Jesse W.
Google
Major disappointment. Being from California, and being vegan, refried pinto beans are a bit of a staple for me. Unfortunately, whole black beans have replaced refried pinto beans at almost all Mexican eateries in Barcelona (even including Taco Bell lol) - under the guise that they are more “authentic” - supposedly more authentically Mexican. Of course this negates the culinary contributions of northern Mexico and Mexican-Americans from the southwestern United States — who do cook and eat refried pinto beans.
So I looked forward for weeks to trying out the refried pinto beans at Cantina Mexican - which is one of the few places left that serve them.
The Mexican waiter condescendingly spoke to me in English — I have had numerous Spanish-speakers in California reprimand me for addressing them in Spanish — i.e. they take it that I’m assuming they don’t speak English and am therefore being condescending. But it’s fair game for them to assume I don’t speak Spanish because I’m a “gringo”, I guess. (“Gringo” is a ubiquitous racial slur which is never censored, and frequently appears on Latin food menus.)
I made it very clear that I wanted a burrito with very little rice and a lot of refried beans (two ingredients) — well, see the photos I’ve attached to see what I received — ALL rice!! The waiter said they couldn’t make the burrito with a lot of refried beans in it, as it would supposedly fall apart. I pointed out to him that the burrito was not even closed properly, so of course they would fall out — and that since they felt the need to cut it in half, then its structural integrity would obviously be compromised. He brought me a bowl of refried beans to compensate, but they were watery - which explained why they couldn’t make a burrito containing them, I guess.
You may think this a petty post, despite the fact that this detail of refried pinto beans - which you may consider trivial - is rather important to me — hence my marked disappointment.
All that said, the guacamole and chips were good, and the veganized tortilla soup (Sopa Azteca) was nice as well. But the burrito was an inedible abomination, and I therefore must state that Cantina Mexicana is NOT vegan-friendly - as they seem to have no knowledge or interest in catering to vegans by appropriately and intelligently altering the food offerings to suit vegans. In fact, the waiter did not even know what “vegano” or “vegan” meant - in Spanish or English.
