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By "bastard taco" I mean stuff rolled up in a tortilla that makes absolutely no pretense at being authentic Mexican or Tex-Mex.

Dinner tonight was a taco lightly brushed with butter and garlic powder with mushrooms, bell pepper, and mozzarella cheese parked in the microwave for 40 seconds to melt the cheese. Three of them, actually, and a bottle of beer.

I'm also thinking of doing an olive oil and garlic seasoned tortilla with feta, mushrooms, spinach, and nuts of some sort given the same treatment.

Of course, there are a bajillion variations - caesar salad wrapped up in a tortilla, tuna or chicken salad in a tortilla a variant that's essentially a turkey (or other) sandwich rolled up in a tortilla instead of between slices of bread, and so forth.

Anyone else do this? Any other ideas?

Could you explain how this is distinct from a burrito, or possibly a wrap?

Well, yes, also known as burrito or wrap...

...but the key thing here is that it is not Mexican - it takes the Mexican equivalent of bread and fills it with something from another cuisine entirely. Like, say, Mu Shu pork (or chicken or whatever) in a tortilla. Or corned beef and cabbage with horseradish sauce on a tortilla.

Say "tortilla" or "taco" or "burrito" and people think "beans, tomatoes, peppers" or "spicy meat, tomatoes, peppers".

It's Mexican bread with something from somewhere else inside.

All this sounds so tasty.

Yeah, I'd eat it. I enjoy a variety of wraps, and I'm not particular about "authenticity" unless its being sold as "authentic". Cuisine evolves anyway, like everything else.

That's my lunch almost every day when I'm working. I grab whatever leftover meat we have in the fridge, mix it with vegetables, add some dressings & other stuff we have lying around, then wrap it all up in a wrap or pita. I'm convinced that wraps are the best way to clean out leftovers from the fridge since pretty much anything can be stuffed into a wrap and still come out tasting pretty decent.

Well I've taken Orange Chicken I've made and eaten it in tortillas because I didn't want to get any extra dished dirty.

I made a broiled andouille sausage in a lightly-toasted flour tortilla with pepper jack cheese, baby portobello mushrooms, butter lettuce, a dill pickle, some kalamata olives, and brown deli mustard for dinner yesterday morning and it was glorious.

Bastard Burritos are a major staple of Denver street truck food. You can get all kinds of stuff in a tortilla. Off the top of my head, I can think of Mexican, Japanese, Jamaican, Indian, Vietnamese-Style French, Vietnamese-style Vietnamese, and some kind of Neo-German sausage and sauerkraut thing getting slung in burrito form downtown right now, plus the ever-popular gyros, which aren't all that different despite using pita instead of tortillas.

Ghetto Edit: Denver and Colorado Springs have a metric fuckload of Vietnamese-Americans due to massive relocations of orphaned refugees to this state during the eponymous war, kind of like how Minnesota has almost every single Hmong-American.

Another non-Mexican (by what some may consider a narrow margin) recipe that I enjoy:

The Guatemalan Street Burrito lady who works 20th and Market street slings bomb-ass vegetarian, vegan, and chicken versions of a flour tortilla with (always) rice, potato, hot peppers, and black beans, (usually) manchego cheese, and (sometimes) shredded chicken, served in foil out of an Igloo cooler.

I'll make breakfast burritos with like sausage, egg and cheese but that seems fairly common. I do on occasion make a cold cuts burrito. Like a cold cut sub with a variety of sandwich meats but in a burrito shell. Tastes pretty good.

Also tried some bastard burrito nachos that tasted decent. Pretty made nachos but instead of tossing the nacho cheese and chili on some chips I tossed it on a burrito. Of course I did realize I pretty much just made a normal burrito but with nacho cheese instead of mexican and a slightly different burger meat.

If breakfast burritos qualify, I have a regular customer who works at a bar that makes the best breakfast burritos ever, which I frequently receive from her as a tip:

Each burrito is rolled up in a jumbo size flour tortilla (seriously, these things are the size of a newborn baby), and filled with scrambled egg, thin-sliced grilled flank steak, fried potatoes with the skins on, cheddar cheese, garlic, jalapeño peppers, red bell peppers, and fried white onions.

Of course breakfast burritos qualify!

I tried the feta-greens-olive oil thing and it was edible but not quite right. I was going to add nuts, but my remaining store of same had been, um, colonized by something insectoid so that was a no-go. Probably needs a touch of some sort of additional seasoning as well.

Well, took a few tries to perfect my mozzarella-pepper-mushroom-garlic-butter combo, too.

