Travis Smith: my resume, bio and photos back to the main blog page

Another day, another burrito.  I was warned several times about Dona Cata.  Not that it would be bad—just the opposite.  I was told, it would be delicious, but ONLY if I ordered the tacos.

“But I’m a Burrito Scientist,” I said.  I can’t order something other than a burrito, or the results might be horribly skewed.  This mostly fostered laughter, perhaps a little disbelief.

However, I knew my mission, and headed out.  I arrived at Dona Cata and found it to be full of surprises.  For one thing, the waitress sang Happy Birthday to me in Spanish and had the most gorgeous singing voice you could imaging. Another waitress later told us the first sung in choir every week for 11 years.

The waitress knew it was my birthday because of an even bigger surprise: My sister Virginia, who lives in Calgary, had flown out for my birthday complete unbeknownst to me. She was waiting in the restaurant as I arrived, and was wearing the festive green bow my mom had adorned her with.

Fine fine, but what about the burrito?

OK, impatient-pants.  Well, like La Casita, they don’t do pork burritos here—which I found all the more irritating because they did pork tacos.  Just scoop it into a different tortilla, would you? No, they would not deviate from the menu—though I don’t dock them friendliness points, because they were wonderful throughout the meal.

They also said they didn’t serve wet burritos. This means I had to apply my own salsa (luckily, from the copious selection nearby), and there would be no melted cheese on top. *el sigh*.

The menu text tried to point out that the burrito was actually a California invention, which Wikipedia and I know isn’t true, though there is a California-style burrito.  I think that was just their way of saying, “Hey, gringo, order the tacos.”

And they’d be right.  My burrito, was clearly a second-class citizen in this establishment.  It was tasty mostly because of the meat, a tender mix of mostly beef and a little beans, with Mexican rice on the side.  The sauce I put on it was a chile sauce, low on the spicy scale for the restaurant, but just right on the Travis-likes-it-just-over-medium scale.

But the lack of pork, the lack of melted cheese, the lack of side dishes like beans to eat and salad to ignore, and the nearby tacos of deliciousness all served to drain my enthusiasm for Dona Cata.  I totally recommend the joint, but for burritos, I’m giving it a 7/10.

Dona Cata Mexican Foods
5076 Victoria Drive, Vancouver
604-236-2232

Overheard

“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”

...who said it?

“Almost every American I know does trade large portions of his life for entertainment, hour by weeknight hour, binge by Saturday binge, Facebook check by Facebook check. I’m one of them. In the course of writing this I’ve watched all 13 episodes of House of Cards and who knows how many more West Wing episodes, and I’ve spent any number of blurred hours falling down internet rabbit holes. All instead of reading, or writing, or working, or spending real time with people I love.”

...who said it?

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”

...who said it?

“I play with variables constantly.”

...who said it?

“Only the person who has learned Continual Love coming from a heart of Gratitude/Worship can effectively deal with the problem of loneliness.”

...who said it?

Comments

 

 

There are no comments for this entry ... yet. So leave one already! Go on!

Add a Comment

 

 

Name:


Email: (optional)


URL: (optional)


Submit the word you see below:


 

 

 

Your comment:


Remember my personal info


Email me about follow-ups


 

Syndication Links


Click here for the main
XML feed for this blog.



Column only



Side links only



Quotes only

 

MetaBlogs

AboutBlogs

Clients

Humor

Journalism

Los Angeles

Mac

News

Personal 1

Personal 2

Photos

Politics

Other A-F

Other G-Q

Other R-Z

SocialNetworking

Tech 1

Tech 2

Travel

Vancouver 1

Vancouver 2

Vancouver 3

Vancouver 4

BizBlogs

Back to Main

 

Powered by
Expression Engine

 

Copyright 1995 - 2024 Mar 28

 

 

Want Column?

Enter your email address:


It will NEVER be shared.
Unsubscribe

You can scroll right easily by holding down the SHIFT key and using your scroll wheel. (Firefox users trying this will end up jumping to old Web pages until a) Firefox releases a fix, b) they change their settings like so.)