Guatemalan Cuisine: Shucos are hotdogs

Shuco is a word that means dirty. It is not Spanish or Maya, but it is a word that represent their meeting point. Now why in the world would you use the world dirty for food; well, why not, if they can call them “hot dogs” in some other parts of the world.

Anyhow, the Guatemalan hot dog comes with guacamol (avocado sauce), boiled cabbage, mayonnaise, tomato sauce, mustard, hot sauce, and one or more of the following: chorizo (Guatemalan red sausage), longaniza (Guatemalan white sausage), salchicha (normal hot dog sausage), ham, bacon, pepperoni, german ham and sausages, chichen breast, beef steak fajitas, polish sausages, et-cetera. Well, at least they do at La Perrada, a hot dog joint in Antigua.

There are four sizes at La Perrada: normal (which is more less your normal bun), special (150% larger), jumbo (300% larger) and ballena/whale (500% larger). The jumbo is pictured here and it comes with five meat toppings and it costs about Q20 (US2.50). La ballena or whale has 10 or 20 meat topings at it rings about Q35 (US$5) and Q45 (US$6). I can barely finish a Jumbo, but other people have no problem with even a whale. I leave you with a picture of two acquaintances who were getting ready to devour their hot dogs. In the secondary picture you can see Pablo with two jumbos and Cynthia with a whale split in half.

Bon appetite!

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