We at The Bombay Report are an opinionated, passionate bunch, and perhaps one of the biggest points of contention that continues to divide our team is whether or not the term ‘Mexican Jumping Bean’ is an ethnic slur. Rather than waste our efforts by consulting Google, which is biased against us, and not being quite desperate enough to resort to Bing, we decided to investigate this matter personally. Our sources in the field informed us about a Mexican restaurant at Chowpatty called the New York Burrito Company, that just might be able to answer our questions. And so we went.
What our sources failed to mention was that the restaurant is exclusively vegetarian, which is admittedly appropriate karma for everything we’ve ever said about vegetarians, publicly and in private. The place itself looked like a well-designed fast food joint, as opposed to the mud hut that Derrick, who gets all his information about Mexico from Speedy Gonzales cartoons, led us to believe. We had to order our meals at the counter, because they have a do-it-yourself setup like some kind of Mexican Subway, albeit with less rape & gang violence.
As we assembled our food in calculated manner so as to get as much of our money’s worth as possible; at the back of our minds we still had our doubts. We just weren’t certain just how a vegetarian restaurant was going to be able to pull off a decent take at a cuisine that incorporates so much good meat. It turns out, we had very little to worry about.
Nachos
Rs.179
Nachos, unless they’re done particularly badly, are more than enough of a reason for us to wake up in the morning. And fortunately for us, the ones at New York Burrito are anything but done badly. They may well be some of the best nachos we’ve had to date, and are not dissimilar to ones you get at Coma Coma in Bandra. They appear to be homemade, and are relatively bland with just a hint of sweetness, which means they won’t come in the way of what’s bound to be an unhealthy relationship between you and the accompanying salsas.
Salsas
We don’t usually write in-depth about sauce, because we haven’t quite yet hit rock bottom, but the salsas at New York Burrito deserve their fair share of recognition. Each one is fresh, vibrant & distinctly flavoured, and a pleasure to eat with the nachos. If there ever were a reason for us to return to New York Burrito, it would have to be the salsa.
Burrito
Rs. 249
The Burrito we tried was a little invention of our own, using practically every ingredient they had. We could only imagine how much impressive it could have been if only they’d had a little beef or pork, but as far as we were concerned it was delicious nonetheless. You could say a vegetarian burrito is basically just a chapati stuffed with bhaji, but that doesn’t account for the cheese and salsa, and would therefore be partially wrong. While all the individual components of the burrito were rather tasty, stuffing everything together in one, giant wrap doesn’t really let each ingredient shine.
The Decree: We went into the New York Burrito Company looking for answers; we didn’t find them. But what we did discover is an unpretentious, reasonably priced, establishment that makes surprisingly palatable Mexican vegetarian food. So would we ever go back? Yes, if only because of the nachos and salsa. Our unbiased recommendation to vegetarians would be to go there right now, and once you’ve enjoyed an incredible meal of burritos and quesidillas, cross the road after looking both ways, & walk straight into the ocean.
