The History of Wrap
What is a wrap? Where did this wonderous sandwich filled with just about anything come from? And why do we love them so much?
Question to ponder for sure. Let's start with the obvious...what is a wrap? A wrap is a sandwich made of soft flatbread rolled around a plethora of filling options. Typical flatbreads are wheat-flour tortillas, lavash (a soft, thin flatbread popular in the Northern parts of the Middle-East and the Southern parts of the Caucasus). In the same family as the pita, which is more of a pocket, the wrap is a wider diameter sometimes up to a foot wide and is folded and rolled to hold its contents into place. The base of your wrap is always some kind of meat, poultry or fish served hot or cold. Combined with any number of sauces and condiments and some variation of vegetables. Of course if you are a vegetarian the wrap can be filled in total with vegetables and still be a very pleasurable eating experience.
AS told by wikipedia: A flour tortilla /tɔrtˈiə/ (or wheat tortilla to differentiate it from other uses of the word tortilla, which in Spanish means "small torta", or "small cake") is a type of soft, thin flatbread made from finely ground wheat flour. Originally derived from the corn tortilla, a bread of maize which predates the arrival of Europeans to the Americas. The wheat flour tortilla was a Kosher innovation by exiled Spanish Jews who did not consider corn meal to be Kosher, using wheat brought from Europe, while this region was the colony of New Spain[1][2]
Flour tortillas are commonly prepared with meat, mashed potatoes, cheese and other ingredients to make dishes such as tacos, quesadillas and burritos (a dish originating in the El Paso, Texas, USA/Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico area).
In appearance and use tortillas are rather similar to the South Asian chapati and Roti. Tortillas are also very similar to the unleavened bread popular in Semitic, eastern Mediterranean and southern Asian countries, though thinner and smaller in diameter. In China, there is the laobing (烙餅), a pizza-shaped thick "pancake" that is similar to the tortilla.
In more modern times.......
Many cultures have some form of the wrap in the menu,Mexicans and Greeks have been eating wraps since the 1900s, In the Indian culture its call nan, although much softer than the wraps we know today the concept is the same, put food in it and eat. The varieties vary as much as the cultures that create them as they come in corn, wheat, and flour.
Our first "wrap" sighting can be traced to Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the early 1980s a restaurant called Stuff-Its and sold salad with a tahini dressing rolled in lavash.
The modern "wrap" as we know it probably comes from California, as a generalization of the Tex-Mex burrito, and became popular in the 1990s.
Allegedly it was invented and named at a southern California chain called "I Love Juicy" in the early 1980s. However, The Bobby Valentine Sports Gallery Cafe in Stamford, Connecticut claimed to have invented the wrap at about the same time, but Valentine himself is rather diffident about it.
"Well, that's legend and folklore," Valentine said. "But until somebody disputes me or comes up with a better story, I'll say I invented the wrap."
Beth Dolan of Stamford, Connecticut is the waitress credited for serving the first wrap after the restaurant had ran out of bread. Moreover, Valentine's own story dates his use of the name 'wrap' to the mid-1990s, after it was sold at I Love Juicy in California.
The wrap as a culinary phenomenon was pioneered and popularized by World Wrapps, a chain of California-based restaurants. World Wrapps introduced the concept of the eclectic wrap, drawing on a variety of different ingredients that expanded beyond the traditional burrito fillings. Founded in 1996, the company was the first to offer a wide array of flavors from around the world contained within a tortilla and since then has inspired many others to do the same.
So as you can see there are many different versions. No matter it all comes down to one thing...the wrap is here to stay. The versatile sandwich is a crowd pleaser no matter who you ask.
Our first "wrap" sighting can be traced to Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the early 1980s a restaurant called Stuff-Its and sold salad with a tahini dressing rolled in lavash.
The modern "wrap" as we know it probably comes from California, as a generalization of the Tex-Mex burrito, and became popular in the 1990s.
Allegedly it was invented and named at a southern California chain called "I Love Juicy" in the early 1980s. However, The Bobby Valentine Sports Gallery Cafe in Stamford, Connecticut claimed to have invented the wrap at about the same time, but Valentine himself is rather diffident about it.
"Well, that's legend and folklore," Valentine said. "But until somebody disputes me or comes up with a better story, I'll say I invented the wrap."
Beth Dolan of Stamford, Connecticut is the waitress credited for serving the first wrap after the restaurant had ran out of bread. Moreover, Valentine's own story dates his use of the name 'wrap' to the mid-1990s, after it was sold at I Love Juicy in California.
The wrap as a culinary phenomenon was pioneered and popularized by World Wrapps, a chain of California-based restaurants. World Wrapps introduced the concept of the eclectic wrap, drawing on a variety of different ingredients that expanded beyond the traditional burrito fillings. Founded in 1996, the company was the first to offer a wide array of flavors from around the world contained within a tortilla and since then has inspired many others to do the same.
So as you can see there are many different versions. No matter it all comes down to one thing...the wrap is here to stay. The versatile sandwich is a crowd pleaser no matter who you ask.
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