Sopitos, Chalupas, & Gorditas

What do these terms mean to you? We have a tremendous little place, Big Al's in Ashland, that combines Mexican dishes from the owner's native Michoacan with Hamburgers. The dish that interests me is called Sopitos by him. It's a raised corn tortilla slathered with beans, topped with shredded beef and Cotijo cheese. Wonderful stuff. I've had a similar item in San Antonio but it was called a Gordita.
In other places things made with Risen corn dough have been called Chalupas. Enlighten me. Have you tried these delicacies? What do you call them?
Are they the same dish or all cousins?...and how do I make the dough?

Gorditas are ONLY good if each & every one is handmade

I think that’s called “gastronomic license” to call a dish anything you want.

Go SPURS!!!
I just got signed in to this forum and if you get to read this then I hope it answers your question.
A SOPE is a...I guess the best description is a "Corn Cake," but not a sweet one. It is a like a chalupa or tostada where it serves as an edible plate. It is stacked with Refried beans, meat if you like, shredded cabbage (very traditional),or Lettuce , and crumbled "queso fresco." You can add a green salsa or red salsa or as you eat it you take a bite out of a jalapeno. The Sope is usually also made like a gordita same size, but will not have the Lard in the mix. It's uniqueness is that it has raised borders or edges and there it serves as your edible plate.
The gordita starts off the same but when you mix lard or shortening in the mixture, things change. For one the taste and the texture. The gorditas are crispy on the outside and soft and steamy on the inside. They are designed to keep the moist stuffing from leaking through yet allowing you to enjoy a soft spongy "corn bread" consistency. As mentioned on an other post, you must eat them as they come out of the griddle. Reheated gorditas for a first timer will make him a last timer. They don't do the gordita justice.
Both are fried on a griddle and served immediately. Both keep very well after they are made into their shape and frozen. Here in San Antonio they sell them already in their disc form ready for the griddle (the gorditas). I used to frequent a restaurant in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, with my parents back in the late 70's. You could say a little hole in the wall, but that would be an improvement. The place was "La Taqueria Bravo," they had the best sopes. These people worked from lunch to late after midnight serving tacos, enchiladas (Mex style)and sopes every day. I'll never forget seeing the Sopes stacked on a window sill about 1 1/2 feet high just waiting for the griddle when they were ordered. A family of five would enjoy a plate of 6 tacos per plate, 4 sodas, cueritos (pickled pork skins) and guacamole, 2 sopes all for no more than 5 dollars. Those were the days!!!

! Ay muchachos ! Each Mexican (genuine Mexican, that is) antojito (little whim) has its own name and its own character and characteristic, the common denominator being that they are made from corn masa.

Some examples of antojitos are tacos, quesadillas, enchladas, sopes or sopecitos, chalupas, tostadas, memelas, gorditas, noiotes, huaraches, flautas and others.

Tacos can be folded in half, or rolled, & then filled with meat and/or refried beans, mashed potatoes, or any number of fillings. Fresh veggies suchas as shredded cabbage or lettice, topped with cream or cheese and salsa.

Flautas are tightly rolled corn tortillas filled with shredded meat, most commonly with chicken, then deep fried until crunchy and crispy. Eaten with cream or guacamole slathered on top of, not inside of.

Gordas or gorditas are thickish hand made tortillas, less big than a normal tortilla, grilled, the split like an English muffin and filled with some type of a stwed meat, or a combination of nopalitos and eff, grilled meat, or chorizo and potato, etc.

Chalupas are made from fresh masa in the shape of acanoe (chalupa in spanish), complete with little sides which help hold the goodies inside.

Sopes are also made with fresh masa by hand, round with ittle sides, sorta inthe shape of a low-sides tarte, but of a size to be eaten straigtht from your hand.

Huaraches are also made from fresh masa, and are an oblong, shaped flat shape, sometimes with bl;ack beans rolled into the masa. They are called huaraaches because they are in the shape of a sandal sole. Grilled, and topped with meat, lettice or cabbage, tomatoes, avocadoes, and cream. Then salsa of your choice is dirbbled on top.

Enchladas are corn tortillas sipped in chile or sauced with chile, filled with cheese or meat or other goodies, either rolled or stacked. They may be baked or made on top of the comanl (griddle) but shouldbe eaten immediately (as all of the other s mentioned above) in order to have the best warm comfortingly flavor and so they wont fall apart from sittng in sauce so long!

cocina-mexicana@yahoogroups.com

I'm gonna print this out.

What is a Torta?

Greg, a torta's a sandwich made with a bread similar to a french or italian style, at least here in Southern Oregon. Those ARE tasty descriptions. Thanks, lavanda & Sixrrick . All the things I asked about involve yeasty corn dough, sort of mexican cornbread. San Antonio I remember as having the best Chalupas and gorditas, and also the most accurate as per the descriptions We have a new little Stand right off the I-5 Talent exit; Tacotote , a motorhome+tent in the truck stop parking lot across from Wallyworld. They have a grill for Friday and Saturday grilled meats.
This lady, Blanca, whipped up a sope in a revereware saucepan. She pulled her already made doughball out, threw it in the pan with some oil, smashed it out-ingredients added. stupendous!

quote:

Originally posted by wheregreggeats.com

I'm gonna print this out.

What is a Torta?

A totra is a sandwich made with a bolillo - which is a crusty fresh or italian-style bread.... but a little different.

