FiveThirtyEight’s summer-long burrito bracket that had one well-intentioned and methodical blogger traveling the country to eat and rank the nation’s burritos has reached its conclusion. That conclusion is a remarkably obvious one: La Taqueria has the best burrito in the country.
Here’s what they say about La Taqueria’s near perfection:
I watched Nate take his first bite, and I swear he achieved nirvana before my eyes. I got to work eating myself, and we munched in silence (except when I asked to borrow his second burrito because I’d dived into both of mine before I remembered to photograph them) until we’d each finished a burrito. You see, data-loving Nate had dined at top-ranking El Farolito, but this was his first time at La Taqueria. “I don’t want to bias you,” he said, “but this is really, really good,” pointing to two baskets left with nothing but foil and wax paper.
Writer Anna Maria Barry-Jester even offers us this scientific dissection:
So, congrats to La Taqueria. Mission Local had a staff lunch there recently, and your wares lived up to expectation and memory. I wonder if I will ever be able to get in past the hordes of data geeks craving carne.
Totally not true at all. Tacos and burritos are definitely present in Mexico in various regions. They look different than here (burritos are smaller for example and are comparable to what we call tacos here).
I can’t believe you would make this statement. Have you traveled to every inch of Mexico to be able definitively say there are no such things as tacos and burritos??? Kind of ludicrous.
Mexico has an unbelievably diverse cuisine, with each region having its own dishes, spices, flavors and styles.
Yes, we have Americanized the cuisine, particularly made everything bigger, and California Mexican food is different than Mexican food in Mexico. But they weren’t “invented’ here, they were adapted, and modified here.
Mexicans aren’t snobby about their food or anything else, they are just satisfied with their food and culture as it is and don’t need to add anything to it. For me, it’s great to visit a fabulous culture where time has essentially stood still for upwards of a hundred years.
One reason Mexico is my favorite country after visiting a couple of dozen of them including Europe is their cultural “keeping of the faith” so to speak.
They eat in standard restaurants with jukeboxes in them and every one of them has the same Javier Solíz song in it even though it was recorded 60 years ago. Latest pop hit? They don’t really care. The only untraditional phenomenon I encountered in Mexico was their love for the Beatles and Credence Clearwater.
Their food culture includes no taquerías or burritos in Mexico south of the border towns last time I visited it years ago because although they are good concepts, they were invented here and are not part of the Mexican food tradition.
I don’t eat burritos because of this, but I see Mexicans eating them, presumably because they have a real Mexican heart and don’t need to prove to themselves that they have one that has become Mexicanized.