There’s hardly a more welcome sight on a morning street corner than the woman standing behind a giant metal steam pot with a bag of bolillo rolls next to her. The idea is to turn the tamal into a handheld food, into the on-the-go specialty that tortas symbolize. Putting the hot tamal into a room temperature bun makes it grippable. But the fact is, these are not small or easy to take with you—especially not while sipping atole, the hot corn drink that is traditionally taken with tamales (in or out of torta form). There’s very little to the standard Mexico City version of the sandwich: simply a tamal shoved into a roll, the fillings of the tamal giving the only break from the softness of both the white bread and the cornmeal of the tamal. Yet, it is the double-doughiness that offers comfort, with the torta catching any crumbles of tamal cascading away. Like tamales and atole on their own, the guajolota is a morning food, presumably to allow you an entire day in which to try to nap off your carb coma.
