Christine wrote:

> I was just in the Mexican megamart this afternoon, stocking up. In
> the tortilla section, they had these thick little disks of masa, with
> raised edges, known as sopes.
>
> Now I have heard of them before, but just really the name... The look
> of them made me think of a recipe from Anna Thomas's The Vegetarian
> Epicure, Book II. She describes something that sounds very much the
> same, at least in appearance...but she calls them tortitas...
>
> She bakes hers, and puts a thin layer of green chile sauce on them,
> and then tops them with a farmers cheese and feta. Now, this book
> came out quite some time ago, so I am wondering if that is her
> substitution for Cotija....
>
> For those of you in the know, are sopes the same things as tortitas?
> This preparation sounds good to me, but I am wondering how they are
> usally prepared.

Tortitas are usually just little pancakes, and don't have a rim. Looking
over the VE2 recipe, it looks like it would be correct to call them sopes,
though I think tortitas is a more general term.

Sopes are usually fried, then topped. The topping can be whatever you like.
Wikipedia says they're topped with (bottom to top) refried beans, cheese,
lettuce, onions, red or green salsa, and crema (Mexican sour cream), but
that's WAY too restrictive.

Bob