The Silver Torpedo / The weighty, one-of-a-kind Mission burrito has reached cult status among its wide variety of fans

BURRITO CULTURE

The popularity of the Mission burrito in the Bay Area has led to some interesting developments.

-- World's Largest Burrito. Mission burritos are big, but usually not this big. According to the "Guinness Book of World Records 1998,"

organizers from La Costea Restaurant and Burrito Real Restaurants won the record for world's largest burrito at Rengstorff Park, Mountain View, on May 3,

1997.

With a host of volunteers, they rolled

together 4,456 pounds of tortillas, chorizo, rice, beans, salsa, sour cream and tinfoil into a 3,578.8-foot-long snake of a burrito.

-- A Lifetime of Burritos. Casa Sanchez, a family-owned taqueria and salsa producer on 24th Street in the Mission, made headlines in 1998 by offering a lifetime's worth of free burrito dinners to anyone willing to get tattooed with the company logo. Since tattoos are not exactly foreign to Mission residents' body parts, about 40 people signed up. The offer is still open, but those who are interested need to go through a strict screening process.

-- Burrito Literature. "Burrito! Hot on the Trail of the Little Burro" (Gibbs Smith, 1998) was written by David Thomsen and Derek Wilson. The San Francisco residents traveled 4,000 miles over the United States and northern Mexico to research the book. For a preview, visit www.littleburro.com/home. html.

-- Burrito Offshoots. Mission burritos have inspired many similar creations.

Truly Mediterranean, a Middle Eastern takeout on 16th and Valencia streets in the heart of burrito land, wraps its schwarma and falafel inside lavash and seals it into a cylindrical tinfoil bundle rather than a pita.

-- The World Wrapps chain was started in San Francisco in 1994 by four business school students who sparked a national trend. Like the Mission burrito, these wraps place an

entire plate of food inside a piece of flat bread. Though postmodern in its cross of a tortilla with Indian curry or American barbecue, the wrap still serves the burrito's original purpose - an inexpensive meal that can go anywhere.

T.D.

If it weren't for the Mission burrito, Brad Vasquez might not be living in San Francisco. He might not even be alive. Because for the Mission District poet, the burrito is not just an occasional meal. It is a way of life.

"I probably eat so many burritos that I have to make an effort not to," says Vasquez, 35, whose e-mail address includes the words al pastor in honor of his favorite burrito meat. "I like them enough that if I didn't try to make the effort to think of other things, I would eat one every night."

Vasquez is part of a generation of artists, writers and college graduates who came to the Mission in the late '80s and early '90s, riding out the recession in the then-cheap apartments. That was shelter. For food, they discovered the enormous burritos offered in neighborhood taquerias. They were so filling and so inexpensive that they could live off them alone.

What fueled them was an invention unique to San Francisco. Today, "Mission- style burritos" can be found around the country, from the K-38 Baja Grill in Wilmington, N.C., to the Taco Del Mar in Anchorage, Ala. Part of what makes them distinct is their vast array of ingredients.Whereas burritos in Southern California, the Southwest and Northern Mexico may contain perhaps just two or three items, the Mission burrito puts an entire plate of food - meat, beans, rice, vegetables, salsas, sour cream, everything - inside a tortilla. These elements help the Mission burrito reach an imposing weight of up to 2 pounds - all for less than $5.

More than an exercise in excess, the Mission burrito is a symbol of Bay Area individuality. Nowhere but here is it standard to allow customers to choose each element of the burrito, from the type of bean to the spiciness of the salsa. Despite its size, this burrito is also popular for its compactness. It can be taken anywhere and requires no fork.

Hence its cult status. It's been called the Cylindrical God, the Silver Torpedo, the Urban Food Log. Books and Web sites have been devoted to it. And the world's largest burrito - at almost 4,500 pounds - was rolled not far from the source, in Mountain View (see sidebar, Burrito Culture, facing page).

Not everyone who first fell in love with the Mission burrito in the early '90s can still eat one every day, and many no longer have to. But eating one brings them back to the pre-gentrification days, to the time before the Mission had restaurants with white tablecloths.

