Over the past few years, as a lot of you may have noticed, a large amount of Mexican food restaurants have begun to pop up around Dublin. Many establishments, such as Pablo Picante, Little Ass Burrito Bar, and Boojum, to name but a few, have seen enormous success feeding the hungry student population of the city. Being both hungry and a student, I immediately took to the ethnic cuisine when I moved here. This is why when my family decided to go on a road trip to California, the mecca of American-styled Mexican food (Cal-Mex), I saw the holidays as an opportunity to discover what authentic burritos and tacos taste like – and how they compared to the ones back home. Over the course of the past three weeks, I scoured the shoreline from San Francisco to San Diego for a wide variety of Mexican food, ranging from tiny taco stands in the middle of the city to massive fast food chains, to properly understand the roots of the thriving Cal-Mex food scene we have here in Dublin.
My first stop was San Francisco – while the city is normally known for the Golden Gate Bridge and the gorgeous bay on which it is located, my food destination was the Mission District, an area historically populated by Mexican immigrants. It was here, during the 1960s, that the massive overstuffed burrito, as we know it today, was born. Traditional Mexican burritos normally only featured two or three ingredients – for instance, cheese, carnitas and beans. The Mission burrito, however, goes a lot further, adding as many ingredients as is humanly possible into an oversized tortilla. This can include, salsa, sour cream, cheese, guacamole, rice – you name it. Having eaten one of these creations in its home town, I can say that the underlying structure was not vastly different to the burrito places here in Dublin. The tortilla was wrapped slightly narrower than usual, however, making it a little easier to eat, and my carnitas seemed to have been a tad more spiced.
I will say this though – having braved the notorious super-picante salsa at Pablo’s, the #5 salsa at Burritos & Blues and the Habanero salsa at Little Ass, I thought I was prepared for pretty much anything that came my way. Man, was I wrong. Top tip – when the people at the counter say the chillies are spicy, they really, really mean it.
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In LA, the most revealing experience I had was when I visited a small burrito stand in a Hispanic market near downtown. My barbacoa burrito, which was made at super-human speeds (seriously, the guy must have rolled it in under a minute) was given to me in the usual plastic bowl, with the salsa already starting to leak through the tears of the tortilla. The whole thing would fall apart if you tried to eat it with your hands, meaning I had to tackle the burrito with a knife and fork (already not a good start). Also, this was the more traditional type of burritos, with more of a Mexican than a Californian influence. There were only three basic ingredients – cheese, barbacoa and beans (even worse). Once I took the first bite, however, my tepid first impressions vanished into thin air. Those three ingredients were so expertly cooked that it immediately made up for the lack of complexity – the barbacoa, in particular, had an incredible texture, giving a lot more depth to every bite. This was hands down the best shredded beef I had ever tasted, and it really showed me what you can do with just a small variety of ingredients.
The last stop on my journey across California was San Diego. It was here in La Jolla, a neighbourhood of the city located minutes away from the Mexican border, that I had the region’s speciality – fish tacos. Now, I’m normally not a massive fan of fish, but once I realised that it was fried and covered in cabbage and a citrus sauce I got on board with this kind of filling. The end is result is a taco that is a great change of pace from the usual spicy taste of classic Mexican street food – the taste palette is much more gentle, and is unusually different when compared to other tacos that I’ve tried.
Of course, I couldn’t leave without trying some of the large Mexican food chains around the state – while it wouldn’t be authentic per se, I felt it would be telling of how America at large perceives Mexican food.
The first chain that I tried was Chipotle Mexican Grill – and as soon as I walked in the building I immediately felt at home.
Chipotle is the place that most resembles our Dublin burrito bars, to my mind – if I was to make a direct comparison, I would say that it is a lot like Tolteca in its trendy, modern interior and choose-your-own-style set of fillings. The burritos are just as large, just as stuffed with ingredients, and just as tasty.
The next chain that I visited was Taco Bell. To put it one way, Taco Bell’s menu feels like it was designed by a sugar-rush fuelled toddler, and it’s about as far away from classic Mexican as you can get. Does it taste good? Well, it tastes fairly decent when compared to other fast food chains, but the only thing this particular establishment has going for it at the moment is an aggressively low price point and a boundless creativity compared to the usual burgers you get in other fast-food restaurants. Featuring such items as tacos with the shells made from Doritos, burritos stuffed with spicy Fritos and a hexagonal wrap with a crunchy tostada stuffed in the middle, this stuff, while interesting in its own right, is not going to be knocking out traditional taco stands in my books any time soon.
And so to sum up, how does the Cal-Mex experience compare to our numerous Mexican restaurants? Of course, it is undeniable that the Mexican food in California is spectacular. It’s authentic, it’s delicious, and it’s steeped in a culture that has been there for generations. Then again, on the other hand, it’s going to be great to finally get home and have a bite of an El Classico with extra guac.
What the Dublin burrito scene has accomplished over the past few years is more than a worthy imitation of the Mission burrito, and I hope that it keeps evolving to develop its own style. Who knows, maybe in ten years’ time people will be moving here to taste the originality of Dub-Mex?
