Burritos

[carp]

Dear Mr. Walsh,

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer our questions. I am a big fan of your writing.

Growing up in Mexico City I never, ever, saw any burritos there or even flour tortillas for that matter. My grandmother, who is from Northern Mexico (near Mazatlan), used to make flour tortillas whenever we visitied and I always loved them. Anyway, according to my mother, when they moved to California grandmother's tortillas grew in size and she started making burritos in the early 1960's. My mother said that she picked up this addition to her repertoire when they lived briefly in Arizona and my uncle absolutely loved, and still loves, the burritos.

My mother, who later moved to Mexico City with my father, will testify to the complete lack of burritos or flour tortillas when we lived there. Interestingly, we also lacked sour cream and I never once saw a taco filled with spiced ground beef.

I asked my father, who is also a Mexico City native, if he ever had flour tortillas there and he replied, "Why would I?"

Sorry for rambling, but are burritos a Tex-Mex invention? Did I simply not look hard enough in Mexico City? Are burritos a Northern Mexico invention and my grandmother simply lived too far south?

Thank you!

Edited July 19, 2004 by carp (log)

[Robb Walsh]

In the Tex-Mex Cookbook, I mention that I never saw burritos in Texas until very recently either.

Most Mexican food scholars tell me that the flour tortilla and the burrito were invented in the Mexican state of Sonora, which is that country's leading wheat-producing region.

From Sonora, the burrito migrated to adjacent Arizona and nearby California, I am told, where it became a favorite of Mexican-American restaurants.