While proverbial wisdom says we tend to eat more in the winter, summer is the true time for piling our eats as high as the sky, or, at least, in a way that tests the laws of food physics.
Think of an ice cream cone beautifully balancing three melty scoops or a plate of baseball nachos loaded with four different cheeses and a whole jar of green chile.
And the king of the piquant summertime pile-on? It has to be the cookout sandwich, that meaty, gooey, condiment-laden creation that is probably far too big for any human mouth to attempt in one bite-taking go.
Fat Sal's Deli is bettering our backyard attempts at building a skyscraper-style bread-and-meat meal with its Fat Cookout Sandwich, which is back for a limited time.
What's this intriguingly monikered speciality's specialty, besides the fact that it is super-stuffed with several cookout classics?
It is both a cheeseburger and a hot dog, all at once, simultaneously, which seems like the sort of topic a great food-minded philosopher should take on for his next thesis.
Can a cheeseburger also be a hot dog? Discuss.
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So what's in it?
The two hearty stars of the sandwich, as mentioned, plus another barbecue must-have, potato salad, which, yes, sits in the sandwich and not to its typical spot on the side.
Pickles, mustard, and ketchup round out the whole fantastical foodie shebang.
Cost? It's $12.99, and you can count on it lasting as long as a firefly's light, or a coal's glow, or a soapy bubble blown by someone lounging on the lawn.
It'll go, like these other summertime sights, so find make your cookout-colossal sandwich dreams a reality in Westwood, Hollywood, or Encino, as well as San Diego and Austin, too.
What would you add to your backyard cookout sandwich, next time around? The sky, and the refrigerator's condiment shelf, is truly the limit.
