Corn Dog: The hot cakes of Basantapur

Corndog is a stick food popular in American cuisine, prepared by coating sausages in batter then deep-frying it. Recently, the youths of Kathmandu have been huddling around the corn dog shops at Basantapur to get a taste of this scrumptious western delight...

Corn Dogs was a menu item in a few restaurants in Kathmandu, but it wasn’t much heard of nor preferred. Then TikTok, Instagram, and other social media posts, as they do, worked their magic. In mid-2021, corn dogs went viral online, and the youths flocked to food stalls at Basantapur.

The first shop to place corndog on its menu was Flavor fort of Freak Street, Basantapur. At the beginning of 2021, the chef decided to add corndog to its menu, but it wasn’t as popular. Eventually, youths started posting reviews and sights of the tempting corndog, and it became a trendy food. At Rs 100, you can get yourself a hot, cheesy, delicious, and creamy corn dog at the Basantapur streets.

The most famous shop for corn dogs is Suzu Snack Station; it was the same spot that went Viral on TikTok. “We’ve kept corn dogs on our menu for about eight months now as per customer advice, and every day we sell more than 500 corndogs. On Saturdays, we’re double-loaded. Customers wait patiently in clumps with their tickets for their order. Corn dogs have been a very profitable business for us,” says Surdev Rai, the chef of Suzu Snack Station. Many restaurants and stalls around Suzu Snack Station have started selling corn dogs too, and all of them are satisfied and profitable.

As the competition tightens, corn dog sellers are finding ways to level up their corndog game with new ingredients, such as cheese-infused corn dogs or french-fry encrusted corn dogs. Such styles of corndog are popular in South Korea and other parts of the world.

All around Basantapur, around 1000 corndogs get sold a day, and during holidays or weekends when the streets pack up, it’s rush time for the corn dog sellers. Corn dogs are the new hot cakes of Basantapur and maybe soon the entire Kathmandu valley!