Just What Is A “Taco” And What Is A “Burrito”?
Okay, I brought up this question earlier, so I thought I'd do some research. The results are SHOCKING! Yes, prepare to get schooled on the finest Mexican portable eating on the planet.
Heathen and I love "The Laredo Taco Company" inside Stripes. It always bothered me though that they called what was clearly to me a burrito, a "taco". I did some research and I've come up with some vary mixed results.
First I went to Wikipedia. Basically it said a burrito was a "wheat" tortilla wrapped or folded into a cylindrical shape to enclose the filling. I could accept this answer as the gospel if it wasn't for the "wheat" designation which we'll get to later.
Next I checked out the definition for "taco". It said "...corn or wheat tortilla folded or rolled around a filling.
So, if you go with just the definitions in Wikipedia, a burrito is a burrito, but a taco can be a taco or burrito, meaning it doesn't matter what shape, if it has a tortilla and filling it can be referred to as a "taco".
Now since Wikipedia started out with some bad information (the part about burritos being made with just "wheat") I went to Dictionary.com. It identifies a burrito as "...a tortilla folded over a filling". So, according to them, a burrito CAN be a taco. The were even further off (in my opinion) when it came to tacos. They define tacos as "...a tortilla folded into a roll and usually fried". Now my mind is completely blown, because that's what I call, or know as a "chimichanga". At this point I headed back to Wikipedia which confirmed my suspicion that a "chimichanga" is a deep fried burrito. Dictionary.com was somewhat accurate calling it a "deep fried tortilla containing a filling" but made no mention of shape.
So what is what? Well in my world, a burrito is generally a tortilla tube, and a taco is generally a folded over tortilla, and in a lot of cases that tortilla is fried. I guess at the end of the day it doesn't matter as long as they GET INTO MY BELLY!