Food explorer Jay Francis roams the city in his spare time looking for cool things to eat. Bicultural burgers are one of his favorite genres and he really hit the jackpot with this one.
The $7.99 gigante tortaburger at Tortas El Angel is a double cheeseburger torta on talera bread with refried beans, lettuce, tomato, onion, jalapeño and avocado. It feeds two easily. The ground meat patties were a little overcooked for my tastes, but the sandwich was such a riot of flavors, I loved it anyway.
Tortas El Angel has a full menu of tortas including the Cubana (ham, pork, cheese), the Tejana (fajita meat), and the Norteña (fajita meat and eggs). The Mexican poor boys come in two sizes: “big” and “gigante.” Gigante is generally two bucks more than big.
Tortas de huevos are made with scrambled eggs and your choice of one ingredient or two. The options include ham, bacon, fajita meat and cheese. The egg sandwiches come on talera bread spread with refried beans and jalapeños. On weekend mornings, Tortas El Angel opens at eight and serves menudo and pozole along with the egg sandwiches. – Robb Walsh
Tortas El Angel, 1018 N. Shepherd (north of I-10 just before 11th St.), 713 862 9222
This article appears in Oct 18-24, 2007.
