Paul Bradshaw: So my uncle asked me if, if he thought I could find a way to get my haggis to him. 

Dan Pashman: This is Paul Bradshaw. He’s Scottish Canadian, and grew up in Toronto eating the traditional Scottish dish haggis. About 10 years ago, his uncle in Florida asked Paul to mail him a haggis from Canada. Because some of the animal parts you need to make traditional haggis can’t be brought into the U.S. So Paul devised a plan …

MUSIC

Paul Bradshaw: I froze a giant haggis. I wrapped that in aluminum foil, thinking that that would help keep the cold in. Then I put it in a styrofoam shipping cooler, but then I figured that would be a red flag if I shipped it in that cooler. So I put the styrofoam cooler inside of another box and then just put a label on it saying that it was clothing and kind of hoped they didn't scan it.  That's how I got into smuggling Haggis.

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: This is The Sporkful, it's not for foodies, it's for eaters, I'm Dan Pashman. Each week on our show, we obsess about food to learn more about people. And today, I'm talking with Sporkful producer Andres O’Hara, who's got a story that he’s been working on. 

Dan Pashman: Hey, Andres.

Andres O'Hara: Hey, Dan. So summer’s almost here. Tons of Americans will be traveling abroad soon either to see family and friends, or just to explore new places. And do you know what that means?

Dan Pashman: What?

Andres O'Hara: That means it’s prime food smuggling season.

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] 

Andres O'Hara: So let me start by asking you? Have you ever smuggled food into the country? I mean, brought back food from abroad, without declaring it?

Dan Pashman: I have. Yes. Like I know Janie and I were in Paris a few years back and I brought back several large blocks of cheese and a baguette, which I had to break in half because it was too long to fit in my suitcase. 

[LAUGHING] 

Dan Pashman: And even though I understood that by the time I got back the baguette wouldn't be fresh anymore ... 

Andres O'Hara: Yeah. 

Dan Pashman: It felt like I was, like, bringing a France home with me. 

Andres O'Hara: Mm-hmm. 

Dan Pashman: So what about you, Andres? Have you ever done it.?

Andres O'Hara: Yeah, a couple years back, I went to Montreal a few years ago with my family. And on the last day of my trip, we all stopped by this really nice farmer’s market. There were these really beautiful berries and tomatoes. And on the way to the border, I was thinking about this, I realized we have food in the car and we're about to go through the border. And just as I suspected, the Border Patrol agent stopped the car and said, "Oh, do you have anything to declare?", and I didn’t want the hassle of them searching my car.

Dan Pashman: Right.

Andres O'Hara: I didn't want to fill out any paperwork. And more importantly, I just didn't want my fruit to get taken away.

Dan Pashman: Right. [LAUGHS] You wanted to eat it.

Andres O'Hara: I wanted those berries.

Dan Pashman: Yeah.

Andres O'Hara: So, what did I do? I just said, "No, nothing to declare officer.", and they just waved me through.

Dan Pashman: I feel like it’s pretty common. I hear about a lot of people doing this. It doesn’t feel like that big of a deal.

Andres O'Hara: Yeah, but it can have big unintended consequences. Food from abroad could be carrying in pests or diseases. A tomato from Italy could be carrying a Mediterranean fruit fly. A salami from the Dominican Republic could have traces of African swine flu. 

Andres O'Hara: There are a few different ways invasive species can get into the country. Bugs can attach themselves to the bottom of a ship or latch on to shipping containers. But the main way that pests and diseases get into this country is through people, usually bring them in completely unintentionally. And according to the U.S.D.A., these insects and diseases cause 40 billion dollars in damage each year. Dan, do you remember about six months ago when eggs were really expensive? 

Dan Pashman:  Yeah. I mean, I remember getting sticker shock last year buying eggs at the grocery store. 

Andres O'Hara: Yeah, and that's because last year’s avian flu in U.S. and actually around the world. It killed millions of chickens and it was one of the big reasons that egg prices were spiking. And avian flu can be spread by people smuggling poultry meat into the country, even if, let's say, the meat is frozen.

Dan Pashman: So bad things can happen.

Andres O'Hara: Yeah, it's not as innocent as people think it is. If you’re caught, you can be fined. So today on the show we’re going to look at why people go to such effort to smuggle food into the U.S. And we're gonna meet some of the  people at the border, who trying to stop them. It's gonna include an appearance from a very special beagle, who’s a food sniffing dog. 

Dan Pashman: Okay. [LAUGHS] All right, and a very good boy, I'm sure. 

Andres O'Hara: Oh, he's a really good boy. I can't wait to tell you about him. 

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] All right, all right. Now, I'm excited.

Andres O'Hara: Yeah. But first, let’s get back to Paul and his haggis. 

