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A burrito (, ) or burro in Mexico is, historically, a regional name, among others, for what is known as a taco, a tortilla filled with food, in other parts of the country. The term burrito was regional, specifically from Guanajuato, Guerrero, Michoacán, San Luis Potosí, Sonora and Sinaloa, for what is known as a taco in Mexico City and surrounding areas, and codzito in Yucatán and Quintana Roo. Due to the cultural influence of Mexico City, the term taco became the default, and the meaning of terms like burrito and codzito were forgotten, leading many people to create new meanings and folk histories.
In modern times, it is considered by many as a different dish in Mexican cuisine
and Tex-Mex cuisine
that took form in Ciudad Juárez, consisting of a flour tortilla wrapped into a sealed cylindrical shape around various ingredients.
In Central and Southern Mexico, burritos are still considered tacos, and are known as tacos de harina ("wheat flour tacos"). The tortilla is sometimes lightly grilled or steamed to soften it, make it more pliable, and allow it to adhere to itself. Burritos are often eaten by hand, as their tight wrapping keeps the ingredients together. Burritos can also be served "wet"; i.e., covered in a savory and spicy sauce, when they would be eaten with a fork and knife.
Burritos are filled with savory ingredients, most often a meat such as beef, chicken, or pork, and often include other ingredients, such as rice, cooked beans (either whole or Refried beans), vegetables, such as lettuce and tomatoes, cheese, and condiments such as salsa, pico de gallo, guacamole, or crema.
Burritos are often contrasted in present times with similar dishes such as , in which a small hand-sized tortilla is folded in half around the ingredients rather than wrapped and sealed, or with , which use masa tortillas and are covered in a savory sauce to be eaten with a fork and knife.
The precise origin of the modern burrito is not currently known, but there is evidence that in Mexico burrito was mainly another name, among others, for a taco, a rolled tortilla, whether corn or wheat, filled with meat or other ingredients. In the 1895 Diccionario de Mejicanismos by Feliz Ramos i Duarte, burrito was identified as the regional name given in the Mexican state of Guanajuato to what is known as a taco in other regions:
Both, Diccionario Agrícola Nacional (1935) by the Mexican Dirección General de Estadística and Diccionario de Mejicanismos (1959) by Mexican linguist and philologist Francisco J. Santamaría, identify burrito as another name for a taco in the state of Guerrero, while in the State of Sinaloa it is specifically a taco filled with salt:
The Dictionary of Mexican Spanish (Diccionario del Español de México) by the Colegio de México also provides those definitions, stating that it is a regionalism from, both, the states of Guerrero and Michoacán for taco; and also states that, in the state of Sinaloa, it is a " taco de sal" (salt taco), a rolled corn tortilla with salt in it.
In Vocabulario Sonorense (1966), Sonoran writer, historian and politician, Horacio Sobarzo Díaz, states the same, writing that burro is another name for a taco, but argues that it's a regionalism from Sonora and that it originated from the fact that in some places in that state, donkey meat was sold instead of beef:
In her book Life in Mexico (1843) Scottish noblewoman Frances Erskine Inglis writes that she ate burros, tortillas filled, in this case, with cheese, while on the road in Michoacán:
Being that burrito or burro was originally a regional name for what is known as a taco or codzito in other regions of Mexico, the use of both corn and wheat flour tortillas was understandable. References to burritos made with corn tortillas appear as late as 1938 in California. Ana Bégué de Packman, author of the book Early California Hospitality (1938) wrote that corn and flour tortillas could be used interchangeably for making burritos.
Currently, wheat flour tortilla burritos are known as "tacos de harina" (wheat flour tacos) in Central and Southern Mexico.
An often repeated piece of folk history is the story of a man named Juan Méndez who sold tacos at a street stand in the Bella Vista neighborhood of Ciudad Juárez during the Mexican Revolution period (1910–1921), while using a donkey as a transport for himself and his food.See, e.g., To keep the food warm, Méndez wrapped it in large homemade flour tortillas underneath a small tablecloth. As the "food of the burrito" (i.e., "food of the little donkey") grew in popularity, "burrito" was eventually adopted as the name for these large tacos.
Some have speculated that it may have originated with vaqueros, the cowboys of northern Mexico in the 19th century.
In 1923, Alejandro Borquez opened the Sonora Cafe in Los Angeles that later changed its name to El Cholo Spanish Cafe. Burritos first appeared on American restaurant menus at the El Cholo Spanish Cafe in Los Angeles during the 1930s. Burritos were mentioned in the U.S. media for the first time in 1934, appearing in the Mexican Cookbook, a collection of regional recipes from New Mexico that was written by historian Erna Fergusson. In 1956, a Frozen food burrito was developed in Southern California by Duane Roberts.
Although burritos are one of the most popular examples of Mexican cuisine outside of Mexico, they are only popular in the northern part of Mexico. However, they are beginning to appear in some nontraditional venues in other parts of Mexico. Wheat flour tortillas (used in burritos) are now often seen throughout much of Mexico (possibly due to these areas being less than optimal for growing maize or corn), despite at one time being particular to northwestern Mexico, the Southwestern US Mexican-American community, and Puebloan peoples tribes.
Burritos are commonly called tacos de harina ("wheat flour tacos") in Central Mexico and Southern Mexico, and burritas (the feminine variation with 'a') in "northern-style" restaurants outside of northern Mexico proper. A long and thin fried burrito called a chivichanga , which is similar to a chimichanga, is prepared in the state of Sonora and vicinity. (1987). 9780688043940, Morrow Cookbooks. ISBN 9780688043940
A variation of the burrito found in the Mexican state of Sonora is known as the burro percherón.
