Completo

If you like American comfort food, you'll love completo, Chile's version of the famous hot dog. It's one of Chile's most popular street foods and comes in dozens of variations, the most popular of which are the italiano, clasico, and dinámico. Eduardo Bahamondes, a Chilean national who had his first taste of an American-style hot dog on a business trip to the United States in the 1920s, introduced the completo to Chile. He wanted to introduce it to the Chileans, so he opened Quick Lunch Bahamondes in Santiago's historic center shortly after returning to Chile.

The traditional completo, also known as the completo clasico, is shown below. It's made with boiled wiener sausage that's served in a soft bread roll with chopped tomatoes, sauerkraut, and a generous helping of mayonnaise. The completo italiano is the most popular type of Chilean hot dog (pictured below). It gets its name, like churrasco Italiano, from the color of its ingredients – mashed avocados for green, mayonnaise for white, and tomatoes for red. In addition to these three toppings, many Chileans will top their completo italiano with ketchup, mustard, or hot sauce.

Aside from the classico and italiano, other popular versions of completo in Chile include:

• Dinámico Completo: Served with chopped tomatoes, sauerkraut, avocado, and a green sauce made of chopped parsley, mayonnaise, and carrot, onion, and pickle relish.
• Gringo Completo: Served with tomatoes, pickles, lettuce, onions, and mayonnaise.
• Complete the Brazilian: melted cheese and avocado on top.
• Completo Falso: Vegetarian version omitted the sausage.