How can you improve upon the glory that is crunchy, sticky, rich pork rinds? By putting them inside a sandwich, obviously. In this specialty of León, in the state of Guanjuato, crushed up chicharrones are the meat inside a bolillo roll, softened with sliced avocado. Like the guajalota, it’s nonsensically named for a bird. The name could, perhaps, be explained by the fact that the spicy pico de gallo within shares the bright red shade of the macaw’s plumage, but writer Joe DiStefano of Chopsticks and Marrow tells us it’s because “it’s so spicy you’ll squawk like that tropical bird when you eat it.” The spice of the pico de gallo is only as sharp as the crunch of the pork rind, both of which are ameliorated by the avocado and mild bolillo roll. “Nobody has cracked the cemita bread code in the US, definitely not in New York,” says Tellez of trying to find the right roll for this sandwich—which she calls one of her top three things to eat in Mexico. Instead, she suggests a trip to Cemitas Beto in the Mercado La Acocota in Puebla.