The Mission burrito as we know it today got its start when La Cumbre, originally a Valencia Street meat market, started making them in the late '60s.

"The date we sold our first burrito was Sept. 29, 1969. I know that, because it was my wife's birthday," says Raul Duran, owner and founder of Taqueria La Cumbre.

It wasn't that the burrito was a new thing; it was the style of service that was revolutionary. Duran and his wife, Michaela, who died four years ago, started out serving tacos and other foods to go. In 1972, they remodeled and changed their business to a taqueria.

"Taquerias were new. No one had anything like that," says Duran. "Mexican restaurants have been around for I don't know how long, ever since before California joined the Union. But this type of fast food - there was no such thing."

The burrito originally came from northern Mexico, a wheat-producing area where flour tortillas are common. It was created as a portable meal for ranchers and miners.

"The burrito is named after the burros, which were known to be able to carry everything," says David Thomsen, co-author of "Burrito! Hot on the Trail of the Little Burro" with Derek Wilson. "These were like the little burros because they carried all these ingredients."

The history is a bit fuzzy, but it seems the burrito was created in the early to mid-19th century by miners in what is now the American Southwest and northern Mexico, says Thomsen, a Palo Alto native and San Francisco resident.

"There was this cross-pollination. The American border was pushing south in the 1840s," says Thomsen. "That's another reason burritos are ambiguous in their nationality. Because right when they were becoming a food the nationality was changing."

The original burrito consisted of a hunk of spiced meat wrapped in a tortilla, and though larger, the burritos in today's Southwest aren't too different. The Texan, for example, tends to just have meat or beans and cheese.

The New Mexican is similar but smothered in green chile sauce. The Southern Californian and Northern Mexican usually just have meat and salsa, maybe beans.

A Mission burrito shows no such restraint.

Burrito-eaters at Mission taquerias are forced to make some weighty decisions. Pinto beans or black? Cheese or no cheese? Hot salsa or mild? White tortilla or neon green? The end result becomes a pure

expression of the burrito lover's taste.

"One thing we found is that everyone has an opinion about burritos," says Thomsen.

A skillful burrito maker adds just the right portion of beans and rice and can do wonders with a piece of tinfoil. When done properly, the burrito is a tidy, tightly wrapped cylinder that can stand upright.

"I don't think of it as an assembly line but more of a crafted thing. I don't want to get too philosophical about it, but it should be a hand food rather than a fork food," says Vasquez with a laugh. He compares a burrito roller to a seasoned oyster shucker in New Orleans. "It's not like just squirting mustard on a bun."

With the combined carbohydrate power of a 12-inch flour tortilla and rice, not to mention the volatile force of beans and spiced meat, eating an entire Mission burrito in one sitting can be cause for regret. The burrito's virtual indigestibility is part of what makes it so endearing to its fans.

But that doesn't keep people from eating the whole thing.

"I heard a guy at a taqueria say the other day, ÔThere's nothing illegal about having two burritos a day,' " says Vasquez.

Despite its popularity, the typical Mission burrito is not

always respected among Mexican Americans.

"The Mexican people order tacos more. The people from Peru and Chile, they order burritos as much as Americans do," says Miguel Jara, who opened La Taqueria on Mission Street in 1973. "In Mexico, taco stands are so common that that's what they're used to, especially Mexicans from southern Mexico."

However, younger Mexican Americans, especially those who grew up in America,

eat burritos instead of tacos, he says.

"I was raised in Tijuana and I ate burritos when I was 11 years old. They make them similar to what I make - no sour cream, cheese or avocado," says Jara of La Taqueria's streamlined, rice-less burrito.

Augustin Gaytan, a chef and former owner of Dos Burros, a taqueria in Berkeley, rarely eats burritos, even though he's constantly in the Mission leading culinary walking tours.

"I find them too overwhelming," he says. He points out that many taquerias have strayed from tradition. For example, some boil the chiles and tomatillos for salsas instead of roasting them, as is done in Mexico.

"A lot of things are missing in taquerias - salsas have too much water, the flavor is not intense enough," he says.