Dan Pashman: Okay, yeah. I mean, I went to Scotland years ago. I ate haggis. I generally understood that there organs in there, but I don't totally remember what it is. So can you remind me?

Andres O'Hara: Haggis is a traditional Scottish dish. It was created by shepherds who wanted to use all of the parts of the sheep. So nothing would go to waste. That means that there's heart, kidneys, lungs, and liver. They're all ground up, mixed with fat and oats and spices. It’s all stuffed inside of a sheep's stomach. Then it’s boiled for hours. It's creating, like, a kind of sausage. Paul, who we heard at the top of the show, says that it actually makes a great breakfast. He likes to cut up a couple pieces, fry them up in a frying pan with some eggs.

Dan Pashman: That does sound delicious. Fried with eggs sounds delicious. And the haggis I had I remember liking it okay. I didn't love it, but I would try it fried with eggs for sure. But like, why can’t you get it in the U.S., Andres? 

Andres O'Hara: Yeah, so the reason that it's not allowed in the U.S. is because traditional haggis contains lungs. And back in the '70s, the USDA created a rule that said that lung are no longer allowed to be sold, or imported, into the country. They're worried about the particles in the air that animals are breathing into their lungs, and there was a concern that somehow, if people at that, it cold get them sick. 

Dan Pashman: Right. You're like, if you're eating what the animals are inhaling, it could be bad. 

Andres O'Hara: Yeah, that was the theory back then and the ban is still in the books today. 

Dan Pashman: Okay. 

Andres O'Hara: But the thing is, when you make traditional haggis, you need to use lungs. Here’s Paul Bradshaw. 

Paul Bradshaw: Lungs, although they don't have a very unique flavor, texturally, they're a large part of what makes haggis smooth. They're basically a sponge, so you're grinding that sponge in, which just gives that nice texture.

Dan Pashman: Okay, but can you make haggis without lungs? Isn't there some other substitute?

Andres O'Hara: Yeah, there is actually haggis made without lungs. Paul told me that there’s a more commonly found haggis in Canada—it’s actually known as the American version. It’s made with beef instead of lamb, and it doesn't have lungs in it. But Paul says that it really doesn’t taste the same, and it's definitely not traditional.

Andres O'Hara: And tradition is very important when it comes to haggis. You see, this a holiday dish, and the one night when Scottish people all around the world eat haggis. And that's on January 25th, which is Burns Night. It’s a celebration of Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns. Here’s Paul again:

Paul Bradshaw: Yeah, so traditionally the way it works for a proper Robbie Burns dinner is the haggis is sort of seen as the guest of honor. 

[BAG PIPE MUSIC STARTS] 

Paul Bradshaw: So the haggis is led into the dining room by a bagpiper, sometimes more than one. And then it’s carried in on a very specific silver platter. Once the piping is done, the haggis is placed at the head table or serving table, and from there they do what's called the address to the haggis. So the address to the haggis is a poem that was written by Robbie Burns. So the poem is read to the haggis by generally the host, or some people will bring in like a Scottish actor to do it.

Andres O'Hara: And in the traditional ceremony, the haggis is slashed open with a sword or a knife, whiskey is poured into the Haggis, and then it's served to the guests.

Dan Pashman: Oh my God. [LAUGHS] 

Paul Bradshaw: Yeah, so it's so much more significant than like a Christmas turkey, or ham or anything like that, where there is really this specific ceremony that you're supposed to follow and traditionally is followed.

Dan Pashman: Yeah, hearing this there’s so much ceremony around the turkey in the US, I feel like it all makes it so uninteresting because there’s not a train of bagpipes or a sword involved. 

Andres O'Hara: There's no sword. There's no whiskey being poured over the turkey

Dan Pashman: Right. [LAUGHS] 

Andres O'Hara: Yeah.

Dan Pashman: Yeah, yeah. All right, next year for Thanksgiving, we're going to do it. But anyway, it’s clear that haggis is a very special food for Scottish people. 

Andres O'Hara: Yeah, it really is. Paul’s mom moved from Scotland to Canada in her twenties. Paul was born in Toronto. She kept Scottish traditions alive in the family and so Paul grew up eating haggis. But when he became a teenager, a problem developed.

Paul Bradshaw: We had one butcher growing up that we used to buy it from. He retired and then we couldn't get good haggis anywhere. Because there's so few people who know how to make it well.

Andres O'Hara: When Paul turned 14, he got his first job at a local butcher shop and he loved it. He knew then that he wanted to be a butcher. A couple years later, his mom asked him if he could learn how to make haggis. And Paul thought, yeah I could figure this out. Remember, he's 17 or 18 at the time. 

Dan Pashman: Full of hubris and he figures, well, just throw a bunch of inards into a blender. It's easy. 

Andres O'Hara: That's — yeah, that's kind of it. 

