Qdoba Burrito
Qdoba style; similar to Chipotle, queso available.
Mexico
Puffy Taco
San Antonio specialty; masa dough fried until it puffs up, filled with picadillo or other fillings. Distinct from hard shell—lighter, air...
Pollo Asado Burrito
The grilled-chicken burrito: marinated thighs charred fast on mesquite or hot iron, chopped not shredded, rolled into a large flour tortilla with rice, beans, salsa, and cheese.
Piratas
A pirata is the Monterrey reading of beef and cheese in a Northern flour tortilla: charred arrachera chopped and folded with melted asadero or Chihuahua, pressed on a parrilla until the seam binds.
Picada
A Veracruz picada is a thick corn-masa round with a thumb-pinched rim that pens in a loose salsa, finished with queso fresco and onion, eaten hot at a Gulf-coast breakfast stand.
Phoenix Sonoran Hot Dog
Phoenix's Sonoran bacon-wrapped dog: the same Hermosillo template Tucson scaled, run across a bigger Valley restaurant footprint with Anglo and late-night crossover.
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.
Pellizcada
The pellizcada: a thick griddled corn-masa round, its rim pinched up into a low wall, topped open-faced with lard, salsa, crumbled queso, and onion. The pinch, from pellizcar, holds the load.
Pan de Muerto
The round, orange-scented sweet bread of Día de Muertos: a tender egg-and-butter crumb crossed with strips shaped like bones, sugar-dusted, set on the altar and torn with coffee.
Pambazo
You can spot a pambazo across a market by colour alone: the roll is dipped whole in guajillo chile and griddled, so the chile lives in the crust, not spooned on after.
Pambazo de Milanesa
Milanesa filling in guajillo-dipped bread.
Pambazo de Chorizo con Papa
The chorizo-and-potato pambazo is built backwards: the filling is cooked deliberately dry because the roll is already soaked in guajillo chile and griddled, and wet on wet is how you ruin it.
Pambazo Bread
White roll dipped in guajillo sauce and griddled; for pambazos.
New Mexico Burrito
New Mexico style; heavily featuring Hatch green chiles or red chile sauce, often smothered.
Nashville Hot Chicken Taco
The Nashville hot chicken taco rehouses a Tennessee specialty in a Mexican shell: cayenne-lacquered fried chicken on a warm tortilla, which handles screaming heat better than slack white bread.
Nachos (Loaded)
A flat plate of fried totopos under melted cheese and piled toppings, eaten chip by chip while they still crack. Improvised in Piedras Negras in 1943 by Ignacio 'Nacho' Anaya.
Nacho Cheese Chalupa
Fried flatbread shell with nacho cheese, various fillings.
Mulita
The mulita seals taco meat and melted cheese flat between two corn tortillas, the cheese working as mortar. Named for a small mule, it is a folk form with no inventor and a long street life.
Mollete
Open-faced sandwich; bolillo split, topped with refried beans and melted cheese, broiled. Often served for breakfast.
Mollete con Pico de Gallo
A mollete is built open: a split bolillo hollowed into a boat, a layer of refried beans, white cheese broiled until it blisters, finished cold and raw with pico de gallo. The capital's morning melt.
Mollete (Breakfast)
Breakfast mollete; open-faced bean and cheese, often with eggs or chorizo.
Mission Burrito
San Francisco Mission District-style burrito; large flour tortilla with rice, beans, meat, cheese, sour cream, salsa, guacamole, lettuce ...