El Cholo has been part of LA since Prohibition, which is no small feat in a city that flocks to trends like they cure cancer.
It took me a while, but I finally made it to the original El Cholo in Koreatown.
I had a difficult time deciding what to get from the menu. The prices were a bit steep, but I figured it was worth it to try an LA classic. In a cool little nod to their history, on each menu item they list the year that it became part of their menu, I finally decided on the great barometer for Mexican food, the burrito. At El Cholo, they call it the Burrito Dorado, which they began serving in 1977, making it seven years older than me. According to the menu, it’s composed of chili con carne, beans, rice, cheddar cheese, tomato sauce, sour cream and guacamole. I hoped none of these ingredients would be older than me.
When it came, it was unbelievably huge. Easily the biggest burrito I had ever seen, and if it tasted any good, it would be well worth the price. Looking tiny next to it was a small salad that thankfully made no real contact with the burrito.
Assuming I could never finish the beastly burrito, I began eating. I must have blacked out at some point because all of a sudden the friend I was eating with pointed out to me that I was eating the last bite of the burrito. I guess it was pretty good. Typically this burrito would have constituted two meals, and at the price of a little more than 10 bucks, it was definitely worth it.
