<table> </table> One bite. That&#8217;s all it took.</p><p>My teeth sliced through the bun and punctured the tender thin skin, and warm juices streamed into my mouth with bits of onion and the sweet tang of mustard. I almost lost consciousness.</p><p>I was a kid, and that was my first experience with a Chicago-style hot dog. My brother gave me an elbow and handed me a napkin.</p><p>&#8220;Here,&#8221; he said. &#8220;You&#8217;re drooling.&#8221;</p><p>One bite. And I knew why God gave us appetites.</p><p>Nowadays I make it to Chicago about once a year &#8212; the last time for the Royals opener against the White Sox &#8212; and when I&#8217;m within 100 miles of the ballpark, I start getting hungry. It&#8217;s uncanny. My truck knows the way. I don&#8217;t even have to steer; I just check the glove box for napkins and work the brake.</p><p>Chicago is the capital of the Wiener Republic, and you really can&#8217;t get a bad dog in the city. That&#8217;s because there are standards. There&#8217;s an unwritten law that governs how hot dogs are served. Actually, it IS written, and you can find it on countless menus, Web sites and subway walls. Here it is:</p><p><em>Chicago hot dogs are all-beef wieners served on a steamed poppy-seed bun and dressed with yellow mustard, neon green relish, chopped onion, two small wedges of tomato, a pickle spear, one or two sport peppers and a dash of celery salt. </em></p><p>Simple and delicious, simply delicious.</p><p>There are variations &#8212; plain buns are permissible, for instance &#8212; but there is one constant: You never put ketchup on a hot dog. Don&#8217;t even try. As a matter of fact, there has been a book written about it. It&#8217;s called, get this, &#8220;Never Put Ketchup on a Hot Dog.&#8221; It was written by Bob Schwartz, the vice president of Vienna Beef Co., which makes the best wieners on the planet.</p><p>Anyway, while I was in Chicago immersed in baseball and hot dogs, I started wondering if I could find a Chicago-style hot dog somewhere back home in KC.</p><p>So I asked around, consulted Mr. Google and drove down streets looking for the familiar yellow Vienna all-beef hot dog signs.</p><p>And I came to this conclusion: Kansas City is not a hot dog town. We may have the best barbecue in North America, but when it comes to hot dogs, we don&#8217;t pass mustard.</p><p>There used to be a place called Relish in Westport, and a little walk-up window on 39th Street, Zahm&#8217;s in Merriam and some joint on Santa Fe in Overland Park. But they&#8217;re all gone. Kaput. If there&#8217;s a Chicago-style hot dog stand in the metro, it must be hiding pretty well.</p><p>Undaunted, however, I decided to do some sampling around town. I hit a few grills and pubs, and I&#8217;m here to tell you that there are plenty of tasty dogs in Cowtown, including one that comes close to Chicago style. And I discovered that this town has put its own stamp on the hot dog.</p><p>I came across something called the Kansas City-style hot dog (which comes with sauerkraut and melted cheese, which is why I didn&#8217;t try it), but that&#8217;s not what I&#8217;m talking about. I&#8217;m talking about homegrown wieners, a style of serving them and reasonable prices. And the best thing: You don&#8217;t have to drive to Chicago to get one.</p><p>Here are my recommendations:</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Miami Ice</span></strong></p><p><strong>1624 W. 39th St.</strong></p><p><strong>816-561-5600</strong></p><p>Oh, this place comes close to Chicago style! It serves Best&#8217;s kosher hot dog, which is a Vienna competitor, juicy and plump. This place was the only restaurant I found to stock sport peppers, hot little numbers about 2 inches long. Extra points for that, boys. But there weren&#8217;t any tomatoes, and the guy behind the counter almost made a grievous mistake. I caught him about to squeeze ketchup on my dog. &#8220;Stop!&#8221; I shouted, and spared him bodily harm. Jeesh.