Move Over, Chicago: This European Nation Is Serving Up Some Seriously Scrumptious Hot Dogs

A great hot dog isn't hard to find in the United States. It is home to dozens of regional styles that range from Chicago's garden-on-a-bun to Kansas City dogs that come topped like a Reuben sandwich. The snack food has become an American icon, consumed en masse in baseball stadiums, at summer cookouts, and during the 4th of July. But if any country could compete with the U.S. as far as obsessing over the frankfurter, it might be Norway, where residents eat an average of 100 hot dogs every year.

Sausages have been part of Norwegian's food culture since the time of the Vikings, but the hot dog version of it (processed meat in tube form served inside a split bun) largely caught on in the Scandinavian country in the 1950s, when a fascination for all-things-American was at its peak. In Norway, the American-style hot dog is known as pølse med brød, or "sausage with bread," but another version, called pølse i lompe, is more indicative of the country's signature style. The latter contains a hot dog wrapped in a potato flour based-flatbread called lefsa. One popular and unique way to enjoy a pølse i lompe is to top it with ketchup, mustard, crispy onions, raw onions, and shrimp or potato salad. In this way, it's similar to a Swedish hot dog, called a tunnbrödsrulle.

Just like you can easily grab a quick hot dog at any given convenience store in America, pølse med brød are widely available in Norway at gas stations, arenas and event locations, ferries, train stations, and camp grounds.

Depending on where you are in Norway, you might find different styles of pølse, or hot dogs. For example, in and around the capital city of Oslo, Norwegians favor their franks with "knekk" or a snappy texture when you bite into them. If you've ever had a "red snapper" hot dog in Maine, or a New York dog made with Sabretti wieners, you probably are familiar with that snappy sensation that typically comes when a hot dog has a natural casing. Dogs can be made primarily of beef, pork, chicken, even reindeer, and can be completely plant-based for vegans.

The everyday, run-of-the-mill type of hot dog you're likely to receive in Norway is called a grillpølse, and it's made with a mix of beef and pork. But, there are many different and creative styles to keep an eye out for if you want to experience an extra boost of flavor. Ostepølse is a dog that has cheese incorporated into the wiener; baconpølse is what it sounds like: a bacon-wrapped dog; and chilipølse franks are made with a hint of spicy chili. If you see "middagspølse," this is in reference to a shorter, fatter style of wiener that is not meant to be eaten on a bun or in a wrap, but rather as a dinner sausage, with accompanying sides like potatoes and other vegetables.