G. Snyder

Super perro, all dressed up...

Ever since the closing of Pasadena's Tutti Frutti two years ago, Los Angeles has found itself lacking a single, solitary purveyor of the Colombian street food known as the super perro.

What is this bizarre semitropical creation? Imagine a hot dog taken to its architectural extremes, layered with avocado, pineapple relish, cilantro, onions, tomatoes, crushed potato chips and a latticework of squeeze-bottle spreads -- garlic mayonnaise, mustard, and a chile-spiked fancy sauce, among other things.

In certain neighborhoods of New York, the super perro is known to draw a cult following -- a reality that becomes all the more alarming when you consider our fine metropolis had nothing to match it.

Until now.

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A. Scattergood

farmers market corn

When it comes to the complex relationships with our food, there is perhaps none more duplicitous as the one we have with corn. It has been modified, vilified, and of course, deep fried. Still, we eagerly await its arrival every summer and can enjoy it in its various states in dishes from morning to night. And for those in-between times, corn is utilized in snack foods both the heavenly and the devilish.

Corn snacks are eaten throughout the world. Luckily we found the best corn snacks, no matter where they might hail from, utilize this versatile vegetable and grain in each of its states without it ever having to take a trip down an extruder. Turn the page for our favorites from Murakai's MamMoth Bakery, El Carriel, and our home kitchen after a trip to Surfas.

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One of the many benefits of living in Los Angeles is our close proximity to South America. It's a big continent with lots of countries and cuisines, and here in L.A., we have the ability not just to explore Brazillian, Peruvian and Argentinian food, but also (though occasionally with some driving) the foods of Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Venezuela and Chile. Today, though, we look at a South American cuisine with a surprisingly large number of restaurants spread across our city: Colombian. Our dish of choice, sobrebarriga en salsa, is a popular Colombian staple. The word sobrebarriga simply refers to the cut of steak (flank, though it is sometimes described on menus as brisket), and the salsa, in this case, is a stewed sauce of tomatoes, onions and garlic. The result is a fork tender piece of beef, drenched in sauce, and served with rice, beans, cassava and an arepa (corn cake).

N. Galuten

Sobrebarriga en salsa from La Fonda Antioquena.

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