Huarache (food)


Huarache is a popular Mexican dish consisting of masa dough with smashed pinto beans placed in the center before it is given an oblong shape, fried masa base, with a variety of toppings including green or red salsa, onions, potato, cilantro and any manner of protein such as ground beef or tongue, and then finished with queso fresco. Huaraches are also often paired with fried cactus leaves, or Nopales. This dish is most popular in its hometown of Mexico City and is also sold in cities with Mexican-American populations such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco, San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston, but have yet to become widely available across the entire United States. Still, huaraches and other Mexican dishes have increased their presence in the Midwest due to increasing numbers of Latinos in rural America.
The name "Huarache" is derived from the shape of the masa, similar to the popular sandals of the same name. The word Huarache is originally from Purépecha and the Nahuatl word for huarache is kwarachi. Huaraches are similar to sopes and tlacoyos but differ in shape.

Origin

Huaraches originated in Mexico City in about the early 1930s. Their origin was at a stall along La Viga navigation channel, where Mrs. Carmen Gomez Medina prepared tlacoyos. When the navigation channel was covered to make the "Calzada de la Viga", Mrs. Gomez moved to another place and after 1957, when the Mercado de Jamaica was founded, she moved there, and then to a little place at Torno street. Because Mrs. Gomez's new invention was shaped differently than a sope or a tlacoyo, people started to call it "huarache".