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] 

Andres O'Hara: And he thought, okay, I'll go online, I'll look up a few recipes. I ate this growing up. 

Dan Pashman: Right, I'll Youtube it. Yeah. 

Andres O'Hara: What's the big deal? 

Dan Pashman: Right, right. 

Andres O'Hara: So he makes his first batch.

Paul Bradshaw: And it was absolutely terrible. Like every batch of haggis we made was gross and got thrown out. We had versions that just tasted like you were eating pure liver, basically. We had versions that were really mealy, like wet newspaper kind of texture, that was awful. Like it was just no matter what we did, something sort of went wrong.

Andres O'Hara: He decided he needed some real training. So at 19, he went to Scotland. One of his uncles there introduced Paul to his butcher.

Paul Bradshaw: A lot of the old school butchers don't like to share their recipes, especially in Scotland where Haggis is basically a competitive sport for the butchers. I lucked out that this particular butcher was in his nineties. He was about to retire and sort of had nothing to lose at this point. So he quickly knew everything that I had done wrong in the process.

Andres O'Hara: Paul thought that making haggis was like making a sausage, where you grind the meat, you add in the seasonings, and stuff it in a casing. But in Scotland, he learned that you actually want to approach it like a baker. 

Dan Pashman: Oh, interesting. 

Paul Bradshaw: With pastry and Baking, you have to add ingredients at very specific times to get the right texture. And haggis is like that. So when you're — you have fat and you have organs and you have oats and you have onions, everything has to be added at a specific time and at a specific temperature. As an example, you would mix the oats into the organs, and then from there you mix the fat into that mixture and then you mix the onions into that mixture and it just — it has to be this process so that everything's incorporated evenly. You need to be doing it at the right stages, otherwise your haggis could have a mouthful that's pure fat and then another mouthful that's pure organ meat.

Andres O'Hara: Paul stayed in Scotland for an entire month, studying under this master haggis maker. 

Dan Pashman: That’s commitment. 

Andres O'Hara: And he came back to Toronto with his new knowledge and he made a haggis for his mom. 

Paul Bradshaw: And as soon as my mom tried it, she said, like, right away it reminded her of the haggis she ate growing up. And then that's when I knew a hundred percent I had done it.

Andres O'Hara: He began selling his haggis at the butcher shop where he worked, and soon, word got out about it all around Toronto.

Paul Bradshaw: Any customer of Scottish descent would cautiously buy the haggis and then come back with a big smile, buying more and more. And even like, there's a very famous Scottish chef in Toronto, his name's John Higgins, he was one of my favorite customers to get because it's like this guy born and raised in Scotland, was a chef in Scotland, came to Canada, is at the top of the world for cooking, and he says that my haggis is legit. Then like now I know that I've made it. I think within about three years of that, we were the biggest haggis producing store in Canada.

Andres O'Hara: Paul told me that in the runup to Burns night, he’d be making haggis 10 hours a day at the butcher shop. 

Dan Pashman: Oh my God. [LAUGHS] 

Andres O'Hara: He was getting on local TV news and in the newspapers. Word of Paul and his haggis began to spread around the internet. And that's when he got an email from an uncle in Florida, who asked if Paul could send him some of his super-special haggis.

Dan Pashman: Oh, but as we said, that would be illegal.

Andres O'Hara: Yeah, that’s right.

Paul Bradshaw: To be honest, I didn't really think much of it. I don't think I even knew if there were repercussions or what they might be. I just figured I could plead ignorance if anything came from it.

Andres O'Hara: So Paul froze a haggis, packed it in a cooler, and mailed it to Florida. And a few days later, Paul got an email from his uncle.

Paul Bradshaw: He just emailed me when it arrived, confirming it got there. It was still cold, and then emailed me again saying that it was the best haggis he'd had since he left Scotland. It reminded him of eating haggis growing up, that it was the first time since he was a kid that he had felt like he had had real haggis.

MUSIC

Andres O'Hara: But it turns out that was just the beginning.

Paul Bradshaw: The next Robbie Burns day, he asked me to send him another one, and then it was at that point where he had said that he had shared it with his father-in-law, or brother-in-law, or someone else who really liked it. So then he wanted a bigger one so he could share it with them. And then I just kind of kept sending bigger and bigger haggis' so that he could share them amongst friends. I don't really know the details of how many people, but I got a couple thank yous sent to me into my email from people who I had never heard of before, who tried haggis because of him.

Andres O'Hara: Then something else happened. Word got around in Toronto’s Scottish community that Paul was smuggling haggis to relatives in the U.S. 

