Torta de Camarón
Shrimp torta; grilled, fried, or in sauce—various coastal preparations.
La Torta
Torta de Bistec
Bistec names a thickness, not a cut: beef sliced thin enough to sear in under a minute. The torta de bistec packs it, chopped and dripping, into a telera with refried beans and avocado.
Torta de Bistec Encebollado
Torta de bistec encebollado promotes the onion to co-star: thin beef cooked down with onions until both go jammy and sweet, on a griddled telera. The cooked-with-onions method is colonial Spanish.
Torta de Birria
Birria torta; Jalisco's famous chile-braised goat or beef stew, shredded, often served with consomé for dipping.
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 an Ensenada cannery trade begun in 1925.
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.
Pelona
Drop a whole roll in hot lard, brown it, then shake it out hard, and you have a pelona, Puebla's "bald" torta. The discipline is the drain, not the fry that precedes it.
Lonche
In Jalisco a lonche is a birote sandwich with the salsa held back. Flood the same bread and it becomes a torta ahogada. The crumb, soured into existence during a 19th-century war, is built for both.