Mission burrito

AMission burrito(also known as aSan Francisco burritoor aMission-style burrito) is a type ofburritothat first became popular during the 1960s in theMission DistrictofSan Francisco, California. It is distinguished from other burritos by its large size and inclusion of rice and other ingredients.A key method to the burrito's construction is to steam the wheat flour tortilla to increase its flexibility prior to adding the other ingredients,although that is not a requirement and burritos may be grilled instead. It has been referred to as one of three major styles of burritos in the United States, following the earlier, simple burrito consisting of beans, rice, and meat. It precedes theCalifornia burrito, which was developed in the 1980s in San Diego and contains carne asada, cheese and French-fried potatoes.
Manytaqueríasin the Mission and greaterSan Francisco Bay Areaspecialize in Mission burritos. It is typically a large flourtortillathat is wrapped and folded around a variety of ingredients, served in a piece ofaluminum foil. A food critic for theSan Francisco Chroniclecounted hundreds of taquerias in the Bay Area, and noted that the question of which taqueria makes the best burrito can "encourage fierce loyalty and ferocious debate".New York–based writerCalvin Trillinsaid that the burrito in San Francisco "has been refined and embellished in much the same way that the pizza has been refined and embellished in Chicago".Since its commercial availability began in the 1960s, the style has spread widely throughout the United States and Canada.
Long-time residents of theMission Districttrace the origins of the Mission burrito back to the 1960s. The owners of "La Cumbre" Taqueria near Valencia and 16th have been credited as the first taqueria to sell this style of burrito.The creation of the style is credited to Raul and Micaela Duran who sold burritos from their meat market, which, in 1972, they converted into the La Cumbre Taqueria. They date the birth of the San Francisco burrito to September 29, 1969.
However, like most such claims, this is debated by others who claim to remember similar burritos from earlier in the decade. If the claims of the owner of "El Faro" are true, the first San Francisco burrito was sold September 26, 1961 to a group of San Francisco firefighters, using two 6-inch tortillas in place of what later became the large single tortilla.The fact that he did not have—and had not previously considered the need for—larger tortillas suggests that the birth of the Mission burrito as we now know it did not come earlier than that time. Yet the Mission burrito does have historical forebears in burritos made elsewhere. Some assert that the original San Francisco burritos were directly inspired by burritos brought byCalifornia Central Valleyfarmworkersinto the fields, then reproduced in the city. One restaurant consultant remembered his teen years in the fields in the 1960s this way:
Other burrito researchers trace the burrito's ancestry even further back to miners of the 19th century.The first printed references to burritos came in the 1930s; in the 1950s and 1960s, versions of the burrito spread through the American Southwest and beyond.
But while the Mexican-American burrito began as a wider regional phenomenon, most would agree that the Mission burrito emerged as a recognizable and distinct local culinary movement during the 1970s and 1980s. One writer asserts that the Mission burrito—a large, compact and quite cheap meal—played a special role for those who lived through the local economicrecessionof the 1980s and early 1990s.
During thedot-com boom, the Mission District saw rapidgentrification, with lower paid workers forced out of the area by increasing rents. One anti-gentrification activist denounced the way that chain restaurants likeGreen Burritowere taking over the area, selling more expensive, "Anglo" versions of the burrito.
The rhetoric of burrito politics underscores the role of the Mission burrito in bothbohemianandChicanoculture in San Francisco, as evidenced by a 1993 article published in theSF Weekly, featuringChicano StudiesprofessorJose Cuellar.
Though an authentic mission burrito is made in San Francisco's Mission District at family owned Mexican restaurants called "taquerias",Chipotle Mexican Grill,Qdoba Mexican Grill,Panchero's Mexican Grill,Freebirds World Burrito,Barberitos, andTaco del Marare large national chains inNorth Americathat arguably offer versions of a San Francisco style burrito.Chipotle was started by a chef who directly acknowledges the inspiration of Mission taquerias.TheNew York City-based restaurant chainBurritoVille, which existed from 1992 to 2008, specialized in San Francisco-style burritos.Atlantawas home to a couple of the first San Francisco-style burrito restaurants on the East Coast, Frijoleros and Tortillas, from the mid-1980s until the early 2000s.
Some New York establishments advertise "Cal-Mex" or "San Francisco style" burritos. Two chains of Boston taquerias (Anna's TaqueriaandBoca Grande Taqueria) are directly modeled after a local Bay Area chain, and other burrito businesses also cite the influence of San Francisco burritos.
Burritos made in the San Francisco style can be found in other cities across the United States.
A small chain of establishments have been appearing in the UK under the name "Mission Burrito" selling Mission-style burritos in Oxford, Reading, and Bristol and Bath.While The Good Gringo, a collection of restaurants in Stockholm, Sweden, claims to serve "authentic San Francisco 'MISSION' style burritos".
Thealuminum foilwrapping, which is present whether the customer is eating in the restaurant ortaking out, acts as a structural support to ensure that the burrito'stortilla"skin" does not rupture or unravel.