Burrito as Religious Experience

So, the other night I'm heading home from work and got to thinking about what to eat for dinner. I had a craving for a burrito, but from where?

I googled Mexican restaurants and saw I was passing near one on the drive home. It's a place I'd been to once or twice twenty years ago and, though it left no great impression on me, it did have a score in the high 4s on Yelp. So, what the heck? Let's give the ol' place a try.

You know when you have a craving for something, you imagine the most perfect, delicious form of it?

Yeah, this was better than that.

Holy shit. Best burrito (carne asada, wet) I've ever had bar none. Absolutely spectacular. And huge! And cheap! ($14 with Coke and tax)

So I went there for lunch today, to see if my first visit was a fluke. Best burrito of my life. Again.

I'm going to need some serious willpower to avoid coming here too often...

Damn that looks good!

I used to know some places when I lived in CA with burritos that looked like that. Sadly, the wet burritto is just not a thing here... yet.

We'll bring civilization to you fuzzie-wuzzies yet!

It looks great - when you said 14 dollars I thought but now I see that is one huge, tasty looking burrito! Did you eat that thing all by yourself? I'm guessing you took at least half of that away in a "to go" box. But man it looks good! Speaking of Mexican food, I'm having a white boy home made version of it tonight it's a recipe using frozen chicken & cheese taquitos, mushroom soup, enchilada sauce and cheese on top. Not anything gormet, just simple and light in this blazing hot weather. Oh, and watermelon too!

And consider that 2 dollars was a Coke and 2 dollars was tax. $10 for a really REALLY good burrito is not unreasonable IMHO.

Nope, I got the whole thing surrounded. I'm sitting here trying not to take a siesta at my desk.

Oh, I have no illusions about it. That thing is death on a plate.

But it's a lovely way to go...

I went to Edinburgh in 1999/2000, and went a couple of days in a row to a pub there for the lasagna they served. Oily, greasy,...wonderful. I can understand why a lot of Scotsmen drop dead at 50 from fully clogged arteries.

$14 is considered cheap for that?

You need to visit me and @Dinner in San Diego, mate

That thing looks like a beauty, though

Again, the burrito was $10. The total bill was $14.

There's a taco truck down the street from work which sells a ginormous tasty burrito for about $5. It probably weighs over a pound, maybe two.

The Gut-Buster!

What was in this $10 burrito? Was it mission style, meaning filled with cheap junk filler like rice & beans, or was it mostly what you ordered (namely carne asada)? I do like wet style burritos though.

At what point does a burrito cross the line and become a burro?

Odd fact: It was probably invented in America, and the term for it in Mexico was "taco."

$10 is not a bad price for a nice sit down place. Around here El Zarape, my go to place for higher end Mexican food, sells their giant carne asada burritos for $9.99 with a side of rice and beans, unlimited chips & salsa, salad and cheese on top of burrito, served wet style at no addition charge. Oh, and they also throw in free pickled and/or grilled veggies with any order. So $10 isn't unreasonably high though you could certainly get similar quality for around $6-$7 range.

BTW what salsa and sauce options did they offer for the wet burrito? Are we talking New Mexico style red or green or did they get more creative?

They aren't that popular in Mexico but, no, they were not invented in America. Only perfected to its full glory in America. A norteno style burrito, commonly found in places like Mexicali has been sold since the late 19th century but they are small and rather crap. Poor people food designed to be a fast and easy lunch a house wife could hand her husband so he could put it in his pocket before going to work in the fields or in a mine.

They tend to have just one item inside them, what ever the wife had on hand, and no sauce. The burrito as it is known in America today took that humble origin and turned it into a glorious gut torpedo with everything. Americans are often want to do that to other people's cuisines.

In Mexico burritos were hardly known outside of northern Mexico and the use of a flour tortilla is a dead give away as to its origin. In the rest of Mexico corn is the staple as wheat grows poorly there while in northern Mexico wheat is king.

It had a LOT of very tender carne asada. Yes, there was plenty of rice and beans, but I couldn't believe how much meat there was in this thing.

And the big piles of sour cream and guacamole just made it even more decadent.

And, yes, chips and salsa as well (which were also excellent).

Appropriation!!!

The picture makes it look like red enchilada sauce, which is nothing to complain about, which is standard, though some of the Mexican food trucks down in Chula Vista (south of San Diego closer to the border) have gotten pretty creative with flavor combinations for their sauces for wet burritos.

Yes, this is red enchilada sauce. You can also have it covered with mole, but I'm not a fan.

Yeah, who wants a rodent on their burrito?

I can't be arsed to find the 'e' with the accent mark.

I'd have still made the same joke.

I agree, the appropriation "argument" is complete horse shit from sorry excuses for human beings.

$3.99!

http://laperlacocina.com

It is some what gringo-ified by all the white college kids living in Pacific beach but the food remains quite authentic despite the additions of gringo favorites like the California burrito (a local invention though San Diego style carne asada burritos remain the best seller). I especially liked their Oaxacan style lamb burrito served wet and baked which is practically oozing the three types of cheese. Their TJ style street tacos are also good, not Tacos El Gordo good, but still a great representation of the style.

Oh, and it is located right on the ocean so that is nice.

Haha, wait until you see the deep fried version. They call it a chimichanga and they treat it exactly the same only they deep fry the burrito before they smoother it in sauce and load it up with cheese and pop it in the oven so the cheese can melt. Often they will put sour cream and guacamole on top of it too just in case there isn't enough fat already.

That is about the standard for dry CAB burritos around here. Fancier/nicer places charge a bit more but your average taco shop is around $5-$6 if you get all the options.

My enormous smothered burrito from the Mexican place up the street was only $3.99! It comes covered in enchilada sauce, cheese, and sour cream, too. And it comes with free packets of hot sauce - mild, medium, hot, fire, and the new El Diablo.

Live mas.

Across town is a mom & pop place that was voted the third best burrito in the United States by Nate Silver.

Tortilleria Y Taqueria Ramirez

Californians come here to eat it.

Shane B.
Agoura Hills CA.

My husband and I went out of our way to try this place on our drive through Lexington after noting that it came up as the third best burrito in America on Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight blog. Rest assured, it did not disappoint on any front.

I ordered the large carne asada burrito with everything (lettuce, tomato, onion, cheese, avocados, rice, beans, sour cream, and meat). My husband asked the gentleman for a recommendation, and subsequently tried the al pastor. Between the two, I ended up being jealous of the Al Pastor, which was truly out of this world. If you go there, you MUST try the Al Pastor. Life changing, folks. Life changing.

The tortillas are handmade, and it shoes. They are flaky and a little bit buttery, for lack of a better word. Absolutely delicious. Also the salsas (which come in little squeeze bottles) are delicious. I preferred the green salsa of the three, but all were good.

The service was also excellent, and you could tell it was family run.

Finally, for two HUGE burritos and a drink, the bill was $14. Fourteen freaking dollars. I am pretty sure taco bell costs more than that.

Run, do not walk, to this restaurant.

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Unfortunately we don't have a place called The Raunchy Nacho, because if a restaurant was called The Raunchy Nacho I'd eat there all the time.

Mexican has improved here over the past few decades, but not a lot. Still catering to southern tastes.

hot damn - this thread is making me hungry. been eating a lot of yogurt, turkey sammiches, etc. I want a hot, fatty item like this delicious-looking burrito in mah belly!!!