# Educate me about burritos, please **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [January 15, 2022, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849 "2022-01-15T14:55:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849/181 "2022-01-18T19:19:49Z")
Yeah, it’s probably different regional definitions of a taco. Here there are pretty much just two styles of tacos, the traditional Mexican style and the crunchy Taco Bell ones. If it’s in a flour tortilla and fully wrapped, it’s called a burrito. A burrito is pretty much always larger than a taco. It may or may not be covered in sauce; but usually not unless it’s specifically a wet burrito of the menu otherwise specifies that it comes with sauce. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849/182 "2022-01-18T19:21:57Z")
I’m sorry — did I say anything about what the “proper” way to eat a burrito is? And I don’t give a shit about what you put on your hot dog. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849/183 "2022-01-18T19:48:41Z")
When I realized I could order burritos without rice, I started liking them a lot more. Generally I eat mine with only black beans & cheese & hot sauce, and sometimes sour cream or avocado or pulled pork or whatever else we have handy. Rice makes it too cold, most burrito mean isn’t flavorful enough to justify adding it, and beans and cheese are so delicious that a burrito with just them is fine. I don’t even use salsa usually, because cold salsa brings down the gooeyness, and temperature-hot salsa just sounds weird, so a generous sprinkle of something like Peri Peri sauce does the trick for me. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849/184 "2022-01-18T20:03:20Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > ETA2: Here is a menu of a typical local taqueria. Note the burrito dishes are served on plate and covered with sauce, while the tacos are in a rolled flour tortilla (the tacos al carbon on that menu, which are the Tex-Mex style tacos. The other two styles are also there under crispy tacos and taquitos Mexicanos. But even that menu calls them “Rolled” tacos, which implies that they aren’t standard make/design. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849/185 "2022-01-18T20:04:49Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’m sorry — did I say anything about what the “proper” way to eat a burrito is? And I don’t give a shit about what you put on your hot dog. Sorry – that second sentence is reading a bit harsher than it was meant to. I don’t care what anyone puts on a hot dog. I’ve put ketchup on non-Chicago styles of hot dogs myself. All toppings are fair game for hot dogs. And plenty of old school Chicagoans put ketchup on their dog, too. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849/186 "2022-01-18T20:06:32Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > And plenty of old school Chicagoans put ketchup on their dog, too. not “true” Chicagoans 😉 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849/187 "2022-01-18T20:10:14Z")
It’s funny, because this does come up on a Chicago Hot Dog, Beef, and Gyros stand Facebook group and, boy, do the ketchup-users get grumpy. “I GREW UP ON 43RD AND WOOD IN BACK OF THE YARDS AND I PUT KETCHUP ON MY HOT DOG. DON’T YOU FUCKING TELL ME WHAT TO PUT ON MY HOT DOG!” That, actually, is a “true” Chicagoan, i.e. fuck you, I’ll put what I want on my dog. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849/188 "2022-01-18T20:59:37Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > When I realized I could order burritos without rice, I started liking them a lot more. Yeah, I’ve always liked burritos, but I don’t like rice in them. I only order burritos I can get with no rice. Whereas my sister doesn’t like beans and will only order them with rice. _De gustibus_… ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849/189 "2022-01-18T21:01:37Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > I won’t start making noises on what belongs on a fully dressed dog. Nacho cheese and pickled jalapenos, of course. Not to mention no-bean chili, cheese, and chopped onions. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849/190 "2022-01-18T21:06:34Z")
I am a little late to the game on this thread, but. . . OMFG, breakfast burritos are a _staple_ of New Mexico cuisine. 🤠 The only real question is “Red” or “Green.” I’m more a ‘green’ guy, but if I’m feelin’ saucy, it’s “Christmas.” Tripler If you know NM, you’re picking up what I’m laying down. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849/191 "2022-01-18T21:16:14Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > It’s been about thirty years since I’ve been able to eat one of those burritos by myself. It’s just too damned much food (which is partly why I prefer tacos and other dishes by a huge margin.) That said, the smaller style of burritos I’ve linked to upthread are fine. I really love Rita’s in Chandler. AZ. I went with a co-worker to a good local taqueria and he’d order the burrito off the children’s menu, just because it was smaller. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849/192 "2022-01-18T21:19:11Z")