Paul Bradshaw: Other people had asked me about getting it into the States, and I shared what I did to get it there and kind of always said, but I don't know if I got lucky. I don't know if you'll get caught. I don't know how any of this works. I can just tell you I've successfully sent it. A few of them had sent it. I know a couple people who even drove it across the border to bring it to family. I'd never heard of anybody getting caught. I had a few customers who asked me to create a label for the haggis that said lamb sausage instead of haggis, thinking that if they got caught, lamb sausage isn't illegal.

Paul Bradshaw: Those people were all successful, but from what I know, no one ever actually looked at the package. So they didn't actually need that label, but that was sort of the backup plan we put in place.

Andres O'Hara: For Paul the thrill of smuggling all that haggis wasn’t so much about breaking the law. It felt good for a different reason. 

Paul Bradshaw: It was similar to maybe not the same level as when my mom first tried it, but it was just a similar experience of being able to kind of take this family tradition that in some ways kind of died off 10 or 15 years ago when my mom and her siblings went to different countries and the family kind of split up and to be able to reintroduce this across the pond here and recreate exactly the same thing as they had been eating all that time is just that's the part that I love the most.

Andres O'Hara: About 8 years ago, Paul stopped butchering and he also stopped making haggis. He’d been butchering for 11 years, and wanted a change. He’d also never gotten caught smuggling haggis, so maybe he wanted to quit while he was ahead. 

Dan Pashman: He retired as the haggis king of Canada. 

Andres O'Hara: That's right. No one could stop him. 

[LAUGHING] 

Dan Pashman: So what does Paul do now?

Andres O'Hara: Well, I was thinking maybe this is actually a good next step for Paul, considering his haggis smuggling, because he now works in international meat sales. 

Dan Pashman: Oh? [LAUGHING] It's like when computer companies hire hackers to improve their security. 

Andres O'Hara: Yeah. 

Dan Pashman: Now he’s on the inside. 

Andres O'Hara: He's on the inside. Yeah. 

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHING] So what are his opinions about these international rules around bringing in food?

Andres O'Hara: He says that he sees it all the time, where a certain food is illegal in one country but right across the border, it's legal. And he gets why certain foods can be high risk and he thinks, yeah, those should be restricted. But with a lot of these rules, like the ban on lungs, for example, he just thinks they're antiquated

Dan Pashman: What do experts say today? So in 1971, they thought lungs were bad. What do they say today? Are animal lungs actually putting people at risk?

Andres O'Hara: There’s not a lot of good data about whether or not people have gotten sick directly from eating lungs. But one of the most prominent pro-lung activists in the U.S. is the physician and author Dr. Jonathan Reisman. He’s written a lot about why he thinks the ban on lungs should be overturned. And to be perfectly honest, he’s one of the few people writing about it, which is why I don't know if this is going to be high on the priority list for a while. 

Dan Pashman: Right, right, right. 

Andres O'Hara: But his argument is that nearly every other developed country does not have a ban on lungs that there’s nothing inherently more dangerous about eating lungs than any other organ. Do you remember when we said earlier that that the USDA found studies that animals are inhaling particles in their lungs and then there’s a concern about eating them?

Dan Pashman: Right, right. 

Andres O'Hara: Dr. Reisman has spoken to doctors and veterinarians who say, yeah, we are inhaling particulates into our lungs as well. We're also inhaling those things. 

Dan Pashman: Right right, humans are doing that. And there’s a certain — what you're saying, there's amount of risk if you eat anything. 

Andres O'Hara: Yeah. 

Dan Pashman: What he’s saying is that lungs aren't any more risky than anything else

Andres O'Hara: Yeah, but lungs got a ban in 1971 and the rule has never been changed. And for people like Dr. Reisman, Paul Bradshaw, and a lot of Scottish people who want to import haggis into the United States, they see it as an antiquated law.

MUSIC

Andres O'Hara: So Dan, Paul’s haggis smuggling is kinda like your cute, artisanal grocery store. But now, we want to tell you about a smuggling operation that’s more like a Costco. 

Dan Pashman: Woah. Okay. 

Andres O'Hara: [LAUGHS] We are headed 3,000 miles south, to the U.S. Mexico border, to talk about one of the most smuggled foods coming into the U.S. 

Dan Pashman: Okay, so what is it? What is this illicit substance that's highly prized illicit material? 

Andres O'Hara: Dan, it's bologna. 

[RECORD SCRATCH] 

Dan Pashman: No, no. I think its legitimate, Andres. Tell me what is it. 

Andres O'Hara: Oh my God. Dan, it’s Mexican bologna. 

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] Oh, it's actual bologna? 

Andres O'Hara: It is actual bologna, and it's something that U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has been dealing with for decades.

MUSIC

Andres O'Hara: I spoke with one officer in El Paso who said that he caught someone driving across the border with 500 pounds of bologna.

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] That's a lot of sandwiches. 

