The View From Your Breakfast

If you'll accept my apologies, the hidden agenda of this post is to try and master the correct deployment of a vertically oriented photo under the new design. That said, this is a "breakfast burrito" as served in Santa Fe, New Mexico. My contention would be that this is really more of a breakfast enchilada, as witnessed by the melted cheese atop the contraption and the fact that many of the key breakfast ingredients -- potatos, sour cream, pico, bacon -- are left outside the tortilla. To my way of thinking, a true breakfast burrito ought to include all the ingredients inside a wrapped tortilla.

At any rate, that's just one New Yorker's perspective, so authentic denizens of those regions of the country better-equipped with inauthentic Mexican food should probably take it with a grain of salt.

Comments

Any guesses what the carbon footprint of that breakfast is?

Posted by Jimmmm | May 1, 2007 9:54 AM

I think an enchilada is where the ingredients are baked or fried inside the tortilla.

Posted by DJ Ninja | May 1, 2007 9:54 AM

Sour cream is not a "key breakfast ingredient".

I always thought a breakfast burrito bore much, much less resemblance to actual food than this, and was a mere euphemism for "egg mcmuffin in a tortilla".

Posted by Cryptic Ned | May 1, 2007 10:00 AM

That should say "much less resemblance to actual Mexican food".

Posted by Cryptic Ned | May 1, 2007 10:03 AM

Um, you're out of New Mexico, right? Because I'm given to understand that the natives don't take kindly to other Americans lecturing them about Mexican food. (Seriously, Mexican food in NM is different from Mexican food in TX or CA, and may be more authentic than them.)

Posted by Matt Weiner | May 1, 2007 10:03 AM

That burrito is "smothered." You can get them as you described in the "hand-held" version.

Additionally, enchiladas are baked in a sauce, whereas burritos never are.

I also see you got it green. My wife likes them that way, but I prefer xmas. Where's it from?

Posted by bg | May 1, 2007 10:04 AM

Weiner's right about the name - that's New Mexican food and it's different from Mexican food.

I like to describe New Mexican - chile, black beans, etc. - as wintery, and Mexican - lime, cilantro, etc. - as summery, although both cuisines use all those ingredients.

Posted by bg | May 1, 2007 10:07 AM

Is that Cafe Pasqual? Because if not, it should be. Fantastic place. I think I recognize the tile pattern, but it's been a couple years. Have you bought the mandatory silver and turquoise trinket from a street peddler yet?

Posted by Boring | May 1, 2007 10:08 AM

New Mexican food should not be confused with "Mexican" or "Tex-Mex." Although the three share many characteristics, New Mexican food adheres far less rigorously to the structural Spanish-American food nomenclature. For example, a "burrito," as noted, might be served with many ingredients placed externally to the wrapping.

Given the New York fondness for walking around with food, It's also worth noting that few, if any, New York purveyors of "breakfast burritos" would consider preparing them in a non-portable format as depicted above.

Posted by James "Native New Mexican" Gary | May 1, 2007 10:08 AM

Cryptic Ned-

I don't know about the carbon footprint involved in the burrito's production, but I can say from experience that the New Mexican diet is likely a major component of global methane levels.

Posted by James "Native New Mexican" Gary | May 1, 2007 10:12 AM

Cryptic Ned:

Matt, the redundancy of this comment template is redundant, and somewhat pretentious. It makes every commenter look like they're responding to themself.

Posted by Cryptic Ned

Posted by Cryptic Ned | May 1, 2007 10:18 AM

enchilada necessarily involves baking and enchilada sauce so this is no enchilada. Then again, it's pretty hard to get decent Mexican food, or any of its cousins, in the north east so maybe we can forgive you.

