Tortas y Licuados Mexico City, Mexico Photo: Brenda Storch

You may or may not be familiar with the term torta, the Mexican interpretation of a sandwich. Tortas are brought to life using bolillos, a type of bread with the perfect amount of crunch and yield to provide textural contrast.  Budget and imagination are the only limits to what you can create.  Tortas are usually eaten for lunch, except when they are filled with a tamal, in which case they are called guajolotas or “female turkeys”, and are served as a breakfast meal. According to some food intellectuals, this name was given to tamal-stuffed tortas in the early 1900′s, due to the fact that back then, this plate was created with a low-quality bread called guajolote (turkey).

Licuados are close to the concept of a smoothie, except in Mexico, they are usually prepared with milk, fruit and even cereal and raw egg yolks. Licuados are a breakfast staple.

Just like sports have permeated the vernacular in the US, in Mexico, food has found its way rather ubiquitously into language.  The expression “Se comió la torta antes del recreo” (having finished one´s torta before recess) means a couple is expecting a child before getting married.

This photo was taken at one of the handful of stands offering tortas and licuados  in downtown Mexico City.