Torta de Huevo a la Mexicana
Egg torta Mexican-style; eggs scrambled with tomato, onion, and serrano chile (the colors of the Mexican flag).
Egg torta Mexican-style; eggs scrambled with tomato, onion, and serrano chile (the colors of the Mexican flag).
Mushroom torta; sautéed mushrooms, often with epazote (Mexican herb), chile, and cheese.
Bean torta; refried beans as main filling, sometimes with cheese. Simple, satisfying.
Squash blossom torta; squash blossoms sautéed with onion and chile, often with cheese.
Yucatecan slow-roasted pork torta; pork marinated in achiote paste (annatto seed) and sour orange, wrapped in banana leaves and pit-roast...
Mexican chorizo torta; fresh pork sausage seasoned with guajillo/ancho chiles, vinegar, and spices; crumbled and fried.
Chorizo and egg torta; scrambled eggs with crumbled chorizo.
Chilaquiles (fried tortilla chips in salsa with eggs/chicken) in a torta; carb on carb breakfast.
Pork crackling torta; crispy fried pork skin, often pressed or in salsa.
Pressed chicharrón torta; chicharrón cooked down in salsa verde until soft.
Chicharrón in green salsa torta; pork cracklings braised in tomatillo salsa.
Salted dried beef torta; cecina is thin-sliced, salted, partially dried beef, often grilled. Yecapixtla, Morelos is famous for cecina.
A central-Mexican telera torta built around cecina enchilada: thin beef rubbed with red chile paste, dried, and grilled, with refried beans sealing the crumb. The chile rub is the loudest note.
Carnitas is sold by the cut, and the torta is where it counts: maciza, buche, cuerito, or surtida, chopped from a copper pot of lard-fried pork into a bean-sealed, toasted bolillo.
Grilled beef torta; carne asada (grilled marinated beef), sliced.
Shrimp torta; grilled, fried, or in sauce—various coastal preparations.
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 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.
Birria torta; Jalisco's famous chile-braised goat or beef stew, shredded, often served with consomé for dipping.
Barbacoa torta; pit-roasted beef cheeks, lamb, or goat wrapped in maguey leaves, steamed until falling apart. Traditionally from Hidalgo.
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.
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 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.