In Mexico you can have your bacon wrapped hot dog and eat it, too. Huh? you say. Well, here's the deal.
(Picture courtesy of Masa Assassin)In a post by El Gitano a while back (Lip Smacking Delights in Rocky Point), asking for opinions about the best eateries in Rocky Point, Eduardo opined that the best thing in town is "Sonoran style hot dogs" and recommended a spot to find them. As it turns out, those hot dogs are wrapped in bacon and grilled, their history apparently going back to some entrepreneur selling hot dogs from an unidentified hot dog cart in Mexico City's Parque de la Alameda. The regional differences lie in the trimmings that are put on them. In Sonora, those trimmings are sauteed onions, finely chopped tomatoes, 5 to 7 beans (its about the dog!!), some mayonaise and some mustard.
What Eduardo said was this: "As a sonora style hot dog lover I must say, and I am opening this secret to all gringos, the old man in the corner of Constitucion Ave and Benito Juarez has the best "sonora style hot dogs" in town, must go early 'cause he only makes around 250 once they are sold he's gone for the day, luckly he is teaching his sons about the secrets of dog cooking and it seems they like it too!!!"
The glory of Sonoran style, bacon wrapped hot dogs is just one more reason to visit-- or move to-- Puerto Penasco, especially if you live in Los Angeles, CA. Because, you see, L.A. has decided they are a hazard to your health, and has made them illegal.
The story, as reported by the L.A. Times (The Bacon-Wrapped Hot Dog: So Good It's Illegal), is really a little more complicated than that, but only marginally when you really look at it. Who the County Health Department and various law enforcement agencies are really targeting appears to be only street vendors in the heavily Hispanic southeastern section of downtown L.A.'s commercial district, making no distinction between the legal, licensed, regulated, tax paying vendors and the illegal vendors. Quite understandably, those vendors are upset about it and feel that racism is in play there.
The story in the Times centers on a legal vendor, who has been hawking her wares from her cart for more than a dozen years. When she ignored warnings to stop selling the bacon wrapped dogs she was arrested and jailed for 45 days. Needless to say, she no longer sells them and her business has plummeted as a result.
It's a very interesting story and I recommend that you read it. But in the meantime, if you really need a fix of bacon wrapped hot dogs, you can get them any time you want-- in Mexico!
