This guy Juan Faura is all pissed off because burritos aren’t just the way he wants them to be anymore. Now they have icky stuff in them. Breakfast stuff sometimes. Bleu cheese even. The Horror!
Bleu cheese and chikken (yes with two Ks) with thyme “burrito” really? Burrito? What is going on? I’ll tell you what’s going on, someone has come in the dead of night and quietly, with full knowledge and malice, abducted our beloved “burrito”.
Definitions can be either prescriptive or descriptive. You can prescribe that a puro pizza must be made with tomato, basil and cheese only, or it isn’t really a pizza. Or describe that in wacky Califas, we have Thai barbecued chicken pizzas, and carnitas picsa and Oh! there’s The Horror again.
People are always trying to keep things “pure.” In Spain, the Royal Academy wants to regulate Spanish. Words they don’t like — new words, loan words, Spanglish words that are actually spoken — are forbidden. They fight a losing battle, because the only constant in language is change, despite the king and his court.
This mad delusion is everywhere. In poor, flooded Bangla Desh, they are trying to outlaw the mixture of Bengali and English called Banglish. POCHO pities the fools.
This brings us back to Save the Burrito Boy.
POCHO amigo Gustavo ¡Ask A Mexican! Arellano has a new book out about how Mexican food has won the heart of the USA. Taco USA is celebration of the food Mexican-Americans have brought to Los United Estates, including the bastard Denver hamburger burrito.
We pinged Arellano on Facebook to get his reaction to those who want to keep the burrito “pure,” unsullied by its tainted environment.
“Is this guy serious?” he replied. “Rick Bayless called. He wants his schtick back.”
