gwak...ay...mohl?

I moved into my new apartment yesterday! The process was far from being stress-free, but now I am focusing on the positives. It's gorgeous! Tomorrow when it's sunny out I will take photos of my beautiful new home. 10th floor, lovely cityscape views, homey atmosphere. I can't wait for you to see the pics.

As for tonight...I made the common mistake of going to dance class hungry. It was a steamy hot day today so I didn't want to eat when I was going to be working out in a leotard and tights, but halfway through class when my lack of energy resulted in an inability to do any moves well, I regretted the decision. On the way home I decided to take a gamble.

The Guzman Y Gomez taqueria around the block from home has...intrigued me. My expectations were low, and I think that's good, because I found my dinner to be moderately enjoyable. The man behind the counter and those in the kitchen were all speaking Mexican spanish, so I felt good about eating there. Unfortunately the only options were "mild" or "chipotle," neither of which is my preferred style of Mexican food. I got a pork chipotle burrito (classed as "spicy") with guacamole, beans, rice, and cheese. I did ask the salesman if they had any aguas frescas hiding out in the kitchen, but to no avail. He started talking to me in Spanish though, so it must have been as refreshing to him to have a customer familiar with Mexican food as those aguas frescas would have been to my thirsty gullet. [Note to self: buy ingredients to make horchata!]

So, a detailed review of my first Australian burrito, broken down by ingredients:
TORTILLA: Good! Easily the best part of the burrito. But that's not a small compliment! A bad tortilla : a burrito :: a crappy bun : a hamburger. It tasted store bought (pre-cooked), but the texture was good, and it was warm.
PORK: Definitely not the carnitas we all know and love in the Ciudad de los Angeles. Little chunks of slow-roasted pork with (what I would deem) a mild chipotle sauce. If I were eating this in the restaurant instead of take-away, I certainly would have needed some of the GyG habanero sauces they had on the tables. The meat was really bland, spiciness aside. I don't know if they weren't cooking it with enough lard or what, but it didn't have much flavor.
RICE: Well-cooked with a good texture, but I have no idea what kind of rice it is. It's certainly not yellow rice you'd expect in a burrito, but I don't know what kind it is. It seems similar to Cuban rice, but is not that, so I don't know. It must be Asian rice or something. Tasty, though!
BEANS: Sigh. They're black beans. I mean, where am I, a Hooverville? Please. They were the only option! Could they not acquire pinto beans? Refritos are easy to make! Honestly.
SALSA: Decent. The pico de gallo was good, but as you know I needed a little more kick to it.
CONSTRUCTION: Unlike those losers at the incredibly overrated restaurant chain the U.S., Chipotle, the cooks at Guzman y Gomez knew to evenly distribute the ingredients within the burrito. Of course, it was a smaller handful than you'd get in L.A., so you could easily get all ingredients in one bite. It needed to be wrapped tighter, but I won't fault them because it may have gotten jostled when I carried it home.

So the verdict is that I'm giving the burrito a 3/5 for quality, a 2/5 for taste, and a 4.5/5 for presentation. Also, they sold Goya juices, so I'll give them a silver star for that. Aguas frescas would have gotten them a gold.