What makes a hot dog Colombian? These days, it seems like the more outrageous the toppings the better. Whipped cream and plum sauce, anyone?
A Colombian hot dog is typically topped with chopped onions, crushed potato chips, and generous squirts of ketchup, pink sauce (basically a mix of ketchup and mayo), mustard, and pineapple sauce. The combo of sauces varies from place to place. Some eateries also add melted cheese. From there, it seems, creativity rules. You might find your dog topped with chorizo and a quail egg, like at La Moon, which was featured in the recent live episode of Man v. Food, or with shrimp and crab, like at La Perrada de Edgar.
We took the Colombian hot dogs at two restaurants across the street from one another, La Perrada de Edgar and Los Perros, and put them to the test.
Colombian hot dog - La Perrada de Edgar ($3.99)
Hot dog topped with mozzarella cheese, onion, potato sticks, and sauces (pink, house, cheese, ketchup, mustard)
Note that I asked for pineapple sauce because their basic Colombian perro doesn't come with it.
Cons: The bread, perhaps because it was steamed, got stuck to the paper basket and disintegrated a little. While the thickness of the bread held all of the ingredients together well, it seemed to be too much bread for the dog. It was also a little dry.
Superperro - Los Perros ($4.25)
Hot dog topped with potato chips and sauces (pink, ketchup, mayo)
Pros: Maybe because there was less bread, I could taste the sausage more in this hot dog and I actually got some meat in each bite. The bun was soft and flavorful.
Cons: The crushed potato chip pieces were too large and didn't have as much crunch as the potato sticks on the other hot dog. I was told the hot dog didn't come with cheese, but I'm pretty sure there was cheese on it.
Though the bread was better, it didn't hold everything together as well.
Verdict: It was tough to choose a winner here for the hot dogs are extremely similar, but Los Perros takes this one. While La Perrada has lower prices, better sauces, and a huge variety of hot dog choices, the bread ruined it. Los Perros, on the other hand, offers only the superperro plus three other choices that are more about the meat used in the dog. However, it was better overall.
La Perrada de Edgar
6976 Collins Ave., Miami Beach
305-866-4543
Los Perros (various locations)
6995 Collins Ave., Miami Beach
305-397-8305
