I would love a real Chicago dog, but several of the ingredients are not available locally: the dogs themselves, the buns and the dayglow-green relish.

Painting the top of the bun with egg wash, sprinkling poppy seeds on and putting them in the oven at 200 for a few minutes is a pretty close approximation, especially if you steam them just before serving them. The bread itself still isn't quite right, though. Ballpark brand buns are closer than the generic ones, but a lot more expensive.

I'm told adding blue food coloring to ordinary sweet pickle relish will turn it dayglow green, but I haven't tried that.

It's the Vienna natural casing dogs that I can't get. Of the various brands of dogs available locally, Fairbury all-beef dogs are probably the best. We do them under the broiler until they're well-charred.