Taco Truck Troubles

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Story Published: Mar 5, 2008 at 8:34 PM PST

By Valerie Hurst

Even after an accusation of a rat tail found in a beef tongue taco...
and health inspectors in every corner of taco truck 'El Jaliciense'
Faithful customers continued to stop by for lunch...

"This is insane there's nothing wrong with their food if anybody's picky about their food it's myself," says Mari Cela.

"I have no doubt this was a fabrication and it appalls me the level people will stoop," adds Dan Garcia.

A local man tells the health district he threw up after he found a rat tail in his food Tuesday.
Owners say he brought it to them... it started to crumble... and they suspected at best it was a piece of dirt rolled up.
Either way they say it wasn't something that could land in his food.
And they claim the man wasn't behaving like someone ready to hurl.

"He went outside and had a cigarette and then he left, oh and then the whole time the wife is sitting here eating another sandwich and was oblivious to what was going on," explains owner Ramiro Palomares.

We weren't able to reach the man who made the complaint.
But health officials did check out the place.
Everything was looking good...
They found no sign of rodent contact with any food or food surface.
But it was strike two for the taco truck on another matter.
They store food at home, the district says..
It's a big "No No."
And for that reason alone, within an hour of action news leaving the scene...
We learned the place got shut down.

This doesn't mean it's the end-all for El Jaliciense.
Health officials say owners can apply for a hearing, which they've said they'll do.
They'll have to prove they've fixed the problem and can operate without storing food at home.
As far as the rat tail goes--we'll never know if it was for real--because the district didn't take the object from the man.

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