california burrito ("san diego") in chicago?

somewhere in outer web space someone was asking if there was anywhere in chicago to get a "california burrito" (which apparently is a "san diego" burrito). the same person was using the lack of finding a good one in chicago as a benchmark that chicago's mexico food is sub-par to where they came from.. lol


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_burrito

...apparently it involves a steak burrito with salsa, cheese, and french fries in it... this to me is intriguing.


...a few people mentioned they have it at TBK, but it's not good there (i think the complaint may have related to the fries being soggy or something).

so has anyone come across a good one?

Of course you know that a burrito is no more Mexican that chop suey is Chinese.

stevez wrote:Of course you know that a burrito is no more Mexican that chop suey is Chinese.

well i mentioned that, too. --wikipedia reference articles in tow

dddane wrote:somewhere in outer web space someone was asking if there was anywhere in chicago to get a "california burrito" (which apparently is a "san diego" burrito). the same person was using the lack of finding a good one in chicago as a benchmark that chicago's mexico food is sub-par to where they came from.. lol


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_burrito

...apparently it involves a steak burrito with salsa, cheese, and french fries in it... this to me is intriguing.


...a few people mentioned they have it at TBK, but it's not good there (i think the complaint may have related to the fries being soggy or something).

so has anyone come across a good one?

I was chatting with a recently arrived neighbor on Saturday, and he lamented that he could not get a "Northern California burrito" in Chicago. There are, clearly, degrees of regional chow differentiation of which I am completely ignorant.

Apparently, the NoCal burrito contains beans, rice and steak, and is comparable to what you get at Chipotle, only better.

That's all I got on this one.

Hammond

I haven't come across the California Burrito, yet. Sounds like a cousin of the Arizona chimichanga. The size of the offering reminds me of a commonly-seen concoction outside many factories in Mexico City - a huge tamale stuffed into a bolillo bread roll; some guys eat two before starting the day's work.

Chimichanga: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimichanga

French fries? I can't ever remember eating a burrito with fries in SoCal, must be a relatively new thing. 30 years ago, in Chihuahua, I used to get potato and chorzio 'burros' that were quite good, but much skinnier than what we call burritos here. I have had friends from SF tell me that Chicago Mexican food was not authentic because we don't put rice in burritos here. As far as I know, that practice was invented by a burrito stand on Haight street as a way of filling out vegetarian burritos. Rice in burritos sucks. It is just a cheap way of making a giant burrito while saving on more expensive ingredients.

d4v3 wrote:...Rice in burritos sucks. It is just a cheap way of making a giant burrito while saving on more expensive ingredients.

Here, here. While a little rice helps balance a burrito when it's been overseasoned, the degree to which it serves as filler really gets to me sometimes -- especially at Chipotle, though I personally prefer the burritos at Baja Fresh.

--Dan

d4v3 wrote:Rice in burritos sucks. It is just a cheap way of making a giant burrito while saving on more expensive ingredients.

..hmm, well in the case of chipotle, i can't imagine what else they could possibly throw in if not for the rice. i think american burritos tend to be getting bigger and bigger, and filling them with rice was the next natural progression into making the portion size as large as possible.

..my next question... do people here have a preference as to whether the tortilla shell is crispy ? chipotle for instance throws it into a hot press for a few seconds to crispen it. i think in a perfect world the shell is supposed to get crispened and even a little blackened maybe ... but the problem is, during any sort of rush, they just basically throw it for 3 seconds at most and that's not even long enough to get warm let alone crispy... then they throw the whole thing in foil when done...and by the time you get to unwrapping it the tortilla shell is all mushy. for the longest time i never though much of it, but now i'm starting to think that it can't possibly be intended to be a mushy mess of a shell... yes/no? of course i still eat it, but i have to wonder if it's not as good as it was intended to be buy the creator.

dddane wrote: chipotle for instance throws it into a hot press for a few seconds to crispen it. i think in a perfect world the shell is supposed to get crispened and even a little blackened maybe ... but the problem is, during any sort of rush, they just basically throw it for 3 seconds at most and that's not even long enough to get warm let alone crispy... then they throw the whole thing in foil when done...and by the time you get to unwrapping it the tortilla shell is all mushy. for the longest time i never though much of it, but now i'm starting to think that it can't possibly be intended to be a mushy mess of a shell... yes/no? of course i still eat it, but i have to wonder if it's not as good as it was intended to be buy the creator.

