Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["David R. Matusiak" <matusiak AT hotmail.com>]

someone should sell Cosmos a network; or heck, at least a web site.
~drm~

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Burritos Leave Campus Life

By ERIC ASIMOV

COSMOS LYLES has nothing if not nerve. It was not enough for Mr.
Lyles, as a senior at Duke University in 1995, to open a burrito
restaurant, Cosmic Cantina, near the campus in Durham, N.C. Two
years ago, he opened a branch of the cantina, this time braving
Chapel Hill, home of Duke's archrival, the University of North
Carolina.

 After such daring, how much of a challenge could New York City
pose? And so about a month ago, Mr. Lyles opened his third Cosmic
Cantina, this one on Third Avenue in the East Village, serving
behemoth Northern California-style burritos made with fresh organic
ingredients, along with other quasi-Mexican dishes like
chimichangas and nachos.

 Now, "big, fat, healthy burritos," as the menu calls them, are an
acquired taste, and though New Yorkers seemed to have acquired the
taste a decade ago, they discarded it along the way, forcing many
burrito joints around the city to close.

 For me, the idea of cramming a full meal of beans, rice, cheese,
sour cream, guacamole and beef, chicken or vegetables into a giant
flour tortilla and consuming the whole blimp leaves a lot to be
desired. Yet the appeal of Cantina's burrito ($5 to $12) is
undeniable. Not only are the ingredients tasty and fresh, but also
you can custom-design your own burrito, adding as many ingredients
as you like, or, more important as far as I'm concerned, leaving
out what you don't want.

 Leave out the rice for me. And the sour cream. And the guacamole
and the vegetables, too. Yes, I'm a wimpy burrito eater, and Cosmic
Cantina's Old School chicken burrito ($7) is well-nigh perfect,
still plump with pleasantly charred chicken, earthy pinto beans,
brisk, mildly spicy cilantro-laced salsa and cheese. It's so
portable that if you can't wait until you get home, you can eat it
with two hands while on the run.

 The same can't be said of an Old School chicken burrito made with
corn tortillas, rather than flour. The corn adds a welcome Mexican
flavor, but since Cantina uses a half-dozen small corn tortillas to
do the job of one big flour tortilla, the construction is flimsy.
Eating this one with your hands is likely to result in disaster.

Cosmic Cantina, 101 Third Avenue, near 13th Street; (212) 420-0975.
Delivery: 10-block radius.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/25/dining/25TOGO.html?ex=997133552&ei=1&en=57a4b75de239b0ef

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