São Paulo´s Originals

Cachorro quente (Hot dog)

If you still haven’t tried a São Paulo’s hot dog, try it. It can be funny to find out that except for the bread, São Paulo’s cachorro quente has nothing in common with New York’s hot dog.

A paulistano hot dog means that bread will be cut and filled with a poached Wienerwurst sausage (salchicha tipo Viena) instead of a grilled Frankfurter. Then it will be filled with vinaigrette sauce, corn, mashed potatoes, a layer of mayonaise and some fried straw potatoes sprinkled over it. Mustard and catchup are optional.

São Paulo’s cachorro quente appeared in the 1980’s at the University of São Paulo’s campus. As evening students worked during the day and didn’t have time to get dinner before classes, cart men decided to sell an “improved” hot dog - big enough to dupe hunger until getting home and practical enough to be eaten on the way to school. Soon the “improved hot dog” began to attract tourists to the university, and it didn’t take much for all other hot dog carts and kiosks in the city to do the same. Today even big supermarket stores (hipermercados) like Extra, Carrefour and Wal-Mart serve the paulistano style cachorro quente.

See also:
- What do paulistanos eat?
- Padarias: more than bread - addresses
- Sao Paulo's Originals