We make our own breakfast burritos. We keep them simple, but filling. We go to Costco and get a chub of spicy jimmy dean sausage, smoked bacon, hash browns and eggs. Fry everything up, wrap in a freshly-cooked flour tortilla and top with salsa and tobasco. We make enough to store for several days.

Broomstick wrote:By "bastard taco" I mean stuff rolled up in a tortilla that makes absolutely no pretense at being authentic Mexican or Tex-Mex.

Dinner tonight was a taco lightly brushed with butter and garlic powder with mushrooms, bell pepper, and mozzarella cheese parked in the microwave for 40 seconds to melt the cheese. Three of them, actually, and a bottle of beer.

I'm also thinking of doing an olive oil and garlic seasoned tortilla with feta, mushrooms, spinach, and nuts of some sort given the same treatment.

There's an idea for dinner tomorrow evening. Thanks, Broomstick.

I have(and often still do)spread peanut butter and jelly on tortillas, usually in lieu of bread. This had the added benefit of grossing my ex out, when I first did this some years ago, but, what was I to do, when her worthless parents ate all the bread I'd just bought the day before?!

And, I made some pulled pork Reubens for dinner tonight. I even used Velveeta slices instead of Swiss.

I've started freezing the bell peppers - they keep longer.

You slice them thin, place them on a cookie sheet, and pop them in the freezer for a half an hour. After that, they're frozen, you scoop them off the cookies sheet, and pop them in a baggie. When you want to add pepper to something you just grab some frozen slices.

I get bell peppers in yellow, orange and red when they're on sale and slice bunch up. Can last awhile.

Wouldn't a gyro be included in this...

I don't see why not, especially since I've seen gyros done in a variety of non-tradtional ways.

U.P. Cinnabar wrote:I have(and often still do)spread peanut butter and jelly on tortillas, usually in lieu of bread.

Have you tried peanut butter & Nutella? Nutella on one half, a thin spread of peanut butter on the other, roll it up and enjoy. Add sesame seeds for even more goodness.

J wrote:

U.P. Cinnabar wrote:I have(and often still do)spread peanut butter and jelly on tortillas, usually in lieu of bread.

Have you tried peanut butter & Nutella? Nutella on one half, a thin spread of peanut butter on the other, roll it up and enjoy. Add sesame seeds for even more goodness.

I have, actually. And, what a wonderful mix of tastes and textures Jif and Nutella both make on a sandwich.

I'll have to try adding sesame seeds the next time I make it. Which, in turn, means a drive to Muskogee, as the Walmart here in Wagoner doesn't stock it.

A German friend of mind makes a sandwich he has christened the "fat bomb."

It consists of two thick slices of white bread, Nutella on one slice, peanut butter on the other, and a layer of honey between them.

Rumor has it he's made it with a third slice in the middle with honey on both sides, on rare occasion.

That "fat bomb" would go well with Polaner All-Fruit Black Cherry spread in place of the honey. Better, when the bread's toasted. Or when you use the heels as the top and bottom bread.

Insisting on something being authentic is silly. If everybody did that there wouldnt be all that many different kinds of food. If something tastes good it tastes good.
I was once told that I was doing it "wrong" and that every Mediterranian would be spinning in his grave when I fried chopped olives and mixed it with other stuff.
People who insist on sticking to some imagined rules amaze me. It seems like a real barrier to a lot of good things. Not only in regards to food.

In general I agree with you but it would be wrong to say authenticity is not at times a good thing. Its greatest benefit is that it lets you quickly pick up a whole range of recipes that you know work well (because a whole culture has been doing them for ages). Thus it makes for an excellent basis for future development if you are so inclined. And if not it still makes for an easy way to add to your cookbook without having to spend too much time thinking and experimenting.

salm wrote:Insisting on something being authentic is silly. If everybody did that there wouldnt be all that many different kinds of food. If something tastes good it tastes good.
I was once told that I was doing it "wrong" and that every Mediterranian would be spinning in his grave when I fried chopped olives and mixed it with other stuff.
People who insist on sticking to some imagined rules amaze me. It seems like a real barrier to a lot of good things. Not only in regards to food.

I might want to try an authentic version of something so I have a good baseline of comparison to know what it's supposed to taste like. Beyond that it's a pretty silly thing to be obsessed with.

Yep. I enjoy trying authentic cuisine, but I don't feel constrained by it. Fusion food is also fun! Of course, you can go overboard with that, too, but basically, I like to experiment a little bit with food. It's another way to enjoy it.