In the torta Cubana, nearly everything does become a torta. Mexico City is known for kitchen-sink style sandwiches: it’s the big city, and the sandwiches are sized to match (look for “tortas gigantes,” or “giant tortas” signs around town). While the torta Cubana might share a name (in translation) with the Cuban sandwich, it shares very little with the mild-mannered, politely-sized ham and cheese sandwich. Brigham Barnes eloquently described the torta Cubana in Lucky Peach as “a savagely beautiful meat beast that the less artful or non-smitten might call a Mexican garbage plate on bread.” An average torta cubana might include a piece of milanesa (breaded meat), a slice of pierna (cooked pork leg—though the word is also at times used to mean pulled-pork leg meat), a split-down-the-center hot dog, ham, quesillo, and American cheese. Four meats and two cheeses—that’s just the tip of the torta Cubana iceberg, where chorizo and eggs could embrace on a bed of head cheese and nobody would give them a second glance. What is exactly in the sandwich depends on the particular stand, but like the old graveyard or ‘suicide’ soda drinks, it basically involves a little bit of every single topping that the torta stand has on hand.