Please get thee to a taqueria at once! The Chipotle burrito in and of itself is NOT as good as it was intended to be by the creator - let alone the tortilla steamer*** they use. Please go to a taqueria and order your burrito "crispy." No matter the lingo barrier, they will more than likely know what you mean, and the tortilla should arrive nice and tanned as you describe it anyway - if you go to a place that takes any pride in their offerings.

Reminds me of a "Mexico City Style Taco" that I ordered at the Border Grill in the U.P. (mi. upper peninsula.)

The CORN tortilla was not even heated!!!!!!!

***I really do not believe it is a "crisper."

I don't think they're crisping it, I think they're just warming it so it's less styrofoamy.

seebee wrote:Reminds me of a "Mexico City Style Taco" that I ordered at the Border Grill in the U.P. (mi. upper peninsula.)

The CORN tortilla was not even heated!!!!!!!

hahaha, I'm completely of the opinion that if Chipotle opened up in Marquette, it would be the best mexican restaurant for 50-100 miles.

Such is the state of ethnic dining in the UP.

I had a California Burrito in Solana Beach in February... the place was called "Roberto's Very Mexican Food" (www.robertos.us) and I have to say, I was a skeptic, but my friend begged me to give it a chance, so I did.

It was excellent!!! Carne asada, cheese, sour cream and french fries... it was so filling and really hit the spot. i think we added avocado to ours too.

So yes, these burritos do exist!

seebee wrote:
The CORN tortilla was not even heated!!!!!!!

An unheated corn tortilla is nasty. But at least they had corn tortillas. In pastieland, that has to count as muy autentico.

Even El Famous Burrito will normally toss it on the griddle to brown a couple sides. It does a nice job on that.

You want to bulk out your burrito? Use more lettuce, beans, tomatoes. Keep the darn rice away from mine.

I lived in SD for five years and ate many, many burritos, especially in the wee hours after working late or partying. (I was once stopped by a policeman riding my bike in my PJs with a brown bag clenched in my teeth and in it was a bean and cheese burrito.) Alberto's and Roberto's were little shacks that were often open very late and sold pretty straightforward (relatively authentic and not too gigantic ) burritos: bean and cheese and carne asada. There was never any rice in them much less french fries. I have a sneaking suspicion that enough drunk and hungry gringos showed up requesting burritos and french fries or something and voila! a burrito with FF was born? I do not know but it sounds like some sort of Americanization/devolution of the burrito. Look at scones, they are supposed to be the size of a lime, not a softball . . .

bjt[/i]

As I recall, the burritos in California don't normally include lettuce or tomato. That was the other thing my friends from SF would complain about.

There used to be a bar called Big John's on Howard, that got an undeserved rep as a gang hangout and was closed down. They had a burrito stand inside the bar that made burritos that were grilled under a weight. They came out wide, flat and really crispy. The tortilla would get flaky, almost like phyllo. As I recall, they also put mayo in them.

bjt wrote:I lived in SD for five years and ate many, many burritos, especially in the wee hours after working late or partying. (I was once stopped by a policeman riding my bike in my PJs with a brown bag clenched in my teeth and in it was a bean and cheese burrito.) Alberto's and Roberto's were little shacks that were often open very late and sold pretty straightforward (relatively authentic and not too gigantic ) burritos: bean and cheese and carne asada. There was never any rice in them much less french fries. I have a sneaking suspicion that enough drunk and hungry gringos showed up requesting burritos and french fries or something and voila! a burrito with FF was born? I do not know but it sounds like some sort of Americanization/devolution of the burrito. Look at scones, they are supposed to be the size of a lime, not a softball . . .

bjt[/i]

bjt, thanks for the most excellent image.