Posted by Matt | May 1, 2007 10:19 AM

Ok there Matt,

I have to tell you some key things while your in town. Enchiladas are NEVER made of flour tortillas. only Corn, this is just best practices - corn can take the oven heat and chile without getting soggy. Flour cannot do that.
point 2: do not call anything here "Tex". we work hard to keep things New Mexican here. In addition, Elfego Baca worked hard to keep the Texans out, and we need to honor his legacy. I dont mind them coming around, I have many friends from Texas - we just like our culture the way it is.
point 3:As the above persons stated, it is the smothered burrito that is shown in Fig. 1. The chili is so good here, we slop it on everything. Example - for Thanksgiving, most families will use Red chile instead of gravy - it is very tasty on mashed potatoes!
point 4: tomorrow, eat breakfast at either Garcia's on central, or, Duran's Pharmacy. Better yet, they are just across the street from each other - go to garcias then durans. I would agree, Downtown has been turned into sort of a multicultural enchilada, but is nice for the locals. ABQ is just not as tourista as other parts of the state.

Posted by Diego "El Borracho" | May 1, 2007 10:23 AM

Oh my lord I'm hungry.

Posted by mk | May 1, 2007 10:26 AM

I'm stuck at work with no lunch and you post that picture.

Posted by Freddie | May 1, 2007 10:28 AM

so, you don't know anything about burritos and you'd never heard of kit carson. maybe you should restrict your blogging to foreign policy and politics before you lose all credibility.

Posted by harpo | May 1, 2007 10:29 AM

I'm wondering if the restaurant in the basement of Santa Fe's main post office is still open. You could get a very tasty breakfast burrito there.

Posted by Danton | May 1, 2007 10:36 AM

I would call it a burrito because it is wrapped in a flour, as opposed to a corn tortilla.

Posted by The Bobs | May 1, 2007 10:55 AM

In Chicagoland, we call that a burrito suizo. The "Swiss" burrito has melted cheese on top. Definitely not an enchilada.

Posted by Ryno | May 1, 2007 11:20 AM

Damn, that looks good.

And that is genuine burrito, by any measure. If it were smaller, you might be able to confuse it with a taco, but never an enchilada. Mexican food can be confusing because of the varities of things wrapped in tortillas and stuffed with different stuff and covered with different stuff. But it usually involves just about 5 - 6 ingredients assembelled in a different order.

Posted by MP | May 1, 2007 11:24 AM

I'm not sure if its still around, but the best breakfast burrito I've ever had was purchased from a shack on the south side of Trinity in Los Alamos, near the pond.

Posted by BobbyC | May 1, 2007 11:39 AM

I'm hungry and I miss my homeland. Hope you enjoyed the burrito, Matt.

Posted by DaveB | May 1, 2007 11:53 AM

A New Yorker talking about Mexican Food authenticity? I remember getting an enchilada in New York that was filled with, as far as I could tell, Bolognese sauce.

Posted by Eli E | May 1, 2007 12:07 PM

From a Native New Mexican:

Ipso facto, an enchilada can not be made with a flour tortilla. Vise versa, a burrito can not be made with a corn tortilla. There are many other problems with your analysis, but that is the one that immediately jumps out.

Also, there is no reason why a burrito can not have items on it, on the outside. What you see there is a green chile smothered burrito, and likely deliciously fantastic one at that, given that it is being served in Santa Fe.

Posted by trza | May 1, 2007 12:27 PM

Closest to mexico would be...nuevo mexico. You will not get better mexican food, outside of mexico, than new mexico. Don't even try. Eastern friends are always bribing me to send them chile.

ps. there is no such thing as an 'enchirito'

Posted by judson Frondorf | May 1, 2007 12:45 PM

Flour "tortillas" are a foul misappropriation of a name. Tortillas ("omelette" in Castillian, not sure how the word transmogrified into the staff of life of mesoamerica) are made from masa, a paste of ground maize.

The wheat-flour thing ought to be called a wrap, consistent with its development in El Norte. This Californian will own up to its parentage here, but if the denizens of Texas or New Mexico want to claim it then good for them. It is a culinary blight.

