It's What's Inside That Counts

It’s What’s Inside That Counts

By MICHAEL QUINTANILLA

May 31, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the unofficial burrito-versus-wrap taste match. Tonight we come to you LIVE from the indie Skylight Book Store in the ever-hip ‘hood of Los Feliz.

The crowd, several salivating for the battle of the taste buds to begin, sits ringside at the launch party for poet Michele Serros’ new book, “Chicana Falsa” (Riverhead Books).

Fans are primed for the palatable bout. And the fans are plumped, er, pumped up.

In this corner, wrapped in a warm, Frisbee-sized flour tortilla with Mexican-style rice, saucy refried beans and plenty of cheese is Sen~or “Mucho Macho” Burrito.

And in the opposite corner, looking identical, with copycat contents, we have Mr. “Wannabe” Wrap. Let’s keep it clean, boys. Remember, this is a bookstore.

Round 1: Jill Hughart, a 31-year-old editor for the reference guidebook “LA 411,” is blindfolded and ready for the tasty challenge. She opens wide and downs a mouthful of the wrap, then a big chunk of burrito.

“Which one’s the wrap?” Serros asks.

“The second one,” Hughart replies, dabbing at sauce around the sides of her mouth.

Wrong, girlfriend.

Round 2: Don Cannon, 50, an engineer, part-time caterer and book collector, is no shy guy when it comes to food. The burly, bearded burrito-loving bookworm takes Godzilla-size chomps and chews discernibly.

“Which one’s the wrap?”

“No. 2,” he says, yanking off the blindfold, smacking his lips. “That was no burrito, brother,” he says.

A couple in the crowd chant: “Burrito! Burrito!”

Round 3: It’s up to Robert Takata, 30.

He chows down on the first sample, waits a few seconds before tasting the other.

The pressure mounts. The crowd leans in.

And then comes Takata’s one-two punch: “This is the burrito,” he says correctly, “the best-tasting one. I don’t ever remember a bad burrito.”

On this night, no one did. Because no matter how you wrap it, it’s still a burrito.