Not exactly equivalent but will do I think

I know you didn't want to use 'hot dogs,' but for an American audience I think it is best. It is highly processed, inexpensive meat - an American 7-year-old would definitely call it hot dogs.

I do not think you can preserve the exact difference in English; I would try to avoid this using smth like this.

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it does not matter whether they were selling salami, bologna or weiners / frankfurters - I actually doubt that in 1932 there were frankfurters / weiners back in the USSR.

The variety / the number / assortment of food presented - in fact that impressed the author.

Why go literal instead of putting something like:

I saw a wild variety / assortment of food: sausages, caviar, chocolates, candies...

Hard salami is salami that has been cured rather than cooked. Can be eaten without further treatment. Cooked salami also ready for consumption. Sausages need to be cooked before they can be eqaten

В английском языке и правда нет прямого соответствия слову "колбаса". Советская колбаса слишком уж разнообразна для одного английского слова. :о) Так что поскольку в тексте оригинала речь идет именно о "колбасах", то есть о нескольких сортах колбасы, в переводе я бы просто перечислила несколько сортов. Думаю, в Ростове 30-х годов вполне могло быть в наличии что-нибудь вроде kielbasa, salami и bologna. (Наверное, раз там черная икра упоминается, то и копченная колбаса - не слишком шикарно, так что salami вполне пойдет)
Не пойму, почему все так дружно твердят о sausage. В Америке sausage - это сырой мясной фарш, приправленный определенным образом, скатанный в колбаски и предназначенный для обжарки на сковороде или гриле. Так что уж sausage - это однозначно не колбаса (несмотря на то, что именно такой перевод дается в словарях и учебниках)
Что касается сосисок, не вижу ничего зазорного в термине hot dogs. Ну, а не хотите hot dogs, пусть будет franks.

as you are in the US, I should think you might say sausage and hot dogs / hots



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Note added at 13 hrs (2007-12-06 05:53:03 GMT)
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but as you prefer not to say hots or hot dogs, i would stick with wieners or franks.

I see no reason to reject "kielbasa". Growing up in a rural Russian community, I always thought of "kielbasa" as something exclusively Russian (I was, naturally, mistaken (c:), existing in various varieties.

This excerpt from the wikipedia definition of "kielbasa" suggests that the name covers a wide variety, and is not too specific for your context.

"In the U.S., "kielbasa" almost always means some form of wiejska (although often not U-shaped and seldom containing veal), which may be unsmoked ("fresh") or fully or partly smoked. Similar sausages are found in other Slavic nations as well, notably the Czech Republic (spelled "klobás") and Slovakia (spelled "klobása"). In Ukraine "kovbasa" is properly pronounced /kovbɑsɑ/, but in English is usually pronounced /ˈkʌbɑsɑ/."

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Note added at 1 day1 hr (2007-12-06 17:36:16 GMT)
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Also, in this context, I think that both "hot dogs" and "frankfurters" are indeed too specific a translation for сосиски, of which the varieties are endless, and the translation of which should be accordingly open-ended, as in "sausages".

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