Burritos La Palma

🇲🇽 ZACATECAS, MÉXICO / HISTORICAL: These guisados and flour tortillas from Zacatecas never get old.

🇲🇽 MÉXICO (Zacatecas)
📍 5120 Peck Road,
El Monte, San Gabriel Valley.
🅿️ Private lot at restaurant
🥤 No Alcohol

EDITOR'S NOTE: There are more locations of Burritos La Palma, but so far the move is still to eat at the original in El Monte.

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📆 Original Article 14 April 2019

Zacatecas is not the first place you think about when the topics of flour tortillas or burritos come to mind, but the Bañuelos family has been trying to change that since 1980 and their days making this type of tortilla back home in Jerez, a place that formerly only used corn tortillas. The state of Zacatecas is large and sends wide and thin tentacles in every direction from its center in North-Central México, making it a place that would naturally pull in cultures and customs from those that surround it.

Putting Zacatecan guisados inside the flour discs produced by their tortilleria started as casual meals for family and employees but then became popular when others had the chance to try and eventually laid the foundation of Burritos La Palma. Nine shops opened in Zacatecas before Alberto Bañuelos decided to open up shop in El Monte and expand the empire north to feed Zacatecans who had moved to Los Angeles but still had good memories of his family's business.

You can now get these burritos closer to and in downtown on occasion (and in Santa Ana), but there is still something magical about the nondescript El Monte shop, a place you hardly notice passing by quickly on Peck Road and would never think had something so tasty inside.

These Northern Mexican-style burritos wrapped with Zacatecan recipes are simple but produce great results. A limited menu keeps decision making fairly straightforward, and the small stature of this style of burrito allows you to eat multiple options and have less commitment than the Mission-style burritos that more commonly come to mind.

The burrito de birria de res ($4.50, below bottom) is probably the original and still the most popular selection, always satisfying. All locations back home and here in Los Angeles still use the recipe of his parents. The harmony that is created by these stews wrapped up in chewy, dense, heavy, stretchy flour tortillas is a feat, as is the fact that each one is pressed individually by hand.

While you may stick to the classics each time you come, explore all of their guisados if you have the chance. While always being satisfying, there is usually a bit of regret not committing stomach space to dig further into some of their other offerings.

Chicharrón (top) with birria de res (bottom).

Do better and show up very hungry, even if the price of each burrito seems to go up each time you come.

Enjoy the El Monte space with all of its odes to Jerez and the tortilleria that started it all. The comfortable dining room is a must so that you can eat your burrito freshly made. And who knows, you might need to add an extra order when you finish, whether or not you actually have that stomach space.

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