Smothered Burrito
Burrito covered in chile sauce (red or green) and cheese, baked.
Andrew Lekashman
Sincronizada
Mexico's flour-tortilla take on griddled ham and cheese: two rounds synchronized around the filling, melted flat on the comal, cut into wedges and dressed with salsa and avocado at the table.
Shrimp Taco (USA)
American shrimp taco; grilled or fried shrimp.
Shrimp Fajita
Shrimp fajita; grilled shrimp with peppers and onions.
San Diego Burrito
The San Diego burrito runs fresh and grilled where others run wet and stewed, and its signature is the California burrito: carne asada and hot french fries rolled tight in a flour tortilla.
San Antonio Breakfast Taco
Bought by the dozen for the office and the Sunday after Mass: a soft flour tortilla folded around a hot filling, with the cheap, enormous bean and cheese as the city's yardstick.
Quesarito
A burrito rolled inside a cheese quesadilla, one sandwich used as the wrapper for another, the cheese welding the shell into a single sheet. A counter trick Taco Bell took national in 2014.
Quesadilla
A folded tortilla griddled with melted cheese in the crease, defined by a pull, a freckled masa, and a Mexico City argument about whether the cheese is required at all.
Quesadilla Tex-Mex
American-style quesadilla; large flour tortilla folded with cheese and various fillings, often with sour cream, guacamole.
Quesadilla Gringa
The gringa shelved under the quesadilla heading: flour tortilla folded over melted cheese and al pastor, the crease pressed shut on the griddle. Same dish, named from the fold.
Quesadilla Grande
An oversized masa quesadilla off a Mexico City comal, often blue corn, hand-shaped long and loaded with several guisados. The capital's machete and jirafa, and the con-queso argument.
Quesadilla Frita
The quesadilla frita is the one dropped whole into a vat of hot lard, so the masa balloons and crackles into a hard golden shell around a molten core, a different machine from the dry comal entirely.
Quesadilla de Tinga
The quesadilla de tinga folds smoky chipotle-stewed chicken into corn with a melting cheese. The tinga, sweet and tart and reduced, supplies the bite its whole character.
Quesadilla de Rajas
The quesadilla de rajas is decided at the roast: poblano chiles fire-blackened until the skin peels, cut into smoky ribbons, slackened with crema, and folded into corn over a hot comal.
Quesadilla de Queso
Cheese quesadilla; simple melted cheese in tortilla.
Quesadilla de Quesillo
The version where the cheese is the whole subject: Oaxacan string cheese unwound by hand and brought up slowly to a long elastic pull, with two ingredients and nowhere for a mistake to hide.
Quesadilla de Pastor
Spit-shaved al pastor pork closed into a cheese quesadilla on a Mexico City comal; the same filling as the open taco, in a sealed fold with quesillo added.
Quesadilla de Papas
The quesadilla de papas folds the pantry's cheapest filling, mashed seasoned potato, into a griddled tortilla, and sits at the center of Mexico City's con o sin queso question.
Quesadilla de Masa
The Mexico City market quesadilla, finished from raw dough at the stall: fresh nixtamalized masa pressed to order, folded over cheese or huitlacoche, fried or comal-seared while you wait.
Quesadilla de Huitlacoche
The Aztec corn fungus, reduced down with epazote and folded with melted cheese into a fresh corn tortilla on a hot comal; central Mexican rainy-season delicacy.
Quesadilla de Hongos
The mushroom quesadilla turns on a long, dry sauté: cook the champiñones past the steam to where they brown, then bind them in quesillo for a soft, meaty bite with no meat in it.