Burrito Wednesday #8: El Tamarindo

El Tamarindo in "Adams Morgan"

Burrito Wednesday #8 – El Tamarindo

This is more like Casa Blanco in that it’s a sit down place with the carryout containers, rather than a wrapped lunch spot. I was expecting a pretty traditional burrito, but in some ways I think it was the most off the wall one I’ve had so far. I ordered the veggie, and it was pretty expensive at ~$12.

Stylish takeout bags

It was too large, with too much tortilla (it seriously seemed like an 18″ tortilla!) and not enough tomatillo sauce. Ended up being pretty dry. The contents were crazy and included cucumber, carrots, corn and more. They gave a giant mound of sour cream on the side, along with an orange wedge. Ok…. I like vegetables, even weird ones (I like Well Dressed and Cal Tort’s new burrito for example) but this one wasn’t doing it for me. I’ll say a 1 on the meaningless scale.

El Tamarindo Burrito, mid consumption

Burrito Wednesday #7: The Well Dressed Burrito

Shady entrance to the Well Dressed Burrito. Coming out you need to carefully look both ways, reinforcing the speakeasy motif

Burrito Wednesday #7 – The Well Dressed Burrito

Here’s a good one. In the middle of an alley there’s a door for The Well Dressed Burrito. The whole thing is very shady and industrial looking, like you’re going into a speakeasy or murder den. But no! What awaits is a tasty, delicious burrito!

I came by here at the end of 5k lunch time run. Welcome relief, until I had to walk home half a mile holding my burrito with no bag (the great DC bag tax bit me here, only had a credit card so I couldn’t give them 5¢ for a bag).

The counter and kitchen. Looks clean enough, anyway.

They have a few options – I went for the veggie burrito with both black and pinto beans and spinach. I like to have it all, I guess. It comes out pretty large, with some nice salsa on the side.  It had cooled off a fair bit by the time I got it home, but it was still good. If I wasn’t sweaty I would have eaten in the little dining room/office they have in the back there. Funky, but kinda lovable in its own way.

That burrito looks pretty well dressed to me, but a tux would really polish it off

It was large, and pretty good. The vegetable variety was spot on. I think the ingredients could have been distributed a bit better. Occasionally I’d run into a larger chunk of spinach or something. I’d rate it a 3 on the meaningless scale, and definitely go back.

Nom nom nom

Burrito Wednesday #6: Baja Fresh

Baja Fresh at 20th and I

Burrito Wednesday #6 - Baja Fresh

Hit and run since this is a couple weeks late now, oops! My coworker Jaraco was headed here for the green salsa (being a New Mexico boy, that’s important for him I suppose) so I bumped it up the list and joined him.

I have  mixed feelings about Baja Fresh. The ingredients are all fairly high quality, they build them well enough, but it doesn’t gel into a great experience for me. I think the biggest issue I have is that the cold ingredients like pico de gallo and sour cream really cool the whole thing down, so you don’t have the enjoyment of nice hot beans, rice and veggies. The variety of hot sauces and salsas definitely give bonus points, and it’s not too expensive.

Here's the tasty burrito

Overall I’d probably say it’s a 2 on my scale, good, but with some drawbacks.

Quick Review of StudioDesk by BlueLounge

I’m starting to work from home full time now. In general I’m pleased, as the office isn’t an inspiring place at the moment. Unfortunately our apartment is small – 543 sqft according to the property office. We have one Ikea Jerker desk, but Marian’s been mostly using it, while I use the couch, coffee table and a side table. As I’ll be working full time, I’m reclaiming that desk. So, the search was on for a suitable addition. Unfortunately we have only one reasonable space option – along the same wall as the desk and TV where an ugly, never used chair sits.

If we move some furniture around we have about 49 inches of width to play with – not much. We took a look at various leaning desks, but rejected them because the space just didn’t make sense. Marian stumbled upon the StudioDesk by BlueLounge. It seemed intriguing and perfectly suited – she’s a laptop user in need of a small desk. Unfortunately it’s the only piece of furniture made by the company, and we couldn’t find a single independent review by anyone who had actually seen the desk in person. Was it cheap junk being sold for way too much? Would it hold up? Is it worth the money?

Well, it sure looks impressive in the product images.

Since nobody local seemed to carry it, I decided the only way to find out was to order the sucker and write a review. B&H offered it for a better price, with semi-reasonable shipping and most importantly, a 15 day return policy. I secretly ordered it at 11:49 AM on Monday, and Tuesday by 4 it had arrived. The shipping box was pretty banged up, and it was quite heavy.

It's here!

Assembly was reasonably easy. The hardest part was getting it out of the box, while keeping everything in good enough condition to be returned in. The instructions were buried somewhere in the middle so I’d basically unpacked it first.

