Don’t get us wrong: We love hotdogs. But some days, the plain wiener just doesn’t cut it.
Enter cheesedogs, hotdogs stuffed with processed cheese. (It’s also defined as hotdogs served with cheese, but locally, we’re more familiar with the former definition.) When eaten hot, it oozes with melted cheese at every bite; its hint of saltiness cutting through the sweet (-ish, compared to the Western version) Filipino wiener.
We got 10 local brands from the supermarket (we didn’t know there were that many, too). How do they compare?
Note: This taste test only includes “cheesedogs” and “cheese-filled hotdogs.” (No “chicken cheesedogs” here!) We tasted them boiled, and boiled then fried.
CDO Bibbo Cheesedog
CDO’s Bibbo Cheesedog is plump “like a beauty pageant queen,” and comes in a pale red (almost pink) hue. It has a a flower-like arrangement of cheese that gives it a good 50:50 hotdog to cheese ratio.
The wiener tastes your like typical Filipino hotdog—”kulang nalang marshmallow” (“it just needs marshmallow”)—though there was a tasty meatiness to it. The cheese was creamy, but wasn’t as salty as we hoped.
CDO Idol Cheesedog
Another entry from CDO, the Idol Cheesedog has visible black pepper-like specks around its pink hotdogs. It’s so sweet that we can liken it to candied hotdogs, and the texture is so mushy that it doesn’t resist your teeth at all.
While we appreciate that the cheese is on the saltier side, we hope they could’ve given us more than just one dot.
