Editorial Review
Las Fuentes (Reseda, CA)
Score: 7 / 10 Reviewed by: Mark
While browsing bathroom walls (non-burrito blogs) I found a couple of people who raved about the burritos at this place in the (San Fernando) valley. I was in Reseda last night, and hungry, and decided it was a perfect opportunity to check out Las Fuentes. Good call.
It is a large, crowded, noisy, and brightly decorated place that looks like a sit-down Mexican family restaurant ... except that you order your food at the counter, and come back to pick it up when they call your number. They had a pretty comprehensive menu, but I was here on a mission. They advertise two styles of burritos: Gringo style (w/cheese and sauce on top) and Especial (dry, with the cheese on the inside). I ordered a carnitas especial, and then went to study the salsa bar while they prepared it.
They had two trays of fresh pico de gallo: mild (but with a nice kick) and hot (a bigger, but not life threatening kick), a wonderfully creamy (and highly capsicated) salsa verde, fresh onions and cillantro, and a couple of roasted chile salsas (that I stayed away from for fear of overloading my taste buds). They called my number and I picked up my little treasure.
There is something magic about the moment between the time your teeth hit a new burrito and the time your tongue has had its way with that first bite. It is a moment of expectation, where you have no idea what you are about to experience, and where anything is possible, but what ever kind of treat it is to be ... you're about to get some. This was a great first bite ... big chunks of pork, tender on the inside, golden on the outside smothered in a thick and tasty stew of refritos, salsa and cheese. The pork was pretty good, but what amazed me was how wet the burrito seemed to be and how completely it filled my mouth. As I continued eating I was impressed by its consistency and amazed by the fact that such a wet burrito maintained its structural integrity ... despite the absence of any artificial (non-tortilla) wrapping.
After I had eaten about 2/3 of the burrito mano-a-boca, I pulled out my surgical instruments and discected the remainder, to better understand what it was made from and how it was assembled. The burrito was 75% large chunks of succulent pork ... but what mystified me was the ooze that it was swimming in. I could make out chunks of tomato, onion and cillantro from the salsa ... but the refritos and cheese were only detectable by color and taste. They seemed to be perfectly and completely mixed with the salsa. This denied me the pleasure of discrete bursts of smooth cheese, savory refritos and sharp onions ... but it did create a rich and wonderful carrier for the pork.
If only all of the recommendations we found on bathroom walls were this good! Check it out.
–Mark
posted 1/5/2007 10:35 AM