Andres O'Hara: It's a lot of bologna. The bologna smuggler had made a homemade bench seat in his truck. He covered it with a blanket, and had his kid sitting on the bench seat.

Dan Pashman: Oh, this poor kid being roped into this smuggling operation. 

Andres O'Hara: I know. And then one a Border Patrol looked inside, they found rolls and rolls of bologna. And just for comparison, Paul didn’t smuggle in 500 pounds of haggis in his entire life. This is just one bologna busts. They keep happening over and over again. People driving in with hundreds of pounds of bologna in their cars.

Andres O'Hara: Just to clarify, these are both U.S. citizens and Mexican nationals and they hide it in their car seats. They hide it in their luggage or spare tires.

Dan Pashman: Oh my God.

Andres O'Hara: Border Patrol officers are trained to look for concealed items. They're looking for these hidden compartments. And if they find them, they usually assume it's drugs. But sometimes, they'll crack open a car door and find a stash of bologna. 

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] So Andres, what’s the deal with this bologna?

Andres O'Hara: Yeah, the thing is it's mostly the exact same kind of bologna, a ten-pound roll from the brand Chimex. In Mexico, they sell for around 15 bucks and once you get them into the U.S., the farther you can get them from the border, the more valuable they are. 

Dan Pashman: I see, so the farther north you drive, the price keeps going up. 

Andres O'Hara: That's exactly right. In certain markets, you can sell them for as much as $120 a roll.  

Dan Pashman: Holy cow. Well, you know what you gotta do, Andres? Drive the bologna all the way to the Canadian border. You get top dollar, farthest possible distance. You get it across the fence, get some haggis, take that south, and then you’re making money in both directions.

Andres O'Hara: Dan, I’m seeing a Netflix show emerging, Narcos but for bologna

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] Narcos: The Haggis Wars.

[LAUGHING] 

Dan Pashman: So if you get caught smuggling this Mexican bologna, then what'st the penalty?

Andres O'Hara: I mean, for a big bust, you can get fined up to a thousand dollars, and your bologna gets taken away. But it’s a hard thing to police because most people will only bring in one or two rolls at a time. And they'll go across the border, something like 10 or 20 times, get a big shipment and drive it north.

Dan Pashman: That seems like a lot of effort for bologna. 

Andres O'Hara: It's a ton of work. 

Dan Pashman: But with any smuggling operation, with any market really, there’s supply and demand. So we’ve talked about the supply, the people bringing it into this country. But now I want to know about the demand. Why are people paying such a premium? Why do people want this Chimex bologna so badly? 

Andres O'Hara: Yeah, I was really curious about that too. So I talked to previous Sporkful guest Pati Jinich. She moved from Mexico to the U.S. 22 years ago, and since then she’s written cookbooks and she's made TV shows. Her latest show on PBS is called La Frontera, and it’s all about the culture on both sides of the border. So I thought she was the perfect person to speak to.

Andres O'Hara: She told me that she hadn’t had Chimex bologna since she was a kid, but she can still remember the taste.

Pati Jinich: It's highly seasoned and of course, processed and it just tastes like a really good bologna but a lot of flavor. The beauty of it is that if you put a slice of it between two pieces of bread, you don't need anything else cuz it has so much flavor. 

Dan Pashman: This is making me really want to eat it now. [LAUGHS] 

Andres O'Hara: I know, I'm really curious. I actually really want to taste this bologna.

Dan Pashman: I didn't expect to come out of this conversation craving both haggis and Mexican bologna but go on. 

Andres O'Hara: [LAUGHS] Pati says this Chimex bologna, it was a common food for parents to pack for their kids’ school lunches for bologna sandwiches. So there’s a lot of nostalgia connected to that food. 

Dan Pashman: That explains why people want it, but then so doesn't Chimex just make bologna here in the U.S.?

Andres O'Hara: You know, they actually do, but they make it with chicken instead of pork. I reached out to the company to try to find out why, but so far, no one there is returning my messages. People from Mexico say that this American bologna just doesn't taste the same. They want the the bologna that they ate growing up. 

Pati Jinich: It's the romantic view of where you come from, of your roots of home, of — you know, you move on, you grow, you get older, and you're craving for those moments. It's all of your senses, right? When you're eating something, it's not just that it tastes like something, but it felt like something, it smelled like something, it looked like something. It connects you to a moment that you may be nostalgic about.

Andres O'Hara: Pati has spent her career recreating Mexican recipes here in the U.S. Now, she says, there are many Mexican products you can find in this country, but it wasn’t always the case. She used to bring suitcases full of dried chiles, and she said that Border Patrol would usually let her take it with her, but not always. 

Pati Jinich: There were many times. I remember bringing, the dried chiles or dried hibiscus flowers, and they were like, Nope, this one, nope.

Andres O'Hara: And how did you feel that they were taking those away?

