| Kuuma koira | |
| Name Lang: | fi |
| Name Italics: | true |
| Country: | Finland |
| Region: | Nokia |
| Creator: | Teodor Leppänen |
| Type: | Fast food |
| Main Ingredient: | Jelly doughnut, sausage, mustard, ketchup, pickle relish, chopped onions |
is a fast food dish created in the 1960s in the Finnish city of Nokia.[1] The term is Finnish for "Hot dog", but the ingredients differ so much that is a completely different dish. The dish is not well known outside the Pirkanmaa region, but Nokia holds an annual International day in March to celebrate the cuisine.[2] Thousands of s are eaten at the local grills on that date.[3]
The dish was conceived in the 1960s by Teodor Leppänen (1902–1978), a fast food grill owner from Nokia. The most well-known story about the invention says that he had been selling apple jelly doughnuts with coffee and steamed sausages. Combining the surplus ingredients to save some money, he created .[4] [5] In the following decades, other grill owners in the area copied the dish, and it became a staple in the local fast food scene. In the late 2000s, the MTV3 entertainment show had Mikko Salonen from Nokia eating four and a half s in five minutes on a live broadcast, setting a new official record. Around the same time, the International day was held for the first time. These events together propelled the cuisine to the knowledge of all Finns, further aided by the Finnish fast food program on the Nelonen TV channel in 2016.[6]