100 Favorite Dishes, No. 51: The Huarache Combinado at Tortas La Hechizera

Leading up to September's Best of Dallas® 2016 issue, we're sharing (in no particular order) our 100 Favorite Dishes, the Dallas entrées, appetizers and desserts that really stuck with us this year. Not many foods are named after shoes. The huarache was originally a type of sandal used among the...

By Brian Reinhart

July 24, 2016

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Leading up to September's Best of Dallas® 2016 issue, we're sharing (in no particular order) our 100 Favorite Dishes, the Dallas entrées, appetizers and desserts that really stuck with us this year.

Not many foods are named after shoes. The huarache was originally a type of sandal used among the native peoples of Mexico; then, centuries later, some genius invented a jumbo-flavored street food that, according to some other genius, resembled a sandal. Maybe you don’t think about what articles of clothing your food looks like. Maybe that means you need to eat more huaraches.

Of course, it doesn’t really look like a sandal at all. A huarache is a sort of thick crust of masa — the corn paste made famous by tamales — fried until crispy. Then it’s topped with refried beans, meats and queso fresco and finished with a squirt of hot sauce.

Tortas La Hechizera specializes in gigantic sandwiches, but the huaraches are great too, even if the crisp masa crust can sometimes defy a plastic knife. Try the combinado, topped half with fajita beef and half with al pastor-seasoned meat. The fried crust and grilled meat are tamed by cool, smooth refried beans and sliced avocados. Be sure to untame the result with a generous amount of the shop’s boldly orange-red hot sauce.

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Brian Reinhart has been the Dallas Observer's food critic since spring 2016. In addition, he writes baseball analysis for the Hardball Times and covers classical music for the Observer and MusicWeb International.

Contact: Brian Reinhart

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Twitter: @bgreinhart