Don Pipi’s
It’s always been a comforting food, every year on my birthday it gets eaten, I get asked “what would you like for your birthday?” and I always reply with “the torta que me gusta mucho” [the torta that I really like] and my parents always playfully roll their eyes and nod their head. I could never remember the name, only the ingredients that it had and where it came from.
I remember on one of my birthdays I had asked my mom when was the first I had tried Don Pipi’s, I had thought about it for a long time but I could never remember the first time. I sat at the dining table and watched as my mom cooked the carne, adding salt and pepper to the pan with the carne molida. She started telling me the story.
“Well,” she said looking up trying to remember, “we were in Durango and we wanted to take you to a local food truck everyone knows and loves”. She describes the food truck, saying it looked like every other truck out there: it was white with a big title saying Don Pepe, as well as multiple menus plastered on the sides of the window where customers were being attended, in front of the truck there was against blue canopy blocking the bright sun for the people standing devouring the tortas “que va querer senito” [what would you like miss] asked the cook “me de 3 don pepe's con huevos por favor” [can I have 3 don pepes please]
“wait wait aren't the tortas called don pipi’s, why are you calling them don pepe’s,” I asked, my mom stopped spreading butter on both halves of el bolliyo “that’s the official name of the torta pero we call them don pipis to show our love” answered my dad slicing the tomatoes and boiling the eggs, that was his job this year.
“Ahh,” I said
“After that, you took your first bite and fell in love and now you beg us to make it for you all the time,” my mom said laughing remembering the many times I’ve asked her to make me this specific torta. I watched as she spread the mayonnaise on one of the toasted halves of the bolillo. I just stared, “What can I say, I'm happy and that’s all that matters?” I said, sending them a bright smile.
They continued telling stories about the younger me, all the naughty things I did when I was younger. And I listened watching them as they continued preparing the torta: spreading avocado on one half, putting the meat on top, adding the sliced tomatoes and hard-boiled eggs, and finally putting the other half on top and cutting it in half.
I took a big bite from the sandwich, smiling like that 5-year-old trying it for the first time. My mom looked at me “You haven’t changed one bit since you were a small child” she told me, smiling like she was glad I was still the same despite being different.
Ingredients:
carne molida → ground beef
Mayonnaise
2 eggs
1 Tomato
1 Avocado
Bread → specifically ban bolliyo
Salt and pepper
Vegetable oil
Steps by Step Instructions:
Grab a pan and put oil on it as well as the ground beef inside as the meat is cooking add both salt and pepper to the meat. Wait for the meat to cook all the way
Grab the bread and cut it in half, grab both halves and spread butter on it
Put the bread face down on the comal so the butter can melt and make the bread toasty
While the bread is toasting add two eggs to boiling hot water and wait 10 minutes so they can cook all the way
Once the bread is toasted put mayonnaise on both sides
Then cut the tomato into slices and grab two eggs that should now be fully cooking, take the shell off first and then cut it into slices too
Once everything is cut into slices start putting the sandwich together, first put the meat on one side of the bread and then put all the sliced ingredients on top of the meat
Then grab an avocado and cut it into slices, place it on top of everything else
Now that everything is on half of the bread grab the other half and place it on top of everything
The very last step is to cut the sandwich in half
Note:
this recipe originates in Mexico