Pati Jinich: Extremely sad and disappointed. 

Andres O'Hara: Yeah. 

Pati Jinich: Of course. [LAUGHS] And then, I mean, many times I would say, okay, but please just don't throw them away. Like just please don't throw them away. This is how you can use them. And I would give them recipes, you know, just boil the hibiscus flowers in hot boiling water and add a little bit of honey. I would just give them instructions to — if I wasn't gonna keep them, please don't throw 'em away and use them.

Dan Pashman: I love that she’s giving them recipes.

Andres O'Hara: Yeah. 

Dan Pashman: I imagine her holding up the entire line while she’s writing out like, 2 cups water, quarter cup sugar, hibiscus flowers. She gets pleasure from other people enjoying food, and so I can imagine it just killing her to think that these things might get thrown away.

Andres O'Hara: Absolutely.

Dan Pashman: She wants them to make someone happy.

MUSIC

Andres O'Hara: Coming up, we find out what happens to Pati's hibiscus flowers, and all the other foods seized at the border. Stick around

MUSIC

+++BREAK+++

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: Welcome back to The Sporkful, I'm Dan Pashman. Hey, did you catch the big season finale of Top Chef? Well on last week’s show, I talked to Gail Simmons, who has been one of the judges on Top Chef since the show began. We talk about how the show and her role on it have evolved over the years. And Gail talks about how she’s learned over time that when it’s okay sometimes to not take food so seriously. Of course, she had to learn that the hard way, like during her honeymoon in Vietnam, when she created a strategic list of the top restaurants she wanted to try.

CLIP (GAIL SIMMONS): And top of that list was one restaurant in Hanoi. And we tried going several times and we struck out every time. You can't make a reservation. The line was too long. They closed the door. It closed by the time we got there. It was like we were like hitting a wall every time. And partially, maybe because of jetlag. I just, like, broke down on the third try and lost my mind and cried for, like, the better part of 12 hours on my honeymoon. 

CLIP (DAN PASHMAN): [LAUGHING]

Dan Pashman: That interview’s up now, it’s really fun. Check it out.

Dan Pashman: All right, back to the show and I'm talking with Sporkful producer, Andres O'Hara, who's been looking into the world of food smuggling. Hello again, Andres.

Andres O'Hara: Hey, Dan. 

Dan Pashman: All right, so we’ve talked about a guy who smuggled in haggis from Canada for family and friends, then we heard about this underground market for Mexican bologna. 

Andres O'Hara: Yeah, like the Costco for underground bologna. 

Dan Pashman: Right. What’s next?

Andres O'Hara: So we’ve been talking about the people who bring food into this country. Now, I want you to meet someone who work to keep food out. Because as we said, if the wrong bug or disease gets into the country it can cause billions of dollars in damage. We’re going to JFK Airport in New York City. 21 million passengers come through JFK’s international terminal every year and they bring their bags with them. 

Andres O'Hara: They all end up in baggage claim, and that's where agricultural Specialist for U.S. Customs in Border Patrol, Officer Miguel Ortiz. He was with his partner, Prince.

Miguel Ortiz: He’s a little shy,

Andres O'Hara: He jumped up? Oh, he's so cute. Hey, buddy. Can I pet him? No. Okay [LAUGHING] 

Dan Pashman: So just to be clear, Andres, Prince is a dog.

Andres O'Hara: Prince is a dog. I was not allowed to pet Prince, though I really wanted to. 

Dan Pashman: Right, Prince is working. He's focused. 

Andres O'Hara: He's focused but he's adorable. He’s a beagle and he's part of the Beagle Brigade.

Dan Pashman: Aww.

Andres O'Hara: And it's a network of dogs trained to sniff out food at airports all around the country. Technically speaking, Dan, when you’re at baggage claim at the international terminal, you’re still at the border. You haven’t crossed into the U.S. yet. And it's the job of Officer Ortiz and his partner, Prince, to make sure that no unauthorized foods make it past this border and onto U.S. soil.

Andres O'Hara: These dogs are trained to identify a range of foods. Prince's job is to sniff  the bags on the carousel and find the ones holding food. But it’s not easy with a crowd of passengers trying to get their stuff. 

Miguel Ortiz: So right now, we are seeing these bags that were spinning on the carousel. I don't know where the flight is from, but I'm gonna have the dog go around, walk around — excuse me — walk around and see if the dog give me a response. Excuse me. And I don't want the dog to be distracted or disturbed from what he's doing right now, cause any distraction will deter him from continue working.

Andres O'Hara: Prince has many distractions. There’s blankets, hanging dresses, kids toys, and neck pillows.

Miguel Ortiz: He just go after them. He just go after them and he try to play with them. 

