Photo: Scarlett Lindeman
Mexican sandwiches have gone mainstream – drowned out by tacos and burritos, cemitas and tortas have been relegated to the background in the rush to find “authentic” Mexican food; so while your white friends talked about which truck to visit to find the best “real” tacos, Mexican sandwiches were, until recently, kind of a secret that we kept to ourselves.
No longer.
In addition to the recent opening of a torta-centric restaurant by NYU, the Village Voice published an article last week called “Cemita vs. Torta: Your Mexican Sandwich Primer.”
Peeling back the top of a sandwich from a Mexican bodega can sometimes cause momentary confusion. “Where’s the pickled jalapeno? What’s this green stuff?” is all too common a refrain. Here we clear up the difference between the two most popular Mexican sandwiches, the cemita and the torta, and where to find delectable versions of each.
The writer’s descriptions are accurate, and the places she mentions actually really do have really good sandwiches – Sunset Park in Brooklyn is the best – but we can’t help but feel like we just found out someone else has heard of our favorite underground band, or something.