Wednesday was National Hot Dog Day. That made it a perfect time to catch up, no pun intended, with the president of Koegel Meats, John Koegel, and ask him why the hot dog has been as popular as it’s been throughout the years.

“I think it’s a very convenient food,” Koegel said. “You can eat it cold. You can heat it up. You can serve it a lot of different ways. So it allows one to create a — I’m not going to say a sandwich — but a hot dog that they really enjoy just depending how they want to enjoy it.”

Since he brought it up, and since it’s also been a topic of debate for years, is the hot dog a sandwich?

“The hot dog is its own entity. It is not a sandwich. It is its own entity.”

According to the results of a recent survey, the favorite toppings for a hot dog are mustard and onions. Ketchup was a distant fifth, behind pickle relish and chili.