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Kooks Serves Pop-Up Breakfast Burritos With Handmade Tortillas Out of a Food Cart on Cesar Chavez
William ^ | May 16, 2017 | Walker MacMurdo

Posted on 05/23/2017 5:01:26 PM PDT by nickcarraway

Update: Kooks has closed.

During an impromptu Christmastime road trip last year to Puerto Nuevo, Mexico, Kali Wilgus and Liz "LC" Connelly lost their minds over tortillas.

"In Puerto Nuevo, you can eat $5 lobster on the beach, which they give you with this bucket of tortillas," Connelly says. "They are handmade flour tortillas that are stretchy and a little buttery, and best of all, unlimited."

Connelly and Wilgus were so enamored with the tortillas, they tried to uncover the recipe.

"I picked the brains of every tortilla lady there in the worst broken Spanish ever, and they showed me a little of what they did," Connelly says. "They told us the basic ingredients, and we saw them moving and stretching the dough similar to how pizza makers do before rolling it out with rolling pins. They wouldn't tell us too much about technique, but we were peeking into the windows of every kitchen, totally fascinated by how easy they made it look. We learned quickly it isn't quite that easy."

Connelly and Wilgus have turned their passion into new weekend spot Kooks Burritos, which has a concept that fits twee Portland: a breakfast burrito pop-up inside the hip Tight Tacos food cart in a Southeast Portland parking lot.

"On the drive back up to Oregon, we were still completely drooling over how good [the tortillas] were, and we decided we had to have something similar in Portland," Connelly says. "The day after we returned, I hit the Mexican market and bought ingredients and started testing it out. Every day I started making tortillas before and after work, trying to figure out the process, timing, refrigeration and how all of that works."

Well, she figured it out.

Connelly rolls out the tortillas in front of you and cooks them on the cart's flat-top griddle, bubbles forming through the uneven circle as the gentle smell of frying dough wafts from the cart. That tortilla is stretchy, pie-crust flaky, char-kissed and stuffed with fixins authentic only to SoCal burrito joints: french fries, scrambled eggs, guacamole, cheese and your choice of bacon or carne asada.

The result is as decadent as it sounds, the flake of the tortilla and soft crunch from the fries contrasting with the gooey goodness of the eggs, cheese and guac in a hangover-killing burrito. Served with Wilgus' neon-green serrano salsa and neon-orange chile de árbol salsa, both spicy and bright, breakfast doubles as a 'grammable burrainbow.

"The second we had the tortilla, we were like, 'We're doing this,'" Connelly says.

Get up a little early this weekend, and you can do it, too.

Update: Kooks Burritos has closed.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Food; Local News
KEYWORDS:


1 posted on 05/23/2017 5:01:26 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Connelly and Wilgus need to post all the tortilla-making details online for us all to enjoy. a good tortilla can make a huge difference in a meal. A bad tortilla can do the same in the opposite direction.


2 posted on 05/23/2017 5:20:59 PM PDT by Two Kids' Dad (((( ))))
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To: nickcarraway

I was in the Army for some time. Never even thought about getting a tattoo.


3 posted on 05/23/2017 5:23:41 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Was there some peer pressure to get them?


4 posted on 05/23/2017 5:25:58 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Just the opposite. In military intelligence they were like unicorns. Don’t know if that’s still true, of course.


5 posted on 05/23/2017 5:28:28 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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To: nickcarraway
They quickly shut it down after getting accused of "cultural appropriation.
6 posted on 05/23/2017 5:30:01 PM PDT by notfornothing
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To: nickcarraway

I haven’t had a $5 lobster at Puerto Nuevo since 1987. I think there is some exaggerating going on. But they are awesome.


7 posted on 05/23/2017 5:34:30 PM PDT by Defiant (The media is the colostomy bag where truth goes after democrats digest it.)
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To: notfornothing

....Update: Kooks Burritos has closed...

Forced out of business by politically correct Portland fringe lunatic liberals.


8 posted on 05/23/2017 5:39:43 PM PDT by Sasparilla ( I'm Not tired of Winning)
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To: Defiant

More expensive, but my mom still thinks they’re worth the trip.

Apparently, these women have been driven out of business for “stealing the living from poor Mexican women, i.e. cultural appropriation. Of course how women selling burritos in Oregon “steals” from poor women in Baja California is left unsaid. But it doesn’t need to be said, it is just wrong. Everyone can see that.


9 posted on 05/23/2017 5:41:33 PM PDT by hanamizu
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To: nickcarraway
and they showed me a little of what they did

Back in the 1960s, they had a lady that made them by hand in the dining room of the Hilton Hotel in Acapulco. That was back before the Mexicans turned the beach over to the narco-terrorists.

10 posted on 05/23/2017 5:43:35 PM PDT by PAR35
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To: nickcarraway

“That tortilla is stretchy, pie-crust flaky, char-kissed and stuffed with fixins authentic only to SoCal burrito joints: french fries, scrambled eggs, guacamole, cheese and your choice of bacon or carne asada.”

From south Texas:
Why would some Yankees reinvent Tacobell?


11 posted on 05/23/2017 5:57:45 PM PDT by buffaloguy
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To: PAR35

That was back before the Mexicans turned the beach over to the narco-terrorists.
= = =

The Portland girls should have been selling dope out the back door.

That was their first mistake.


12 posted on 05/23/2017 5:58:46 PM PDT by Scrambler Bob (Brought to you from Turtle Island, otherwise known as 'So-Called North America')
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To: buffaloguy

The only thing “pulled” tortillas are good for is to re-sole your work boots.


13 posted on 05/23/2017 6:20:57 PM PDT by SanchoP (Any compromise with evil is still evil.)
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To: SanchoP

“The only thing “pulled” tortillas are good for is to re-sole your work boots.”

It works well as wads for muzzleloaders. Or polishing your car.
I can’t eat them
Just little tiny pizzas.


14 posted on 05/23/2017 6:28:49 PM PDT by buffaloguy
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

After every school that I graduated at Ft. Benning, a platoon of soldiers would zoom down Victory Drive, get their drink on and then hit the Tattoo Parlors. I never got one. I don’t like them and it’s unsightly on a woman especially the older they get.


15 posted on 05/23/2017 7:18:56 PM PDT by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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To: shanover

In a few years the snowflakes getting “Nevertheless, she persisted” tramp stamps (AKA “ass antlers”) are going to be showing everyone their butt billboards in Walmart.

What a great crowd. They pretend they are the only shoppers in the store. ‘Hi Trixie! Let’s block the aisle with our carts and huge rear ends ... “


16 posted on 05/24/2017 12:11:23 AM PDT by tumblindice ("Fight for your country." Hector)
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To: All

Can’t muster sympathy when the Left eat their own...


17 posted on 05/24/2017 6:39:06 AM PDT by Maverick68
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