Burritos are from Mexico…or are they?

It may surprise you but this nicely wrapped meal is actually from a little further north on the American continent

I’ve been in Mexico now for close to a week and without a doubt one of the highlights so far has been the food. The endless number of street vendors selling tacos, churros has been amazing. Check out the tacos de suadero (brisket) and campechanos (brisket and sausage — this one was way better) below.

The hostel I stayed at offered a walking tour that was focused on food. Aside from enjoying many tacos that day, I also unlearnt something that I had thought to be true for a long time — burritos are NOT from Mexico.

Shocking right??

Yep — they are not actually a Mexican dish.

Well, actually lets say they are not a purely Mexican dish. The burrito was actually an invention a little further north in America from California. Drawing from the widely available and delicious taco, the Americans sought to make this bigger and better to suit their appetite. More things were added into the dish and a larger tortilla was used to wrap it all up. Bigger is better in America and this kind of thinking is what transformed the taco into a burrito.

Now, this is not to say that Mexicans don’t eat burritos. Of course they do, but just not as often as what their friends further north do. They even had a eating competition with burritos in the US — here’s Joey chestnut taking it out with 14.5 burritos eaten in 10 minutes.

It’s also important to note that there are also accounts of burritos originating from Northern Mexico. However these have been slightly different versions to what we commonly know as the burrito today — different sizes has been one of the main variations.

So next time you have a burrito, thank those Americans. Bigger is better in America and because of this, we can enjoy a burrito.