While Pittsburgh may not be a hotbed of Mexican food, a friend of mine has been telling me to check out El Burro Comedor forever. The trouble is that the place is all the way over on the North Side, which in Point Breeze may as well be West Virginia. Nonetheless, I made it there and noticed that in addition to seeming like hipster central, the place had a menu that seemed to be pulled right from San Diego.
Now, I am not from and have never lived in San Diego, but I was once fortunate enough to eat at Jalapenos, which seamlessly combines the American love of fries with its love for Mexican food. At El Burro, both the California Burrito (with fries inside) and Carne Asada Fries (burrito ingredients piled on fries). Yet, for my first visit I kept it simple and ordered the Carne Asada Burrito. This came with the aforementioned asada, guacamole and pico de gallo. Plus it was topped with cilantro. I ordered without the pico because pico is terrible and got a bit of salsa to go along with it. They grilled the burrito a bit before handing it off to me and it came out looking beautiful.
I bit in and found myself with a mouthful of perfect carne asada. It was juicy, tender and flavorful. But perhaps most importantly, the flavor was just like it comes in SoCal. And it was big, enough to keep me full for the night. Despite the distance, I can’t wait to make my way back to El Burro to get in on some of the more San Diego-specific foods.
