Just like those damn Oscar gift bags. Rich people get all the free stuff!

edit: The custom-made card itself is cool, though. Decidedly non-transferable!

Shouldn't we get a warning when we are being sent to Bleacher Report?

Never been to a Chipotle's, but I see from their website that one is supposedly coming here soon. How do they compare to, say, Moe's (which we already have, & which I find perfectly OK, probably mainly because they offer tofu)?

a lifetime supply of diarrhea

I would rank Chipotle ahead of Moe's and Qdoba, because the meat does not as closely resemble blobs of goo. Moe's has better rice though.

Also, blah blah, no real human would ever eat something from a chain when they could eat something real, blah blah, makes a mockery of REAL MEXICAN FOOD, or possibly makes a mockery of REAL SAN FRANCISCO FOOD because the SAN FRANCISCO BURRITO is something ENTIRELY different from the original burrito, blah blah, etc. Now we can skip that part of the thread.

Moe's has better rice though.

That's disappointing. I mean, Moe's rice is perfectly satisfactory, but it doesn't really compare to garden-variety rice at any actual Mexican place I can think of.

I've never done it, but there have been times I felt like going to a Mexican restaurant & ordering about 10 sides of rice & nothing else.

I just made Barbacoa rip-off burritos for supper last night, damn those things are good.

Also, blah blah, no real human would ever eat something from a chain when they could eat something real, blah blah, makes a mockery of REAL MEXICAN FOOD, or possibly makes a mockery of REAL SAN FRANCISCO FOOD because the SAN FRANCISCO BURRITO is something ENTIRELY different from the original burrito, blah blah, etc. Now we can skip that part of the thread.

Sir, you have just performed a genuine public service.

Shouldn't we get a warning when we are being sent to Bleacher Report?

Yes, but you have to click through ten pages before you get to the warning.

Never been to a Chipotle's, but I see from their website that one is supposedly coming here soon. How do they compare to, say, Moe's (which we already have, & which I find perfectly OK, probably mainly because they offer tofu)?

Any major city will have a hundred better burrito places, but they're pretty darn good for a chain fast food place. Sort of the Five Guys of Mexican food.

I think Pittsburgh has one better burrito place.

Unrelated, but anyone care to share any information/advice about buying a wok? The main questions I have are -- is it a functional piece of kitchen equipment? In other words, can I get good use out of it outside of dishes akin to stir-fries (although given the variations I can do with stir-fries, it's not necessary if I'm basically only using it for that)? Also, can I get by with using one with only a standard stove (i.e. my burners are, I imagine, nowhere near restaurant quality)? And, if I do eventually buy one, any suggestions on particular features to look for?

Not a big fan of Chipotle's. The burritos are pretty massive, so that's nice, but I find the meat tough and unappealing.

I haven't had Moe's in a while (since college, actually), but I loved them at the time. The athletic department where I worked used to have Moe's cater baseball games from time-to-time and the sportswriters nearly killed each other in the stampede to get a burrito.

I started using my wok again a couple of weeks ago after discovering that I could stir-fry using water rather than oil (I can't eat fried stuff in general). Was pleasantly surprised a few years back that it works just fine on my stove's electric burners. (I'd prefer gas, but I wouldn't prefer to buy a new stove.)

I don't think I've ever bought one that wasn't the cheapest in the store ... maybe around $8?

I think that pretty much as long as you're buying one made of steel, rather than aluminum (assuming that's even a choice), you're good.

Unrelated, but anyone care to share any information/advice about buying a wok?

We're getting deeper into spring training, and posters here at BTF are sharpening their segue skills to mid-season form. I love this place.

Get a flat bottomed wok. An expensive all clad or the equivalent is your best bet, but if you want a cheap one there are plenty of carbon steel woks that will work.

I think Chipotle is great, and I've had plenty of real mission burritos. It's not the BEST burrito you'll ever have, but the quality is damn good and very consistent.

I just read a book on the history mexican food in the US that was pretty good: Taco USA.

Get a flat bottomed wok.

Aren't those called skillets?