To attach the legs, you pop off the bottom of the cable tray, and bolt the legs into a diagonal cross brace. Then you screw in the two bottom panels on the trays (the photo on the left is with the trays in place) with 12 screws. That’s almost all the assembly. Once it’s upright you drop the top slider element into the grooves, and slide it forward.

The bottom of the desk, with the panels removed but legs attached.

The underside of the desk, ready to be flipped upright.

I didn’t look into it the materials too carefully, but it seems to mostly be particle board/fiberboard/laminate. Certainly the cable area is, and I assume the desk surface is – except for the edging. The legs are mahogany, and the diagonals are plain plywood. The sliders on the desktop seemed like they might be solid wood, but I couldn’t exactly determine. It’s very heavy, 70lbs. It seemed fairly well built, but ours had a crack in one of the sidewalls of the cable area. It wasn’t tooooo bad, but if we decide to keep it I think we’ll get it replaced. It goes down the height of the side board, and along its length for maybe a foot.

Side long shot of the crack. You can see it along the left side.

Here’s a shot of the main desk top. You can see the various materials. Keep in mind that the desk is laying upside down here, so the highest part of the picture is actually the underside of the desk. You can also see the foam rubber that lines the inside of the slit along the back of the desk, to keep cables in place I assume.

This is the inside of the desktop slot. Note: the desk is laying upside down, so the top of the image is the underside of the desk.

Flipping it over was easy enough. The desktop part just sits down in the middle, and then slides forward. That means you can’t accidentally pull it too far forward, it won’t let you. Clever, that.

Right after adding the desktop and sliding it forward most of the way.

Here's the inside of the storage compartment, from one end to the other.

The fake leather isn’t very nice, IMO. I don’t object to the fakeness, but it wasn’t a nice feel and it was very think. For example, Ikea a pleather desk pad that I think is substantially better. It just sits on top of the slide desktop and sticks slightly over the edge of the seams. It didn’t really sit naturally there, and felt like it could slide off or something. I added the laptop, some speakers, etc. The storage compartment was already feeling a little crowded with just a couple of cables, so I was definitely worried about getting a half dozen USB devices and such in there.

Inside the storage compartment

Here we go - the basic completed setup.

So there you see it – the desk setup. It’s really not huge, and the blotter awkwardly divides the space. In the end, we’re going to be sending it back. It was $533, and really not much better than a $180 Galant. The compartment is clever, but not really clever enough. Some nice $20 alternatives would be nearly as workable for organizing. Hopefully these reviews and comments will help you decide whether it’s the right option for you. I’m sure some folks will love it.

Burrito Wednesday #5: Tomatillo at The Big Hunt

That's no moon bar, it's a space burrito station!

Burrito Wednesday #5 — Tomatillo Taqueria at The Big Hunt.

This was a suggestion from Marian and her coworker, and I’m very glad I listened. Thanks, ladies! It’s a bit of hike from the office, but I think it ended up being worth the trip.

During the day the big hunt rents the window of their bar out to these guys to sell burritos and taco. There’s no seating or anything, just a big open window at counter height. Two guys in there pumping out tasty, comparatively authentic seeming dishes. They branded it pretty well, with signs and menus and such. It didn’t seem nearly as odd as I expected, which was nice. They get bonus points for simple pricing, and it looked like the tacos came in more traditional corn tortillas – awesome.

The veggie burrito was solid – rice, black beans, some sort of stewed green peppers & onions, and guacamole. I added salsa fresca, tomatillo salsa, lettuce and cheese. The cheese was nice, perhaps Panela but maybe something else. They turned them out pretty quickly, and it came to $6.

Building my delicious, tasty burrito.

The burrito looked tasty, but wasn’t especially hot. There was no seating there, and I incorrectly decided to walk back to the office instead of going to the park. By the time I got back to the office with my burrito it was merely lukewarm. I dug in and it was tasty, but overall the luke-warmness was a big let down. All my fault, but sad none the less. I’ll have to go back and eat one straight away.

Here we go, nom nom nom.

I was digging in and enjoying it so much I nearly forgot to take a picture, that’s the only one I got. Mmmm. The ingredients were well distributed and nothing especially stood out for good or bad. It was well made and consistent. It was definitely on the smaller side, and probably much healthier than the others I’ve reviewed. However it made me wish I had a few chips and some salsa to go along with it.

I’d rate it a 3 on the arbitrary scale.

Burrito Wednesday #4: Casa Blanca

Casa Blanca. It's... unassuming

Burrito Wednesday Week #4: June 23, 2010 — Casa Blanca.

