As popularized by "The Tonight Show" host Jimmy Fallon as the best burrito in his lifetime, Mission Cantina located in New York City Lower East Side indeed has the best burrito in town. Chef Danny Bowien's latest food fusion, the "Chinese Food Burrito" is getting praises all over New York.
As reported in the Business Insider, Bowien is known to create cultural mashups, experimenting random food pairings. His Chinese Food Burrito which Jimmy Fallon claimed was "the best burrito that I've ever had in my lifetime", is made of fried rice and tofu dishes that come from the menu of Mission Cantina's sister restaurant Mission Chinese.
In an interview with SF Chronicle earlier this month, Bowien was reported saying, "For a long time, I thought a fried rice burrito would be really cool. It's really stonery". He also mentioned that he prefers to eat using spoons rather than chopsticks to avoid increased rice consumption.
"With a burrito it's nice because you get a good bite and good mixture." He also fondly added, "It is the silliest thing we've done. It's a Chinese burrito."
The Chinese Food Burrito is made of salt cod fried rice which is a combination of rice, Chinese sausage, lettuce and egg, and the Mapo Tofu. The latter is a specialty dish which is made with pork, aged beef fat and doubanjiang, a spicy and salty paste. Contrary to most burritos, the Chinese Food Burrito is just made of very few ingredients.
As demonstrated to Business Insider, the mouth watering food concoction is first prepared by placing cheese on a tortilla. Once you see the tortilla bubble from the stove heat, melting partly the cheese you've placed, you can now then add all of the hot ingredients, which will completely melt the cheese. After which the rice and Mapo Tofu are topped with lettuce and cilantro.
Here comes the tricky part. Rolling all the ingredients into one tortilla can be a lot difficult. It often needs getting used to and expert folding skills. After you've acquired the necessary skills to fold the burrito, remember to fold it into an aluminium foil to keep all the ingredients from falling apart. The finished product is quite huge, so may want to share it with another person.
What's good about Mission Cantina is that a portion of the $12 price tag of the Chinese Food Burrito will go to Zero Foodprint, a local non profit focused on climate chage. The restuarant has raised $300,000 since the it opened in 2010. So you may want to grab the best burrito as said by Fallon. Hurry because the restaurant will only serve 100 each day.