P136 BEEBFAX 122 Thu 31 Dec --:--/--                                                   The United States, still smarting over  the loss of the America's Cup, is  about to lose claims to another of its  national institutions.  Research in Britain has discovered  that the famous American hot dog was  first invented in Epping, Essex.  It was believed the hot dog began life  when a stall opened at Coney Island,  New York at 5 cents a time in 1916.  But now the British Sausage Bureau has  unearthed evidence that it was being  eaten decades earlier in Epping by a  friend of Charles Dickens.     More follows     Next       Prev       Home        End