Somewhere in Austin, off Pleasant Valley, near Riverside, there’s a weekend flea market and a covered Mexican shopping mall. During the week, the flea market is just an empty lot, except for a couple of food trucks. But one of these food trucks isn’t your standard Mexican taco cart. This is a Mexican hotdog/hamburger cart.
I’m going to presume, with no anthropological data to go on, that much like Mexican cuisine was perverted by Texas culture to create Tex Mex, Texas cuisine has been perverted by Mexican culture to create this food. And what a delicious perversion it is.
I’ve seen Mexican hotdogs around before. You take a normal hotdog, wrap it in bacon, give it a slice of queso fresca and a dash of salsa, and you’ve got yourself a dog that rivals even the greatest creations of Chicago.
Now, the Mexican hamburgers are a little new to me. But it appears to be a reasonably logical hybrid of a torta and a cheeseburger. Swap out the milanesa for ground beef, and the bolillo for a burger bun, and you’ve got yourself a burger that is every bit as heavy, greasy, and drippy as the best burgers in town.
Thank you, Mexico. You are indeed the most generous of cultures.