The word burrito means little donkey, and in an 1895 dictionary of Mexicanisms it was simply the Guanajuato word for a taco. This episode traces how that regional slang became a food of its own. We start with the tortilla-wrapped meals of the Maya and the Pueblo peoples, then weigh the folk stories: bedrolls on a donkey, Juan Mendez’s street stand in Ciudad Juarez during the Mexican Revolution, and a Sonoran claim about vendors secretly selling donkey meat. Because wheat grows better than corn in northern Mexico, the original border burrito was a small, thin flour tortilla holding just one or two fillings, such as deshebrada.

We then follow the burrito into the United States: early menus at El Cholo in Los Angeles, Erna Fergusson’s 1934 New Mexico cookbook, and Duane Roberts’ frozen burritos in 1956. San Francisco’s Mission District brought the oversized Super Burrito and the steam table assembly line that chains like Chipotle later spread everywhere. We compare San Diego’s no-frills style and its French fry-filled California burrito with the chile-heavy Los Angeles tradition and fusion takes like Roy Choi’s Kogi burrito.

• How the word burrito started as regional slang for a taco
• Competing folk stories behind the little donkey name
• Why northern Mexico’s flour tortillas shaped the original minimalist burrito
• The Mission District’s Super Burrito and steam table assembly line
• Regional rivalries, from the San Diego California burrito to LA fusion