Posted on 02/10/2008 10:11:33 PM PST by traviskicks
Densely packed buildings, well-weathered and decaying, line the corridors of the southeastern section of downtown L.A.'s commercial district. The streets and sidewalks are choked with traffic and people. Spanish names and phrases dominate the signage and snatches of overheard conversations. This is one of those places in the city where it would be easy to convince an outsider that Los Angeles is not functionally a part of the United States. It feels more like a satellite metropolis of Latin America, magically implanted north of the U.S.-Mexico line.
Here, in the middle of the pedestrian traffic rushing by in the Fashion District, on the sidewalk along Los Angeles Street, between Fourth and Fifth streets, Elizabeth Palacios has built her business at a blue, beat-up mobile food cart protected from the sun by two bright beach umbrellas. She sells chips, bottled water, canned sodas and, until recently, the beloved but troubled icon of L.A. street food, the bacon-wrapped hot dog.
"I used to clean houses," Palacios says on a warm afternoon. "Then, a year later, I got the chance to work on a carrito. A month later, I started renting one. Four months of doing that, I had enough saved up. I bought a cart. 'What do I have to do?' 'Go around and around, and where there isn't a cart, put yourself there.'"
She did, 18 years ago.
"Back in those days, you didn't use the bacon," she says, indicating the hot dogs that lie unattractively in her golf-cart-like Cushman vehicle.
As she speaks, a customer approaches, peering at her meat bin. "No bacon?"
"No bacon," Palacios sighs apologetically, in accented English. "They don't let me."
She means police and L.A. health-department inspectors, but the customer doesn't need much explanation: He moves on.
(Excerpt) Read more at laweekly.com ...
Hickory Farms sausage.... 1979. Never been so sick in my entire life as that incident.
“These people and their carts are filthy, many are illegal aliens with diseases. They spray Raid on the food to keep flys away. Ive seen them washing dishes in their backyards with a garden hose. They pay extortion money to the gangs and refuse to cooperate with the police. Ive been sick so many times I rarely eat at McDonalds, Carles Jr. or Del Taco unless I travel outside of Los Angeles, Mexico.
They sell to children and the kids parents are too stupid to give a damn. Most of them are unlicensed. They push their home made carts to the elementary schools. I know of two people that got Hepatitis, both of them nearly died. They dont pay taxes. They set up shop in front of restaurants and take their customers away.
This is all over Los Angeles and the authorities dont give a damn.”
You tend to exaggerate a lot, that is no way to build credibility.
America was dumb enough to fall for him, wasn’t it?
thanks!
You can’t trust those little skinny runners when it comes to food.
I got off the main drag in Tijuana—smelled something good: a vendor was frying strips of something on a garbage can lid.
And there was something that looked like the carcass of a retriever-sized pooch hanging in the window. Maybe it was a goat.
WOW! My mom made it them the same way when I was a kid.
First thing... What is a “carrito”?
And,,, I will try this recipe at home, it sounds good, just hope I don’t get sick!
/s
Because you say so?
Actually, we were all in on it. It was a vast, right-wing conspiracy.
This is a classic case of overwriting, the author had our sympathy up to the 2/3rds mark of Part 1; lost support for disclosing that his sympathetic character acted as much out of disdain as outrage by the bragging comments at the end about Americanos being in the 1% minority.
Had he ended the piece with the last line in Part 2, he would have had this reader on essay judging, but no, he had to drag it on for another whole page and allow the writing to spoil like an old, smelly bacon-wrapped hot dog cast aside in the dusty sunset twilight of what once was L.A.’s showcase streets.
*****************
How awful!
My husband contracted campylobacter at a family reunion from undercooked chicken wings. He offered some to me, but I declined. He was sick for weeks before he was put on antibiotics.
Read his over the top post again and then look at his posting history and you will see that he really piles it on.
Worth a repeat.
Without it being clearly stated, we have to infer that grilling is the problem.
Then, we get no clear justification as to exactly why it's a problem.
Global warming...???
You need this ping.
Whew, that's a nice piece of writing. Hat tip.
Mental note for next weekend. :)
I for one am in complete support of my State (not federal) government doing its job. The title and excerpt are misleading. They are NOT illegale because of their calories or fat etc. This is simply a rule saying that outdoor carts can heat or steam but they cannot grill.
If there is no reason for that restriction then those affected can deal with the system and process to change the rules.
Thank god we live in a country where you can change the laws if you disagree with them and have enough people agreeing with you.
I think publishing the results of health inspections are what keep restaurants (relatively) clean. Kind of like a reverse Zagat survey...
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