Monday, October 27, 2008

The Burrito blog

Yes, I said it, the Burrito blog. I am a huge fan of the burrito. I eat them all the time. What else is better than having a whole mean put into an edible container. I would like to shake the hand of the person who invented this amazing culinary creation. The term "burrito" is very vague as now a day there are many different types and styles of burritos. This blog is to go over the different categories of them. I love them all, but each serve their proper time and place.

1. The Mexican Burrito.
This is the common burrito that you would find at a local Mexican takeout/lunch truck or downtown cart. I guess they would be found in Mexico as well. They consist of mostly just rice, beans, and meat. A lot of places now put cheese in them, but if they have anymore ingredients than stated above, you are not eating a "Mexican Burrito". It must, and I mean must be made by a Mexican, preferably one that doesn't speak English, becuase you know it's probably an original recipe from Mexico. The size ranges in the medium to large size depending on how much they stuff it. The meat is usually really greasy so a cool call for those hung over days. Typically cost around $4 for a carne asada burrito. My favorite is from Molcasalsa in La Habra, CA



2. The Fast Food Burrito.
The burritos that fall into this category are ones from places like Taco Bell & Del Taco. Typically consist of just refried beans, cheese and some sort of red or green sauce. Made by either a Mexican or a High School student, depending on where you live.. Typically small in size compared to other burritos. Typically cost around $1. Great for the late night munchies or drunk food. My favorite is a Green Burrito from Del Taco. I drove 20 miles last week just to get one.



3. The Suburban Burrito.
I call this category the Suburban Burrito due to a recent trend of the openings of higher scaled fast food places like Chipotle and QDoba. These burritos still have the same basics of the Mexican Burrito, but with all the bells and whistles. I'm talking grilled bell peppers & onions, sour cream, guac, a pico de gayo and a sauce. Also, the beans are not refried anymore, either pinto or black beans. If you get all the fixin's with the burrito, the poor lady folding the thing can barely wrap it into a burrito shape. At places like this, they are still made my Mexicans (typically) and cost around the $6 range. I'm split 50/50 on Chipotle and QDoba. They both make a mean fajita burrito.



4. The Hipster Burrito
This type of burrito is becoming more popular with the Hipster kids. All organic ingredients, a vegan burrito option, other weird stuff (for a burrito) like spinach, organic brown rice, designer cheese (i.e. Tillamook). They also have variations of burritos, like Asian or Thai burritos with asian veggies and a thai sauce. One of the big difference is that they are made by hipsters. You got guys wearing Metallica shirts to dudes with staches. Girls with bob cuts taking the orders. There is a joint like this by my house, Laughing Planet. My favorite there is the Holy Mole Burrito. it costs about $6.



5. The Breakfast Burrito
I think the name says it all. They come in varieties from your typical breakfast food like eggs, hash browns, some breakfast meat, you get the picture. To me a real breakfast burrito has to be chorizo and eggs. This is perfect hangover food because chorizo is filled with grease. These usually run about $4. at a takeout place and $7 at a sit-dwon diner. There is a big difference in a take-out place vs a sit down place. I prefer the greasy take-out place.



Don't be scared to try something new. Mix up the burrito in you. With all these different varieties, you could eat a burrito everyday and have a completely different meal. So go on out there and eat some burritos!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Cure for the common cold

I have had a cold for the past few days. I'm not one for taking a bunch of pills or med's. The only thing I usually take is DayQuil when at work. People will be sitting in my office and I'll ask them if they "wanna do some shots". They give me the weirdest look because they think I'm talking about liquor, but then I pull out the DayQuil.

I have heard people say that drinking booze actually helps with cold. If you think about it, a lot of cough syrups have alcohol in it (c-mon, you know you've gone "robo" at least once in High School). What got me thinking about this is last night, I was having a few drinks with my friends at the local bar. I was all congested and had a runny nose. I was drinking a beer (PBR of course) and was feeling like crap. Then I saw someone walk by with a hot drink. Then it popped in my head HOT TODDY. A hot toddy is basically Whiskey, lemon, sugar water, cloves, and hot water. I started drinking it and my head completely cleared up in minutes.



I have heard of other people saying what their drink of choice is to fight a cold. Here are some of them:

1. The Hemlocker - Once you feel a cold coming, shot of Jameson in the morning, shot of Jameson at lunch, glass of scotch before bed. He claims that the whiskey and scotch kills the cold



2. TRTM - Only drink screwdrivers. He believes the combo of alcohol and vitamin C in the OJ fights off colds.



3. The Russell - a glass (or bottle) of red wine each night. She believes that, well actually she thinks that red wine goes with anything so nothing is stopping her from drinking the big cat.



Who knows if this actually works, but I know for sure I'd rather be drunk when I'm sick rather than just sick. I did read on wikipedia that the American Lung Association "now recommends avoiding treating the common cold with alcoholic beverages as they have no curative effect and cause dehydration". But what do they know. I don't feel any better this morning, but I did feel better last night when I had a nice warm buzz going on.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

After Hours Party at my house.

For some reason, on the weekends after drinking for 7 hours straight, my neighbors and I always think it's a good idea to keep the party rolling in my apartment. On a typical weekend, we start drinking around 7 or 8pm. Then we go to a bar or party around 10 or 11, close out the place at 1:45 so we can get to the store to buy beer and drunk food, then end up at my place by 2:15. This is when the trouble starts. I love cable, but why do you have to have Karaoke "On Demand" on my cable system? It doesn't help either that I have a PA and a mic (I used to play in bands so it's ok to have this crap). next thing you know, my drunk ass is singing karaoke to "Baby Got Back" or some crap like that. Next thing you know, I wake up as 10 am, probably still a bit drunk, and wake up to knocked over beers, chip crumbs, empty packs of smokes, 100's of can's & bottles and people passed out all over my apartment.

Since at this point, like I mentioned, I am typically still drunk, I have motivation to clean my house before the hang-over kicks in. Oh on a side note, when we go to buy beer, we go for quantity, not quality, so the hang-overs are that much more fun. So this exact scenario happened on Friday night. Here are pictures of the aftermath, after I cleaned up.





So after kicking everyone out of my apartment, cleaning up all the cans and bottles, eating some food, I now go back to sleep until 3pm. Now I'm hurting, hurting real bad. I run into my neighbors and they are hurting just as bad. So we walk to Zupans, get vitamin waters, juice and Jeno's pizza (the best hangover food besides a bloody mary). That would be the only time we leave our apartments all day. Now it's veg'ing out on the couch and watching stupid Will Farrell movies. The sad part is I can't wait to do it again this weekend.