As you may have seen if you follow us on Twitter (and if not, why the hell not), we were on WBEZ earlier in the week talking road food trips with Tony Sarabia and our colleague Louisa Chu. But our hero when it comes to hardcore road-food-Americana-eating in the upper midwest is Titus Ruscitti of the blog Smokin’ Chokin’ and Chowing With the King. And we’re going to send you into the weekend with some visual and culinary inspiration in the form of his examination of something that remains a bit rare in Chicago proper, but is all around us here in the midwest— Coney Island shops. Basically Coneys are chili dogs, but places that call themselves Coney Island shops seem to have a distinct culture around a particular style of doing chili on a dog (which doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the actual Coney Island, but is much more tied to Detroit and the environs. Check out what Titus has to say about how the tradition is hanging on in five Coney spots from Springfield to Michigan and Indiana. [Smokin’ Chokin’ and Chowing With the King]
