Dodgers celebrate postseason baseball with pastrami-wrapped hot dog

Los Angeles knows its pastrami. While LA has earned its rep as a town filled with fad diets and cold-pressed juices, there is a proud history of pastrami here. Whether it's Langer's, which some claim has the best pastrami in the country, or the famed punk rock hang out Oki Dog, which stuffs a hot dog, pastrami and chili into a tortilla, this city does brined and smoked meat right.

With the Dodgers in the postseason for the second straight year, the team honored this tradition with their Playoff Dog. Served from the Loaded Hot Dog booth which also offers up flavor explosions like the Doyer Dog (topped with chili, nacho cheese, jalapenos and pico de gallo) and the Heater (smothered in buffalo sauce and a blue cheese coleslaw), this is a hot dog topped with pastrami, thick cut pickle spear and mustard, all warmly nestled inside a pretzel bun. If the '90s were defined by grunge and those weird snap bracelets, then our generation will be known as the one who brought the pretzel bun to the masses. 

While the dog was a little dry, the combination of salted meats dehydrating people that just looked at it, you couldn't deny its meaty charms. The deli mustard provided a nice kick while the smokiness of the pastrami comfortably swaddled the sausage.  

But don't think that was the end of the salty goodness. Because next on tap was the LA EXTREME BACON WRAPPED HOT DOG. This dog is wrapped in applewood smoked bacon and is topped with peppers, onions, mustard and mayonnaise -- an ode to the bacon-wrapped hot dog carts that set up shop outside of places of beverage consumption. Because nothing quite gives a perfect nightcap to an evening with friends like a hot dog that has been cooking in the juices of onions and peppers since perhaps the Reagan administration.

While this dog was good, it may not have been greasy enough. Which is an odd statement to make. But just as your mother's lasagna is the best because it's made with love, LA's bacon wrapped hot dogs rule the streets with their slick and slimy fists. 

So the next time you're in Los Angeles for a Dodgers game and you're looking for both a hot dog and a taste of the town, make sure to leave room for both of these. 

And then buy a very large container of water. Because you're going to need it.