Torta de Birria
Birria torta; Jalisco's famous chile-braised goat or beef stew, shredded, often served with consomé for dipping.
Andrew Lekashman
Torta de Barbacoa
Barbacoa torta; pit-roasted beef cheeks, lamb, or goat wrapped in maguey leaves, steamed until falling apart. Traditionally from Hidalgo.
Torta de Atún
Torta de atún is the lunchbox torta: cold canned tuna bound with mayonnaise in a bolillo, beans as a blotter, jalapeño as the cut. The can behind it came from Baja California's 1920s cannery trade.
Torta de Arrachera
The northern parrillada's marinated skirt steak, grilled and chopped into a Mexico City telera over refried beans and avocado: the weekend grill cut given a weekday lunch format.
Torta de Aguacate
Torta de aguacate moves avocado from binding layer to lead filling, the vegetarian reading of the torta on a bean-bound telera. The fruit at its center was eaten in Puebla some ten thousand years ago.
Torta Cubana
Count what goes in one roll: milanesa, ham, hot dog, fried egg, cheese, the lot. The cubana is the maximal Mexico City torta, held by a bean-and-avocado bind laid on toasted faces before the meat.
Torta Ahogada
You lean over a torta ahogada; you do not carry it. The whole dish hangs on one defiant idea: a salty sourdough birote engineered to be flooded with chile salsa and still hold.
Torta Ahogada Media
Half-drowned torta; less salsa than full ahogada, for those who want less heat.
Torta Ahogada Bien Ahogada
Well-drowned torta; extra salsa, maximum heat and moisture.
Tlayuda
A 30-to-40-centimetre dried corn round, brushed with asiento, layered with black beans and quesillo, folded over a meat, and set back across the wood-fired comal until the cheese ropes melt.
Tlayuda de Tasajo
The beef-led Oaxacan tlayuda: a white-corn tortilla past 40 cm, brushed with asiento, floored with black beans and quesillo, crowned with smoky charcoal-grilled tasajo, folded over the coals.
Tlayuda de Chorizo
Of the Oaxacan tlayudas the chorizo one is the greasiest in the way you want: the sausage renders and its red fat runs down into the black beans, seasoning the base before you reach the meat.
Tlayuda de Cecina
Oaxaca's outsized toasted tortilla layered with asiento, black beans, and stringy quesillo, topped with thin chile-rubbed cecina grilled hard over coals, then folded over the heat.
Telera
The flat, three-pillowed white wheat roll baked specifically to carry a torta. Soft crumb, thin pale skin, two lengthwise grooves that split it cleanly down the equator.
Taquito
Small fried rolled taco; diminutive, often served as appetizer or snack.
Tacos de Requesón
Mild ricotta-like requesón given its spine by epazote, the anise-and-tar herb cooks reach for when something bland needs a backbone. Soft or fried crisp, green salsa over.
Tacos de Papa
Tacos de papa fill a corn tortilla with seasoned mashed potato, soft or fried golden as a dorado: cheap, filling, vegetarian by default, a fixture of Lenten Fridays.
Taco
A tortilla folded around a filling, eaten in the hand: the irreducible Mexican handheld, doubled for a reason and finished by a grammar stricter than it looks.
Taco Truck Taco
The wheeled mobile kitchen as institution: a vertical trompo, a flat-top, a tortilla warmer, a window, and three al pastor tacos out the gap in twenty seconds.
Taco Supreme
The hard-shell taco at its most loaded: seasoned beef and cheddar in a brittle fried corn shell, finished with cold sour cream and diced tomato. Taco Bell trademarked the name in 1978.
Taco Sudado
Sudado means sweated, and it is the recipe: a corn tortilla in chile oil, folded around a stew, then steamed in the dark by two hundred of its neighbors in a closed basket through the morning.
Taco Salad (in Shell)
Taco salad in shell: seasoned ground beef and salad layered into a deep-fried flour-tortilla bowl. An edible-vessel American Tex-Mex dish codified by Taco Bell in 1984.
Taco Rojo
A taco identified by its red sauce, the colour naming the dish before the filling does: tinga, picadillo, or red chile pork from the red pot of the Mexico City fonda counter.
Taco Placero
Central Mexico's plaza taco is a big corn tortilla loaded cold with crisp chicharrón, panela, avocado and a few leaves of pápalo, all bought at the market and eaten on the spot.