Street Vendor · Rainy-Day Fry

Sopaipillas

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Eating sopaipillas when it rains is such a fixed Chilean habit that families fry batches at home as soon as winter storms arrive; soaked in hot chancaca syrup, they become 'sopaipillas pasadas.'

Discs of dough made with pumpkin or squash puree are deep-fried until golden and puffed, then sold hot from roadside carts and stalls, either plain, dusted with sugar, or drizzled with chancaca, a spiced syrup. Vendors fry them fresh in open pans right on the sidewalk.

Why it's made this way: The pumpkin dough and simple frying method made sopaipillas a cheap, warming snack vendors could cook to order over a portable burner, which is why the dish is so strongly tied to cold or rainy weather in Chile.