We made our own haggis burritos at Bonnie Burrito and this is how it went

For those of you who don’t know, Bonnie Burrito is the Newington Scot-Mex takeaway beloved by all the Pollock kids who are bored of the same old JMCC food that’s “douuuused in olive oil”.

It’s an Edinburgh classic for any time of the day, made famous by the unique Scotland-inspired filling options such as haggis and Irn-Bru pulled pork.

Last week, The Edinburgh Tab headed down to Bonnie Burrito to see what goes on behind the counter, as well as having a go at making our very own burritos to take home.

It was a once in a life time experience, and it’s safe to say we’ll never wrap homemade fajitas in the same way ever again.

With all that in mind, here’s how we got on:

Learning the basics

As neither of us had much experience working in a kitchen, we had a lot to learn before we could even think about touching any food.

First, we washed our hands, suited up in a Bonnie Burrito apron and tied our hair back. Now that we looked the part, manager Matt took us round the kitchen and showed us how it all worked.

He decided the best way for us to learn would be by giving us a live demonstration, making a wrap at a tenth of the speed he normally would, in order for us to take in the steps.

Unsurprisingly, it all seemed like one big burrito blur. But we nodded along and pretended to grasp all the different hand positions and folding steps needed to wrap a burrito.

But from what we gathered, the main gist is this: you take a tortilla wrap and heat it up until it starts to bubble, then you add all your fillings such as beans, rice, your choice of meat, salad and sauces, and finally you do some burrito origami to create the finished product.

Easy right? We weren’t so sure.

Learning from the master

Preparing the burrito

Rather embarrassingly, we both struggled with the most basic steps of putting on a pair of gloves and cutting a piece of tinfoil. We won’t dwell on these failures, but in our defence, it had been a long week.

However, things only got better from here and we got started making the burritos.

Heating the tortilla wrap and adding the main fillings went smoothly, we just had to make sure not to over-do the filling as this could lead to a burrito explosion later on during the folding stage.

Bonnie Burrito actually let you mix fillings, so Sophie went for a haggis and chicken burrito, while I did the Irn-Bru pulled pork and chicken.

Heating the tortilla

Once we had our rice, beans, and main filling placed *somewhat* neatly in the centre of our wrap, we then headed to the salad and sauce station.

Again, this went relatively smoothly apart from a brief altercation between Sophie and a spoon of sour cream. Let’s just say, the sour cream did not want to come off the spoon, leading to a very vigorous flick from Sophie.

All’s well that ends well though.

A culinary masterpiece

Folding is the hardest part

Undoubtedly, the hardest part of making a burrito is the actually wrapping. Once we had all the components of our wrap constructed, it was time for the final challenge.

There are multiple steps that all require different finger placements and hand positions, and it honestly looked more complicated than an engineering degree.

But with Matt by our side and a desperation to eat lunch, we were determined to get it right.

Sophie went first, and after a few minor errors and the occasional helping hand from Matt, successfully wrapped her burrito.

As I got to learn from Sophie’s mistakes, I was actually surprisingly decent at wrapping. Matt was so impressed by my burrito making skills that he even offered me a job!

Will definitely be adding burrito wrapping to my CV

That’s a wrap

Overall, we had a great time learning what goes on behind the counter and diving head first into the burrito making action.

It was definitely tricky at times, but we came out of it with a delicious lunch and some new skills we could hopefully transfer to our own kitchens. Fajita night will never be the same.

There are an infinite number of filling and sauce combinations you can get at Bonnie Burrito, so we’ll definitely be back soon to try them out.

If you haven’t paid a visit to Bonnie Burrito before, you should definitely give it a try. Where else can you get a haggis burrito?

A huge success

Recommended related articles by this writer:

• A guide to the best Edi coffee shops to study in

• We tested out the Wagamama study benches to see what the deal is

• I ate Too Good To Go for a week and here’s what I found out