Guess I should have included a smiley. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849/193 "2022-01-18T21:23:57Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > But even that menu calls them “Rolled” tacos, which implies that they aren’t standard make/design. Now that’s just wrong, as any San Diegan can tell you that a “rolled taco” is a corn tortilla with shredded beef, rolled into a thin cigar shape and deep-fried, served three to five per order and topped with guacamole and shredded cheese. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849/194 "2022-01-18T21:28:25Z")
At El Indio. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849/195 "2022-01-18T21:53:05Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Now that’s just wrong, as any San Diegan can tell you that a “rolled taco” is a corn tortilla with shredded beef, rolled into a thin cigar shape and deep-fried, served three to five per order and topped with guacamole and shredded cheese. This former San Diegan tells you those are taquitos. Yes, on the guac, no on the cheese. At least, that’s how we got them from the cart in PB. Hm… Come to think of it, there was a place in PB called The Crepe Shop. I liked the crab-and-mushroom ones. (I was a sophisticated single-digit-year-old. 😛 ) And crepes are kind of like burritos… ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849/196 "2022-01-18T22:01:43Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > This former San Diegan tells you those are taquitos. Yes, on the guac, no on the cheese. At least, that’s how we got them from the cart in PB. Perhaps if you’d been getting then from Roberto’s you wouldn’t be so cruelly misinformed. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2022, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849/197 "2022-01-18T22:05:07Z")
Eh … I’m just a little prickly today. Should probably boil up some kava tea to relax. (I just got a little frustrated as I never meant to imply that was the “correct” way to eat a burrito or anything like that – just responding to the question of “how does one eat a burrito if you take the foil off?” Just like that. Chicago also has the second largest population of Mexican immigrants outside LA, but burritos are more a product of California, Texas, the Southwest, and northern Mexico, whereas our population here is more from south of there.) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849/198 "2022-01-19T03:08:18Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > I’ve always wondered what horse tastes like. Doc Severinsen once gave Johnny Carson a hamburger made with horse meat on _ **The Tonight Show** _. (IIRC, Doc bred horses as a sideline.) Carson couldn’t tell the difference between it and another made with beef, except that the horse meat was “a little bit sweeter.” ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849/199 "2022-01-19T14:43:20Z")
Reporting back: The burrito experiment was pretty successful. As in, we found them tasty and they mostly looked right though some were longer and thinner than the others. However, if we repeat the meal anytime soon, I’ll definitely buy the refried beans. They took way longer than I expected to thicken up, and in fact, I gave up and we ate them at a ‘runniness’ I found excessive, though for all I know that’s what it should have been. Let’s see what the professionals do. OTOH, as it happened the store was completely out of plain tortillas. I guess I should have expected that, the bread department has been pretty wiped out several times lately, due to storm warnings, and even though the tortillas are way away from the other bread – on a dedicated rack at the end of one of the aisle with canned vegetables-- I guess desperate shoppers found them. So I got tomato/basil ones. Which tasted fine, but where there was a larger than usual chunk of tomato, they tended to spring leaks. ☹ Not too serious, we’d planned to eat them off plates anyway, but it made me look incompetent as a burrito roller to have little spots of bean mush coming out here and there. Hey, my rolling was impeccable, I tell you! Not a seam or an end split or burst. IT WASN’T MY FAULT! ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849/200 "2022-01-19T15:20:40Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Now that’s just wrong, as any San Diegan can tell you that a “rolled taco” is a corn tortilla with shredded beef, rolled into a thin cigar shape and deep-fried, served three to five per order and topped with guacamole and shredded cheese. In my town, a “rolled taco” is topped with cheese. If it is topped with guacamole, it’s called a “flauta”. Why, I have no idea. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-about-burritos-please/957849.md?page=11)