Steve Pope <Steve Pope >> wrote:

> Julie Bove > wrote:
>
>>Fillings for burritos can be similar to enchiladas, although I've never
>>heard of a cheese burrito. They are often served with no sauce at all, but
>>you can have a "wet" burrito. In that case it is often covered with a
>>tomato based sauce and cheese.
>
> That's actually a different meaning of "wet burrito" than I
> am familiar with. The wet burrito technique involves applying
> water to the burrito after aseembling it and before putting
> it into the steamer (a sort of Foreman-grill type contraption
> that compresses the burrito while heating it).
>
> This is very southern California, but I have also seen it
> done in Santa Clara County. In the most authentic variant
> the cook simply wets his hands in water in the sink before
> rolling up the burrito. You get a hot, pretty soggy burrito. If
> it's what you want it's excellent.

I've been on a bean burrito kick the last couple weeks, using
store-bought tortillas - which I generally consider horrible:

Run the flour tortilla under water for a few seconds and then slap
it on a hot griddle/pan. Heat it on both sides until the water on
both sides evaporates and/or soaks into the tortilla. Then wait a
few seconds more, but not until it gets crusty at all.

This makes for a nice tender tortilla perfect for rolling, and it's
not soggy at all. Nice and hot and moist, but it holds together
very well. I will probably do this for all floor tortillas from now
on.

I used to just heat them in a pan or over the flame of the gas
burner, but never again. I haven't tried this with corn tortillas,
but I will.

> I've also seen "wet burrito" to mean a burrito served on
> a plate with sauce, but I usually don't go to that sort of place.

That's always been my understanding of a wet burrito.

-sw