something I’ve missed badly in some previous eating challenges.
What I realised after a couple of bites is that I really like grated cheese on my hot dog, and that’s not an option here. I still have cheese left over from my weekly shopping, but I didn’t bring it with me and I don’t want to venture inside and buy a cheese grater.
The drinks were less impressive. The Lingonberry was excessively sweet; the diet cola was entirely undrinkable.
One other note: commenters have been asking, with varying shades of delicacy, whether the all-IKEA diet has had a deleterious effect on my (ahem) bowel movements. Happily, I can confirm that there’s been no obvious difference in that department.
Three days to go!
Comments
11 responses to “IKEA Food Addict Day 4: Hot Dogs And Tight Buns”
I’m not sure of the purpose of your article, as this is the first one I decided to read. It’s not the best journalism i’ve seen. It should start out with a summary of the purpose (not the goal, the purpose). Are you doing this to see if you can live on Ikea food alone (ala Supersize Me)?
Also, why don’t you actually describe the hotdog (I know, that would be novel, wouldn’t it). It is big, small, squishy, spicy, bland. I know, I ask too much.
Is it just me or are some parts of LifeHacker really going to the dogs – and other bits very good?
For the record, I consider the Ikea hotdogs very spicy – most probably to encourage you to want a drink with it. The syrup is very cheap – hence, they take less of a loss if they sell you a drink with it.
Angus – you’re my favourite writer at LifeHacker – this is below your standard.
Thanks for the feedback. Complaining you don’t understand the purpose when you haven’t read the other posts seems a little odd, really.
That’s what I thought, it’s kind of like coming into a movie half-way and complaining that you don’t know who the characters are.
Great challenge Angus. The hotdog is good with the vanilla icecream which isn’t too bad actually. They should let you sleep in the IKEA beds so you can wake up to a $2 Big breakfast!
Dan Zammell, just enjoy it man. Angus aint out to win a Pulitzer here, he is just doing an experiment which I for one am thoroughly enjoying.
Ikea hotdogs spicy?
I wish they were, I love spicy food, but I’ve never noticed them to be even remotely spicy.
In fact without the sauce and mustard on top they’d be too bland to eat…
Dude, the post states day four, did you actually read the whole post or just the little bits you wanted to nitpick?…. If its bad journalism,don’t read ya muppet……P.s. keep up the good work Angus, I enjoy reading your articles.
Tip: grab some lingon and blåbär sauce/jam and have that on the hotdog instead of sauce and cheese. It might seem unusual at first but I rate it highly.
If the idea of a sweet/savoury hotdog is too odd for you they sell a lot of things in tubes (crab, caviar etc) which you could try instead. It’s a shame it’s not like in Sweden where they have an entire range of cheese-in-a-tube but it’s better than nothing.
How It’s Made – Hot Dogs – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NzUm7UEEIY
Angus.. for your next challenge.. visit the bistro at Costco.. for $2.49 you get a hotdog (all pork) and a refillable softdrink. The dogs are awesome, quite tasty and filling and light years ahead of those woefully disgusting ikea dogs.. Costco also has a slice of pizza for $2.99.. extremely tasty and nicely priced.
Haven’t eaten at Costco in a few years (the Sydney one isn’t convenient for me), will have to look into that. (IKEA has pizza at a similar price in the Bistro, though I’ve only eaten the take-home frozen version.)
The Costco Hot Dog and Pizza are quite amazing.