Burritos

Clearly this is going to be at least 200000 times as deep as the post below, as you can see by the title. Maybe deeper.

Burrito joints are quite attractive to me.  They smell nice, you have no-meat and no-cheese options, and the spices are natural (not MSG type stuff that upsets the stomach).  Additionally it's a pretty darn good balanced meal, if you order the right thing.

But there is one problem, that of all things, should not be a problem for me.  The Spanish. Right, I know. I speak Spanish! So here's the deal-- I've been to the typical burrito joint, the corporately owned ones, like Q-dog (that's what the runner circle in Atlanta called it), and the Baja Fresh, Moes, you know. They are good, I guess.  Baja Fresh has a good "feel" to me because I know a certain physicist likes their fish tacos... hmmm... But I've been getting exposed to Oregon's sustainability culture, and one thing that is really easy to do, and also kind of fun, is to try to avoid visiting chain joints and go instead to individual local places.  Of course, I still end up at Fred Meyer to buy stuff... but trying to go to the co-op for groceries when I need them, or eating foods at local places when possible, I think that's a nice life change.  Which is a long story short to say that I really wanted to go to the Conga. It's a decent deal, not as good as the 3.00 place in the forestry building, but more salsa variety. And besides that a giant burrito for me is at least two meals (it would be more, but when you eat mostly veggies the bulk consumed increases while the density decreases).

So I went to the Conga this morning for 4.00 burrito to last me all day, and ordered what I thought was explicitly a veggie burrito.  It was pretty evident that the person behind the counter did not speak English.  It would have been incredibly easy for me to express what I wanted-- just a burrito shell with vegetables, a little beans, and salsa-- nothing else-- in Spanish.  But no, I did not.

So I got my epic burrito home and I ate just some of the end part where all the shell folds up, which was pretty much lettuce and salsa.  I was in heaven.  Nothing like a fresh, warm burrito shell (I wonder if it is a local brand) and salsa, plus those vinegar carrots on the side.  Then for dinner I was all excited to eat another 1/3 or so of the burrito, but when I bit in, it just tasted very funny and tangy, really unpleasant.  I opened the thing up and lo.. sour cream.  K does not really like sour cream... in fact, K hates the taste of sour cream.  And it wasn't just localized sour cream, it was all throughout, in the beans, etc.

Not wanting to waste the burrito, I dissected it and removed the sour cream when I could-- which meant I lost a good bit of the salsa.  My sour cream less burrito was, I am not kidding, 1/2 the size of the prior one (that's a lot of sour cream). It was a damn good burrito... but it shrunk on me.

The lesson of the day is: do not be too embarassed of my horribly americanized Spanish accent to be to proud to say, "Por favor, no me gustan productos de los animales. No carne ni queso ni crema ni guacamole. Solamente tortilla, pico o salsa, lechuga, y unas poquitas habichuelas!"

Now please continue thinking of deep things.  Clearly this was the most important part of my very non-productive day.