This wasn’t my prime option today, but unfortunately it was 2:30 and choices #1 and #2 were already closed. The weather was hot, and this has the advantage of being in the same building as me. I know a few people who love it, but the few times I’ve been it’s not been exceptional. It has a very… authentic kind of feel. They clearly aren’t interested in being a fancy restaurant – they just want to make food cheaply.

Unassuming? Slightly grody?

Swinging in at 2:30, it was fairly empty. There was a world cup game on the TV, and most of the folks were watching it. They were slow to take my order because they were counting money or something. Eventually they got my veggie burrito. I’m fairly sure I got a dinner entree, but not 100%. I don’t recall the exact price, but it was a bit more expensive. The standard veggie came in a styrofoam tray with fresh salsa, rice & beans on the side, and a nice green hot sauce. Inside the burrito we had more beans, some onions, cheese, some lettuce. Nothing too exciting. To make this sing you really had to mix the rice, salsa hot sauce and burrito all together. As a result the extra beans on the side were pretty unnecessary.

Tasty, messy burrito

It was huge, which is nice. The salsa was good, beans pretty good. It remained pretty interesting for most of the eating, which was an accomplishment considering the size. I had very, very low expectations based on some past experiences, but this definitely exceeded it. Might be worth coming back for a happy hour negra modelo on a pleasant afternoon.

I’d rate it a 2 on my arbitrary scale. Pretty good, but not mind blowing. The salsa and hot sauce really saved the day.

Burrito Wednesday #3: Burrito & Coffee Cart

The Burrito & Coffee Cart at 17th and K

Burrito Wednesday Week #3: June 16, 2010 — The Burrito and Coffee Cart.

A mere two blocks away from from Pedro & Vinny’s cart is another burrito cart. Back in 2004 I’d occasionally grab a latte here on the way into the office. I got a burrito once or twice, and was pretty disappointed. Since then I’ve stuck with Pedro & Vinny. However, for the cause of Burrito Wednesdays we must push outside of our comfort zones.

Carlos isn’t as personable or friendly as John. The ordering was much more difficult – he made assumptions and didn’t really ask what exactly I wanted. I ended up with, basically – spinach tortilla, rice, black beans, cheese, a bit of boring salsa, guac and some Cholula. It was something around $6.

Burrito under construction

Unfortunately it wasn’t very good. The tortilla was fine. The cheese was very nicely melted and it was well distributed throughout. The guacamole was definitely the highlight, but it was just from a cosco tub. Frankly, I was hoping from something a bit more unique. The beans and rice were just terribly bland and boring. I didn’t particularly want to finish it, not because of volume but because it was boring. I really can’t see coming back when the fundamental ingredients don’t hold any interest. I give some credit that it was very tidy – unfortunately it was too tidy. Too buttoned up. Too blah.

Sadly it doesn’t score better than 1 on the arbitrary & meaningless scale.

Burrito under consumption

Burrito Wednesday #2: June 9th – Pedro & Vinny’s cart

Pedro and Vinny's burrito cart on K St

Burrito Wednesday Week #2: June 9, 2010 — Pedro and Vinny’s Burrito Cart. (Warning, that’s one of the most obnoxious websites ever).

This is one of my more frequent burrito sources. It’s a block from my office, vegetarian and delicious. Styling little cart at 15th and K Sts with a generally long line. Plus, check out the awesome new sticker on the side. The key here is the fantastic selection of hot sauces. He has 3 homemade ones – the infamous classic mango habanero, a tasty cilantro and a new spicy brown sauce I believe he’s calling “K Street Habanero.”

John Rider at work making a burrito, surrounded by the sauces.

There’s a whole system here. While in the (usually long) line you’ll give John your tortilla choice and yes/no to cheese – I go for tomato chili cheese. While you wait in line the tortilla steams and the cheese melts.

When you get up to the cart there’s a flurry of options to determine your burrito. My choice is usually medium (warning: small has no rice), black & tan (meaning both black beans and refried pinto beans), fresh salsa, guac, and various hot sauces. Usually the mango plus something else to make it hotter. Lately that’s been the “triple delight,” all three of his homemade sauces.

Burrito construction near completion

The total winds up at $6.50 for mine. Cash only and you make your own change. How’s it taste? Fantastic. The rice can be a little dry on occasion, and the beans can be a little bland. However when it’s loaded with good sauces, guac, etc it’s really quite flavorful and satisfying. My biggest complaint consumption side would be that it’s very messy to start and end. Take a look at when I pealed off the first part of foil.

Peeling back that first foil, it's mess as all get out. But it's going to be delicious!

