There really IS a day for everything. Today? National Burrito Day. No, honestly. Here are seven things you need to know before lunchtime.

______________________

1. The word burrito means "little donkey" in Spanish. So if there’s another horsemeat scandal in relation to burritos… you can’t really claim shock and horror.

2. Folklore has it that the burrito dates back to a man named Juan Mendez who sold tacos at a street stand in Ciudad Juárez during the Mexican Revolution period. Villagers would wait for Juan to show up with his little donkey… hence the name.

3. Burritos have been appearing on American menus since the 1930’s. Ireland was slightly later to the party…

4. In Mexico burritos are small and thin, made with only one or two ingredients… so many other countries have followed the American style of ‘lash it ALL in’. If you fancy something even more calorie-laden/delicious you can deep-fry your burrito and it’s then a chimichanga. Win!

5. In 1958 the burrito appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Please file under 'delicious'

6. In February of last year Bristol University students and staff from Mission Burrito broke the existing record for the UK’s Biggest Burrito when they constructed a burrito measuring 77 feet and 3 inches.

7. However, the world’s longest burrito was built in Reno in 2004 and measured 8,076 feet long. The numbers? 8,200 flour tortillas, over 2,000 pounds of refried beans and 1,000 pounds of cheese and 160 volunteers to put it together.

 

It’s also World Book Day, (much more on that later today).  We’d love to say you should combine then both by settling down with a burrito and a good book, but everyone knows that this is a foodstuff that requires two hands. 

Bonus: This is what it looks like when a World Champion Eater wins a Burrito Contest. Enjoy.