Sope (food) facts for kids
Sopes with red salsa
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| Alternative names | pellizcada, garnacha |
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| Type | antojito |
| Place of origin |  Mexico |
| Main ingredients | corn dough, vegetables, meat, refried beans, cheese, lettuce, onions, red or green sauce (salsa) |
A sope (pronounced SOH-peh) is a yummy, traditional Mexican dish. It starts with a thick, fried base made from masa, which is a special corn dough. On top of this base, you'll find all sorts of tasty ingredients!
Sopes are also sometimes called picadita or pellizcadas. They come from the central and southern parts of Mexico. A sope is a type of antojito, which means "little craving" or "snack" in Spanish. It looks a bit like a very thick tortilla loaded with fresh vegetables and meat.
The corn dough base is fried and then its edges are pinched up to form a little cup. This cup is then filled with delicious toppings like refried beans, crumbled cheese, crisp lettuce, onions, and either red or green sauce. A dollop of sour cream often finishes it off. Sometimes, other ingredients, especially different kinds of meat, are added to create many unique flavors.
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Sopes Across Mexico
Sopes are popular all over Mexico, and you can find many different versions depending on where you are! Even some Central American countries have started making sopes, often with slightly different ingredients.
While sopes usually have those special pinched sides, some flat versions exist. These look more like a thick tortilla or a tostada. However, there's a big difference: a tostada is thin and fried until it's super crunchy, but a sope is much thicker and only fried until the outside is cooked. This makes the sope soft and a little bit bendy. Its thickness helps hold all the yummy toppings, and the frying makes it strong enough to handle moist ingredients.
One of the most common types is the sope de pollo, which simply means a sope topped with chicken. Sopes with beef are also very popular and are usually a bit bigger than the chicken ones.
In northern Mexico, sopes are often made without vegetables. Instead, they might have black beans, spicy salsa, and different kinds of sausage like longaniza or chorizo. In places like Acapulco, sopes are made very small and are called sopecitos. They are often fried in the same oil used for seafood, which gives them a special taste. These sopecitos usually only have beans and salsa.
In Oaxaca, a state in southern Mexico, sopes are sometimes topped with chapulines, which are roasted grasshoppers! Oaxaca is also famous for a huge dish called tlayuda, which is like a giant sope or tostada.
Dishes Similar to Sopes
Sopes have inspired many other traditional Mexican dishes. While they might look similar, they are considered their own unique foods.
Huarache
The huarache is a very common dish that's made in a similar way to a sope. The main difference is its size and shape. A huarache is usually two or three times bigger than a sope and has a long, oval shape. The name huarache comes from the shape of the corn dough, which looks like popular Mexican sandals. Huaraches are often topped with ribs, chicken, or beefsteak. They also have beans, cheese, lettuce, sour cream, and salsa.
Tlacoyo
A tlacoyo is a different traditional Mexican dish. It's an oval-shaped cake made from corn dough, but it's much thicker because it's filled with beans or cheese inside. It's usually fried or toasted.
Even though a tlacoyo is meant to be eaten on its own, some street vendors have started adding toppings to them, just like sopes. This makes them another tasty option for a quick snack.
Garnacha
Garnachas are small corn tortillas that are fried and topped with shredded meat, crumbled dried cheese, and salsa. Sometimes, they might only have chopped onion and salsa. They look a lot like sopes and are a main specialty from Guatemala.
Memela
In Oaxaca, memelas are basically the local name for sopes, but they come with different toppings. Memelas are corn dough cakes topped with beans, salsa, shredded cabbage, mole negro (a dark, rich sauce), guacamole, and cheese. In Puebla, another Mexican state, memelas are often served with two different sauces: red sauce on one side and green sauce on the other, which is called estilo bandera (flag style). Instead of meat, Puebla memelas usually have sour cream, crumbled cheese, and diced onions on top of the sauces.
Chalupa
A chalupa is a type of tostada platter, not a sope, but it's prepared in a similar way. It's a special dish from south-central Mexico, especially in states like Puebla and Oaxaca. To make a chalupa, a thin layer of corn dough is pressed around a small mold and deep-fried until it forms a crisp, shallow corn cup. This cup is then filled with ingredients like shredded chicken or pork, chopped onion, chipotle pepper, red salsa, and green salsa.
The chalupa is usually longer than a sope, looking a bit like the canoe-shaped boat it's named after. Smaller versions called chalupitas are also available.
Salbutes and Panuchos
Food from the Yucatán region of Mexico is quite unique, mixing local Mayan culture with some European influences.
Salbutes and panuchos are the Yucatecan versions of sopes. Salbutes are soft, cooked tortillas topped with lettuce, tomato, turkey, and avocado. Panuchos are tortillas that are partly fried like a sope base, but they are filled with black beans. They are then topped with turkey or chicken, lettuce, avocado, and pickled onions. You'll often find spicy Habanero chiles served with these dishes, along with fresh limes or lime juice.
See also
In Spanish: Sope para niños
