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.