However once the main burrito section is average messiness for a burrito. I feel like in the past (particularly pre-hiatus, he spent almost a year down in the Carolinas or Georgia possibly setting up a storefront down there, but came back) they were a bit more controlled and less messy. Regardless, it was tasty. You even get a free York peppermint patty at the end! I think these get a solid 4 on the arbitrary & meaningless scale.

Burrito consumed. Foil and paper towel carnage everywhere, and the peppermint patty steps up to bat.

Burrito Wednesday #1: Chipotle Dupont

I’ve decided that the time has arrived for the establishment of a new tradition in our great lands: Burrito Wednesday. Everyone agrees that burritos are a delicious and amazing food.

What, wait, why? The concept is delightful in its simplicity. Every Wednesday you should go out in search of a new burrito to try. Ideally these would be entirely new locations, but for my purpose I’m going with a “no repeats” model, where places I’ve been too before are fine, as long as it hasn’t been the featured Burrito Wednesday candidate. Why Wednesday? For one, it’s a shitty day of the week and a nice burrito institution would liven it up. For another, I don’t have any standing meetings around lunch time on Wednesday, like I do on most of the other days of the week.

Please join me (either in a literal, have a burrito at the same table sense or metaphorically) in this new tradition. If Wednesday is bad for you, heck, make it Burrito Monday. Why not? I’ll be maybe posting here about the burritos I consume

Week #1: June 2nd, 2010 Chipotle Dupont Circle

I started off with a close, convenient location – Chipotle Dupont Circle. Yes, you might assume you’ve been to Chipotle and know all there is to know. However this branch has a surprise in store – it features the delicious vegan Garden Blend. A fake meat product, it’s quite tasty and rare. This is the pilot location for the stuff, so it’s not quite your regular Chipotle fare. Today I got a burrito with rice, peppers & onions, black beans, garden blend, salsa fresca, tomatilla hot sauce and cheese. I intended to toss corn & lettuce on there, but screwed up. The total came to $6.71 with tax.

The burrito itself was rather tasty. The lack of veggies was a bit of a disappointment, and the hot sauce wasn’t too exciting. The second half sorta dragged on, without much to keep me engaged. Overall it was big, and tasty. Without the garden blend I’m not sure I would have cared much, but the garden blend is unique and interesting. I highly recommend it. I’d rate it about 3 stars on my meaningless and uncalibrated scale.

In upcoming weeks I hope to feature all my regular burrito spots, and expand to some new ones. Pedro & Vinny’s, CalTort, The Well Dressed Burrito, Baja Fresh, Qdoba, Pica Taco, the 17th st cart and a bunch of others. However I’d love suggestions of places to try out that are within reasonable transit distance of Dupont Circle/Downtown DC. Happy burritoing.

pmxbot command: lunch!

As everyone is well aware, lunch is the most important part of the work day. However it’s often hard to find inspiration when deciding on a delectable dining destination. The ideal solution is to have someone propose options, and everyone reject them until consensus is reached. However nobody enjoys that. Computers can propose options, but that’s less social.

pmxbot has an existing !lunch command that’s supposed to help. Unfortunately you have to fill out the dining list yourself, and frankly, that’s a pain. The result is lots of old, bad definitions in a few limited areas. It does let you sneak in some comedy options (What to have in Canton? PB&J? Leftovers?), but for the main purpose it kinda sucks.

The solution is to use someone else’s database. I cooked one up yesterday pretty quickly using Yahoo Local’s API and the pYsearch convenience module. The result is quite easy, really. The only wrinkle is you need that module (someone could rewrite it to use just urllib and simplejson, if they cared) and a Yahoo API key.

The code is below, also available at http://libpa.st/2K0kh.

@command("lunch", doc="Find a random neary restaurant for lunch using Yahoo Local. Defaults to 1 mile radius, but append Xmi to the end to change the radius.")
def lunch(client, event, channel, nick, rest):
        from yahoo.search.local import LocalSearch
        location = rest.strip()
        if location.endswith('mi'):
                radius, location = ''.join(reversed(location)).split(' ', 1)
                location = ''.join(reversed(location))
                radius = ''.join(reversed(radius))
                radius = float(radius.replace('mi', ''))
        else:
                radius = 1
        srch = LocalSearch(app_id=yahooid, category=96926236, results=20, query="lunch", location=location, radius=radius)
        res = srch.parse_results()
        max = res.totalResultsAvailable if res.totalResultsAvailable < 250 else 250
        num = random.randint(1, max) - 1
        if num < 19:
                choice = res.results[num]
        else:
                srch = LocalSearch(app_id=yahooid, category=96926236, results=20, query="lunch", location=location, start=num)
                res = srch.parse_results()
                choice = res.results[0]
        return '%s @ %s - %s' % (choice['Title'], choice['Address'], choice['Url'])