Chipotle

Wonders do happen sometimes. A black president in the White House. A convicted felon playing football for the Eagles. Aiiyah willingly eating a fast food burger and sort of enjoying it. Then he did it again!

Everybody knows my attitude toward chain fast-foods. Everybody knows my attitude toward faux Mexican in US restaurants. It is easier to get me to sit through a chick-flick in the theater then eat anything that resembles one of the above aforementioned.

When a very nice girl who we met through Boot-Camp class gave us a few free-meal cards from her company after listening to my speech on faux-Mexican fast food said, “Just go try it…;” I thought to myself, “Who could I re-gift these to?”

“You get to pick and choose what goes into it…It’s not like the others…” Tourist Tree kept telling me. “OK, I’ll check the web site some day,” I replied.

After a few more weeks of these cards staring at me from the far side of my desk, I finally clicked on the company’s web site with my usual skepticism.

I do not like fast-food restaurants but this company’s site is cool! Playful, quirky, and even informative (Gotta check out that pen tapping page!). I was not aware that Chipotle practices Food with Integrity (FWI). I did not know that everything is cooked fresh on premise. There are not that many exciting items on the menu but I could really pick and choose the individual ingredients that go into the items. Ok, this place is starting to look better. What sealed the deal for me to finally agree to give this place a try? It was the company’s endorsement of Food, Inc., the movie, on the web site.

On a not-so-hot summer night, we queued up in front of the cafeteria style food line. I ordered a Fajita Burrito with beef, pepper, onions, rice, cheese, lettuce, guacamole, with salsa on the side. I skipped my faux-Mexican food nemesis: beans and sour cream. Tourist Tree ordered a pork burrito with black beans, corn salsa, and rice. We watched the workers at each station quickly and efficiently assembling our orders as we were telling them which ingredients we did or did not want. At the end of the queue, we got two fat Airstream trailer shaped things, minus the wheels. If I had to guess, they weighted at least a pound each.
 

This did not look appetizing to me. I did not want to bite into it squashing everything together then have them falling out all over me. I believed the ingredients would tasted better separately then as a blend. This would be one of those instances that the sum of its part would not add up. Plus, why would somebody want to eat something the size of a little person’s thigh barbarically with his hands?
 
 
 
 
 
 

I decided to tackle this monster in a more civilized manner – deconstructed.

The beef was supposed to have been marinated in a smoky chipotle pepper adobo, then grilled. It definitely had a good Tex-Mex flavor but unfortunately this flavor was overwhelmed by the salt. I do not eat fast food much, therefore that was salty for me. However, that might be just the right amount for those whose frequent faux food. Overlooking this over-salting issue, this FWI beef was actually quite good. The onions and peppers were not bad but the cilantro-lime rice was just, OK. I could not taste much of the cilantro or the lime in the rice, but I did taste the salt. The jack and while cheddar cheeses were tasteless and artificial. It did more harm to the dish for being there.

The guacamole was made on premise daily with ripened avocado, cilantro, red onions, jalapeno, citrus juice and spices. It was good. Not overwhelmingly good, but chain restaurant good. It could be dialed up a notch or so in the flavor department. The spicy salsa was about as mild as a glass of warmed milk. The flour tortilla was nothing special except its size. We also ordered some chips for the guacamole but I guessed they had been sitting in the summer humidity a bit too long.

My eyes lit up when I saw these three little bottles by the napkin dispenser. The smoked chipotle flavor was very good and certainly appropriate for this restaurant. It in no small role added much excitement to my meal.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I am not sure if a burrito is supposed to be a finger food in general. Looking around the restaurant watching people chomping on burritos this big with their bare hands kind of turned me off. Not that I was ever too excited about eating burritos, in any size.


I did enjoy eating my meal, to a certain degree. Several items on my spread-out tortilla were quite good while the others could be forgettable. Maybe I was missing something by not eating everything rolled up like a small football. May be I was missing something by not mushing every flavor, every texture together inside the tortilla warp. May be I was missing something by not eating it like everybody else holding it with both hands and smashing it again the face. I might have missed the umami of this faux-Mex finest. But at least I knew I was eating natural organic food from a sustainable source from a company which believes in social conscious and integrity, and I liked that!