10 more foods that make America great

Mission burrito
Burritos in San Francisco's Mission district are all about big. These are not by-the-book burritos; the typical specimen is at least a pound heavier than regulation size.  Its roots may have a Mexican accent, but the exuberant size, and over-the-top concept, is undeniably American.

Richard Miller / sparkletack.com It's big, it's silver and if you get full, you could use it as ballast.

These stuffed tortillas are an exercise in more. More filling, more beans (and what sort?), more rice. Mas queso?  Si, señor! Less is not a word that attaches itself to San Francisco's outsized treat.

As with anything in the city by the bay, these foil-wrapped wonders trace their history back to the '60s — though the burrito itself stretches back farther in time. The taqueria known as Le Cumbre, on Valencia, generally claims credit dating back to 1969, though not for the burrito conceptually so much as the size and the food-on-the-go philosophy. Tara Duggan summed it up in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2001: “It wasn't that the burrito was a new thing; it was the style of service that was revolutionary.”

Uber-burritos are an American way of life now, with mini-chains and knockoffs propagating the Mission ethos from sea to sea (often badly). But the next time you tuck into your meal-in-a-wrapper, take a moment to appreciate the Bay Area's role in defining how to eat with nothing more than a wide-stretched hand and a Paul Bunyon-sized appetite.