Andres O'Hara: When I was watching Prince in action, I was expecting him to act like a soldier. A dog that was calm, composed and alert.

Dan Pashman: Yeah, like one of these super trained dogs that spent three years in smuggled food sniffing school.

Andres O'Hara: Yeah. That is exactly the image I had. But Prince actually just reminded me of my dog, who is not very well trained, I'll say ... 

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] 

Andres O'Hara: When I take her on a walk, she’s sniffing around, hunting for chicken bones on the sidewalk, and going a little nuts. 

Dan Pashman: We’ve figured out the secret to smuggling in Mexican bologna, which is just pack a bunch of neck pillows. 

Andres O'Hara: [LAUGHS] Pack a bunch of neck pillows. Let Prince play with them and let that bologna go free. 

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] Right, right. Yeah. Throw a few squeaky toys in there and the dog will never find the bologna.

[LAUGHING] 

Andres O'Hara: That’s where Officer Ortiz comes in. His job is to keep Prince focused, to get him close to the bags to sniff out for food.

Miguel Ortiz: Let's go. Find it ... 

Andres O'Hara: So we’re walking along the carousel, weaving between people ...  

Kid: Mommy, a dog. 

Miguel Ortiz: Find it ... 

Andres O'Hara: When Prince gives Officer Ortiz the signal he’s been looking for, Prince sits.

Miguel Ortiz: Oh, whose bag is this?

Passenger 1: Mine. 

Andres O'Hara: Officer Ortiz starts talking to the family that’s waiting for their bags.

Miguel Ortiz: May I please have your attention here? 

Passenger 1: Yeah.

Miguel Ortiz: Where are you coming from?

Passenger 2: I'm coming from Dubai, from India.

Miguel Ortiz: Do you have any food items in this bag?

Passenger 1: Sorry? 

Miguel Ortiz: Any food items? 

Passenger 2: Yeah. 

Miguel Ortiz: What kind of food items do you have?

Passenger 2: We got it on the airplane for my kids

Miguel Ortiz: What do you have? ... 

Andres O'Hara: The father has some fruit, it was served on the airplane, and he just saved it for his kids.

Dan Pashman: I hear that. I’ve done that.

Miguel Ortiz: And you have also a little fruit cup?

Passenger 2: Yeah, this one and …  

 Miguel Ortiz: Any apples, oranges?

Passenger 1: Oats. 

Miguel Ortiz: Oats?

Passenger 1: Yeah. 

Miguel Ortiz: Okay. 

Passenger 2: Yeah. 

Miguel Ortiz: So this is like pineapple, watermelon, and cantaloupe, and maybe pear. So this item, because it's coming from other country, is not allowed. May I see your passport, please?

Andres O'Hara: Officer Ortiz explains that as long as the passengers declare all their food at this final checkpoint, they won't get fined. The food might get confiscated, but that’s about it. No one gets in trouble.

Dan Pashman: What if they don’t declare it? What if they try to hide any other food they have?

Andres O'Hara: They can get fined $300, and they’ll also be put on a list. So next time they get on a flight, they might get flagged for extra security measures. 

Dan Pashman: Oh, right. You know, like America’s most wanted bologna smugglers

Andres O'Hara: That might actually be it. 

[LAUGHING] 

Dan Pashman: So what happens with the food that they confiscate?

Andres O'Hara: Well, that’s what I found out next.

Anthony Bucci: I could show you the grinding room. I don't know if there's anything on the table, but we can take a look at that. Absolutely.

Andres O'Hara: This is Anthony Bucci, who met up with us at this point. 

Anthony Bucci: Anthony Bucci. I'm the Public Affairs Specialist for Customs and Border Protection in the New York Field Office.

Andres O'Hara: I follow Anthony Bucci and Officer Ortiz to our next location. We walk away from baggage claim, down a hallway, past the office for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and into a small room. There’s tables along the walls, with microscopes and glass slides. Taped up on the walls are pictures of all the pests that Border Patrol is trying to keep out of the country.

Andres O'Hara: And then right in the middle — I mean, it takes up nearly takes up the entire room — it's the grinding table. It's this giant stainless steel table with a big sink in the middle. It’s basically a huge garbage disposal. And that's where all the forbidden food goes and gets ground up. And there’s a method to how they do it. 

Anthony Bucci:  They typically go in stages. Sometimes we'll have peppers or something that are a little spicy. It will get in the air, so in order to kind of cleanse the room, they usually like to grind all the citrus fruit at the end. It leaves a nice smell. 

Anthony Bucci: So contrary to popular belief, we do not take the items home, we don’t eat them, we don’t have a big party with them. 

Miguel Ortiz: Right. 

Andres O'Hara: Do people actually ask you if you’re going to take the food home and eat it? Is that a real thing?

