Today, I’m going to give you my recipe for quick, delicious vegetarian burritos.
Ingredients:
Black beans and rice (two boxes, or four cups)
1 avocado
1 small onion
1 carton cherry tomatoes
1 bag Mexican blend cheese
1 carton sour cream
1 jar of the hot sauce of your choice
1 bag of large flour tortillas
First, put your rice and beans in a pot, then add water. You’ll want to add enough water so that the rice and beans are submerged underneath the water, but not so much that the rice and beans won’t be able to absorb it all. If you have four cups of rice and beans, six cups of water is a good measurement. Put the pot on the stove and cover on medium/high heat. Should the cover begin to jiggle at all during your other preparations, turn the heat down. Check on it every 15 minutes until the water is mostly absorbed by the rice and beans. Then turn off the heat and leave covered until finished preparing the other ingredients.
While the rice and beans are cooking, all you need to do is cut up the avocado, onion, and tomatoes into pieces sized to your liking. I like to split my avocado in half, then slice it and then cut it in half again—but I like BIG pieces of avocado. I dice my onions. I split cherry tomatoes in half.
Once all of the ingredients are ready, lay out one tortilla on a plate. Begin with a base of rice and beans, then add avocado, onion, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream, and hot sauce to taste.
Lately, I’ve been using a hot sauce that I picked up at my local Japanese market. It’s a spicy blend of red chilis that’s a little less fluid than sriracha and reminds me a lot of the red salsa you get at taco trucks sometimes.
Once you’ve stuffed everything onto your tortilla, it’s time to close it. This can be the hardest part, so I’m going to share my tips with you. The top and bottom of the tortilla are perpendicular to the lines you’ve drawn with your hot sauce and sour cream. This will ensure that those condiments run throughout your burrito, rather than accumulating in one circular bite within it. Take the top and bottom of the tortilla, and fold them over the contents of your burrito by half an inch to an inch. Then, while holding the top and bottom of the tortilla over the filling, begin to roll one side of your tortilla. You’ll want to take the side you’re rolling all the way across the burrito, and make sure that it closes OVER the fillings that are trying to escape. Finish rolling, and the burrito will sit beautifully on your plate with each end tucked in!
If you’re worried about ingredients being cold, chuck it in the microwave for 45 seconds to a minute. And presto!
What I like about these burritos is that they’re delicious, filling, and good for you (assuming you use all the veggies).
You could even say they’re well rounded—much like the series of games I want to talk to you about today: the Ace Attorney series.
Some of you may know this series, since it’s actually kind of old! Defense lawyer Phoenix Wright is the main character. In a corrupt and legally questionable court system, he has the burden of proof placed upon him to prove his clients innocent of the crimes they’re accused of. This would be a lot easier if his rival, prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, wasn’t so focused on getting them proved guilty!
The series is one of puzzle games, where the player must both investigate crime scenes to find evidence, and then use that evidence in court to defend their client. While in real life a lawyer needs to know how they’ll present their case before going into court, Phoenix almost never knows how the clues he’s found fit together until he’s in the courtroom. A large mechanic of the game is breaking down witness testimony and using the evidence you have on hand to either discredit them or cast suspicion on them.
As you can imagine, the “seat of your pants” energy of the game leads to more than a few humorous moments.
As do the naming conventions of the game.
While we all remember the painfully unnecessary adaptation changes made to early ‘90s anime, the Ace Attorney series manages to change every single name in the game, and yet remain true to the heart of the series.
You see, in Japanese, each character in the Ace Attorney series has a name that also acts as a pun. Phoenix himself is named Ryuuichi Naruhodo. His last name “Naruhodo” means a few different things in Japanese depending on the context, but is mostly used as an expression to mean, “I see,” “that’s right!,” and “indeed.” His first name “Ryuuichi” also uses a kanji that references a mythical creature—the dragon. Calling him Dragon Wright in English wouldn’t have made much sense, so the substitution was made for a different mythical creature—one who often comes back from death’s door again and again the way our dear main character does when he doesn’t know what to do in court: a phoenix. And so, Phoenix Wright became the name of Ryuuichi Naruhodo in English.
A similar process was applied to all the other characters, allowing them to keep the spirit of the jokes of each of their names, while making them accessible to English players.
I’ve seen a lot of bad adaptations in my years, but this is one that I feel was able to do more good than harm with its changes. The change even helped to preserve an element of the game that English players wouldn’t have caught otherwise!
It’s like a burrito. All parts preserved as singular, but rolled up together to make a wonderful harmony of flavor.
Until next month!
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