The Elusive, Delicious Torta Ahogada Is Finally Captured
By Tovin Lapan
When I graduated from the University of Michigan, I packed up my U-Haul and never looked back.
I fled the melancholy gray skies of Ann Arbor and bolted for the best bet for some steady sun, Mexico. A planned one-year stay in Guadalajara quickly became two. When I finally moved back across the Rio Grande, what I thought I'd miss most was the girlfriend I was leaving behind. Now, six years later, I realize the greatest hole in my heart was left by the torta ahogada.
The torta ahogada , or "drowned sandwich," is a regional specialty of Guadalajara. It is made with a crunchy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside sour roll called a bolillo, which is stuffed with pierna (pork). Then the entire sandwich is immersed in a salsa made with chile de arbol. Sometimes the inside of the bread is spread with a light coating of refried beans. The sandwich is served swimming in a small pool of salsa, with lime and onions, and marinated in an even-spicier salsa. The original version packs a picante punch, but milder versions are available.
The torta ahogada helped me get through what turned out to be a very rough start to my stay in Mexico. My Spanish was rudimentary at best, and I felt isolated and disoriented. Living in a foreign city is exhausting at first, and the ahogada drowned my anxieties in delicious salsa.
Typically, food stands served torta ahogada and nothing else. I took comfort in the lack of choices that needed to be translated, and took pleasure in the fact that the Mexicans admired my taste for chile.
The bread, pork, salsa and onions did a delicious dance together. If you were sick, the ahogada would sweat it out of you. If you were hung over, it would clear your head.
The last thing I ate on the day my flight left Guadalajara in July 2003 was a torta ahogada from my favorite stand. I spent years tossing and turning in bed at night, drooling on my pillow while dreaming of those spicy onions and tender pork.
It's important to beware of impostors. Some Mexican sandwich shops will call something an ahogada even if it bears no resemblance to the Guadalajara original. One recipe from the Food Network calls it a "drowned beef sandwich." I've never met an authentic ahogada with beef in it, and frankly, I don't care to. The recipe also calls for avocado, which is a dead giveaway for an ahogada con artist.
In my obsession, each time I moved to a new city, I'd look in vain for the drowned sandwich I loved. I scoured San Francisco, Miami and Las Vegas, only to run into dead ends and frauds. I became so obsessed with the pursuit of the ahogada that I'd simply Google the phrase "torta ahogada san diego" every few weeks in blind desperation.
Then, El Gallito appeared. I clicked on a MySpace page touting the real deal ahogadas the way Guadalajara intended them, right here in Chula Vista. I put everything else on hold to hunt them down.
I finally found an authentic ahogada north of the border.
As I approached the Toys 'R' Us parking lot where the El Gallito puesto stands, I became nervous that I had built up the legend of the ahogada so much in my mind that I would never find one good enough again. The torta certainly looked the way I remembered it. Then I took a bite. Dios mio! The delicious dance was back, just as I remembered.
The stand is a labor of torta love by husband and wife Ray and Karina Reed. Karina, who is from Guadalajara, introduced Ray to the sandwich. He then apprenticed, often working for free, under ahogada artisans in Guadalajara so he could learn their secrets. Back in San Diego, they saw an opportunity to fill a void and step up as the only ahogada vendors in town. Along with business partner Liz Wolff, they opened the small stand in July.
El Gallito serves an "original" ahogada and a "gemma" version with sliced tomato, which is creamier and less spicy, and has a mustard-based sauce drizzled on top of it.
"The people who can't handle the spice like the gemma version," Karina said. "For both of them, the secret is in the bread. It has to be just right. I bring the flour from Mexico, and the rolls are all made by hand."
After all these years, I realized the ahogada is something that is not easily exported stateside. The chile does not translate to the U.S. palate, and the ingredients have to be sourced in the motherland. Southern California may be the only place you can get a bona fide ahogada.
There is one other thing the Yanquis just don't get.
"They always want to eat it with a fork or spoon because it is messy," Karina said. "You have to eat with your hands. Don't be afraid; lick your fingers."
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TORTA AHOGADA
2 bolillos
1 1/2 cups meat filling, typically pork, such as carnitas
3 tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/2 onion, chopped
2 dried arbol chiles (rehydrated in warm water for 20 minutes)
pinch of cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
pinch of ground nutmeg
1 habanero chile, seeded and diced
1 teaspoon of lard or oil
1 lime
Makes two sandwiches
Begin by removing the chiles from the soaking liquid and removing the stems and seeds and chop them coarsely. Heat the lard or oil in a pan, add the onions and cook over low-medium heat until they are translucent. Add the chiles, garlic, habanero, tomatoes and spices, and cook for 10 to 15 more minutes. Let the sauce cool down, and blend it until smooth. The pork should be finely chopped and sauteed in a pan with oil.
A bolillo is a crusty-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside variation on the baguette that you can find at Mexican markets and bakeries. Cut each roll almost in half lengthwise so that one side is still connected slightly, then stuff it with the meat filling. Some torta ahogada recipes call for a thin coating of refried beans to be applied to the inside of the bread before adding the pork.
You can either pour all the sauce over the sandwich or dip the sandwich in halfway. The traditional way is to smother the sandwich in the sauce, stuff some sliced onions inside and then squeeze some lime on top.
-- Adapted from a recipe by Chelsie Kenyon, About.com.
Tovin Lapin writes about food for The San Diego Union-Tribune.
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COPYRIGHT 2009 THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
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