Miguel Ortiz: Well, you know I have the comments, "Enjoy it!", or people that say, "Bon Appetit.", you know? We have to explain to them that we do not take or we do not eat or we do not use any of the products that we seized. 

Andres O'Hara: Instead, they go in the grinder. 

Dan Pashman: Sorry, Pati, I guess, your hibiscus flowers did not get used. 

Andres O'Hara: Yeah, but there are certain foods that the grinder can’t handle, one's that’s too fibrous or ones that could clog up the blades, like sugarcane or rice. 

Anthony Bucci: So whatever can't be put through the grinding machine, they'll put in the bags. They'll seal the bags, then they're incorporated for the burn run when they're gonna be incinerated,

Andres O'Hara: Where is that? Is that here at JFK? 

Anthony Bucci: We don't disclose the exact location

Andres O'Hara: Why? What's like ... 

Anthony Bucci: Well, because there's not just food products. So there's gonna be drugs, narcotics. There's going to be counterfeit goods. Bad people, if they knew where we were going to destroy it, perhaps they might want to intercept that convoy to recover those goods that they lost or maybe take the goods. Yeah, so we don't disclose where the location is.  

Dan Pashman: Imagine if you were hardcore drug smugglers and you found out where the convoy was going and you hatched a big — this is breaking bad style raid on the convoy, and you seize the truck, and you open up the back of it, thinking you’re gonna find all these drugs, instead its a bunch of mango, sugar cane, scallions.

[LAUGHING]

Andres O'Hara: I do not know why that hasn’t been a scene in one of these drug movies. 

Dan Pashman: Yeah. 

Andres O'Hara: Cause it's so good. So now that the baggage runs are over, Prince needs a rest and we head to the canine office. Yes, Prince has his very own office.

Dan Pashman: Wow, I don't even have my own office.

Andres O'Hara: Well, Prince does.

Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS]

Andres O'Hara: Prince still has share it with the Agricultural Specialists, like Officer Ortiz.

Dan Pashman: Okay.

Andres O'Hara: And so he goes into his kennel and rehydrates.

[PRINCE DRINKING WATER] 

Andres O'Hara: Next to his kennel, there's a few desks and there's a back room with five fridges that hold the meat and fruits that the dogs use for training. There's also a glass case in that room, with all kinds of jars and canisters, things that people have used to conceal what they’re bringing in. 

Miguel Ortiz: We have seen eggs inside flour. Sometimes people hide prosciutto between books pages.

Andres O'Hara: You mean slices like slices of prosciutto ... 

Miguel Ortiz: Yeah. 

Andres O'Hara: Between pages of books. 

Miguel Ortiz: Yes. 

Andres O'Hara: So you open a book ... 

Miguel Ortiz: And it's prosciutto between the pages.

Dan Pashman: I’ll tell ya, that would get me reading. Talk about a page turner. 

Andres O'Hara: [LAUGHS] Oh my God. 

Dan Pashman: I would get to the end of the book, Janie would be like, what happened and I'll be like, I don’t know but it was delicious. [LAUGHING] 

Andres O'Hara: The oiliest copy of War and Peace you have, but sadly that prosciutto ended up in the grinding room with everything else.

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Andres O'Hara: Anthony Bucci and Officer Ortiz say when they explain to people why the food has to be confiscated, they usually understand. But it’s still hard for many of them to let go.

Anthony Bucci: A lot of times a person is coming to visit family for the first time, they don’t have a lot to bring. So what they bring is kind of their foods from their homeland. So it’s a present that they bring for their family. So when unfortunately we have to seize it cause it’s not allowed in, it can sometimes be a little emotional with that passenger. 

Miguel Ortiz: I can tell you that food is something very precious to people. It brings them memories. And I see it almost every day. Almost every day somebody will tell you that, say, "Why are you taking this? I cannot find the food over here. The food here doesn't taste the same as my food."  

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Andres O'Hara: Thanks to K. Cecilia Sequeira, Julie Hong-Sakowski, and Aaron Beaumont, at USDA, Roger Maier and Charles Payne at Customs and Border Patrol, and Dr. Jonathan Reismann, whose website is AnatomyEats.com. And make sure to check out seasons one and two of La Frontera with Pati Jinich, streaming now on PBS.org. 

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Dan Pashman: Next week on the show, I chat with the stand-up comedian, screenwriter and viral content creator Zarna Garg. She tells me about the culture shock of moving from India to Ohio as a teenager, making broccoli for her kids for breakfast, and how she broke into the New York comedy world after 16 years as a stay at home mom. That’s next week. 

Dan Pashman: In the meantime, make sure you check out last week’s episode, with Top Chef judge Gail Simmons. We talk about how the show has evolved over it's 20 seasons, and how Gail’s approach to judging and eating has also changed. That episode is up now, check it out. 

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