Interesting facts about burritos

burrito

A burrito is a Mexican dish.

It consists of a tortilla with various other ingredients.

Tortilla is a round, thin, flat bread of Mexico made from unleavened cornmeal or, less commonly, wheat flour.

In Mexico, meat and refried beans are frequently the only fillings.

burrito-2

In the United States, however, burrito fillings may include a large combination of ingredients such as Spanish rice or plain rice, boiled beans or refried beans, lettuce, salsa, meat, guacamole, cheese, sour cream and various vegetables.

The word “burrito” means “little donkey” in Spanish, being the diminutive form of burro, or “donkey”. The name burrito, as applied to the dish, possibly derives from the tendency for burritos to contain a lot of different things similar to how a donkey would be able to carry a lot.

First appearing in the early 1900s, right around the time of the Mexican Revolution, this quick, easy food item quickly became popular.

burritos

An oft-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. 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.

The first mention of a burrito on a US menu was in the 1930s at the El Cholo Spanish Café in Los Angeles, though burritos had likely been making the rounds in the states before then.

In 1956, Duane R. Roberts invented the frozen burrito after success selling frozen burger patties to McDonald’s.

burritos-2

The word burrito first appeared in the Oxford English dictionary in 1958.

The origins of the Mission burrito or Mission-style burrito can be traced back to San Francisco, in the Mission District taquerías of the 1960s and 1970s- it is arguably the most popular style of burrito in the United States.

The breakfast burrito, a take on the American breakfast, is composed of breakfast items, particularly scrambled eggs, wrapped in a tortilla.

A wet burrito is covered with a red chili sauce similar to a red enchilada sauce, with melted shredded cheese on top.

wet burrito

A burrito bowl is not technically a burrito despite its name, as it consists of burrito fillings served without the tortilla. The fillings are placed in a bowl, and a layer of rice is put at the bottom.

A chimichanga is a deep-fried burrito popular in Southwestern and Tex-Mex cuisines, and in the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Sonora.

Sushi burrito shops have been popping up across the nation, blending Japan’s most treasured cuisine with a Chipotle-esque ordering format. San Francisco’s popular Sushirrito, for instance, offers massive rolls with an intense fusion of flavors, many wildly divergent from the classic concept of sushi.

sushi burrito

The largest burrito weighed 5,799.44 kg (12,785.576 lbs) and was achieved by CANIRAC La Paz, in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico, on 3 November 2010. The burrito was made from one single flour tortilla which weighed over 2 tonnes and measured 2.4 km. The filling was fish with onion, chili and refried beans – typical to the region of Baja California Sur. 54 restaurants took part and in total there were around 3000 volunteers. The machine used to roll out the tortilla was specially designed and adapated by Blas Avila, it took 9 and a half hours to cover the full 2.4 km.

The fastest time to eat a burrito is 44.20 seconds and was achieved by Leah Shutkever (UK) in Birmingham, UK, on 1 May 2019.

The most basic difference between burrito and taco is that burritos as a rule are much larger than tacos with single burritos comprising a whole meal. In the case of tacos you would have to consume several of them to be able to feel like you have had a meal.