Febronio Ontiveros claims to have offered the first retail burrito in San Francisco in 1961 at El Faro ("The Lighthouse"), a Grocery store on Folsom Street. Ontiveros claims credit for inventing the " super burrito", a style which may have led to the early development of the "San Francisco style". This innovative style involves the addition of rice, sour cream and guacamole to the standard burrito of meat, beans, and cheese. The Mission burrito emerged as a regional culinary movement during the 1970s and 1980s. The popularity of San Francisco-style burritos has grown locally at Mission Street taquerias like El Farolito, and nationally at chains like Chipotle Mexican Grill, Illegal Pete's, Chevy's Fresh Mex, Freebirds World Burrito, Qdoba, and Barberitos. Chili's had a brief stint with "Fresh Mex" foods and burritos between 2015 and 2017.
In 1995, World Wrapps opened in San Francisco's Marina District and brought a burrito-inspired wrap style to the restaurant industry.
In the early 1960s, Roberto Robledo opened a tortilleria in San Diego and learned the restaurant business. Robledo began selling small bean burritos (or burrititos) at La Lomita in the late 1960s, and by 1970, he had established the first Roberto's Taco Shop. By 1999, Roberto's restaurants had expanded to a chain of 60 taco shops offering fresh burritos known for their distinctive quality. Hoping to draw on the prestige of Roberto's, new taco shops in San Diego began using the "-bertos" suffix, with names like Alberto's, Filiberto's, Hilberto's, and others.
The California burrito originated at an unknown -berto's named restaurant in San Diego in the 1980s. The Fresh MXN chain (formerly Santana's) also claimed to be the originator of the California burrito. The earliest-known published mention was in a 1995 article in the Albuquerque Tribune. The California burrito typically consists of chunks of carne asada meat, French fries, cheese, and either cilantro, pico de gallo, sour cream, onion, or guacamole (or some combination of these five).
The ingredients are similar to those used in the "carne asada fries" dish, and it is considered a staple of the local cuisine of San Diego.See for example: (2026). 9781741797275, Lonely Planet. ISBN 9781741797275 With the merging of French fries and more traditional burrito fillings, the California burrito is an example of Fusion cuisine. The California burrito has also been described as a "trans-class" food item, as it is regularly consumed by people across Socioeconomics lines. Variants of this burrito may add shrimp (surf and turf),
or substitute carnitas (pork) or Chicken meat for carne asada.
The carne asada burrito is considered one of the regional foods of San Diego. Carolynn Carreno has said that to San Diegans, "carne asada burritos are as integral to the experience of the place as a slice of (pizza) pie is to a New Yorker." The San Diego–style carne asada burrito is served with chunks of carne asada, guacamole, and pico de gallo salsa., January 15, 2013. This "wall-to-wall" use of meat contrasts to burrito styles that use rice and beans as filler ingredients.
The most basic version of this burrito consists of only beans and cheese; beyond this, there are the "green chile" and "red chile" burritos, which may simply mean the addition of chiles or a vegetarian chile sauce to the plain beans (as at Al & Bea's), meat or cheese as well. Rice, again, is rarely included, which, along with the choice of chiles, is one of the style's most defining traits. The menu will then usually go on to list multiple other combinations, such as beef and bean, all-beef, a "special" with further ingredients, etc. If the restaurant also offers hamburgers and sandwiches, it may sell a burrito version of these, such as a "hot dog burrito".
In addition to the version described, Los Angeles is also home to three burrito styles that can be said to fall under the category of Mexican fusion cuisine. The first is the famed "kosher burrito", served since 1946 at its eponymous restaurant at 1st Street and Main in Downtown Los Angeles. Another is the Korean kogi burrito, invented by American chef Roy Choi, the first to combine Mexican and . The kogi burrito was named the seventh best burrito in Los Angeles in 2012 by the LA Weekly. The kogi burrito is accented with chile-Soy sauce vinaigrette, sesame oil, and fresh lime juice. Food writer Cathy Chaplin has said that "this is what Los Angeles tastes like." Finally, there is the sushi burrito, most notably the version sold at the Jogasaki food truck. Wrapped in flour tortillas, sushi burritos include such fillings as spicy tuna, tempura, and cucumber.
The existence of such a large truly Mexican community in Los Angeles also makes it possible to find a variety of authentic burrito dishes from different Mexican States: from Oaxaca to Hidalgo.
Bean burritos, which are high in protein and low in saturated fat, have been touted for their health benefits. Clinical Lipidology: A Companion to Braunwald's Heart Disease (), Christie M. Ballantyne, ed. 2009. p. 228. Black bean burritos are also a good source of dietary fiber and .The University of Pennsylvania Health System. Breakfast, Dinner or Anytime Burrito. Adapted from the Cancer Nutrition Information, LLC. Archive URL: March 25, 2006.
Variations and similar dishes
Gallery
Research
Taco Bell food science Anne Albertine experimented with grilling burritos to enhance portability. This grilling technique allowed large burritos to remain sealed without spilling their contents.Crosby, Olivia. (Fall, 2002). You're a What? Research Chef . Occupational Outlook Quarterly. Vol. 46, Num. 3. This is a well-known cooking technique used by some San Francisco taquerias and Northern Mexico Food booth. Traditionally, grilled burritos are cooked on a comal (griddle).
See also
Further reading
(2026). 9780965224338, Pendulum Publishing. ISBN 9780965224338
External links
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