The whole issue of authenticity vis a vis burritos is complicated.

"The burrito, meaning literally little burro or donkey, became irreversibly linked to the tortilla-rolled packages. Burrito lovers David Thomsen and Derek Wilson believe that the modern burrito originated "in the dusty borderlands between Tucson and Los Angeles." The word burrito first saw print in America in 1934. It was sold at Los Angeles's famed El Cholo Spanish CafÚ during the 1930s. Burritos entered Mexican-American cuisine in other parts of the Southwest around the 1950s and went nationwide a decade later.[64] " From http://food.oregonstate.edu/ref/culture ... smith.html

So, is the authentic burrito like the one served at El Cholo? Can different regions have different "authentic" versions? I'm just not sure how you determine authenticity with something like this.

Juanita's in Pomona . . . the memory of this special burrito palace in the greater-Los Angeles area comes to mind for me, when talking about eating burrito's in California. I don't eat burritos any more, but if I were anywhere near Juanita's, I'd break my own rule.

d4v3 wrote:There used to be a bar called Big John's... that... had a burrito stand inside the bar... As I recall, they also put mayo in them.

AAaaaggghhh! OK, if you insist, I'll take the rice.

JoelF wrote:

d4v3 wrote:There used to be a bar called Big John's... that... had a burrito stand inside the bar... As I recall, they also put mayo in them.

AAaaaggghhh! OK, if you insist, I'll take the rice.

Yeah, I learned to say 'sin mayo' really quick. It was especially gross because it got warm from the grilling.

d4v3 wrote:Yeah, I learned to say 'sin mayo' really quick. It was especially gross because it got warm from the grilling.

..but they put mayo on a torta in mexico... and that's pretty good.

Not just any mayo - "lime flavored" mayo.

dddane wrote:..but they put mayo on a torta in mexico... and that's pretty good.

They put mayo on tortas here also, and I like it. It just doesn't belong in my burrito.

Despite being adjacent to the Mexican border, San Diego does not have a broad variety of Mexican food. The average San Diegan (much like the average American) is not overly concerned with authenticity. (I'm not agreeing with this viewpoint, just stating it like it is.) In fact, I went to a conference in Cabo San Lucas with a native San Diegan who spent the whole time looking for the best burrito in Cabo. We ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe.

That said, the California burrito with carne asada, french fries, etc. is authentic San Diego taco shop fare, which I had never seen prior to moving to San Diego about five years ago. Any San Diego taco shop worth its salt offers a California burrito right alongside their al pastor and carne asada tacos (which are also questionable in their authenticity). To get an idea of what I'm talking about, check this out:

http://weblog.signonsandiego.com/weblogs/sidedish/2007/05/burrito_chronicles_meet_the_ex.html

San Diegans generally disdain the San Francisco Mission-style burrito with rice and will laugh anyone who orders rice in their burrito right out of the taco shop. (I compare it to ketchup on hot dogs in Chicago - perish the thought!)

I'm seeing a different description than you are seeing in WIKI

cjchaps wrote:I'm seeing a different description than you are seeing in WIKI

You need to click on the history tab and go back to a revision prior to May 25th, 2007.

Somebody being nasty and playing games changed that listing today, and somebody else changed it back to delete the game-playing. Here's the definition of California Burrito as it appeared on that website prior to the games - and which I think was the definition intended to be conveyed by ddane:

The California burrito is a Mexican-American dish created in San Diego.[citation needed] it is served in almost every Mexican restaurant in southern California. It is typically a flour tortilla stuffed with carne asada, salsa fresca, cheese, and French fries. There is some debate whether sour cream or guacamole is the "real" California burrito. The burrito itself, is similar to a typical "Carne Asada Fries" dish which consists of the same ingredients without being rolled into a burrito. This burrito is an Americanized Mexican dish; having french fries combined with a burrito is not a common dish known to Mexico.