 Al & Bea's Mexican Food
In the realm of great debates—think the Polstadtz-Buenter Lincoln-Douglas re-enactment of March 1993, the infamous 2012 Ross Perot Vs. Big Blue simulation for the 20th anniversary of the 1992 Presidential campaign, or even the incendiary 2003 Springman Junior High Model UN free-for-all that resulted in both "Kofi Annan" (Melissa Squarsh) and "Ali'ioaiga Feturi Elisaia" (Nicholas Janssen) being full-on expelled—the running debate over L.A.'s best bean-and-cheese burrito certainly ranks as paramount. Interestingly, this very topic featured in all three of those aforementioned debates to varying degrees, and was in fact the "boiling point" that caused the 7th graders portraying Secretary-General Annan and Samoan Representative Elisaia to resort to F-bombs and fisticuffs.
By contrast, Steve Polstadtz (as Lincoln) and Joe Buenter (as Douglas) both argued with great eloquence and fine sportsmanship throughout their presentation, with "Lincoln" passionately advocating for Lupe's No. 2, while "Douglas" stumped for Al & Bea's. Great points were made on both sides, but unfortunately the event broke down, as those re-enactments always seem to do, over a fundamental disagreement on the subject of human slavery.
As for Ross Perot and Big Blue, it was not surprising to find the Texas billionaire making his case for the underdog, and in characterizing Al & Bea's green-and-cheese burrito as "the heavenly lard that built this great country," he cleverly made Big Blue's championship of Lupe's seem overly cold and clinical—precisely the sort of burrito thinking you'd expect from a machine. I myself have never quite been able to fully decide whether it's Lupe's or Al & Bea's for me, though a scanned printout e-mailed to me by someone at IBM pointed out that I've eaten at Lupe's quite a bit more. They say you can't argue with data, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let a robot tell me which is my favorite fuckin' burrito!
Review by Stinky "Pete" Vinegar, October 2013 |
