Pambazo () is a Mexican dish or ''

antojito Mexican street food, called ''antojitos'' (literally "little cravings"), is prepared by street vendors in Mexico City, street vendors and at small traditional markets in Mexico. Street foods include tacos, tamales, gorditas, quesadillas, Empalme ( ...

'' (very similar to the

torta Torta is a culinary term that can, depending on the cuisine, refer to cakes, pies, flatbreads, sandwiches, or omelettes. Usually, it refers to: * cake or pie in South America, much of Europe, and southern Philippines * flatbread in Spain * a ...

) made with pambazo bread dipped and fried in a red '' guajillo'' pepper sauce. It is traditionally filled with ''papas con chorizo'' (

potatoes The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern United ...

with chorizo) or with ''papas'' only but there are different varieties.

Ingredients and preparation

The bread used for pambazos is white and lacks a crispy crust. This particular bread is made of flour, and is softer than the similar

bolillo A ''bolillo'' () (in Mexico) or ''pan francés'' (in Central America) (meaning "French bread") is a type of savory bread made in Mexico and Central America. It is a variation of the baguette, but shorter in length and is often baked in a stone ...

(also used for sandwiches), which allows it to retain its shape while being soaked in sauce. Teleras are usually found in Mexican bakeries where they are sold just as any other white bread. It is unclear since when or why the pambazo is prepared and filled in a very specific way. While other similar dishes changed the fillings or toppings, the pambazo recipe remains almost the same. The bread is first filled with the potato and chorizo, then dipped in warm red '' guajillo'' pepper sauce, which gives the bread its famous orange-red sprinkled coloration. Once the bread has been soaked, it is passed on to fry in a bit of oil. The pambazo is to fry on the top and bottom of the bread. The pambazo is ready whenever the bread being fried becomes crispy on both sides. It is then garnished with shredded

lettuce Lettuce (''Lactuca sativa'') is an annual plant of the family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable, but sometimes for its stem and seeds. Lettuce is most often used for salads, although it is also seen in other kinds of food, ...

, ''

salsa Salsa most often refers to: * Salsa (Mexican cuisine), a variety of sauces used as condiments * Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music * Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music Salsa or SALSA may also refer to: ...

'' (sauce),

crema Crema or Cremas may refer to: Crema * Crema, Lombardy, a ''comune'' in the northern Italian province of Cremona * Crema (coffee), a thin layer of foam at the top of a cup of espresso * Crema (dairy product), the Spanish word for cream * ''Cremà ...

(cream), and

queso fresco Queso blanco (), literally ''white cheese'' in Spanish, can refer to many different kinds of cheeses whose only common trait is their white color. The specific cheese referred to depends on the region. Production Queso blanco is considered on ...

(fresh cheese). In the Mexican State of

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

, the pambazo, the

bread Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...

, after some proofing the

bun A bun is a type of bread roll, typically filled with savory fillings (for example hamburger). A bun may also refer to a sweet cake in certain parts of the world. Though they come in many shapes and sizes, buns are most commonly round, and are g ...

s are punched in a bed of

wheat flour Wheat flour is a powder made from the grinding of wheat used for human consumption. Wheat varieties are called "soft" or "weak" if gluten content is low, and are called "hard" or "strong" if they have high gluten content. Hard flour, or ''bread ...

and then back to proofing and baked. Once the

is ready the top remain dusted and is sliced to the filling of layered grided refried black beans with chorizo, shredded

, sliced chipotle peppers in adobo, ground or squared

queso blanco Queso blanco (), literally ''white cheese'' in Spanish, can refer to many different kinds of cheeses whose only common trait is their white color. The specific cheese referred to depends on the region. Production Queso blanco is considered on ...

and spread

mayonaisse Mayonnaise (; ), colloquially referred to as "mayo" , is a thick, cold, and creamy sauce or dressing commonly used on sandwiches, hamburgers, composed salads, and French fries. It also forms the base for various other sauces, such as tartar s ...

. From

food stand A food kiosk or food booth (also food stand, temporary food service facility) is generally a temporary structure used to prepare and sell food to the general public, usually where large groups of people are situated outdoors in a park, at a parade ...

s to

backpack A backpack—also called knapsack, schoolbag, rucksack, rucksac, pack, sackpack, booksack, bookbag or backsack—is, in its simplest frameless form, a fabric sack carried on one's back and secured with two straps that go over the shoulders ...

s or school

lunch boxes A lunch box (alt. spelling lunchbox) refers to a hand-held container used to transport food, usually to work or to school. It is commonly made of metal or plastic, is reasonably airtight and often has a handle for carrying. In the United ...

the

sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

is wrapped in

napkin A napkin, serviette or face towelette is a square of cloth or paper tissue used at the table for wiping the mouth and fingers while eating. It is usually small and folded, sometimes in intricate designs and shapes. Etymology and terminology ...

s to gently avoid dusted fingers, nose and lips. In other regions is filled with ham or polish meat. At

birthday parties A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

, parties or social events, small sized pambazos are served instead of

canapé A canapé () is a type of hors d'oeuvre, a small, prepared, and often decorative food, consisting of a small piece of bread (sometimes toasted) wrapped or topped with some savoury food, held in the fingers and often eaten in one bite. Name T ...

s. These are known as pambacitos, which literally means "little pambazo".

