Hot Dog bun
Hot Dog bun is a type of soft bun shaped specifically to contain a hot dog or frankfurter. The original purpose of this food was to make it possible to eat hot dogs without burning one’s hands.
There are two basic types: top-loading (also known as Frankfurter rolls) New England Style Rolls or Lobster Buns in some areas, and side-loading, common in the rest of the United States also called American Style Buns. The advantages to a top loader are that it holds the hot dog securely and fits nicely into little three-sided paper boxes. Top loaders are generally baked side by side and torn apart as needed, leaving a flat side surface for grilling.
History
Hot dog historian and professor emeritus at Roosevelt University Bruce Kraig believes the term "hot dog" was invented in the late 19th century by American observers of German immigrants, who ate sausages on buns. The Americans joked that the sausages looked suspiciously like the Germans' dachshunds.
The Bavarian concessionaire, Anton Feuchtwange, loaned gloves for his customers to hold his sausages at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. When many were not returned, he asked his brother, who was a baker, to invent a solution. Thus, the hot dog bun was born
Regional variations
In Chicago, Illinois, where poppy-seed buns are popularly served with Chicago-style hot dogs, the buns are made with high-gluten flour to hold up to steaming. In Austria, a "hot dog" is a bagette which is hollowed out by cutting off the end and impaling it on a spike so a sausage can be inserted.