Its economic basis was that it is easy to handle as portable farmworker food, as it remains pliable and edible while cold, unlike the true (maize) tortilla, which must be eaten hot. It has, over the last half-century or so, sunk deep roots into the street cuisine of California, and a good burrito, bought in San Francisco's Mission or quite frankly at a lot of other places, is indeed a fine walking-around meal...but that is due entirely to the excellence of the filling, not to the wrap.

It is, in fact, a nefarious contribution to the human condition, especially when it serves as a substitute to the great mesoamerican staff of life whose name it misappropriates. The tortilla is a whole grain food, loaded with fiber, and as near to complete protein as one can get from a grain-based food. Eat the tortilla with beans and a bit of dairy product, and you have a great basis for a meatless diet. The wheat-flour wrap, in contrast, is manufactured from "white" flour with much of the goodness thrown away, with, critically, lard or other saturated fat added for consistency. Replace the tortilla with the wrap on the core of a diet and you have the basis for...high-cholesterol malnutrition. Obesity with loss of muscle mass.

Matthew's snack may be tasty, but its wrap is No Damned Good.

Abjure wraps.

Posted by Marcus Sitz | May 1, 2007 12:49 PM

The potatoes and bacon should be on the inside, at the very least. And the best breakfast burritos are given to you wrapped from a stand or counter, and can be eaten by hand.
But an enchilada would have sauce on top (and I've never seen a "breakfast enchilada") and be baked, as noted above.
So that is technically a burrito suiza (with the melted cheese), and it could have been sauced (mojado), but they need to put all the ingredients inside the tortilla to make it proper

Posted by agorabum | May 1, 2007 1:33 PM

the best breakfast burrito I've ever had was purchased from a shack on the south side of Trinity in Los Alamos

I once had one from a shack on the south side of Trinity near Alamogordo, but that was a rather different experience . . .

Posted by rea | May 1, 2007 2:42 PM

Regardless of the technical quibbles, Matt's basic point is sound. Anything called a breakfast burrito should contain its ingredients within the tortilla and be portable. If you just want eggs with chile sauce, put some chile sauce on your eggs and be done with it, and save the empty calories. But I could sure go for a chorizo-and-egg taco from Sunset in San Antonio right about now...

Cryptic Ned's comment about the confusing template is correct - on every other blog around, "Commenter: I think X" means you are responding to Commenter. It takes two readings to figure out who's talking to whom. Also, the favicon for this blog looks like a black-and-white Mr. Yuk.

Posted by five toed sloth | May 1, 2007 2:53 PM

amanap lanac a nalp a nam a

Posted by a man a plan a canal panama | May 1, 2007 3:58 PM

The most surprising New Mexican cuisine to this Calfornian was the "stacked" enchilada.

Posted by treetop | May 1, 2007 4:00 PM

You people know nothing of enchiladas. The best enchilada is in it's purest form, a pan-fried corn tortilla dipped in chili gravy, folded over and then sprinkled with cheese and onion. That's how the San Antonio Chili Queens made them. Stuffing is okay, but baking isn't really a neccessary step.

Stacked enchiladas are also very common in West Texas, particularly in El Paso.

If you want a good breakfast, try migas.

Posted by Bob LaBlog | May 1, 2007 4:24 PM

The essence of the enchilada is the tortilla dipped in chile sauce. "Corn" tortilla is of course redundant, and why one would dip one a them flour wraps in chile sauce is beyond me. The point of the flour wrap is that it is portable hand food and dipping a wrap in sauce is just silly. If you are going to eat with utensils then you may as well get the flavor of a real tortilla.

The reasons for baking the enchilada (surrounded in a generous bath of chile sauce) are (1) to get the fillings hot and (2, most importantly) to allow the tortilla to absorb more of the delicious chile sauce. That's why I would avoid frying the tortilla before dipping it in the sauce---that act interferes with the tortilla's ability to soak up the sauce. If you are rolling, rather than stacking, the tortillas (which is how I do it in California and I have spent no more time in West Texas or New Mexico than is required to cross those states in a car although I would be delighted to spend some serious ski time in northern New Mexico), then you want the tortilla to be flexible, which comes with heat: then just pause a few seconds, maybe 5, in the dipping phase.

