The Drew Carey Project: Food Fight: Battle of the Bacon Dogs
By Duane Lester • Apr 24th, 2008Amid the hustle and bustle of downtown Los Angeles, there exists another world, an underground world of illicit trade in—not drugs or sex—but bacon-wrapped hot dogs. Street vendors may sell you an illegal bacon dog, but hardly anyone will talk about it, for fear of being hassled, shut down or worse. Our camera caught it on tape. One minute bacon dogs are sold in plain view, the next minute cops have confiscated carts, and ordered the dogs dumped into the trash.
Elizabeth Palacios is one of the few vendors willing to speak publicly. “Doing bacon is illegal,” she explains. Problem is customers love bacon, and Palacios says she loses business if she doesn’t give them the bacon they demand. “Bacon is a potentially hazardous food,” says Terrence Powell of the LA County Health Department. Continue selling bacon dogs without county-approved equipment and you risk fines and jail time.
Personal minute:
Following kicking a Marine’s backside in a Tijuana bar back in my Navy days, I feasted on a bacon dog from a Mexican street vendor. If I can survive eating that, there is no way that one in America should be considered a “potentially hazardous food.” Of course, the amount of adrenaline in my system could have killed any cooties on the dog, but I ate two.
How sad is it that a bacon dog has become a symbol of freedom?