Split the roll, pull out some of the insides to make rooms for the "good stuff". Toast both sides of the insides. Spread refried beans onthe bottom- the lard/fat in the refrieds will "seal" the bottom so the juices wont penetrate and make the sammich fall apart. (Although, IMHO, the word sandwich does not do the torta justice).

On top of the refrieds is laid your choice: ham, chicken, pork roast, carniteas, milanesa (a breaded milanese stak) grilled beef, or other like chicharrones, tongue or other.

Then, slices of marinated onions, jalapenos, avocadoes, tomato, and crema is spread on the top half of the bread.

WHAT a meal!

quote:

Originally posted by bill voss

All the things I asked about involve yeasty corn dough, sort of mexican cornbread.

You are correct exCEPT none of them have yeast or other leavening.

they all involve baking powder then? I'm a better eater than a cooker.
I was thinking about the torta bread, I guess. What do you know of it's origins, Lavanda? I like your in depth know how. thanks.

I've made bolillos and teleras, both for tortas. Basically the same dough, which in the recipe I use has yeast and baking powder for an almost fluffy interior. A bolillo has one depression lenghwise down the middle resulting in 2 sections to the top of the roll. A teleras has 2 depressions resulting in 3 sections. The best tortas I've eaten anywhere have been at Manny's Tortas in Minneapolis of all places. They are on a type of baguette with no depressions at all. Their torta cubana is street food at it's best. Beans, jalepenos, lettuce, tomatoes,pickled carrots, ham, cheese and milanesa. Too, too good.

Lavanda, It seems as though Mexican breads and pastries were influenced by the French occupation. Would you agree? You share some great information. Oaxacan food interests me greatly. It's my current favorite. Is that region something you're familiar with?

In Japan we had a place called Charlies Tacos. All they offered were tacos. They were ok. Price was reasonable. Guess what( it was made with ground cat)
All the walls and ceiling was decorated with people telling you how many they ate. After six Orion beers and fifteen tacos you felt like you could go for fifteen more tacos, just try to forget its cat meat!!

quote:

Originally posted by shmuelio

In Japan we had a place called Charlies Tacos. All they offered were tacos. They were ok. Price was reasonable. Guess what( it was made with ground cat)
All the walls and ceiling was decorated with people telling you how many they ate. After six Orion beers and fifteen tacos you felt like you could go for fifteen more tacos, just try to forget its cat meat!!

I'm not surprised it was reasonable ... ground cat meat costs a fortune here in the states.

From my memory ['cause I have yet to find an example north of the border that was worth a darn], the telera does have the two longitudinal depressions - possibly pressed or molded in? - whereas the bolillo has more of a controlled crack running its length that is made by scoring the top with a knife or razor blade, the same way that baguettes, sourdoughs, & other French-style breads are made around here. This score permits the bread to expand in a predictable fashion.

In Mexico City, the telera has almost completely replaced the bolillo for tortas because it's almost all crust - there's no need to extract the fluffy interior - so that sandwich preparation is much quicker.

Back in the day (I'm about to age myself) - when you got 10 bolillos for 1 peso [& that peso was worth 8 US cents] - bolillos were considered a staple food and their price was state standardized & subsidized: the poor got a break on their daily bread & bolillos were the standard roll for your torta. When the subsidy disappeared, the telera made more economic sense for both the baker & the sandwich-maker.

(A note on French influence: it's entirely likely that French cuisine had some influence well before the French became colonizers during the reign of Napoleon III & his stooge, Maximilian. The Mexican aristocracy had issues with the Spanish & the English that they didn't have with the French - but I think that neither wine, nor cheese, nor even bread were started by the French in Mexico. The Spanish military & the missionaries that followed were probably preparing their own homestyle victuals long before there was a 'Mexican' aristocracy. And later on, when wheat production started to expand in the northern parts of the republic, the US may have had some influence on the modest ubiquity of bread in Mexico as cheap wheat became plentiful to compete w/ US wheat.)
Buen provecho,
Richard
Berkeley/SF, CA

P.S. to Bill Voss: make a note of Lavanda's awesome list, but don't fixate on there being a one-to-one correspondence - there are also regional variations.... ('You say hoagie, I say torpedo - let's call the whole thing off!')

quote:

Originally posted by zataar

I've made bolillos and teleras, both for tortas. Basically the same dough, which in the recipe I use has yeast and baking powder for an almost fluffy interior. A bolillo has one depression lenghwise down the middle resulting in 2 sections to the top of the roll. A teleras has 2 depressions resulting in 3 sections. The best tortas I've eaten anywhere have been at Manny's Tortas in Minneapolis of all places. They are on a type of baguette with no depressions at all. Their torta cubana is street food at it's best. Beans, jalepenos, lettuce, tomatoes,pickled carrots, ham, cheese and milanesa. Too, too good.

Wow, great stuff. Sounds like a chalupa in the original post, with a tostada being closely related but with lettuce and tomato on a hard tortilla.

My first experience with what Lavanda calls "Flautas" was in a little town called Tula north of D.F. in Hildalgo. I stopped in a little corner cafe and just pointed and said "los, por favor." Mi espanol no es bueno. The kind lady cooking explained that the rolled up corn tortillas filled with shredded beef and deep fried then served with a pile of typical Mexican condiments were called "taquitos."
Man, that was one of the tastiest meals I've ever had. . . a top 10 road food experience.
Tula was such a cool place.