Sopes Surtidos de la Ciudad de México

This is a Ciudad de México dish. Not in the sense that nobody else makes sopes, the women in Guadalajara, Puebla, Oaxaca, and Sinaloa all have their own versions, but in the sense that the antojería tradition of the capital, the small market stalls and storefront kitchens where the comadres press sopes to order at lunchtime, is where this particular surtido was perfected. You go to Mercado de Medellín or Mercado de Coyoacán and you watch a woman pinch a sope in her bare hand while you stand there deciding which toppings you want, and that is the dish.

Surtido means assorted. The point is not one sope with one topping. The point is a platter of sopes, some with tinga, some with chorizo and papa, some with chicharrón en salsa verde, all sharing the same bordered shell and the same refried beans, the same crema and queso fresco, the same finishing salsa. This recipe gives you the chipotle tinga adapted from Puebla into the CDMX antojería style, because tinga is the topping that taught a whole generation of capital cooks what a sope was supposed to taste like.

The technique is the technique. Press the masa thicker than a tortilla. Cook it on the comal until it is just set. Pinch the rim while it is still hot enough to bend. Crisp the bottom in manteca. Build it the second it comes out of the fat. La manteca es el sabor. Skip the lard step and you have made something else, a thick tortilla with a soggy top, and the women at the mercado would not call it a sope. My mother kept a small clay cazuela of saved lard in the back of the icebox for years. She would scoop it out for the sopes on Sunday afternoons, when my cousins came over and we ate standing up at the kitchen counter because no one wanted to wait long enough to sit down. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.