I haven't had much time to write for pleasure with my dissertation proposal being due to my committee on Monday. The only creative writing has been reviews of burritos in Eugene. A fellow Californian and I were commiserating over the fact that we missed California burritos. Instead of continuing to bitch and complain about it, we started going to highly rated burrito and Mexican places in Eugene with our fellow program members, rating various aspects of our experiences. The following are the three reviews from our first three trips.
El Super Burrito Review
5/7/13
The great expedition has started. The quest to find the best
burrito—a long elusive holy grail of sorts—is on. A crew of nine (or was it
more?) hungry, UO SPSY students rolled into El Super Burrito, hoping for an
oasis in the burrito desert that is Eugene/Springfield.
I had it on good authority that El Super Burrito was one of
the better burrito places in Eugene, and somehow I had avoided going here in my
three years in town. Apparently, many of our comrade-at-arms had already been
here, specifically related to St. Patrick’s Day festivities of 2013,
celebrating James Hayes and St. Patrick in their finest glory. As this will be
a relatively scientific endeavor, I ordered a steak fajita burrito, because I
want a consistency between what I order and that matched my typical order back
in California. Also, it had sour cream and guacamole. Bomb.
Eugene Rating: 7
I was pleasantly surprised to see that many of their
burritos were quite reasonably priced. In terms of burritos in Eugene, the
food/taste/price combo is probably going to be one of the best. Thus, the
rating of a 7. Solid steak and veggies, maybe a bit to heavy on the refried
beans and sour cream. Quite filling, and I couldn’t decide for a while if I
wanted to take a nap or go out and exercise to work it off.
California Rating: 5
Some of you may be thinking… a “5?” Isn’t that a little
high/low/right on for a snobbish, burrito eating California? Well, chances are
that you aren’t. El Super Burrito, take it as a compliment. It’s a solid
burrito amongst my wide and varied burrito experience. The top of that bell
curve. Roland Good would be proud.
Chips Rating: Not Juanita’s.
Salsa Rating: I’m guessing that El Super Burrito has never heard of a slotted
spoon before. It felt like I had to dunk my tortilla chip into an ocean in
order to scoop my reasonably tasting pico de gallo. One might say I had to
strap on some galoshes to get to that pico (h/t Eva K-N). Nobody likes a soggy
tortilla chip.
Ambience/Atmosphere/Décor: The lady that took my order
forgot that I ordered chips and salsa, and was bewildered when I kept insisting
that I had ordered them. Boo.
Super Taco Review
5/14/13
This, dear friends, was supposed to be a Moment (capital M). This
was the place that was supposed to have inspired it all. One Elizabeth Chase
said this was the best burrito place in Eugene. I was excited. Plans were made.
We made it to Super Taco, another crew in tow.
Alas, what was found was very reminiscent of last week's
adventure, dear friends. Shall we count the ways?
Eugene Burrito Rating: 7
California Burrito Rating: 5
I am pretty determined that the cooks from El Super Burrito were
airlifted and dropped into the kitchen at Super Taco, because they gave me
essentially the same burrito. Toasted, same tasting of meats and veggies (yes,
I know I ordered the same thing), still probably too much sour cream (or at
least, they could have distributed it better across the burrito), still using
refried beans (what the actual fuck, Eugene? There are better beans than
refried beans! Don't hate on black or pinto beans!). The use of different hot
sauces that certainly improved the flavor of my burrito. Almost a mirror image
of everything that I had last week. I can't justify providing a different
rating than last weeks.
Fortunately, for Super Taco, I had a bit of a better experience in
other ways:
Chips: These were still not Juanita's quality. So that wasn't
actually better. Salsa: MUCH BETTER pico than whatever flooded crap that El
Super Burrito gave me.
TANGENT/RANT: Is this really going to be a thing, spending $2.50
for a side order of chips and salsa, Eugene, or are you just going to keep
trolling me? Because, honestly, just fucking give me the chips and salsa and
mix it into the price of my burrito. That's what we do in NorCal. It's called
hospitality. At least give me a choice of different types of salsas.
Decor/Ambience/Experience/Atmosphere: Better than El Super
Burrito. Cleaner, nicer, friendlier, less janky.
If it weren't located all the way out at Bailey Hill, I would
probably spend the extra $0.50 to get my burrito experience (again, a little
bit of hyperbole) on at Super Taco. Will I insist that we go to Super Taco
anytime we are coming back from a trip from the coast. Yes, yes I still
probably will.
Taqueria Mi Tierra Review
5/31/13
Friends and fellow burrito fans,
On the strength of some Yelp reviews and recommendations from
friends, our postponed Tuesday adventure was moved to Thursday night. Sadly
this meant losing our esteemed practicum students (one more week!), but picked
up some OPP-ers in the process. Fortunately for myself (and I guess this holds
for Mal, as well), it wasn't held against me that showing up fashionably late
as a result of a glorious, glorious nap.
As a result of said nap, I was able to reach the little-known and
even less-experienced post-nap, post-burrito state of nirvana, inspired by the
meal served at Taqueria Mi Tierra. And I was able to reach this nirvana, of
course, once I was able to successfully re-engage with the world and
re-establish my mental functioning.
Eugene Burrito Rating: 7.5
California Burrito Rating: 6
For the purposes of being reasonably scientific (ahem, Chase), I
ordered a burrito. However, this institution was a little bit more a sit-down,
fully authentic Mexican meal, complete with beans and rice as side dishes on
basically all of the meals, rather than the "burrito-specific" places
we had been attending. I don't think I can be faulted for this choice when it
says "Taqueria" in it's name, so... deal with it?
#44 was just a burrito, with no indications of what I might
expect. I ordered the Carne Asada and chips. The burrito, sadly, came with no
sides (though visiting Stuart rectified this, for the win), but the burrito was
pretty tasty. The focus of the burrito was on the cheese that it added and the
meats, and my burrito wasn't swimming in the unnecessaries (looking at you,
sour cream). The fact that this was a different type of burrito may have
inflated the grade a bit (it was still very solid), but I appreciated the different
take on what a burrito should consist of from our previous two adventures.
Still, though, I'm getting trolled by all of the Mexican
restaurants in Eugene. Goddamned refried beans. Cannot escape them.
Chips: Still not Juanita's. Seriously, you guys, Juanita's are the
official sponsored partner of Heaven (whichever Heaven or afterlife you might
subscribe to).
Salsa: The effort on the Pico was not particularly memorable.
However, the two green salsas offered (a guacamole one and another standard green
sauce) were tasty. Both made it on to my chips and my burrito.
Decor/Ambiance/Experience/Atmosphere: Tremendous, we have an early
lead here. Just a purely inspired effort with the Spanish Soap Opera playing in
the background. Maybe I'm still speaking from my state of nirvana, but that
essentially sealed the deal for me. I will be going back here, probably not to
order a burrito, but to eat some more legit foods/options. I know that
Chimichanga has my fucking name on it.
Also, it was our server dude's birthday, and he was genuinely
awesome.
In conclusion: You should probably try this place if you haven't
already.
