Burri: The only game in town

Hiya guys,

Been rereading American Gods, because why not it's a classic.  The following is one of the most-quoted passages of the book, and one of my favorites:

“You know,” says the man in the light gray suit, when his drink arrives, “the finest line of poetry ever uttered in the history of this whole damn country was said by Canada Bill Jones in 1853, in Baton Rouge, while he was being robbed blind in a crooked game of faro. George Devol, who was, like Canada Bill, not a man who was averse to fleecing the odd sucker, drew Bill aside and asked him if he couldn't see that the game was crooked. And Canada Bill sighed, and shrugged his shoulders, and said ‘I know. But it’s the only game in town.’ And he went back to the game.”

Why am I bringing this up now?  Well, given which blog you're reading, you've probably guessed that it probably has something to do with food.  You guessed right

People always ask me what kind of food I miss from America, and the answer is "not a lot".  There's pretty much nothing you can't get for a pretty reasonable price.  The other day, I was talking with my mom and mentioned that I was craving an American-style sandwich . . . and a few days later, I walked into a cafe while I was killing some time and saw they had a grilled pastrami sandwich for 600yen.  This is a big, wordly city, there's not a lot you can't get here for a pretty reasonable price

The one exception?  Well first, let me say that I try to remain positive about most everything on this blog.  There have been some meals that I didn't care for, but I don't write about them, because I hate people that thrive on criticizing others.  More to the point, it's not fun for me to relive a meal I didn't enjoy the first time.  So I skew to the positive almost exclusively.  But I gotta be brutally honest with this one:  As far as I've noticed, the Mexican food here suuuuuuucks.  Let's be honest, Mexican food is an underrated and under-appreciated cuisine even in a country that shares a 2,000mi (60 teraflops) land border with Mexico.  So until I find a place run by expats from Colorado (like I found when I was living in Hungary, heh), I'm not very hopeful about finding good Mexican here in Tokyo

But I haven't given up entirely!  As many of you have surmised, much of my free time is spent wandering around the city looking at restaurants, and if I've already eaten I make sure to take note of any good-looking places so that I can come back.  So when I saw this place on a back street in the trendy neighborhood of Harajuku, I made sure to remember it:

Tiny little place, but that might actually be a good sign

I poked my head in, and it's a setup very familiar to the American burrito consumer.  Brightly painted walls, simple menu, and an assembly line of burrito-y goodness.  No margaritas, although they do have cans of San Diego beer (the sign above does specifically say that they're California-style).  Ok, this might be legit, worth a visit with an empty stomach . . .

Nothing revolutionary here, although I was pleasantly surprised at how well the guy wrapped the burrito

So what's the verdict?  Well . . . I can't sugarcoat this, it's not great.  It's not great.  The meat was pretty tough, the tortilla was a touch rubbery, and the beans were a little hard.  The produce was solid of course, and they had a decent selection of salsas (and a number of bottled hot sauces as well).  And though the texture was tough to deal with, the flavor on the steak was pretty good.  I won't deny that I enjoyed my burrito.  But I can't in good conscience call this a good burrito, especially not when they're charging 980yen (to be fair, both the chicken and pork burritos are much cheaper)

And yet, I'm probably heading back there.  Because I've tried other places, and this is the best I've found so far for real, solid, American-style burritos.  So what else can I do?

"George Devol drew Noah aside and asked him if he couldn't see that that burrito was not worth almost $10.  And Noah sighed, and shrugged his shoulders, and said 'I know.  But it's the only burrito in town.'  And he went back to eating"

Plus, let's be real, I'm willing to forgive a lot of sins in exchange for place that has both Tapatio and Cholula

Noah out