Mexico

Wet Burrito

A flour-tortilla burrito laid on a plate, smothered in red chile sauce, blanketed in melted cheese, and broiled until the tortilla softens into the dish: the Midwest diner plate you eat with a fork.

Walking Taco

A single-serve corn-chip bag, slit open down its long side, packed with taco-seasoned beef, shredded cheese, lettuce, tomato, and sour cream, eaten with a plastic fork from the bag at a fair.

Veggie Burrito

The Mission taqueria's standing default: a steamed flour tortilla around beans, rice, grilled vegetables, cheese, and guacamole, the protein slot filled by composition rather than by meat.

Tostada

Frying a tortilla flat and rigid turns a wrapper into a plate. Beans seal the porous shell before anything wet goes on, and the load, tinga, ceviche, pickled trotter, decides how long it lasts.

Torta

Most of Mexico's filled breads are arguments with one sandwich. The torta's single structural decision is a bean-and-avocado bind that grips the bread and holds everything else in place.