The essence of modern food in Australia is the ability to eat food from a culture with whom you have never had any contact, but can still buy their ingredients from any local supermarket. It is amazing that Mexican food even exists in any form in Australia, let alone that elements of it are available at any of your duopoly marts. In Australia, the Mexican community is tiny but the food of Mexico seems to have a disproportionate place in the hearts of Australians. We’ve had no wave of Mexican immigration, yet the tortilla is available everywhere.

But it’s not really Mexican food; it’s mostly some sort of grim cardboard parody. The “shelf stable” tortilla is a poor cousin of a soft and springy flatbread fresh from a tortilleria. Is making an authentic burrito possible in Australia?

Burritos in Mexico are associated with northern Mexican food, generally a light and springy flour tortilla wrapping a choice of protein with some chilli or local cheese . They are simple and the perfect one is really just a display of the strength of one great ingredient – charred beef with a shock of lime juice; simple leftover beans and rice; or just plain excellent tortillas.

Burritos in America are generally the size of your forearm and contain enough ingredients to sustain a small Mexican village: meats, rice, beans, chile, lime juice, sour cream, salsa, cheeses, guacamole, tomato, coriander, onions. They’re a great metaphor for American food in general, built by taking food from somewhere else, adding more meat and making it five times the size.

Australian burritos tend to sit somewhere between the two major burrito traditions. We haven’t drifted towards the American-sized burritos because you cannot buy a tortilla large enough to stuff with ten ingredients. Lettuce, minced meat and tomatoes seem to be common ingredients thanks to the serving suggestions on the packs of pre-packaged Mexican food. All three broad styles of burrito have their distinct charms, regardless of whether you view one or the other as inauthentic.

Nobody should ever become a slave to authenticity; being a slave to deliciousness is more rewarding.So how to build the perfect burrito?

Great burritos are dependent on great ingredients and in any of those traditions the key is either great meat or great beans. Getting the meat the same as in Mexico is impossible in Australia. The same carne asada – the meat in many a burrito - is almost impossible to make in the US, let alone here. As Street Gourmet LA writes that "Carne Asada doesn't have the social, traditional or commercial infrastructure in the US to replicate the quality and taste in Mexico". A whole series of interlocking factors mean that the right meat is not available.

The cut of meat used to make great carne asada is the “arrachera” cut, a cut of flank steak made by Mexican butchers which tends to leave a bit more fat on than US or Australian cuts of flank, and is a little longer. The perfect cut of this steak comes from a cow in Sonora, the state in north-western Mexico that borders the US. The terroir of cattle does have an influence in the way that meat tastes. When grilled over coals for a burrito, the best wood to use is mesquite, which is difficult to get in Australia.

While it is a worthy cause to uphold the perfect cut of meat for the ideal beef burrito, this is beyond all but the richest or ludicrously committed burrito aficionados. In the absence of the arrachera cut, what’s the substitute?

Skirt steak does an admirable job. The tactics to use this:

1.Marinate the skirt in lime juice, salt, garlic and chopped Serrano chillies for a few hours. Grill very quickly over coals. Cut into bite-size strips and add to your burrito with whichever fixings you enjoy; especially recommended is this simple pico de gallo salsa via Food Safari.

Alternately, use any cut of cheap beef that you can get (except mince). It’s not as if most Mexican food really does use the perfect cuts for a burrito – most uses whatever cut is on hand. For this, try chuck steak. Here is my lazy après-work version:

1. Pressure cook the whole piece of meat for 15 minutes, then remove from the pressure cooker. Place the meat onto an extremely hot griddle pan to give a few char marks, for two minutes or so. Shred up the meat with a fork and add lime juice, salt and chilli powder to taste. Add to your burrito.