One of the most unique “local” versions of the hot dog is the Andadog. It’s usually only available once a year at the Okinawan Festival on Labor Day weekend in September at Kapiolani Park. I like it so much, that I’ve attempted for the first time making this at home, which you can check out here in this pictorial demonstration!…

Here’s 4 variations of hot dogs I tried. Top to bottom: Oscar Mayer Jumbo Beef, Redondo’s (red) Hawaiian Winners, Redondo’s Teriyaki Hawaiian Winners, Sinai Polish Sausages (from Costco).

Here we have the packaged Andagi Mix, which is available (not always) at Marukai. According to the instructions on back (which I had translated from Japanese), the “wet” ingredients you must add are 3 eggs and 2 tablespoons oil; no water!. I discovered though that I needed to add 2 more eggs and 1 more tablespoon oil to thin it out to a “batter” consistency (total 5 eggs, 3 tbsp. oil).

The Procedure:

First I cut the hot dogs in half (the longer Polish dog was cut into thirds) then boiled them in plain water until fully cooked, then drained them until fully dry. You can probably leave them full-length, but this is how they do it at the festival.

Here you see the dogs pre-cooked, fully dry and skewered. You can substitute skewers with disposable chopsticks cut in half.

Here, I’ve just dipped a dog in the batter. My friend said to coat them in flour first to make the batter stick better, by I found it was better to dip them in as is (no flour coating). Just a thin coating is enough, as it will REALLY puff up as you’ll see next. The dough is very “gluey”, even in this “thinned” state, so I used a rice paddle to assist with the coating process. One package of Andagi was enough to make approximately 30 andadogs.

Here I’ve just removed one from the hot oil. Pefectly golden brown delicious (GBD). Please note, the oil temperature is KEY when cooking Andagi. Too hot and the sugar in the batter will turn it BLACK and burnt on the outside and RAW inside. I lowered my stove to a notch below MEDIUM and it was just right. Andagi (in this case) cooks VERY fast - less than a minute - so you need to keep close eye on each one in the fryer. The most I’ve added in the fryer at once were 3, tops.

The Finished Product:

Here are 4 of the best finished examples I had of each Andadog variation. Some were cooked darker (more burnt) than I would have liked, but they were still ono!

Left to right: (Costco) Polish Dog, Redondo’s Winner, Oscar Mayer, Redondo’s Teriyaki Winner.

Conclusion: My favorite of the 4 varieties was the (Costco) Polish Dog. It’s strong flavor matched the best with the slightly sweet Andagi. A close second goes to the Teriyaki Winner, which helped enhance the sweetness of the Andagi, making it a flavorful standout. The red winner was my least favorite, as it didn’t match well with the Andagi.

I made this for our Memorial day beach picnic, and my family visiting from the mainland made quick work of the 30 Andadogs I created, enjoying every single bite. It was a fun trial and taste test that I’ll certainly do again. If you’ve never tried them before, please do, Andadogs are really ono!