By Chris Cosci

Many people enjoy going out to a good Mexican restaurant. And when I say "good Mexican restaurant," I'm referring to any Mexican restaurant without the words "taco" and "bell" in the name. Whether it's the never-ending baskets of chips and salsa that fill you up so you can't eat your actual meal, or the two-for-one margaritas served in glasses the size of large mixing bowls, Mexican restaurants offer something for just about everyone.

However, they also have a rather unique quality in that a bulk of their menu consists of the same three basic ingredients served in nearly identical ways, only with different names. To prove this, let me give you a quick matching quiz. Match the following three menu items with the appropriate description listed below: burrito; enchilada; chimichanga.

1. A tortilla filled with beef and cheese.
2. A tortilla filled with beef and cheese.
3. A tortilla filled with beef and cheese.

How'd you do? Now, for extra credit, use the same three descriptions and match these three menu items: quesadilla; flauta; soft taco. If you think this exercise is difficult, just wait until you're eating with somebody who orders a combination burrito, enchilada and chimichanga platter. Ask them, "Which one is the enchilada?" They won't have a clue. They'll stammer and hesitate before finally breaking down and yelling, "I don't know -- they all look the same!"

Don't let this happen to you. Let's clear up some of the finer details of Mexican cuisine. Most people are familiar with the taco and the quesadilla. The standard taco consists of a hard corn tortilla shell shaped like a U. Usually you just fill this shell with ground beef, cheese and other assorted toppings. There's also the soft taco, made with a soft flour tortilla. The quesadilla is a flour tortilla folded in half over a filling of cheese and, sometimes, meat or beans. It is then fried or toasted, and cut into familiar triangular shapes. So far, so good.

Next, we have the burrito. The burrito is made with a large flour tortilla completely wrapped around its contents, typically consisting of beef, beans and/or cheese. It's folded in on all sides, creating a neat, hand-held sandwich. If you were to deep-fry a burrito, that would be what's called a chimichanga. On a side note, burrito comes from the Spanish word for "small donkey." Thankfully, chimichanga does not translate into "deep-fried donkey."

Moving on, we come to the enchilada. Like a burrito, an enchilada is a tortilla filled with meat and cheese. However, the tortilla is simply rolled up around the filling, as opposed to folded over it. In addition, the enchilada is usually covered in a chili sauce. Because it's simply rolled up, the enchilada is tough to eat by hand because food can spill out of both ends. Interestingly enough, the phrase "the big enchilada" is sometimes used to refer to a high-level executive. This might be because when these executives start spouting senseless jargon, you can swear their words are spilling out of both ends.

Finally, we have some miscellaneous items including the flauta. The flauta is basically a miniature enchilada. Like the enchilada, the tortilla is rolled around the filling, but the flauta is much smaller and thinner, and it is often deep-fried. You also have the chalupa (an appetizer with a fried, boat-shaped corn tortilla filled with meat and cheese), the gordita (a thick cake of cornmeal dough filled with meat and cheese) and fajitas (make-your-own items where you take a small flour tortilla and fill it yourself… with meat and cheese.)

Although there are other minor differences, this should give you a good head start. And if you still can't figure things out, you can always try going to an Italian restaurant. There you can try to figure out the difference between ziti and penne, linguine and fettuccine, or capellini and vermicelli. Or you could just follow my personal philosophy -- who cares? Just eat it.