History

The pambazo bread got its name from the

Ladino Ladino, derived from Latin, may refer to: * The register of Judaeo-Spanish used in the translation of religious texts, such as the Ferrara Bible *Ladino people, a socio-ethnic category of Mestizo or Hispanicized people in Central America especi ...

word ''pan basso'' (Spanish ''pan bajo'') or low-class bread from Mexico's viceregal period. During that period, there were bakeries in Mexico dedicated solely to this type of bread named 'panbasserias' (''pambacerías''). :''"On this type of bread, inferior quality flour or flour from deteriorated wheat were mixed to produce the pan basso. Bakeries produced minimal quantities of pan basso, a maximum of 4% of all flour in Mexico City"'' :Virginia García Acosta, Las panaderías, sus dueños y trabajadores. Ciudad de México. Siglo XVII.

Varieties

State of Mexico

In some villages from State of Mexico, the pambazos are made with Semitic Mediterranean cuisine influence by the use the ''acemite'' or bran for bread made in artisan bakeries about horns of Spanish colonial period, as the case of

Malinalco Malinalco () is the municipality inside of Ixtapan Region, is a town and municipality located 65 kilometers south of the city of Toluca in the south of the western portion of the State of Mexico. Malinalco is southwest of Mexico City. Malinalc ...

Tequixquiac Tequixquiac is a municipality located in the Zumpango Region of the State of Mexico in Mexico. The municipality is located north of Mexico City within the valley that connects the Valley of Mexico with the Mezquital Valley. The name comes from N ...

and

Amecameca Amecameca is a municipality located in the eastern panhandle of Mexico State between Mexico City and the Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl volcanos of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. It is located on federal highway 115 which leads to Cuautla, ...

. In Malinalco, state of Mexico makes other pambazos, a Spanish colonial meal are made flour more small to Mexico City pambazos, filled with sausage and potatoes, chicken meat with

epazote ''Dysphania ambrosioides'', formerly ''Chenopodium ambrosioides'', known as Jesuit's tea, Mexican-tea, ''payqu'' ''(paico)'', ''epazote'', ''mastruz'', or ''herba sanctæ Mariæ'', is an annual or short-lived perennial herb native to Central A ...

, shredded lettuce, white cheese, cream and spicy salsa. In the Mexican state of Tequixquiac pambazos are very different from those of Mexico City, being made flour with dark wheat rind or bran named acemite, filled with sausage and potatoes, turkey meat or lamb meat (barbacoa), shredded lettuce, white cheese, cream and spicy chili chipotle sauce, fried with butter. The name is registered in this place as ''pan bazo'', an archaic Spanish word.

State of Puebla

In Puebla City, pambazos are made with flour in the bread named ''

cemita The ''cemita'' is a torta originally from Puebla, Mexico. Also known as ''cemita poblana'', it derives from the city (and region) of Puebla. The word refers to the sandwich as well as to the roll it is typically served on, a bread roll covered ...

'' or acemite, filled with sausage and potatoes,

avocado The avocado (''Persea americana'') is a medium-sized, evergreen tree in the laurel family (Lauraceae). It is native to the Americas and was first domesticated by Mesoamerican tribes more than 5,000 years ago. Then as now it was prized for i ...

, papalo, white cheese, cream and with red spicy ''salsa'' on the pambazo.

State of Veracruz

Orizaba Orizaba () is a city and municipality in the Mexican state of Veracruz. It is located 20 km west of its sister city Córdoba, and is adjacent to Río Blanco and Ixtaczoquitlán, on Federal Highways 180 and 190. The city had a 2005 census ...

, Veracruz, an important place with Sephardic roots, is made a pambazo with Carne Polaca "Polish meat", is mixture with traditional pambazo or acemite, meat and lettuce, with spicy sauce.

Reception

The Daily Meal The Daily Meal is a food and drinks website. It is the first site launched by Spanfeller Media Group. Jim Spanfeller is a former CEO of Forbes.com. In 2016, Spanfeller was acquired by Tribune Publishing. Content The Daily Meal produces original co ...

'' reviewed the pambazo with "it’s insanely delicious" in their article "12 Life-Changing Sandwiches You've Never Heard Of".

References

External links

Recipe
{{Sandwiches Mexican breads Pork sandwiches Sausage sandwiches