California Tortilla anyone?

Before we went to Trader Joe's (see my thread in the Misc. food-related forum), we stopped for lunch at the California Tortilla, which was in the same strip mall as TJ's.

I don't know how big of a chain this is, but there seem to be quite a few of them in the mid-Atlantic region. The food was very good and fresh, but a bit pricey for a "fast food" place, imho.

I had a spinach quesadilla, which comes with salsa and sour cream. I also got a small guacamole. The spinach was fresh and very delicious in the quesdilla, which was a huge flour tortilla that they folded in half. My daughter got a burrito that was just -huge-! It was stuffed with chicken, mexican rice, barbeque sauce, lettuce, tomatoes and ranch dressing. I think. LOL Now her comment was that it was good, but she preferred the burrito she'd had a Baja Fresh. To drink, I had a bottled water and my daughter got a soda. For the two of us, the total was over $16. Pricey for fast food. But it was delicious.

ETA: damn, I should have previewed this a tad bit longer than I did! Grammar fixed now, I hope.

Tarr, that spinach thing sounds real good! I think I'll try making one at home.

Good food isn't cheep, cheep food isn't good... or something like that. Hmmm, where did I hear that?
Joe

California Tortilla?? Hmm. There aren't any in California.

By the way, I think in CA if you tried asking for Ranch Dressing and BBQ sauce on a burrito they'd laugh you out of the place. You want some kind of tomato thingy, it's salsa and you want a white dairy thingy, it's crema (sour cream). Period . . . unless you're in a chain like Chipotle. I've never been in one of those so I don't know what they might do.

This seems to prove my rule about places named after some other region or place than they are. Always a bad idea.

Back in the mid 80's on one of my early trips to WV where I now live one of the grocery stores here sold Calif style cottage cheese. I bought some and to me is was just small curd cottage cheese.

BT is correct. If you want Ranch (ugh) or BBQ sauce (ugher) in restaurants that serve quesadillas and burritos, you have to smuggle them in from home.

I don't recall ever seeing a spinach quesadilla offered on a menu here in...... California. Maybe in the vegetarian joints, but I don't spend a whole lot of time (read: none) in places like that, and they're few and far between.

Reading off the take-out menu of California Tortilla, here is the burrito my daughter has: crunchy BBQ ranch, which has: grilled mesquite chicken, Mexican rice, black beans, ranch dressing, BBQ sauce, tortilla chips, salsa and lettuce. I tell you, that thing was huge! They do offer the burritos in two sizes, small and regular. My spinach quesadilla did have cheese in it, btw.

Turns out the "World HQ" of California Tortilla is in Rockville MD!

quote:

Originally posted by tarragon
My spinach quesadilla did have cheese in it, btw.

They got that part covered. Cheese is what the item owes part of its name to.

EDIT: This restaurant you went to offers what L.A. foodies would call "fusion food". I'm not an L.A. foodie, by the way. Just an L.A. native.

quote:

Originally posted by tarragon

Turns out the "World HQ" of California Tortilla is in Rockville MD!

Well, the payback was that I think I remember seeing a "Chesapeake Crab House" somewhere in the SF Bay Area once upon a time.

But as far as the size of the burrito, do I need to once again post a picture of a classic "Mission Style" burrito, the progenator of all such monsters?