Perritos Mexicanos

I decided to put my advice where my mouth is and headed over to Dona Torta for my first order of perritos Mexicanos, still very much on offer at the torta superstore.

The Dona Torta version is three decent dogs, each split down the middle and wrapped in cheese, bacon, and a corn tortilla in that order. The whole thing is deep fried into a sort of red hot flauta/taco dorado, then placed on some lettuce, covered with lots of very hot, thin sauce (that used for the enchilada preps, including tortas ahogadas), and a generous squirt of yellow mustard. It all works beautifully for me. Four bucks an order. I was met with some skepticism from the staff, especially regarding my tolerance for the sauce, but they came through in the end.

I inquired whether one could order the dogs in bread rather than a tortilla. The problem seems to be that Dona Torta's only rolls are their humongous bolillos, used for the tortas. Maybe three or four dogs could be loaded into one of these rolls, but the traditional hot dog on a bun can't be accomplished at DT.

I also asked whether this particular style of dog could be found in a particular part of Mexico. Unfortunately, the better and more knowledgeable cook (wiry guy with mustache) was not on hand. I received a reply along the lines of "I don't know, I just work here." Anyway, I encourage everyone to try this healthy treat for something different.

When I lived in Brasil, there was a concession in the school I attended where we could purchase a mid-morning snack. The two hot items were croquetas, which were out of my price range, and cachorro queiente (hot dogs) which I probably ate 2-3 times per week. They were short fat dogs (sort of like a small knackwurst) with a snappy natural casing that were steamed offsite and then placed in a mild tomato/pepper/onion sauce and kept hot. They were inserted into one half of the ubiquitous buns, which were about the size of D'Amato's short rolls, but with a knife-slice lengthwise before baking so that they easily separated into two halves. The crumb was removed from the interior of the half roll and the dog inserted, topped with a bit of the sauce. They remain for me the epitome of hot dogs, anywhere.

Any other memories of different style dogs from beyond our borders?

JeffBqueried:

I also asked whether this particular style of dog could be found in a particular part of Mexico.

Sonora! Son of a gun - it's one of the very few Sonoran Mexican food items I've heard about up here. Another option with this style of 'dog is to add pinto beans, either ranchero-style or plain. So good.


Un mil de gracias for the tip. I am so there.

I couldn't stop thinking about the perritos after JeffB's post:



In theory this is a magical concotion, but I found the dog itself a little tasteless, maybe overwhelmed by the deep fried bacon-cheese-salsa-mustard whammy.

Dona Torta, a.k.a. Tortas U.S.A.
3057 N. Ashland
773-871-8999
Mon-Sun, 7 am-midnight

MMMM..perritos. Your photo is much better than the one gracing Dona Tortas/Tortas USA/Bamba's wall. They stiffed me on the fries, apparently.

No, fries were extra.

Props to Gwiv for hosting my photo on his site.

The global hot dog repurposing movement gets the Japanese treatment at Mitsuwa in the form of hot dog onigiri. The dog is split and grilled, dressed in mayo and pressed between sticky rice. Sometimes wrapped in nori, sometimes not. Something about mayo and sticky rice that I just like. It could be the Kewpie-brand mayo they use, available in the store in that strange, thin plastic squeeze bladder. Onigiri, aka omusubi, are everywhere in Japan and Hawaii. My first exposure was in the form of a "Spam-musubi" at the old Liberty House flagship department store in Honolulu (now Macy's West). Mitsuwa makes a Spam version, among many others.

There's just something wrong about mustard and tortillas.

Nick, there is something so right about mustard and tortillas. You see, this is authentic Mexican, an adaptive, welcoming cuisine that embraces the interloper and makes him her own. It is not a stagnant cuisine like the food of Uruguay, for example. Is there not something essentially right about tortillas and Bohemia-n beer, masa and Mennonite cheese? Sombreros and polkas played on the accordion? The ancient masa envelops, includes and ultimately usurps the encased meat, but also hesitantly bares the bright yellow shock of the new.