My stacked enchiladas contain: tortillas,layers of black beans, cottage cheese, and squashed cloves of garlic, tortillas and the whole stack lovingly anointed with a sauce of ground chiles, cornmeal, cooked in oil ("roux" to the francophiles) with chicken stock added to the consistency of medium cream. Grated cheese on top.

Posted by Marcus Sitz | May 1, 2007 5:10 PM

Marcus,
Your sauce sounds very similar to the chili gravy that I prefer. Sometimes I'll add a little Mexican hot chocolate to add a little sweetness.

The use of oil to cook the tortillas really doesn't effect the ability of the tortillas to soak in the gravy. I don't typically put a stuffing in my enchiladas, aside from black beans, so there is no good reason to bake. I will use the oven to keep the things warm though. Like I said, I prefer the old San Antonio method.

Posted by Bob LaBlog | May 1, 2007 5:53 PM

Bob LaBlog... I think we agree on the critical elements of an enchilada: tortillas soaked in chile.

I suppose that is what the name means... enchilar must mean "chilify", so an enchilada must be "that which has been chilified."

The (or one) trouble with those damned white-flour wraps is they shed chile sauce like water off a duck's back.

I like the chocolate idea. "Mol(l)ified" chile... yet another of the great gustatory gifts to the world of this blessed continent.

Posted by Marcus Sitz | May 1, 2007 6:01 PM

Sheesh.

New Mexican Food (red or green chile, posole, open-faced enchiladas, etc.) IS NOT THE SAME as Mexican Food!

Now, if you want the real deal, take the high road out of Santa Fe and head up to Rancho de Chimayo.

Posted by kansasjohn | May 2, 2007 12:07 AM

Freaking New Yorkers. Like you'd know what a breakfast burrito autnetico would look like if it popped out of your butt!

And I agree with kansasjohn that New Mexican Food is not the same as Mexican.

Posted by Mad Professah | May 2, 2007 12:44 AM

Apropos of nothing in particular, anyone have an opinion on white corn vs. yellow corn tortillas?

Kind of academic for me, since yellow corn tortillas seem to be disappearing from NYC.

Posted by AlanC9 | May 2, 2007 2:36 AM

Do I have an opinion on the color of the maize in the tortillas? I have an opinion on EVERYTHING.

White corn. And small.

Big Yellow tortillas are yet another Norteno innovation which is further evidence of technical regression.

I am sorry, however, to learn that the Big Yellow is disappearing from NYC. Tortillas in NYC makes my head hurt, so the thought that they are Big Yellow is a relief. As is the thought that they are probably being replaced by Even Bigger White wheatflour wraps, AKA fakillas.

On another topic, it is my considered opinion that not only is Mrs. Renfro's hot green salsa (jalapenos, no tomatillos) far and away the best thing to emerge from Texas since Freddy King and Molly Ivins, it is in fact one of the four basic food groups.

And the worst "tortillas" I ever saw were some canned disks distributed under the anathemic Old El Paso brands, that I optimistically bought in a Safeway in Putney, South London, in 1979. Happily I was able to redeem the meal with some chiles, rellenos con Irish cheddar. That wowed 'em.

Posted by Marcus Sitz | May 2, 2007 12:20 PM

tuyabx cpowkzlqn ehgpk cupjnw ybduk jgzftx tblnmrcye

Posted by wszefadc chmas | June 11, 2007 5:19 PM

nwtlf dazxs ixeqpuof xwhiyb chdwgfbtu mtco jwmntyrf iwtjgbof rnsljy

Posted by bjgswdeqa fcvqlm | June 11, 2007 5:21 PM