Hi guys, Jess Kleinschmidt here to ruin your day. Just kidding. Kind of.
But I am here to bring a take -- a very hot take I have been sitting on for the past five years, and the Fourth of July is the perfect time of year to bring said take.
Ahem, here we go.
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A hot dog is a sandwich. There ... I said it.
Now, I want you to know I do have some backup on this.
For me, it's pretty simple. If you can put a piece of meat on a split roll -- BOOM! -- you have a sandwich.
One definition of a sandwich is when you have "two or more slices of bread or a split roll having a filling in between." That is from Merriam-Webster.com, fam.
*DROPS MIC*
"Sandwich" also is defined as one slice of bread covered with food, so don't act as if you've never run out of buns and used a piece of bread instead. Because you have. And so has Atlanta Braves third baseman Josh Donaldson.
So did Steph Curry when we asked him a couple of years back.
And when a hot dog is served in a roll, it's also a sandwich. Again, Webster said this, so get angry with him, not me.
Jeff Mauro, host of Food Network's "Sandwich King," weighed in on the debate with "The Daily Beast" after he admitted, "People argue over this like sports."
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“The definitive answer is yes!" he said. "Because there is the kingdom of sandwiches, and then you have the class of horizontal-cased meats, and under that in the phylum is a hot dog.
"It’s between carbs. It’s hand-held. It eats and chews like a sandwich, and there are two independent sides.”
Now, this could create debate on what exactly is defined as a roll, but you can argue amongst yourselves because I have enough on my plate.
For fun, I also bring in other sources to back you die-hard non-sandwichers.
One, Joey Chestnut -- the hot dog eating champion of the world -- has told me it's definitely not a sandwich. He's also told MLB.com's Cut4 the same.
That's right -- I came to class prepared.
Two, The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (yes, that's a thing) made a call:
"Our verdict is … a hot dog is an exclamation of joy, a food, a verb describing one 'showing off' and even an emoji. It is truly a category unto its own."
So basically, a hot dog is a just ... a hot dog, according to the council.
Some have even called it ... a taco.
Despite how you feel about what category -- or what family the hot dog belongs to -- people everywhere are fascinated by this question, especially this time of year when ESPN hosts Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest.
Bay Area native Chestnut again will participate in the contest we love to hate-watch.
The annual event will air on ESPN at 7:45 a.m. PT for the women and 9 a.m. PT for the men.
Hope you enjoy celebrating America and watching women and men stuff their faces with ... sandwiches.