Tutti Frutti - Pasadena

While watching a TV show that was all about hot dogs, there was a certain segment that caught my attention. In this segment, a Colombian baseball player showed how to assemble a Colombian hot dog. Needless to say the ingredients were a surprising choice and ever since I wanted to try one, but could not find a place that made them. Thanks to Jonathan Gold, it turns out that they sell them at Tutti Frutti in Pasadena. I bet you're really curious what exactly is a Colombian hot dog. Simple, it is a Hebrew national hot dog with ham and mozzarella cheese packed into a bungalow with raw onion, with comminuted pineapple, sprinkled with comminuted potato chips and finished with a three-sequeeze bottle grating from Catsup, Senf and Mayonnaise. They are either anxious or inaugurated. According to Jonathan Gold, “It’s impossible to eat the thing without smearing the condiments on the nose, but it’s not bad – the pineapple serves the same basic sweet-sour function as Pickle-Relish, and even the crushed potato chips make a certain kind of textural sense.” Once I knew where to go, I went to Tutti Frutti with my iron stomach and even brought some friends. It went to Tutti Frutti, it was more of an fruit salad, yogurt and smoothie place instead of a Harbinger of this extremely hot dog, but there it was on the menu. Before I ordered the hot dog, I was followed by something else, the Tutti Frutti Fruit Salad and decided to start it instead. Who says you can't have dessert first? What was interesting about Tutti Frutti were its ingredients, which were seasonal fruits with sweet cream, frozen yogurt, cheese, coconut and blackberry sauce. Can you guess what specific ingredient gave me a break? Yeah, it was the cheese. It seemed a strange choice, but when talking to the owners who were Colombian, cheese in their fruit salad is quite common in their country. You know what? It works. The saltiness of the cheese well balanced with the sweetness of the other ingredients, while the tartness of the blackberry sauce added a complementary flavor dimension. In short, Tutti Frutti was fun to eat. We also ordered some Colombian drinks to try. The Postobon Apple Flavored Soda tasted apfel-y and fizzy, although a little sweet for my taste. On the other hand, the Pony Malta drink was definitely not sweet at all, but was too thick and malty for me. A few sips and I was done. Now it was time for the main event, the Colombian hot dog. When I first saw it, I was just in awe because I had no idea where to start. There was so much for it. I sincerely wished a knife and a fork because I could already lubricate the ketchup-mayo-mustard over my mouth and my nose. Heck, if Jonathan Gold could just bite it, I could and I and yes, it was pretty messy. At one point I have just developed a strategy in which I would take a bite from the upper part of the hot dog and leave a lower edge of hot dog and bread. In this way I could have at least some control over the spice chaos and when I bite the lower part of the hot dog and would simply repeat it. How does a hot dog taste with all these interesting ingredients? With each bite you taste sour, salty and sweet with creamy, firm and crisp textures. It was definitely a pretty experience. I couldn't even finish it. It was a pretty good dog, but I think it had to do with the TuttiFruitti Fruit Salad, which I used to have in the meal. Overall, I can say that I had a Colombian hot dog, but in the end I found the fullness of ingredients a bit overwhelming. I prefer my dog to be a little easier – mustard, onions, hot dog and rolls, but if you are willing to see what the whole foot was, as definitely paying a visit to Tutti Frutti.