Flat bottomed woks sit flush against the burner. Traditional rounded woks sit over an open flame, but almost no one in the US has that type of burner at home.

here's an example:
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/hammered-14-inch-wok/

Hmmm. The ones I've owned -- 3 at the most, but probably just 2 (I dimly recall that the first one went with my first ex-wife) -- came with little rings that you sat the wok on, over the burner.


Edit: As pictured, I see, in that link's first 2 "Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed" photos.

Those can work if you have a really good gas burner.

Maybe I'm not just a very exacting cook, but I've never had anything but a garden-variety gas stove. And as noted a few minutes ago, I don't even have that these days, but the wok works fine (to my pleasant surprise) with electric burners.

Then again, I've never aspired to anything above garden-variety stir-fry, either.

Never been to a Chipotle's, but I see from their website that one is supposedly coming here soon. How do they compare to, say, Moe's (which we already have, & which I find perfectly OK, probably mainly because they offer tofu)?

Don't know about Moe's (never eaten there) but I find Chipotle's a good cut below Baja Fresh. None of their meats are particularily flavorful, their 1! kind of salsa is serviceable at best; I guess I'd call them the apex of assembly-line Mexican food ...

Montgomery is an extremely mediocre excuse (in just about every aspect) for a small city (population right at 200,000), at least compared to Little Rock, where I lived previously (& which most people aren't likely to confuse with New York or Los Angeles), & Shreveport, not too terribly far from where I grew up. Looks like Birmingham has at least a couple of Chipotle's, as well as various other chains (like P.F. Chang, which I know nothing about but have heard of) that people here probably only dream about. As far as culinary & other sociocultural offerings go, I'd say the city ranks fourth among the four Alabama cities of any size, which is to say behind not only Birmingham but also Huntsville & Mobile. Not sure why that is (apparently, before I moved here in 11/01, the city had been handicapped for a couple of decades by an ultra-powerful, reactionary pig of a mayor who had a morbid fear of anything new), but nevertheless it is.

I am addicted to chipolte's rice, mostly because I friggin' loce cilantro. Since there's none near me, I've been trying to make my own, but so far nothing has hit the spot.

I am addicted to chipolte's rice, mostly because I friggin' loce cilantro.

Now I'm intrigued again.

I've never done it, but there have been times I felt like going to a Mexican restaurant & ordering about 10 sides of rice & nothing else.

rice is actually really, really easy to make if you do it right. i basically just put the uncooked rice in a baking dish, add boiling water, cover with foil and bake in the oven for an hour. the rice gets done perfectly every time and it actually stores pretty well for a couple of days, too.

None of their meats are particularily flavorful, their 1! kind of salsa is serviceable at best;

Where are you? Our Chipotle's have mild (tomato), medium (a green sauce and also a corn salsa), and a hot (red sauce). Plus, they have multiple varieties of tabasco (chipotle tabasco on Chipotle burritos kicks ass).

I got very lazy (even more than usual) a year or so ago & bought a rice cooker, but I learned the hard way that those tend to give out after a few uses, or at least the two cheap ones (one Rival, the other Black & Decker) I had did. Now I use a microwave version.

the free salsa bar at moes is what keeps drawing me in. especially the green salsas. i am basically having salsa with a side of burrito. chipotles is closer to my house, but they only give you the salsa on the burrito. i don't see much difference in meat/beans/rice from either to be honest. moes will also put fresh cilantro on the burrito.

rice is actually really, really easy to make if you do it right. i basically just put the uncooked rice in a baking dish, add boiling water, cover with foil and bake in the oven for an hour. the rice gets done perfectly every time and it actually stores pretty well for a couple of days, too.

That's not the rice you get at Mexican restaurants, though. It usually has tomato in some form, stock in place of water, onion and other stuff depending on the source.

I got spoiled about 3 decades ago with regard to salsas & such by a place in Tempe, Ariz., called Restaurant Mexico. The sauce they used on their enchiladas was green, but it was by no means the standard tomatillo-based salsa verde that I've always encountered everywhere else. After that, as well as the red salsas they served with chips, no other salsa has impressed me enough to make much of a difference to me.

