The Weirdest Types Of Hot Dog From Around The World

The hot dog has got to be one of America's finest food traditions. In its most basic form — one dog in a bun with ketchup and mustard — it's recognized and loved up and down the country. But America is home to countless different variations of hot dog, too. From Atlanta's slaw to Chicago's pickle and relish to Detroit's beef chili, every corner of the United States has its own array of unique toppings that really make their hot dogs their own.

Go beyond America's borders, however, and you'll find all kinds of recipes and concoctions that are far stranger than anything you've ever seen before. Almost every country on Earth has incorporated the hot dog into their culinary tradition in some form or another, and the vast majority of them are inspired by the quirks and characteristics of the places in which they're eaten. Some of these hot dogs have utterly bizarre (to us) toppings; others eschew the bun for more local breads and pastries — but all of them are weird, and all of them are wonderful in their own way. These are the strangest types of hot dog from around the world. 

Over the last few years, a disproportionate amount of effort has been put into the debate over whether a hot dog is counted as a sandwich. Among the many, many arguments made on either side of this debate is the contention that sandwich bread must be open on all sides, whereas, because hot dog buns are partially enclosed, they are counted as something different entirely. Simple, right? Well, God knows what they'd make of the tunnbrödsrulle.

It's definitely not a sandwich, that's for sure. But it barely looks like a hot dog, either. Tunnbrödsrulle, a Swedish street food recipe, is made up of hot dog, mashed potato, lettuce, shrimp salad, mayonnaise dressing, onions, and ketchup and mustard, served in a tortilla or flatbread wrap. Nothing about that exactly screams "hot dog," but it's sure as hell not a sandwich, either. You could probably just call it a wrap, but... it does have a hot dog inside it. And that's what makes a hot dog a hot dog, right? So it is technically a hot dog, even if it isn't... isn't it? The whole thing inspires an existential crisis at the very first glance, and that's before you even get to the mashed potato. What is this?

Move over to Japan and things — rather predictably — become peak weird. Feast your eyes on the octopus hot dog, one of the country's most popular inclusions in the traditional bento box. In case you're unaware, a bento box is kind of like a little meal for one contained within a box and usually made up of any combination of rice, noodles, fish, meat, and vegetables. Nowadays, presentation is a huge part of the bento box experience, and the Japanese have become highly skilled at making them look funky.

It's inside your bento box that you're going to find the octopus hot dog. They're very easy to make: all you do is slice up a hot dog to look like an octopus, before microwaving it to make the tentacles shrivel in the heat. Throw it in with some rice, some vegetables, and a little soy sauce and you've got the makings of a classic Japanese lunch-on-the-go. 

Salchipapas is a Peruvian street food that seriously stretches the meaning of the term "hot dog." This hugely popular dish originated as a poor man's food but is now enjoyed all around the country and beyond, including in Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador. Often found at street vendors, salchipapas ("salchi" meaning sausage and "papas" meaning potatoes) is essentially made of sliced fried sausage on a bed of fries, accompanied by ketchup, chili sauce, mustard and mayo. Variations on the recipe also throw in garnishes such as fried eggs, cheese, tomatoes, and lettuce. 

So no, there's no bun. There's no bread of any kind, in fact — not even a pastry. With that in mind, you could certainly make a decent argument that this isn't a hot dog at all. But fries are close enough to bread, the sauces are classic hot dog staples, and the dish is centered around just the kind of sausage you would find in any other dog. It's a tough call, but we're going to allow it. 

The Sonoran hot dog may have originated in the Mexican state after which it's named, but it has since spread beyond the country's borders. It's made by wrapping a frankfurter hot dog in bacon and grilling them until crispy. The dog is then placed inside a bolillo, which is a kind of bread roll with a split top. The whole thing is then topped with pinto beans, chopped tomatoes, onions, mayonnaise, mustard, and jalapeño salsa, with a chile pepper served on the side. 

The prevalent theory suggests that Sonoran hot dogs were first sold, and became popular, at baseball games in Sonora during the 1940s. Almost half a century later, they found more popularity with the area's students, after which street vendors began selling them on campus. Nowadays, however, they're also found as far away as Arizona, in cities such as Phoenix and Tucson. According to Benjamin Galaz, an Arizonan restaurateur who began his career selling hot dogs from a cart, the Sonoran hot dog is a dog of two countries. "The Sonoran hot dog," he told NBC, "represents a fusion of flavors and cultures from the two countries, Mexico and the United States."

Hawaii's contribution to the hot dog menagerie comes in the form of the Puka Dog. Hawaii's choice position in the Pacific Ocean means its culinary traditions have been influenced by a bunch of different countries, including the U.S., China, Japan and Europe (in particular the Portuguese, many of whom emigrated to the islands in the 19th century). The Puka Dog is a mish-mash of decades of national food traditions. A Polish sausage is cooked on a grill and jammed into a special hollow loaf, kind of like the Czech hot dog, only softer and with the sausage poking out of both ends. These dogs are then dressed with tropical mustards, fruit relishes, lemon garlic sauce and whatever secret sauces the vendor might have created themselves. 

Look elsewhere in Hawaii and you'll also find hot dogs made with Portuguese sausage served over rice or in sweet buns, bright red Hawaiian Winners, Japanese-style Arabiki, waffle dogs, hot dogs dipped in donut batter, hot dogs wrapped in seaweed and sticky rice, and even Spam dogs. It's like the United Nations of hot dogs. 

Thailand's variation on the hot dog constitutes an unwelcome return to the whole conundrum of what a hot dog becomes when you place it in a different kind of receptacle. Known as Khanom Tokyo, this dish — which is made from pancake dough cooked in a flat pan — often actually contains sweets and other savory fillings such as quail eggs or cream, and is regularly served as a dessert. The dish in general originates in the 1960s, where they were first served at a Japanese department store that had opened up a location in Thailand. Sometimes, however, street food vendors in Thailand will place hot dog sausages inside them, essentially creating a kind of spin-off of the more recognizable hot dogs you'll find elsewhere. 

What you've got here, really, is a hot dog pancake. From the looks of it, some vendors can be pretty gung-ho with the fillings they include beyond the simple sausage, while others go completely plain. Either way, they appear to be a hugely popular street food in Thailand — probably worth at least a look-in, even if they are a little odd.  

Choripán, Argentina's own hot dogs, hold all the characteristics of your classic hot dog set-up, in the sense that it features a sausage contained within bread. No rice-based trickery, no bizarre buns, no toppings overload. Sausage in a bun. Simple, right?

Well, yes. But where choripán distinguishes itself from its many other cousins is in the ingredients themselves. Most notably, the sausage is made of chorizo (hence the name), which is a high-quality and frankly superior type of meat than your usual mystery meat. The chorizo is seared to make it far crispier than other hot dogs, while the bun is also toasted for an extra crunch. Toppings usually include chimichurri sauce or tomato salsa. 

These hot dogs are hugely popular dishes found at both sporting events and on the street. More than that, however, they're also proof enough that it's entirely possible to surpass the plain and ordinary hot dog — without losing any of the qualities that makes them so good in the first place.