Skip to Content

National Burrito Day

0 Comments

If you love National Taco Day, you’re in luck. There’s also a National Burrito Day, and honestly, I’m not sure which one I love more.

National Burrito Day is celebrated every year on the first Thursday in April. It’s not an official holiday (although maybe it should be), but it’s one worth observing. While no one really knows when or how National Burrito Day got started, but it likely originated as a marketing campaign, like most other food related holidays. However it got started, National Burrito Day is here to stay thanks to social media hashtags, Instagram reels, and Tik Tok videos.

National Burrito Day will be observed on Thursday, April 4, 2024.

National Burrito Day

Introduction Of The Burrito

The modern burrito as we know it was introduced to American food culture in the 1930s when they hit the menu at El Cholo Café in Los Angeles, California. You can still visit the original El Cholo Café at 1121 S. Western Avenue in Los Angeles. It took a while for burritos to gain popularity across the country. In fact, the word didn’t appear in the Oxford English Dictionary until 1958 and San Francisco restaurants didn’t serve burritos until the 1960s.

But the humble burrito had fans. In San Francisco, the restaurants El Faro and La Cumbre began serving the Mission-style burrito, packed with meat, beans, salsa, rice, vegetables, and other ingredients wrapped in a flour tortilla.

The first frozen burritos went to market in 1956 thanks to Duane Roberts, who was also successful selling frozen burger patties to McDonald’s.

Types Of Burritos

Today, it’s hard to find a place that doesn’t serve a burrito (thank goodness). But did you know that there are different styles of burritos? You can even get a sushi burrito if that’s your thing. Here’s a quick overview of some common burrito styles.

Mexican Style: Mexican style burritos are smaller in size and usually contain fewer ingredients. They usually contain simple fillings like meat, beans, potatoes, and cheese.

Mission Style: This is the style we commonly consume in American restaurants today. Big flour tortillas packed with ingredients like meat, beans, rice, salsa, veggies, and more.

Guisado Style: Popular in Northern Mexico, Guisado Style is a burrito made with a guiso, or stew, made with braised beef, pork, or chicken. No fancy toppings or added ingredients.

San Diego Style: The emphasis here is on meat. These are usually just topped with a little bit of sour cream or guacamole.

LA Style: Flour tortillas with refried beans, meat, salsa, and chile. No rice in this one.

California Style: Flour tortilla with carne asada, french fries, sour cream, guac, and cheese.

Wet Burritos (aka smothered burrito): Usually a Mission Style Burrito on a plate covered in red sauce and melted cheese and sour cream.

Chimichanga Style: Flour tortilla filled with chicken or beef, beans, and cheese, folded and deep fried.

Breakfast Burrito: Flour tortilla filled with eggs, potatoes, chorizo or other breakfast meat.

Korean Style: Flour tortilla filled with Korean style BBQ, sticky or fried rice, kimchi, and Korean hot sauce.

Kogi Style: Flour tortilla with chicken, pork, or short rib, hash brown, eggs, cheese, onion, lettuce, kimchi, and sesame chili salsa roja. This burrito style is attributed to Chef Roy Choi.

How To Celebrate National Burrito Day

  • Go out to your favorite Mexican restaurant, or try a new one, and get yourself a burrito.
  • Host a happy hour or family dinner and let everyone BYOB: Build Your Own Burrito. Prepare a variety of ingredients for everyone to choose what they want.
  • Look for local restaurants offering deals and freebies for National Burrito Day.
  • Share your burritos on social media with the hashtag #NationalBurritoDay.
  • Make fusion burritos with ingredients you wouldn’t normally put in your burrito. Get creative!
  • Make these Buffalo Chicken Chimichangas

See More National Food Holidays

Try These Other Recipes Next!

Heidi Deal
Latest posts by Heidi Deal (see all)