I got very lazy (even more than usual) a year or so ago & bought a rice cooker, but I learned the hard way that those tend to give out after a few uses, or at least the two cheap ones (one Rival, the other Black & Decker) I had did. Now I use a microwave version.

I had a friend who worked at Williams-Sonoma, and with her 40% employee discount I didn't feel bad shelling out for the Panasonic programmable one. I wonder now how I lived my life without it. The best feature is that I can program it to start cooking when I'm not home, so that as I'm walking in the door the rice is about 10 minutes from being done - just enough time to saute up some chicken and vegetables and have a meal.

There's a lot of appliances and other conveniences in my house I'd give up before I let that one go.

That's not the rice you get at Mexican restaurants, though. It usually has tomato in some form, stock in place of water, onion and other stuff depending on the source.

Yeah. That's what I'd love to be able to replicate.

Or maybe not, since it's not like I really need to have any of that on hand whenever I want it.

gef ~ With your dietary restrictions, it doesn't really matter, but some of the absolute best fried chicken anywhere in the south is at Martin's in a little strip mall near the Montgomery Country Club. But beyond some pretty good meat & three places, the options are incredibly limited. Is Corsino's on Court street near I85 still open? Looks like a dive, and its in a questionable neighborhood, but reasonably authentic Italian. Olive Room downtown was pretty good and a funky atmosphere but it closed too.

Chiptole's pretty good, especially in an area where immediate Mexican dining is limited. One of the cooler things about Chiptole is that they're one of the few places that try to serve their beef medium, leaving a nice shade of pink instead of over nuking the beef to well done like most places. As a person who likes the meat rare, I really like that.

My wife's doctor put her on a fairly restrictive diet and Chipotle is one of the better fast food places to fit her diet, so long as it's one of their salads or brown rice bowls, the burritos not as much. It's a lot harder to eat healthy at a tastier taco shop, especially if your processed carbs are restricted.

Rosa Mexicano's cookbook has some good flavored rice recipes (yellow, green, red).

gef ~ With your dietary restrictions, it doesn't really matter, but some of the absolute best fried chicken anywhere in the south is at Martin's in a little strip mall near the Montgomery Country Club.

I actually have eaten their fried chicken, when I feel up to suffering the consequences, & it's worth it. Great stuff. I love their cornbread, too.

I haven't been to Corsino's in forever, but yeah, it's pretty darned good, or at least was. (Not sure if it's still there).

Out here at Maxwell, we're all still trying to deal with the closures of not only Tony's Pizza (maybe 4 years ago) but also, quite recently, the Wagon Wheel.

Where are you?

SoCal.

I should clarify, I meant the pico de gallo-ish salsa that they hand out with the chips (which, of course, are extra).

I can't remember if the local Chipotle's has bottles of tabasco or not, I'm not really a fan of vinegar-based hot sauces, so I probably just overlooked it ...

If you don't have good mexican, or are in a rush, then Chipotle's not bad. Since I live in SoCal, I'm covered.

I am addicted to chipolte's rice, mostly because I friggin' loce cilantro.

Seconded. The Chipotle Tabasco also complements the rice quite nicely.

Recognizing that Chipotle started off as a spin-off from McDonald's, I guess (I think Mickey D's got bought out of their holdings, didn't they?), it was considered quite an upgrade from usual fast food fare, particularly by McDonald's standards.

When a new Chipotle store opened a couple blocks from my house a few years ago, I was one of their very first customers which has had some perks along the way. I also bailed them out one time when they ran out of Chipotle Tabasco and I went to the Vons grocery store next door and bought some for them to restock. The manager was just stunned when I handed him the extra bottles of Tabasco. I told him it was absolutely unacceptable for them to be out of Chipotle Tabasco. For the last six months or so since then I have received a lot of free burritos from Chipotle. I usually go about once a week, so call it 4 times a month - a couple times a month the manager will see me walk in and tell the cashier this one's on the house - the free burritos I've received have long since exceeded what it cost me to buy the Tabasco. I guess the manager understands the benefits of establishing good will with the public but I'm a loyal customer. It's not free burritos for life or even a year, but it's still pretty cool.

