Cheap Eats
By Carol Schmidt October 10, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Real burritos at a real bargain

“Los Burritos Tortillas de Harina,” the yellow sign reads, two cartoon burros arching over a narrow doorway on Mesones mid-block between Hidalgo and Relox next to a newsstand.  You’d probably never notice it unless you had to dodge around the line of customers spilling onto the sidewalk, waiting for fresh flour tortillas that are made by hand in the rear of the store. (Flour tortillas de harina are made in separate shops from corn tortillas de maíz.)

If you peek inside you'll see a few crowded tables and another line of diners waiting for tortillas to be scooped off the grill and laden with one or more of a dozen guisados, or stew-like fillings. My favorites are the chicken in mole, chorizo, pork arrachera, potatoes, nopales … oh, let’s face it: they’re all my favorites.

A burritaco, the six-inch-diameter tortilla with a scoop of one filling, is only four pesos. A plate of four with a soft drink is 24 pesos, one of the cheapest meals in San Miguel. You can order combinations, larger burritos, hamburgers, hot dogs, egg dishes and salads as well.

The shop opens around 10:30am weekdays and closes around 4pm, often depending on when the food runs out. Usually a bunch of high school kids are waiting to get in for a late breakfast or early lunch when it opens, and another group returns after school in early afternoon. All day long a diverse clientele comes and goes and often shares the tables—we sat with our former housekeeper one afternoon when she motioned for us to take the two empty chairs.

When you enter, you stand in line in front and pay ahead for whatever you want to eat. Then you take the little slip of paper with your order and head for the line in the rear to have it filled.

Just point to the filling(s) you want; you don't need to be fluent in Spanish. You might want to stick to what you are sure is chicken or something equally recognizable—chicharrón, tongue or tripe can look mighty appetizing in any lineup unless you have a prejudgment against anything you’re not used to.

Be sure to buy a package of fresh white or whole-wheat flour tortillas as you leave, 10 for 10 pesos. If you order ahead you can get extra-large, specially-made tortillas that are suitable for the huge burritos many expats know from the US. In Mexico, a burrito is a smaller flour tortilla with a generous dollop of one filling. You'll come to appreciate each flavor as distinct, rather than combined in the mishmash that overloads plates in the US.






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