According to one of the seven underworked staff - not including that ever present feature of any building in Vietnam: a security guard - the eight tabled restaurant California Burritos at 17 Phan Van Dat street opened just six months ago. I like to think I've been around the culinary block at least once and then a little bit, but when it comes to burritos I'll come clean, I'm as innocent as a woodland elf playing a harp and humming an S Club 7 song. However, some time ago two readers suggested I drop by California Burritos to see if we're talking So Cal or so what.
I order an Adobe Beef Burrito, one of seven on offer, and wonder what makes a good burrito... The Burrito Blog leaves me hungry, but none the wiser, whereas the Burrito entry on wikipedia leads me to something called The San Franciso Burrito and that looks suspiciously like today's lunch pictured above. It comes wrapped up nice and snug. The Burritos at California Burritos come in three sizes handily depicted at the serving bay by three tasteful tinfoil models - small (not enough), large (hmm... getting there) - super (hehe - paydirt) - Sadly, Wednesday is diet day. I go for a large. Prices range from 25,000VD (Small Rambo's grilled vegetable) to 75,000VD (Super Ground beef). You can also make your own. The Adobe arrives within two minutes and is filled with stewed chilli beef, whole black beans, cheddar cheese, rice, lettuce, guacamole, salsa and some other stuff I can't make out from my sneaky cameraphone photo of the menu.
It's a wee bit spicy, a wee bit salty and not a little tasty. Not quite sure what the crisps, sorry - chips, are for. Are you supposed to utilise them as a primitive scoop mechanism to salvage parts of the burrito that free themselves from the mothership? Wasn't too keen on them anyhow, bit dry and uncrisplike - which is probably the point - Oh well. However, I was keen on the burrito itself. I'll be back. Here's the business card front and back. More useless snaps. And don't just take my word for it:
"We just tried a new burrito place and thought it was pretty good. Our favorites are Rambo's grilled vegetable burrito, grilled steak burrito, and cheese quesadilla. Give it a try if you're in the mood. They deliver!," says noodlepie reader and blogger Cottontimer.
"California Burrito, is quite nice too... especially for someone who spent most of 2003 living off of burritos in California," adds reader, blogger and statue watcher NoStar Where.
