The Burrito: Quintessential American Food
My mother first came to the United States from Mexico at the age of seventeen. She'd never had—or even heard of—a burrito in her life. I've been to her hometown of Miguel Auza in the Mexican state of Zacatecas twice. I can verify that there are no burritos there. My abuelita thinks they're absurdly named, and has taken to calling them burrototas. But everyone in my family eats them. They're one of our favorite foods.
And so it was with great pleasure that I savored Gustavo Arellano's thesis in his article in the June edition of Reason, "Taco USA: How Mexican food became more American than apple pie."
Arellano, a Southern Californian, found himself in South Dakota visiting a university there. Longing for a taste of home, he stopped into Taco John's and walked away with something called a Potato Olé burrito.
There is nothing remotely Mexican about Potato Olés—not even the quasi-Spanish name, which has a distinctly Castilian accent. The burrito was more insulting to me and my heritage than casting Charlton Heston as the swarthy Mexican hero in Touch of Evil. But it was intriguing enough to take back to my hotel room for a taste. There, as I experienced all of the concoction’s gooey, filling glory while chilly rain fell outside, it struck me: Mexican food has become a better culinary metaphor for America than the melting pot.
Back home, my friends did not believe that a tater tot burrito could exist. When I showed them proof online, out came jeremiads about inauthenticity, about how I was a traitor for patronizing a Mexican chain that got its start in Wyoming, about how the avaricious gabachos had once again usurped our holy cuisine and corrupted it to fit their crude palates.
In defending that tortilla-swaddled abomination, I unknowingly joined a long, proud lineage of food heretics and lawbreakers who have been developing, adapting, and popularizing Mexican food in El Norte since before the Civil War. Tortillas and tamales have long left behind the moorings of immigrant culture and fully infiltrated every level of the American food pyramid, from state dinners at the White House to your local 7-Eleven. Decades’ worth of attempted restrictions by governments, academics, and other self-appointed custodians of purity have only made the strain stronger and more resilient. The result is a market-driven mongrel cuisine every bit as delicious and all-American as the German classics we appropriated from Frankfurt and Hamburg.
It's a fun read. And that picture? Member Humza Ahmad, the biggest burrito aficionado I've ever known, snapped that at a mini-meetup in San Francisco last year.
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Comments:
Nov '10
Re: The Burrito: Quintessential American Food
Paul DeRocco
And I never really got refried beans, either. Here in L.A., I eat breakfast burritos three times a week, but they make them with black beans, which I'm told are also completely alien to Mexico.
Black beans are a poor man's pinto bean, at least as far as they're concerned. It's the stuff of the poor areas in southern Mexico, Guatemala, etc.
You can actually make refried black beans, if you prefer them to pinto beans. But let's just say that they come out the same color they go in...
Nov '10
Re: The Burrito: Quintessential American Food
As for the subject of fake Mexican food, fajitas, the real kind, actually come from a part of the cow that (American) butchers throw away as not worth the meat (I don't remember what the English term for that cut is). Basically a rather thin section of meat between two layers of fat, and the meat is very fatty as well. Tastes pretty good, I guess, but a relatively high deal of effort to get at what meat is there, and lots of gristle.
Much of the fajitas you buy at the store/get in restaurants are actually just normal steak meat cut up to look like fajitas.
Dec '10
Re: The Burrito: Quintessential American Food
Shawamas are wonderful. One of the great things about working in Dearborn, MI. The other great things about working in Dearborn are... Let me get back to you.
Apr '12
Re: The Burrito: Quintessential American Food
Ah, the long and lovely tradition of going "ooh, that looks nice!" and taking it in for adaptation. The story of Chow Mein is my favorite. (A Chinese chef made it as an Asian-inspired dish, in New York, IIRC.) I've had fights with people about what "authentic" Asian cooking is because some nice restaurants in Hong Kong and such have adopted American style Chinese food. Isn't it awesome?
We are Borg, but much nicer, and you can keep your stuff after we adapt it. ^.^
Reminds me of my mom's story about "burritos." They had an exchange student from some Spanish speaking country; mom always read the school announcements at the start of class, and when she finished it with the lunch menu the girl got quite agitated. Finally, this adorable little teen burst out:
"BURRITOS?!?!? YOU EAT BABY BURROS?!?!??"
(Mom got her calmed down and explained what it was. The really funny thing is that the lunch ladies had probably made the menu choice as a nice gesture for the girl.)
Aug '10
Re: The Burrito: Quintessential American Food
Foxfier:
I've had fights with people about what "authentic" Asian cooking is because some nice restaurants in Hong Kong and such haveadopted American style Chinese food. Isn't it awesome?
After 99 years of being perverted by their British oppressors, does Hong Kong even qualify as "authentic Chinese" anymore?
Here you go: Authentic Chinese cuisine.
Apr '12
Re: The Burrito: Quintessential American Food
Misthiocracy-
Per the person I was arguing with, they'd had X at fancy place in Hong Kong, which is Asian, so that is way more definitely accurate than the stuff cooked by a family that immigrated from a couple of different Asian countries and whose food matches the stuff I got at hole-in-the-wall sized places.
If they'd chosen a dish with local substitutions in, I might see their point, but that's a whole nother kettle of fish. (And I'm not watching the video-- no way, no how. I know that Terry Pratchett was wise in his joke about a local delicacy being something that you dare visitors to eat.)
Aug '10
Re: The Burrito: Quintessential American Food
Foxfier:
(And I'm not watching the video-- no way, no how. I know that Terry Pratchett was wise in his joke about a local delicacy being something that you dare visitors to eat.)
Oh, you're such a chicken!
Which is ironic, considering the last bit on the video...
;-)
Apr '12
Re: The Burrito: Quintessential American Food
*braaawwwk brak brak braaaaawwwk!*
May '10
Re: The Burrito: Quintessential American Food
Diane, this is one of my favorite Ricochet posts ever! Rarely have I read something on the internet and taken immediate action; in this case I grabbed my keys, picked up my friend at the other building and drove straight to Chipotle to scarf down several fistfuls worth of carnitas drenched in awesome.
Re: The Burrito: Quintessential American Food
Thank you for your kind words.
I was similarly affected by this post. Yesterday, I went down to the only taqueria in Pac Heights (which isn't even very good) because I had to have a burrito. I got carnitas as well.
Apr '12
Re: The Burrito: Quintessential American Food
Anyone else got "Taco Grande" stuck in their head?