MUH-MUH-MUH- MY RAMONA: A Hot, Spicy Little Hispanic Dish

.
There once was a man from Nantucket
Who placed lots of corn in a bucket
But the farmer said, “Before you can truck it,
You’ll have to shuck it”.
So the man told the farmer to . . . show him how it’s done ‘cause he ain’t never shucked no corn before.

Now, what my limerick has to do with the rest of this blog bit I’m sure I don’t know.

When I was collecting photos & videos for my recent multi-intallment blog bit, "MY HOMEMEGALOPOLIS" - about my former life in Los Angeles - there were two things in particular that I earnestly sought and failed to find pictures of on the Internet.

One was a two-story bar/restaurant called YESTERDAY'S that once existed in the heart of Westwood Village. The place had an almost Bourbon Street-like charm to it and was my favorite drinking establishment in The Village.



The other object I hoped to find a photo of was Ramona's "Chile Relleno" Burritos. Ramona's was a brand of cheap burritos that one could find in just about every 7-Eleven and other small, neighborhood convenience stores in the Los Angeles metropolitan region.

Ramona's produced at least 6 or 7 different varieties of microwaveable burritos, but the two I pretty much lived on were the "Hot Green Chile" burrito with potato and cheese, and my very favorite, "Chile Relleno" egg-battered with cheese. My brother Nappy always loved 'em too!





Ramona's burritos were small and slightly oily when heated in a microwave. Not so oily that they were yucky, but just oily enough that they were yummy.

Posting my 'Los Angeles & Me' blog bit without mention of Ramona's made me feel like I was committing a felonious misdemeanor. Sure I mentioned the food at 'Antonio's Mexican Restaurant' and the margaritas at 'El Coyote', and the Garcia Lorca omelette at Venice Beach's 'Sidewalk Cafe', but those establishments were special treats for me, while Ramona's burritos were weekly staples.

Well, the omission of Ramona's was weighing so heavily upon me this last week that the other day I actually placed a long-distance phone call to Ramona's Mexican Food Products at 13633 S. Western Ave. in Gardena, California, [310-323-1950] and I demanded (well, pleaded in an intense manner) to know where I might be able to find Ramona's burritos in the Phoenix area. (I have been checking the convenience markets since moving here in 1995 and without luck and - damn-it! - I was beginning to get pretty hungry.)

I was told that the Smart & Final stores carried them. I had never been in a Smart & Final store before, but that very day I drove to the one nearest me and WHOOP!-WHOOP! ...they had 'em!  So I bought two cases of the "Chile Relleno" burritos, and the following day I went back and bought a case of the "Hot Green Chile" burritos. Every bite takes me home!



Now understand, I'm not saying these cheap little microwaveable burritos are on a par with what you would get by ordering the beef burrito at 'Campos' on Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica, across the street from the Stop 'N' Stab market; nor are they as good as the Chile Relleno burrito you would have gotten at 'Pancho's', on the corner of Ocean Park Blvd. and Lincoln, or even the offerings at L.A.'s 'Burrito King'.

Heck, they can't even measure up to the burritos you'd get here in Phoenix at a Filiberto's, a Hiliberto's, a Humberto's, or any of the other --erto's in this awful city. But in the 'Cheap, Gas-Up, Microwave, Gobble-Down 'N' Drive-On' category, Brother Nappy and I always believed that Ramona's took the Blue Ribbon.

And now, after 16 years of being Ramona-less, I have found my baby again and I am happy as a dog with a bowl of menudo!



[Nappy & Stephen's recommended diet
for bachelors young & old.]
.
~ Stephen T. McCarthy
.
YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.
.