The Burrito – Nature’s gift to Gastonomation??

Ah, yes… the burrito. Marriages have ended debating where to get the best one. Here in California, it is an obsession; Pity the tourist who stops to ask two locals where to get a good one! But one thing is for sure: The Burrito was BORN to be Gastronomated! Why? Because it has most of the characteristics that Gastronomation desires:

Burritos are made up of a LIMITED number of primary ingredients. We’ve all seen the burrito bars – your average “taqueria” doesn’t have more than about 20 distinct bins.
The “assembly” requires little knowledge, precision or nuance. What does this mean? Well, unlike a car or a microchip, all of the ingredients of a burrito essentially get rolled up together without any attempt to keep certain parts away from others or any fear of mixing. A burrito is essentially smushed-together ingredients with a wrapper - unlike, for example, Crème brûlée or a soufflé which requires substantial skill and can easily be ruined.
People have very specific ideas about how they like their burritos. You would never tell a taqueria to make you “whatever the chef recommends”! Will they put spicy salsa in when you can’t tolerate it? Do you like sour cream or avocados, or did your trainer just tell you to stay away from them? There is no such thing as a “typical order”. If you don’t believe me, try this: Go get a burrito for a friend of yours and bring it to them. Odds are that they will examine it, smile, thank you, and put it in the trash as soon as they find that there is something in there that they don’t want anything to do with.
The assembly-line nature of a taqueria is a good model for automation. I have generally observed a lot of room for improvement in such places, but they do seem to have an instinct for industrial engineering.
Speed is key in a burrito place. Almost ALL of the business will happen between 11:30AM-1:30PM and 5:30PM-8PM. If a customer comes between those times and can’t or won’t wait, they will WALK. Burritos are about both craving AND convenience. If you screw up either element, the customer won’t hesitate to choose a different vendor or a different meal, altogether.

Now, I will stop short of saying that a burrito is PERFECT for Gastronomation. It does have a few characteristics that go against it, which I will get into on a further post.