Students taste-test Mexican eateries
By Maggie Beidelman
The taste test
Finding a Mexican fast food restaurant in California is easy. Finding the best one -- that can be time consuming and expensive. So we did it for you.
In a blind taste test of chicken burritos, chips and salsa from five "no tablecloth" Mexican food restaurants within a four-mile radius, 10 Santa Clara students and faculty determined whose food had the best overall flavor, the freshest ingredients and more on a five-point scale. The final scores are averages of the critics' personal rankings.
The contestants included the student-celebrated Henry's Fresh Mexican Grill, the substantial Mondo Burrito, La Victoria of the famous orange sauce, Las Palmas down The Alameda, and the obnoxiously yellow El Chalateco.
Audio by Maggie Beidelman; photos by Sophie Asmar; music "Tamacun," by Rodrigo y Gabriela
The orange sauce
The burrito with the best overall flavor and most favorable level of spiciness came from La Victoria of downtown San Jose. However, Las Palmas' burrito beat La Victoria in level of fresh ingredients.
"There are so many variables in this -- like how much salsa you decide to put on," said professor Shelby McIntyre of the marketing department. The overall consensus was that La Victoria's famous orange sauce was probably what gave its burrito the edge it needed.
"My house has been known to steal bottles (of orange sauce) from La Vic's -- we return them to get them refilled, though," said Katy Erker, the new Santa Clara Community Action Program president.
"I stand by if I could put La Vic's sauce on most any burrito, but especially Henry's, that's what I would do," said Erker.
The underdog
Austin Woody, the new Associated Students president, said, "I like the freshness of Henry's pico de gallo," which got second, predictably, to La Victoria's orange sauce for overall flavor of salsa (but first in ideal level of spiciness).
"I think I take Henry's for granted," said Karp. "I think what really scares me about Henry's is that I just associate it with â?¦ Henry's." When asked to elaborate, Karp merely said that it's on "principle" that she doesn't prefer Henry's. Maybe it's the inevitability of encountering other empty Santa Clara stomachs there. Or that "there's only so much room in Henry's (to sit)," as Karp said.
"Number five (Las Palmas) is great. I love number five," said Karp. "I need to find that place." Las Palmas is tucked away on a corner two miles down The Alameda, right before the Shell gas station and Indian movie theater.
The chips
"The chips are pretty distinctive, actually," said McIntyre, also the faculty director of Communitas RLC. "Some are triangular, some are round. I like the triangular ones better. The round ones are hard to get in your mouth."
Henry's triangular chips won best overall flavor, crunch and saltiness, in fact. "Henry's definitely has the best chips. They're far superior," said Karp. Mondo Burritos' chips (their only winning item) came in at a close second, also triangular and "very fresh" according to Matt Carnes, S.J.
On the other hand, El Chalateco's and La Victoria's chips were frowned upon as "definitely bagged" by several critics. "The round ones you can tell they didn't actually cut tortillas," said Erker.
Reason to eat
Professor McIntyre volunteered some good advice to remember when eating these burritos: "Refried beans and rice are the perfect protein. I don't know if it's true, but I've heard that."
Contact Maggie Beidelman at (408) 551-1918 or mbeidelman@scu.edu.