Hot Dogs

This is not a complaint blog. It's an observation and a question. I live near Pittsburgh, PA. On the 4th of July my son went to the store to pick up a few dinner items. I rarely have a craving for hotdogs, but that's what I wanted to make for our Independence day dinner. As my son was in town I asked him to pick up a few things, including hot dog relish which is like a finely diced sweet pickle with mustard. No hot dog relish to be found. In fact he'd never heard of it. As I said we rarely dine on hotdogs. They had regular sweet relish. That's it. I thought surely he must have failed to look properly. After the holiday I went to the store and no hot dog relish to be found. Apparently it's not a thing in the Pittsburgh area. Days later I still can't get over it. Yes, absolutely there are far greater (and real) problems in the world than the fact that people where I live fail to recognize the awesomeness of hot dog relish. To be honest, I usually prefer to drown my dogs with yellow mustard and diced raw onions.

Anywhoo...that got me thinking. In the hotdog-eating world, what is the standard of excellence of toppings? Anyone who mentions ketchup gets ignored.