I can't remember if the local Chipotle's has bottles of tabasco or not, I'm not really a fan of vinegar-based hot sauces, so I probably just overlooked it ...

they do, including the chipotle flavor, which I don't see that often. I admit I swipe a bottle every time I'm there.

Recognizing that Chipotle started off as a spin-off from McDonald's, I guess (I think Mickey D's got bought out of their holdings, didn't they?), it was considered quite an upgrade from usual fast food fare, particularly by McDonald's standards

Chipotle started off as an independent company, was bought by McDonalds, then the original owner didn't like the direction McDonald's was going to take the chain and he bought it back. At least, that's what I've heard...

edit: http://nutritionwonderland.com/2009/06/does-mcdonalds-own-chipotle-mailbag/

I am now very hungry.

I also now have $3 & change in my checking account (pay day is tomorrow).

That juxtaposition of facts is not at all promising.

I ate at Chipotle's once, it was forgettable: an unusual amount of rice seemed to have been piled on whatever I ate. I don't avoid them, I just don't eat or cook a lot of Tex-Mex. And not to channel #5, but there are better storefront places just as cheap and convenient, if you live in Texas, at least.

Back to the wok, though: I've had a thin, carbon-steel, cheap wok for a very long time, and it's been ideal and next to indestructible. You can't go far wrong; just avoid electric, non-stick, or heavy woks. The whole idea is for the bottom to heat very quickly indeed; thick metal defeats the design.

There are lots of things you can make in them aside from stir-fry. You can braise in them; you can get a couple of stackable bamboo steamers and steam a considerable amount of food over very little water. You can also "velvet" food in a wok (Google some instructions for that). Traditionally this is done with oil, but I've also done it with water. You very slightly cook, say, chopped chicken, over rather tepid heat, and then recook it in sauce. Sounds like half-hearted deepfrying, but done correctly, the food doesn't absorb a lot of the oil, and it is a wonderful preparation.

I'm from San Francisco so I am required to say I loathe Chipotle or blahblahblah, but I live in London now and honestly, it's nice to go there and know I'm going to get a burrito that at least approximates what I would get at home. It's also responsible for a surge in interest in burritos in London, as there's now quite a few different places to get them at.

I mean, I wouldn't have it in a million years in SF, because there's great taquerias all over the City. But it's a good thing to have over here.

Chipotle rice is lightly sauteed with vegetable oil, lime juice and cilantro prior to cooking with water. Also, they use basmati rice instead of the regular cheap stuff.

When I was in college I ate at a Chipotle (without exaggeration) at least four times a week. I moved somewhere without a chipotle and hunted far and wide for copycat recipes. We are getting one in my town this summer and I am PUMPED. It blows the other chain burrito joints out of the water IMO but the salsa is a real weakness. I love a good salsa verde.

Also, they use basmati rice instead of the regular cheap stuff.

Good to know. I guess basmati is my rice of choice; I have a 5(I think)-lb. bag, minus whatever I've used over the last few weeks, at the house even as I type.

Though it's all good, I guess, as long as they're not using instant rice. I know people who insist that there's no difference in taste between that stuff & the real thing, & I think they're insane.

Chipotle is considerably better than Moe's, IMO - very much including the rice. I do like Baja Fresh more still, but those two are different enough that I can "get" liking either more than the other.
That said, chipotle is the closest fast food Mexican to my house and I always drive a few miles extra for local options...
**
48: They are insane, yes. Favorite rice is nishiki, but basmati is up there.
I don't eat rice often, but I made sure to buy a decent rice steamer. Wonderful kitchen tool.

I'm a bit surprised by the poster upthread saying Moe's has better rice than Chipotle. The rice is what really sets Chipotle apart from their competitors. It's fantastic! Cilantro-Lime rice, and you can actually taste the Cilantro and Lime. Their chicken and barbacoa are both quite excellent as well.

Chipotle is actually my favorite national fast food chain, and it isn't much of a contest. Also, as a poster mentioned earlier, you can eat quite healthy there. I lost 65 pounds over a 4 month span 2 years ago, and 90% of my lunches during that time were Chicken Burrito Bowls from Chipotle.