Popular Michigan Hot Dog Named One of the Best in the Country

Now the nation knows what all Michiganders have known forever.

Michigan coney dogs are the best!

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The Michigan Hot Dog We All Love

The website Cheapism recently identified "19 Regional Hot Dog Styles Across America You Have to Try", and while their writers didn't actually rank all 19 hot dogs on the list, they opened the article with a salute to the Michigan coney - which tells us pretty much everything we need to know. It comes in first on the list whether they blatantly admit it or not.

Here's what they had to say about our beloved Michigan delicacy:

If you’ve associated Coney Island Hot Dogs with New York, you would be wrong. The saucy mess of a dog topped with beanless, all-meat chili spiked with cumin and celery seeds; diced white onions; and yellow mustard comes from Michigan. While there are different styles within Michigan itself, the signature Coney Island style remains the most popular.

The writers go on to recommend a visit to either Lafayette Coney Island or American Coney Island in Detroit to get a real taste of an authentic Michigan coney.

The Best Michigan Coney

Detroit coneys are all well and good, but nothing will ever measure up (in my humble opinion) to the ones from the original Angelo's Coney Island in Flint (now closed). I was lucky enough to live just five houses away when I was a kid, and can still vividly remember the smell in the air of those coneys cooking as I'd walk home from Homedale Elementary.

Detroit coney dogs are similar to chili dogs. Flint coneys, however, are made differently. For Flint coney dogs, think of taco meat but without the Mexican flavoring - more garlic and chili powder and tomato paste among other ingredients. It's loose, not like the chili-like sauce on a Detroit coney.

SEE ALSO: Love Flint-Style Coneys? Here's the Recipe [PHOTOS]

Either way, you have to top 'em with mustard and finely-diced onion - if your onion's too chunky, that's all you'll taste. Oh - and if you want the authentic experience - your coneys have to be prepared using Koegel's hot dogs. Any other way and you're doing it wrong.