The end of summer brings two great moments in the sporting calendar together: baseball's pennant races and the start of football season. While a given team's success is never guaranteed, baseball and football games do assure an all-out assault on arteries and digestive systems in the form of greasy and delicious fried foods.

Enter Los Angeles' famous bacon-wrapped hot dog. It is pork's finest hour, cholesterol's greatest triumph, and a beer-guzzling football fan's best friend. A juicy hot dog wrapped in two strips of bacon and stuffed with cheese then broiled to perfection and covered in grilled onions and peppers before finally being smothered in relish, mustard, mayonnaise and ketchup.

The origins of the bacon-wrapped hot dog are murky at best. Growing up in San Diego, we called them Tijuana Dogs because they could be found all over Tijuana at any hour of the night. Some Angelenos may know them as Guadalajara Dogs, pushing the possible creation-ground even further south. Some people would like to claim Los Angeles as the home town of this incredible piece of culinary art. However, bacon-wrapped hot dogs have also been found in far-away places such as Denmark. Whatever the true birthplace, one thing is clear in Los Angeles with regard to the current manifestation of the delicacy: we are once again indebted to the fine people of Mexico.

Rosa, the nice Mexican lady who served them on the corner near my house in college, told me she had known about them her whole life. My friends in Mexico tell a similar story, and my own travels there can attest to the pervasiveness of the bacon-wrapped hot dog. The reality is, it doesn't really matter where the phenomenon started, only that Mexican-Americans have become the safe-guarders of the tradition here in Southern California.

Thankfully, these treats are now a staple of football season. Tailgaters can try to make their own version, but they will never come close to the numerous carts that sit outside the L.A. Coliseum on USC game days, or near the Rose Bowl when UCLA is playing. Fortunately for the ravenous public, the huge crowds make it impossible for LAPD to shoo the carts which don't have permits away.

It is truly astounding to see a cart surrounded by dozens of people, some waiting as long as twenty minutes for a meal to fill their stomachs on the way to the stadium, or a pair of carts after the game serving up a couple of inebriated college-buddies who can't stop chatting up the owners. That's what football season is all about.

Dodger fans can get in on the madness, too. Carts can be found downtown for those on the way to the game, or sometimes at the bottom of the hill leading into the stadium. Ninety-nine people out of a hundred will tell you they prefer a bacon-wrapped over a Dodger Dog.

On days with no sports, the hot dogs can be found all over L.A., sizzling on small carts, sometimes legally and often not. They are on corners at lunch time or outside of bars at two in the morning. The further east, the better the chances of finding one. Just follow your nose, look for the rising steam and the small crowd, and get ready to put on a couple of pounds by the end of lunch time.

By Chris Boyd