It started out innocently enough. While working for a movie theater one summer, I was house sitting for my parents and looking after the dogs. I would often get off work at 1am and not had dinner yet. My usual haunts at the time included Denny's and 7-11 and Jack In The Box, as they were pretty much the only places opened at 1am. But with nobody in the house but me, I knew I had the luxury of being able to cook at 1am and not disturbing anyone. So, I thought long and hard about it, and realized that I wanted to make burritos.
Now, anyone who has ever made burritoes knows that there is no such thing as burritoes for one. Sure, you can buy the crappy frozen kind that you nuke, but that's really not much better for you than a 1am Jumbo Jack with Cheese. If you want to make a fresh burrito you need a minimum of tortillas (at least 10 to a pack), grated cheese (8oz, minimum), refried beans (one can), hamburger (at least three quarters of a pound minimum), and salsa (mimimum 8oz jar). That's a lot of food for one burrito and one person. But I was determined to make burritoes. So, after work, I went to an all night grocery store and I bought the fixings - hamburger, cheese, refried beans, rice, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, guacamole, sour cream, tortillas, etc... and I went home.
I started cooking about 1:30am and I immediately had help. At the time, my parents owned a rather large and friendly St. Bernard named Valentine. She was little more than a puppy then (still large, though). They also owned a little yappy dog named Bingo. The two dogs camped out at my feet as I started preparing all the elements of the burritos. They looked up at me with big soulful eyes and whined occassionaly for bites of food.
After a short amount of whining, I finally turned around to the St. Bernard and said, "Don't worry, Valentine, tonight is burrito night and on burrito night, nobody goes hungry." Within minutes, we were wolfing down burritos and burrito fixings to our hearts content until we were all completely full (which is hard to do with a St. Bernard ;)Thus started an annual tradition that has grown in size and complexity ever since.
The next wrinkle to this story occurs about five years later after Burrito Night had already started to morph into this annual party where I invited friends and family to join the St. Bernard and I eating burritos (at a much more reasonable hour, I assure you). It was during the 150th recitation of the Burrito Night motto, "Nobody goes hungry on Burrito Night," that I realized that what I was saying wasn't entirely true. There were lots of people who were going hungry on Burrito Night, and I couldn't possibly feed them all. So, starting that year, I required one thing from my guests as "payment" for the delicious burritos they were about to receive - a donation for the San Francisco Food Bank.
This year's Burrito Night is going to be held this Sunday. The dogs have changed. The house has been remodeled. The backyard now sports a deck and a garden railroad. But beyond that, the evening has not changed its focus nor its menu. We will offer the usual fixings - beef, chicken, steak, shrimp, and sausage - as well as all the trimmings - rice, beans, chili, lettuce, tomato, jalapenos, cheese, etc... - for all our guests to make whatever combination burrito they choose. This is all provided free of charge to all who bring a donation to the San Francisco Food Bank. The food is good, the company is good, and the atmosphere is low key. B.Y.O.B.
I mention all this not only as announcement but as a suggestion to all of you readers out there who are looking for a way to foodraise for your own local food banks. Its not complicated. Its not hard. And it gives you an opportunity to eat great burritos. I'd love to see the Buritto Night movement spread around the country so that one day the Burrito Night motto might be closer to the truth than not.
So, remember, on Burrito Night nobody goes hungry.
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