Pancho

The pancho is Argentina's answer to the hot dog, sold from carts outside every school, stadium and park. A thin frankfurter-style sausage is boiled or steamed, tucked into a soft roll, and dressed with a combination of mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup or salsa golf (the Argentine mayo-ketchup blend), and sometimes salsa criolla. The combination of sauces is the Argentine touch, the pancho loaded with more condiments than its American cousin. Eaten on the go, it is the food of childhood afternoons and half-time at football matches, and the carts that sell them, called pancherías, are a fixture of Argentine street life.

A soft, warm roll around a snappy sausage, loaded with cold mayo, sharp mustard and sweet ketchup, the sauces mixing and dripping. Eaten in three bites standing on a street corner, cheap, quick and satisfying.

The pancho is assembled to order. The sausage is a thin frankfurter, boiled in water for 5 to 7 minutes until hot and plump. The roll is soft, split lengthwise, and sometimes briefly griddled. The sausage goes in, and the sauces are applied in stripes or squiggles: mayonnaise on one side, mustard on the other, ketchup or salsa golf down the middle. Salsa criolla may be spooned on top for crunch and acid. The order of the sauces and the proportions are a matter of personal preference, and each pancho cart has its house style. The sausage must be hot and the bun soft; a cold sausage or a hard roll ruins it.