Still, over the years, the taqueria has become the major place where the Mission's Latino and Anglo communities

intersect. Burritos still meet a universal need - inexpensive but fresh and delicious food served in a casual atmosphere. And it looks like the taqueria and its most famous creation are here to stay, despite the neighborhood's recent gentrification.

"Now that the dot-coms are dying, there's more of a balance," Gaytan says. "The changes will continue, but the Latin American businesses that are there are going to stay. They survived the transition."

BURRITO CULTURE

The popularity of the Mission burrito in the Bay Area has led to some interesting developments.

-- World's Largest Burrito. Mission burritos are big, but usually not this big. According to the "Guinness Book of World Records 1998,"

organizers from La Costea Restaurant and Burrito Real Restaurants won the record for world's largest burrito at Rengstorff Park, Mountain View, on May 3,

1997.

With a host of volunteers, they rolled

together 4,456 pounds of tortillas, chorizo, rice, beans, salsa, sour cream and tinfoil into a 3,578.8-foot-long snake of a burrito.

-- A Lifetime of Burritos. Casa Sanchez, a family-owned taqueria and salsa producer on 24th Street in the Mission, made headlines in 1998 by offering a lifetime's worth of free burrito dinners to anyone willing to get tattooed with the company logo. Since tattoos are not exactly foreign to Mission residents' body parts, about 40 people signed up. The offer is still open, but those who are interested need to go through a strict screening process.

-- Burrito Literature. "Burrito! Hot on the Trail of the Little Burro" (Gibbs Smith, 1998) was written by David Thomsen and Derek Wilson. The San Francisco residents traveled 4,000 miles over the United States and northern Mexico to research the book. For a preview, visit www.littleburro.com/home. html.

-- Burrito Offshoots. Mission burritos have inspired many similar creations.

Truly Mediterranean, a Middle Eastern takeout on 16th and Valencia streets in the heart of burrito land, wraps its schwarma and falafel inside lavash and seals it into a cylindrical tinfoil bundle rather than a pita.

-- The World Wrapps chain was started in San Francisco in 1994 by four business school students who sparked a national trend. Like the Mission burrito, these wraps place an

entire plate of food inside a piece of flat bread. Though postmodern in its cross of a tortilla with Indian curry or American barbecue, the wrap still serves the burrito's original purpose - an inexpensive meal that can go anywhere.

T.D.

FAVORITE BUTTITOS

It would be impossible to name all of the great taquerias serving burritos in San Francisco's Mission District, but here is a selection of our favorites:

-- El Buen Sabor. This taqueria makes the classic burrito, with steamed tortillas and the works.

Delicious salty carnitas and fresh chips.

699 Valencia St. (at 18th Street); (415) 552-8816. Open 10 a.m.Ð10:30 p.m. daily.

-- La Taqueria. A regular award-winner, the burrito here stands out for not having rice and for its very fresh ingredients. It also costs about a dollar more than most places. Look for great carne asada, carnitas.

2889 Mission St. (at 25th Street); (415) 285-7117. Open 11 a.m.Ð9 p.m. Monday-Saturday; 11 a.m.- 8 p.m. Sunday.

-- Pancho Villa. This is probably the largest taqueria in the Mission, with a huge staff serving a line of people that snakes out the door. Lots of innovative vegetarian and seafood choices.

3071 16th St. (near Valencia Street); (415) 864-8840. Open 10 a.m.- midnight daily.

-- Papalote Mexican Grill. Not on the main burrito circuit, this relatively new place cooks your meat to order - which means everything's very fresh - and offers interesting seafood and breakfast options. The outstanding house salsa is made with roasted tomatoes.

3409 24th St. (at Valencia Street); (415) 970-8815. Open 11 a.m.Ð10 p.m. Monday-Saturday; 11 a.m.Ð

9 p.m. Sunday.

-- Taqueria Cancun. The extremely fresh-tasting burritos here outshine the tacos. The tortillas are thrown on the grill for more texture and the rice is moist and savory. Look for spicy meats and salsas.

2288 Mission St. (near 19th Street); (415) 252-9560. Open 10 a.m.Ð12:45 a.m.

Monday-Thursday; 10 a.m.Ð 1:45 a.m. Friday-Sunday.

- T.D.