Usurped by shit is still shit.

I was of course playing with the tradithentic thing. But seriously, I like los perritos con mostaza. When I was a kid in Florida, a popular local song advised "Please don't knock it until you've tried it." Drs. Suess and Skywalker offer sage advice.

m'th'su wrote:Props to Gwiv for hosting my photo on his site.

Mike,

Your picture is too good, well, actually, too evocative, though evocative of what I'm not sure, not to be released into the world.

Enjoy,
Gary

Another perrito sighting: yesterday in La Villita Antonius and I passed a cart on the sidewalk advertising hot dogs and hamburguesas. As we walked by I glanced down and saw 4 or 5 frankfurters each with a strip of bacon wrapped around the center, ready to be cooked up.

I guess this is one of those things that you start noticing everywhere once you become aware of it. Thanks to JSM, whose report from Tucson started us looking for Mexican hot dogs in Chicago.

Cart in front of Payless Shoes
3446 W. 26th St.
Chicago

While recovering yesterday from the double shift I pulled at Smith and Wollensky with GWiv, Evil Ronnie, and Kman (uh, we were in an all-day strategy session), I thought, why not evaluate the restorative powers of perritos mexicanos at Doña Torta. I'm with JeffB on these: I liked the intermingling of the ball park frank with a crisp corn tortilla, and considered the very good hot sauce an added bonus.

Perritos will never replace a genuine Vienna hotdog in the empyrean of great fat, urh, I mean, fast food, but yesterday's lunch had all the right elements from the Periodic Table of Condiments to return my nervous system to its natural timbre.

Don Chisciotte, Jr.

First they came for the bacon-wrapped hot dogs, and I said nothing:

http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=84013

Note that the LA health dept. is claiming (with no evidence) people are getting sick-- from a cured product.

Your favorite food is next.

Mike G wrote:First they came for the bacon-wrapped hot dogs, and I said nothing:

http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=84013

Note that the LA health dept. is claiming (with no evidence) people are getting sick-- from a cured product.

Your favorite food is next.

Not sure if it’s due (in part) to magic of editing, or if the LA city official is actually as completely full of crap as he sounds, but I had a hard time pinpointing the problem. The bacon itself? The preparation? Licensing? The lack of hand-washing? What?

Whatever the truth of the matter here, those wieners look delicious.

Interesting career move for Drew Carey.

David “They just want the bacon!” Hammond

Not Mexican in any way, but in a similar vein I was recently in need of Kosher Chinese, having promised neighbors lunch in return for watching Sparky. I wound up at Tein Li Chow at the Evanston Jewel - and purchased deep-fried, egg-roll-wrapped kosher hot dogs for the kiddies. Needless to say, it works (esp. with chinese mustard) and they were a hit. (The rest of the meal was, as expected, hit or miss)

Mike G wrote:First they came for the bacon-wrapped hot dogs, and I said nothing:

http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=84013

Note that the LA health dept. is claiming (with no evidence) people are getting sick-- from a cured product.

Your favorite food is next.

I dunno, Mike - aren't uncooked bacon and hot dogs still considered, in food service sanitation terms, "hazardous foods" in most places? IIRC, when I took the exam in Chicago, partially cooked bacon came up - deli ham (also cured) was implicated a while back in a listeriosis outbreak. Most food regulations exist proactively, to prevent foodbourne illness outbreaks. Don't get me wrong - I'm betting a lot of the food-cart regulations are created just to cut down on the number of food carts, and it's likely that the $3 grand cart requirement is unreasonable, but I don't know that I'd put this in the same boat as regulating trans-fats, foie gras or even raw cheeses.

(My understanding is that the requirement is to have a sink to sterilize the equipment - e.g. tongs, pans, containers after it touches the raw bacon - a little out there, but I think Chicago also requires this at outdoor festivals - yes, the risk would be pretty minimal, but restaurants all have to do it.)