"burritos" news and stories

Bill Addison visits 85 taquerias in 10 weeks and picks the best of the burrito bunch. He also awards 1½ stars to Moki's Sushi and Pacific Grill (*½). Royal Cafe in Albany gets two stars (**) for their breakfast, lunch, and kitsch. Also getting two stars (**) is Baker Street Bistro.

Bottarga, cured roe sacs of gray mullet or tuna, are a finishing touch to Salad of Zolfini Beans, Dry-Farmed Tomatoes, Celery & Bottarga. The Roving Feast adds accents to Tomato-Ginger Concasse and Pears Poached with Lemongrass & Lime.The Working Cook turns the day upsaide down with Goat Cheese Pizza with Peppers & Artichokes and Corn Griddle Cakes with Smoked Salmon, Tomatoes & Cream for dinner.

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Cinco de Mayo is this coming Friday, and it's an excuse to indulge in more than our fair share of Coronas, margaritas, and of course, food. But as many people may know, Mexican food isn't always considered to be all that light and healthy. Heck, a basket of chips and salsa could put you well over your daily calorie needs in one tequila-fueled haze. The American Heart Association lists a few tips to keep your health in check when you're shouting out "Ole!"

• Instead of flour tortillas, which are often made with lard, opt for corn tortillas, which can contain little to no fat.
• Choose grilled chicken, fish or shrimp over fried carnitas (beef or pork) or chorizo (sausage).
• Rather than refried beans (this is always the killer for me), go for frijoles a la charra or borracho (simmered in liquid).
• Sour cream, cheese, and guacamole can be replaced with as much flavor from good salsa, pico de gallo, and fresh chopped cilantro, onions, and japalenos.
• Instead of a plain quesadilla, order fajitas and stick with the tips above for corn tortillas and salsa
• If you get a "taco salad," resist eating the shell

After a trying experience last week with microwaved food, the Top Chef chefs again found themselves preparing food outside of their element - both literally and figuratively. Instead of working in the kitchen, plating and serving, the chefs were sent out to San Francisco's Mission District to peddle their wares as street food. In addition to mingling with the people, the chefs had to focus on ethnic flavors throughout both tasks in the episode and in doing so, found that they were further from their comfort zone than they realized.

The quickfire challenge was designed to test the chefs' ability to recognize ingredients without seeing them. I agree with the comments that Tom Colicchio, one of the judges, made on his blog - namely, that the challenge was not really representational of their ability to recognize ingredients because the ingredients chosen were very exotic. Guest chef and judge Mike Yakura, head chef at Le Colonial, a French-Vietnamese restaurant, choose ingredients to taste that some of the chefs had never before worked with. Expecting that all chefs should know all possible ingredients is unrealistic, if not impossible, and the competitors did not do terribly well. Out of the 20 ingredients - which included longan, tamarind, hibiscus extract, chili paste, nopal, konnyaku, durian and nato - the chefs tasted, Tiffani and Miguel only identified 1, LeeAnne, Harold, Lisa and Stephen identified 3, and Andrea identified 4. Andrea, winning the challenge, received immunity.

So I forced one of my friends to snatch a copy of this past Sunday's edition of the San Francisco Chronicle with the knowledge that the Sunday magazine would have the annual Bay Area Top 100 Restaurants. I got it in the mail this morning, and was excited to look through it, but the first thing that caught my eye was the story about a Burrito Eater.

Charles Hodgkins is the Burrito Eater. His website, www.burritoeater.com, is basically a food blog in which he chronicles his quest for the "nine mustache" (out of 10) rated burrito in the Bay Area, ranging from Baja Fresh to holes in the wall. When he started, he thought he would have hit them all by the time he had eaten from 50 or 60 taquerias, but he says that there are over 170 places to get a burrito from a walk-up style stand. His top two favorites are Taqueria San Francisco and Papalote.

I wonder if Charles has ever pondered the idea of coming to Los Angeles.

• A recipe for the perfect Chicken Burrito in a Crisp Tortilla. The subheading is "How to keep those burrito-loving teenagers close to home." Which I find hysterical for some reason.
• A guide to some great southern Italian wines for under $10.
• Speaking of Italy, where does the freshest mozzarella come from, Italy or Vermont?
• More wine news, this time from France: it's now legal for winemakers to flavor their wines using wood chips.