The Lying Hotdog Street Vendor in CDMX

Just a standard update on my life so far with a small story.

So I woke up today at about 7 PM because I had some weird ass dream.

Where I was standing in my old room back at my dad’s place in Iowa and there was some ghost or whatever fucking with the ceiling fan by forcing it to drop.

Which is funny to think about because that place actually is a bit haunted in my opinion.

Just random shit happening all the time.

Anyway, I got up to take a piss and drink some tea to rehydrate since I had a bit of whiskey before I went to bed.

From there I went back to bed for another hour or two.

Once I woke up again, I started wondering what do I want to eat….

Maybe cook some pasta.

Or perhaps buy some food?

But being Sunday night at almost 10 PM, so many of the food joints near me close up shop early these days due to Covid restrictions.

“Eh, fuck it.” I thought

Even if I don’t find any place open, at least I can get a nice little walk outside in the fresh air.

So I get up and head out the door.

Once I do, this random white dude was standing some feet from the apartment building staring at me.

We make eye contact for maybe 5 seconds as I’m wondering why the fuck is he staring at me.

Anyway, I walk to the left and this Mexican dude is explaining that the guy wants to say something to people from my building.

“Uhhhh OK?” I thought.

I walk over and he introduces himself as being a guy from London, England.

Seemed friendly at first.

He was a white guy slightly taller than me, fairly skinny and with short blond hair

So what does he want?

And he starts saying some shit that I didn’t understand.

Part of it might have been maybe a difference in slang as he was throwing some words at me that I never heard before.

But the dude also right away seemed to be slurring his words or whatever the fuck else.

He definitely seemed drugged out or drunk.

But then he manages to put together a coherent sentence about how there is this “VERY LOUD party up in your building…what’s going on?!?”

Well, there was a small gathering on the rooftop as some of the neighbors like to drink together most nights of the week up there.

And at this point I started to feel some hostility from Mr. Drugged British Guy.

He continues sounding incoherent with slurring his words and all….

But seemingly to be upset about the commotion on the rooftop.

“Not my party dude, I’m just going to get something to eat.”

And he continues slurring his words again while seemingly agitated.

Ever increasingly so.

Anyway, I was starting to get the suspicion that the dude was about to punch me.

There was some weird drugged out hostility from him.

So I left him and that was that.

Funny enough, looking behind me, I saw the dude from a distance in front of the door to the apartment building knocking on it or maybe trying to open it.

I was thinking that maybe my neighbors were about to get a drugged out British guy making a scene.

Regardless, the dude seemed fairly skinny and the door was locked anyway.

And was probably just that – a socially awkward tourist who took something.

We’ve been getting a lot more foreigners in the last month or two compared to the months prior to that.

A lot more Europeans also looking to escape Covid restrictions as well.

Things do seem to be picking up more and more with even nightlife being relatively more active a few days ago last Friday.

I carried on anyway.

Searching for Food

Crossing by Metro Insurgentes area and carrying on towards Reforma Avenue…

I first saw a hotdog/hamburger place that was still open.

So that’s nice.

The torta place nearby was closing up though as I asked if they were still open.

So I carried on and saw just about every restaurant closed except KFC from the look of it.

With half the street vendors gone also.

There was one hamburger joint I saw that I like but I didn’t feel like going for a hamburger.

Then I walked to the left and carried on where I found a street hotdog place that I prefer out of all of the hotdog spots in the area.

Their hotdogs tend to be a lot nicer than most.

So I ordered 2 hotdogs based on the options in front of me.

Where I asked for the type that come with cheese.

“Does He Understand Spanish?”

This is the part that got annoying.

I’m not sure if it’s “Fuck with Matt” day or whatever…

But when the guy finished the hotdogs…

Who also was a new worker for this hotdog stand it seemed as I didn’t recognize him before at this spot that I order at frequently enough….

He handed me the food anyway and I handed him 60 pesos.

Or about 3 bucks more or less.

Which is the normal price for hotdogs with cheese in these parts.

About 60 to 70 pesos for 2 hotdogs with cheese normally.

Anyway, the guy looked at the 60 pesos I handed him and then looked up back at me.

“No, it’s 100 pesos!” He said in Spanish.

To which I pointed at the menu that he has in front of him.

“Says 30 pesos right there for a hotdog with cheese!”

And he goes “nooooo, it’s 50 per hotdog! Not 30!”

The dude was literally lying to my fucking face right there about the price.

The price that was right in front of our faces with all of the ingredients for the hotdog laid out under the price of 30 pesos.

“No, it says 30 pesos for this hotdog!”

And he goes “But you asked for cheese! With cheese it is 50!”

Which is bullshit – no place ever charges 20 pesos more for cheese.

And the menu literally is in front of both of us “No, no es un hotdog sencillo. Se cuesta 25 aqui. Un hotdog con queso se cuesta 30. Es lo que dice tu menu!”

There’s our Gringo Spanish of the day for you all – with me pointing at the menu to him showing how there is a hotdog sencillo for 25 pesos and a hotdog with cheese for 30 as the menu clearly stated.

Hopefully my Spanish sounds better than what you can see here....

“Do you want me to call the police?” he threatened.

