Dear Guy Who Just Made My Burrito

Having lived between LA and SD my entire life, and have visited SF regularly, always seeking out the mom and pop taco shops throughout California-

Nothing beats the San Diego style carne asada burrito- seasoned, chunky meat, guacamole, pico de gallo, chopped onions, chopped cilantro, heavy, thick tortilla. No beans, no rice, no lettuce, definitely no sour cream. Extra salsa is encouraged, but not required.

My favorite in all of California can be had at Kotija Jr. in Encinitas/Leucadia (PCH at Leucadia Blvd).

This site hasnā€™t been updated in years, but still has some good reviews (several by me)- http://www.burritophile.com/

Apparently you can also get very good burritos in New York delivered direct from San Francisco via the Alameda-Weehauken Burrito Tunnel.

It could be viewed as a riff on Willy Wonkaā€™s three-course-dinner chewing gum.

Or a Mexican version of a Bento box. With careful selection and ordering, youā€™d end up with an escalating taste sensation ā€¦ as long as you started at the proper end.

That burritos are not Mexican food is not relevant. Burritos are Southern Californian food. In some eyes that is Mexico.

Wow! A burrito turf war! I wonder if we can draw up some battle lines over BBQ! Texas brisket vs. Carolina pulled pork: which one is really BBQ? (Actually I swing both ways)

Theyā€™re both delicious, but I prefer pulled pork because can be worked into any meal of the day, so leftovers wonā€™t take up space in the fridge long.
In scrambled eggs, on toast, sandwiches, added to stew, in a burrito, on a bagel, in a gyro, on pizza, in ravioli.

Itā€™s all tasty.

I prefer enchiladas myself. I have always suspected the enchilada is an entirely bogus variety of food. And so it becomes the signal food of Los Angeles. The ground beef enchiladas at Campos are a thing to behold. A plate of tasty brown and red stuff. Donā€™t look too deeply at its history or you wont be able to finish.

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They FAIL.

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So many souls lost in The Burrito Wars, try to have some godamned respect. I was there knee deep in black beans and salsa while the rest of you were all ā€œdropping outā€ and ā€œturning onā€.

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Youā€™ve come blasphemously close to saying that thereā€™s such a thing as too much cilantro. Dude, whatā€™s wrong with you?

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A. Put the burrito on a plate.
B. Use fork and knife to cut and mix the thing up.
C. Eat it like a salad. Not a particularly pretty salad, mind you.

Dude, Battle of Solvang. I was there. I canā€™t even look at sour cream anymore.

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Am I the only one who would like to eat a burrito like this?

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  1. Americans fighting over who makes the best Mexican food: Classic.

  2. Mexican burritos contain rice so, thereā€™s that.

  3. You arenā€™t the arbiter of what constitutes a burrito, bud. Here a ā€˜wrapā€™ is almost universally a cold/room temp food. Burritos are always hot (the meat and tortilla at least).

Youā€™re biting it wrong?

You are killing me. I moved from San Diego to Portland several years ago and have to go back south to find a decent carne asada burrito. I donā€™t know where MichaelRpdx is getting his burritos, but all the ones Iā€™ve had up here so far have had rice, beans and lettuce in them. NO NO NO. When I visit my parents, a trip to the taco shop is the first order of business.

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First, disagree about lettuce. In fact I think naming which ingredients can and canā€™t be in a ā€˜trueā€™ burrito is complete nonsense. Are you going to make a list of ingredients that are fine to put on a pizza? Of course not so why do you think itā€™s okay to limit a burritoā€™s ingredients, especially taking into consideration your second point about the rolling style being unorthodox.

Second: Itā€™s not unorthodox, itā€™s wrong. Going back to the pizza example, would you enjoy a pizza on which each slice only has one of the pizzaā€™s ingredients? No, thatā€™s stupid.

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Donā€™t tempt us. Somebody might defend putting pineapple on a pizza.

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Oh noā€¦ here goes the flamewar. Ham & Pineapple is an awesome pizza.

Iā€™m strongly of the belief that anything can go on a pizza, with one proviso: that everything on there is in bite-size chunks. A friend ordered a ā€œcountry style pizzaā€ in Japan onceā€¦ she received corn on the cob, roast potatoes and a full, uncut steak on a pizza base. Thatā€™s an example where itā€™s not a pizza but a plate of food with a pizza base instead of a plate (with a plate under that).

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Iā€™m one of those people for whom cilantro tastes like dish-soap. Itā€™s a taste I always find jarring in the midst of otherwise food-flavored food.