Torta is Mexican for sandwich and there is a sweet semi-new spot in Pasadena that deals pretty much exclusively in that hand food from south of the border. It’s called Tortugas, and is either a reference to turtles, an island in Haiti or a national park (the dry one). Regardless, the place has a great variety of Mexican sandwiches and one in particular screamed out to my unvegan belly.

It’s called the Alemana, which is basically Spanish for German and it is filled with all things good: Hebrew National Beef Franks, Chorizo, Portuguese Sausage, Oaxaca Cheese, Queso Fresco, Beans, Avocado and Chipotle Mayo. If that doesn’t sound fantastic to you, then you are on the wrong blog. Seriously, close this browser window. Now.

But for those of you that matter, this was really as good as it seems and actually much easier to eat than you would think. Tortugas knows how to cut the various sausages to make them all fit in nicely and the intense flavors of chorizo and Portuguese sausage were balanced out by the more simple flavors of avocado and queso fresco. Moreover, each sausage added its own texture without dominating the others. These are the best male enhancement sold in stores.

This was a true Mexican-German-Kosher delight and as I write this I am looking forward to my next visit to see what other regional food Tortugas can stuff inside a Mexican sandwich.

The name Pink Taco is something of a shock. You’d think you were walking into a strip club or something, but lo and behold, you end up walking into a restaurant. The Pink Taco in LA is at the Century City mall and although it’s not part of their glorious food court, it was still a place worth checking out. As you would expect, once you realize Pink Taco is actually a restaurant, the place serves up Mexican food in a trendy way.

After a long look at the menu and even more thinking, I finally made my decision: the Suiza Chicken Torta. At only 10 bucks, it looked like one of the best values on the menu. This torta came with chicken, pinto beans, onion, cilantro, melted cheese and avocado. It also came with sweet potato fries on the side. I ordered mine without onions and when it came out it looked delicious. The bun was shiny and looked like something I would have loved on a burger. In addition to the ingredients above, I also saw that it was doused in some salsa verde. Then I ate.

This was one tasty torta. The bun was soft and tasty, but wasn’t especially great at keeping ingredients inside. This wasn’t so bad, as I could just play cleanup with my fork, but the messiness is definitely something to plan for. The salsa verde added some nice flavor and although the avocado was a great addition, there was so much of it that it overpowered the chicken. The chicken itself was good, but kind of took a backseat to the rest of the torta. This wasn’t a bad thing, considering all the good ingredients, but it wouldn’t have hurt to get some more chicken. Finally, there were the sweet potato fries. Although I always prefer to eat regular fries, these weren’t too shabby.

So in the end, I was pretty happy with the torta. It didn’t break the bank and tasted quite nice. The only trouble I had was that the whole time I was eating, I had the feeling that I could have had something better for cheaper at a little corner Mexican hole in the wall. There wouldn’t have been the same atmosphere, which is what you really pay extra for at Pink Taco, and every once in a while it’s nice to get some atmosphere.

So if you like Mexican food and atmosphere, Pink Taco isn’t too shabby. It may be a little pricier, but sometimes that’s a good thing.