It dismays me, therefore, to report that I haven’t been able to find a truly satisfying vegi burrito yet in downtown Seattle. There are a couple of chains that have several convenient locations, but they don’t really do it right. The search will have to continue.
But I can live with this state of affairs for now, because I’ve found something I think of as my new burrito: the grilled tofu sandwich at Café Pho, the Vietnamese lunch place across the street from my office.
This package of delight is a crisp baguette stuffed with grilled seasoned tofu, strips of pickled daikon and carrot, slices of cucumber, sprigs of cilantro, homemade mayonnaise, soy sauce, and a couple of slices of jalapeño lurking in there somewhere to ambush the unwary. It’s the perfect combination of cool, crispy, rich, creamy, starchy, veggie, salty, sweet, and spicy. All for just $3.95. Heaven.
I’m making myself hungry.
* Having spent my formative years in San Diego and later going to college in Texas in the late ‘80s, I was shocked — shocked! — to order my first vegetarian burrito in the Bay Area and find that it contained rice. Rice???!! Why would you wrap rice in wheat, one grain inside another grain? It made no sense to me. I’d never had a burrito like that before. By now I’m used to it, and the trend seems to have taken hold in other places, so it doesn’t seem so weird to me anymore, but I don’t know…maybe it should.
2 comments:
I never thought about the rice-in-wheat thing before. What does a veggie burrito that excludes rice contain? Let me know if you want me to ship a couple of burritos up there in a shoebox!
Since I wasn't a vegetarian when I lived in Southern California or Texas, I didn't eat meatless burritos exclusively, but when I did, they usually contained refried beans, cheese, and salsa, and sometimes lettuce. Without any rice to trap pockets of air inside, they were heavy and prone to bending like an elbow in the middle when you picked them up. Sometimes the refried beans would squish out the end opposite from the end you were taking bites from.
For structural integrity, the veggie burrito with rice is probably an improvement. And refried beans are traditionally made with lard, so they're not usually veg-friendly. All well and good...but I still say that if I could make the perfect veggie burrito to my taste today, it would consist of a flour tortilla wrapped securely around a plug of vegetarian refried beans, with medium-hot salsa, good-quality shredded lettuce (or cabbage that had been slightly salt-wilted to make it tender), several generous tablespoons of fresh guacamole...and no rice.
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