“A country where you can find an Alligator burrito is a country you can believe in”. Those were the words expressed by Leah’s mother when she told her that we just got this particular gastronomic hybrid at the New Orleans’ Creole Tomato festival. And indeed, as a cultural melting pot the U.S offers to its inhabitants the possibility of mix all kind entities to open markets. Just as Kogi Korean bbq tacos does in L.A (see post from the eighth of June).

            I must say that actually what we ate in the New Orleans Tomato festival was an Alligator Wrap, not a burrito. But since I did some fast research through the Internet, I haven’t found any clear difference between those two dishes. And if there is any difference, it is not clear for all U.S consumers. As a consumer I have noticed that Wraps usually are kind of the light version of a burrito. They are made with “healthier” ingredient: fruits, vegetables, cheese, and any kind of cold meet. Another difference is that most of the time they are served cold, while burritos commonly include a warm, highly processed guisado; beans, Mexican red rice, sour cream, Guacamole, salsa, vegetables and any kind of meat (Asada, Chorizo, Cabeza de cochino, Korean bbq). A wrap is a new food entity targeted to a young, middle-class multicultural market, while burritos are a gastronomic tradition from northwestern México and southwestern USA. Burritos are associated with Mexican, high caloric, fatty food, and are usually consumed by men (Leah’s note: I’m not sure I agree with this assertion, but he’s the expert). While the former is an “innocent” market creation, the second is the organic innovation of a highly evocative food tradition. But what to say about an alligator burrito/wrap? Is this a market target creation or the organic evolution of a food tradition? If a country where you can find an alligator burrito is a country you can believe in, does that mean that countries where you can’t find alligator burritos are not to be trusted, or perhaps entirely fictional?

            An Alligator Wrap/Burrito is the quintessence of a disruptive innovation and self-governed process only possible in the U.S. In part because it’s a country that promotes an endless innovation of markets and life styles in order to satisfy the production of capital. But also because as a society it is engaged in a nonstop course of dynamic obsolescence, constant processes which create, push and abolish entities, subjectivities and markets…. By the way, the Alligator wrap/burrito was delicious, as were the Cajun pork tamales, whose concentrated spicy flavors could easily pass for Mexican to an  inexpert Cajun food consumer.