“Do it! And I’ll show them the hotdogs you gave me and mention how you’re trying to charge me a different price from your menu.” I responded.

“Forget it.” He said.

And that was it.

I carried on with the hotdogs thinking to myself about that moment.

As I carried on to Metro Insurgentes, I see some chick playing some musical instrument.

I think it was a flute or something.

Anyway, I walked up to her and decided to give her like 20 pesos or whatever I had in my pocket.

To reward someone who is trying to get by offering a service.

Because at least someone is putting in an honest effort to make money without trying to scam people.

You reward the good people and don’t support the bad ones who see what they think is an easy target.

Like that dumb cunt who wanted to charge me more for being a gringo.

“Oh sisi, veo un gringo, ya veo dólares!!!”

Anyway, there’s a broader point to the little story here made.

So let’s end the article with some thoughts and leave it at that.

Final Thoughts

As I said, I had gone to that hotdog stand enough times to know the price.

I’ve always gone there and walked the extra 10 minutes to get there when I could just pick out that first hotdog/hamburger place I mentioned at the beginning of this article.

But I don’t go to that hotdog place because the hotdogs are shit.

And I probably ignore the other 5 or so hotdog joints I see walking to that one specifically because I know their food has always been good.

Spending usually about 60 pesos there every time for 2 hotdogs.

Sometimes with a tip also which isn’t necessary for street food.

But then they brought in I suppose some new guy to run the stand.

And he fucked it up.

Typical logic among some of the locals of down here.

And I emphasize some – not everyone here is retarded.

But the logic being this…

Here’s a foreigner I assume is a tourist and has lots of money.

Will probably be out of Mexico in a week.

Has lots of money.

Probably doesn’t speak Spanish.

And will just go “si si” to whatever I tell him.

He probably can’t even read the fucking menu.

Hahahaha fucking gringos….

I got you motherfuckers now…

Prepare to be gringo priced!

Of course, if I was an actual tourist, the idea wouldn’t be too bad logically.

Maybe not morally but logically sound.

Like the fuck am I going to do knowing he tried to rip me off?

Go on Yelp and write a review of his small ass hotdog stand in a random corner somewhere?

Nobody looks up reviews of his hotdog stand obviously.

Of course, it is short term logic and hurtful to his business if I happen to be a gringo who…

Speaks Spanish well enough to know what a fucking menu says…

And if I happen to live in Mexico and have been a loyal customer.

So even if he had gotten the extra 40 pesos…

Which he didn’t.

He just lost a customer who spends 60 pesos every time I stop by.

Now I’ll just pick one of the hotdog stands closer to me.

Try a new place out that I haven’t been to before.

Like I said, the place isn’t lacking in hotdog stands.

So the guy is a retard.

He didn’t get his 40 pesos and lost a customer who shows up to spend 60 pesos semi regularly to his spot.

So what are some points here I’d like to make?

First, it seemed like to me that some of the locals here have very retarded short term logic for making slightly extra money in the moment and don’t give a fuck about longer term money making.

Offering bad customer service as a result.

Second, it’s not uncommon for people to try to fuck you over for being a gringo.

The dreaded gringo price as I wrote more about in this article here.

Of course, most of the time nobody tries to scam you when the prices are clearly listed in front of you on a menu.

At least not in my experience when it comes to street food or basic shit like that.

Usually because how the fuck can they argue it is a higher price when they have a menu they give to everyone in front of you?

Of course, like with the hotdog guy, you do have some locals who are retarded enough to think foreigners can’t speak enough Spanish to read a fucking menu.

It’s rare for a local scammer to try to gringo price me with the menu at hand…

But I’ve had it happen before.

Rarely but it has happened.

Like one time a Colombian taxi driver in Barranquilla tried arguing that I somehow changed the fucking price for the ride on the ticket I was given.

To this one lady in the metro station of CDMX trying to charge me double the price for a bag of cheetos even though she was yelling out a price for the food at half the price she wanted to charge me.

Just retarded shit like that.

But, like I said, most of the locals to be fair are not that retarded.

Some are!

Most though like I said won’t try to gringo price you for small things with the prices already written somewhere.

And most people in general, to be fair, are honest about the price and don’t try to rip you off in my experience.

At least in Mexico City.

I have found Mexicans to usually be more honest than other nationalities down here when it comes to the gringo price.

On the other hand, I’ve found folks from Barranquilla, Colombia and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to be the worst and more aggressive in trying to fuck over people.

Just my experience though.

Well, like I said, it’s rare for a local to try and fuck someone over on the price when the price is already listed down…

Third, the dude only wanted to rip me off an extra 2 bucks.

In the grand scheme of things, that extra 2 bucks doesn't mean anything in of itself.

Unless you are some young 20 year old backpacker with 50 bucks to your name...

But regardless it's mostly about the principle of not letting someone fuck with you.

Though also I'd argue that there is a certain effect it can have on gringos by making them more jaded down here when people try to gringo price you enough times.

Even though it can get annoying, I can only say to not let people trick you but don't stress about it when it happens.

Fourth, were the hotdogs good?

Actually, they weren’t bad. Still good as you can see in this photo I took here.