OK, so last week I ate something masquerading as a burrito at my desk. I have wiped this from my memory as the trauma was just stressing me out. Therefore, the burrito I have just eaten is the first burrito I’ve had at my desk at work. First things first, Dr Chimpington and myself really need to offer a ‘how to eat burritos in public’ master class. I am not convinced that there is a sophisticated way of doing this and I apologise to all my colleagues for the spectacle of watching me wrestle with a burrito. Dainty I aint.
Recent research has revealed that there are burritos to be found near my place of work. Picante Mexican Grill. This shop is teeny, tucked away in that bit of London that is neither Victoria nor Pimlico near Strutton Ground & Channel 4 it’s probably not one you’d walk past on your way to somewhere. It’s blue and it has a Mexican skull on the sign – a Mexican skull with chillis for a ‘tache no less. I love Mexican art, it always cheers me up and reminds me of the day of the dead celebrations.
When I got inside the first thing I saw was shelves filled with lovely tins of La Costena jalapenos. These are the ones I ate when I was in Mexico and (until now) I have had to rely on my gorgeous friend Stevo to bring them back for me when he comes over to Blighty to visit. I won’t tell him I can get them now as I still want him to visit me. Selfish? Moi?
The choice of meat was too extensive for my teeny brain so I went for the grilled chicken one – on the off-chance that this place was bad I thought it’d be harder to fuck up grilled chicken. They also include sliced jalapenos. Most of the ones you get over here are a bit flacid and sadly the only place I normally see these beauties is Subway so I was chuffed to see them here as I could live on them.
They do the Chilango/Chipotle/ Subway tried & tested style of assemblage here, one person starts you off and then the next person adds the extras and does the rolling. The woman rolling them was lovely but when I saw the burrito ahead of me falling apart mid fold* I was a bit worried about what was in store.
I needn’t have worried. Whilst her folding was a bit shambolic (and possibly one of the reasons that there was a large queue forming behind me, although it is more likely the queue was because there were burritos to be had!) the resulting burrito was far from shambolic.
And so, on to the burrito itself. I had the limey grilled chicken, black beans, salsa verde, cheese and jalapenos. Whereas the rice at Adobo was possibly too hard, the rice here was possibly a bit too soft but that’s a minor point because as a whole this was a thing of lovelieness.
I am not sure it’s a good idea having burritos so close to work. Ah well, as long as I can still fit through the door all is fine!
*they ‘rescued’ it by tipping it all onto a fresh tortilla. I guess that the flavours are all the same but I’d have been, perhaps a bit unreasonably, a bit less than impressed if it had been mine.