El Sereno: Tortas Ahogadas at El Vaquero Restaurante

Fate (aka a Groupon) recently brought me to El Vaquero Restaurante in El Sereno, where I was pleased to see that their specialty was Tortas Ahogadas. A popular sandwich Guadalajara, Mexico, it consists of a hard roll filled with carnitas and a smattering of beans, drowned—that’s what “ahogada” means—in sauce and served with a pile of onions.

Kind of like a Mexican French dip.

When I first set eyes on this daunting sandwich, I didn’t think I could possibly finish it, but I was quickly addicted. The bread was dense enough that it stayed in one piece under all that delicious tomato broth, the pork was tender, and the pickled onions brightened the whole thing up. I read that they sell these things at soccer games in Mexico, and that people eat them with their hands. Could that be true? This one definitely required a knife and fork.

You can order your torta ahogada mild or spicy, or even half mild, half spicy. The spicier version is drowned in chile de arbol. You can also get it media ahogada—“half drenched”—or not drenched at all, but that’s crazy talk.

-Valentina

El Vaquero Restaurante
4884 1/2 Huntington Dr S
Los Angeles, CA 90032