Blue Penguins and Cali Burritos

A couple years ago, Birch Aquarium advertised their upcoming penguin exhibit, and a new measurement dropped:

I was absolutely stoked to see these little guys, but around that time we ended up getting SD Zoo passes and our Birch Aquarium passes expired, so I never returned…until now.

The California burrito is a burrito with carne asada, guacamole, pico de gallo, sour cream, and french fries. While you can get creative with protein substitutions like chicken or shrimp, the fries are what make a Cali burrito stand apart from the rest. Some places will use hash browns, but some sort of fried potato is required to make a burrito a Cali burrito. They are absolutely fantastic! I don’t think I’ve eaten any other kind since moving to SoCal, because what would the point be? Cali burritos are just carne asada fries wrapped in a tortilla for portability, and you can’t beat that!

For science, I wanted to see if the claims that these penguins matched the size of a California burrito were true. We need to vet truth in advertising, after all. So when it was my stepdaughter’s 8th birthday and we got fresh annual passes to the aquarium for her, I took full advantage of the Birch Aquarium’s outside food policy. For science, of course.

I got my burrito from a little place near home that I won’t name because to be honest, I don’t love their food. The best burritos I’ve found in Escondido are at Santa Ana’s, which wasn’t open when I nabbed this. It was morning and we wanted to get there in time for the daily 10 AM penguin feeding presentation, so we had to grab what we could from what was open.

(We weren’t trying to feed the burrito to the penguins, mind you. We probably would get banned from the aquarium if we tried that. Please do not feed burritos to the penguins.)

Once at the aquarium, I sought out my quarry. We found the penguins. They were in sight.

Little Blue Penguins are the smallest species of penguin in the world, native to southern Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. But are they really as small as a California Burrito? Could I theoretically unwrap my burrito and replace it with a little blue penguin? (Side note: don’t actually attempt this, because that’s another good way to get banned from the aquarium.)

It was time to find out…

Either I had a small burrito, or the penguins were actually just a teensy bit larger. They were close, though! One thing I noted from the feeding presentation was that the penguins were preparing to molt, so in fairness they may have been packing some extra feathery fluff when we visited. Which means, clearly, we just need to collect more data with more burritos and more aquarium visits in the future.

I mean, we obviously just need to test more burritos.

For science, of course.