Street food, snacks (bocados), and appetizers (antojitos or botanos) make up a food category all their own in Mexico. This category of foods includes all the variations on the taco, enchilada and tostada, salsas and dips, tortas (crusty sandwiches), cheeses, ceviche, quesadillas, carnitas (pork taco), chiles rellenos and other stuffed vegetables, empanadas, tamales -- and the list goes on and on. In Mexico, any dish that involves a tortilla or something like a tortilla will always be considered a snack and won't make it to the big afternoon comida. In the States, with burrito stands on every corner and salsa outselling ketchup, many of these foods seems more than familiar. But, just in case you're not 100% sure what a hot tamale is when it's not movie-theater candy, here's a quick run-down of some bocados and antojitos:

Burritos:

For the burrito, as so many know so well, a large flour tortilla is wrapped around a savory filling.

Chiles Rellenos:

A large, gorgeous (these black/green peppers are spectacular) poblano chile, is filled with cheese or anything you like, then dipped in batter and deep fried. Sometimes a sauce is poured on top. Other variations on the stuffed chile are not deep fried -- for example, a poblano filled with shrimp and onions and then baked, is light and sharp.

Empanadas:

A specialty of northern Mexico where wheat is cultivated, empanadas fill a disk of wheat-flour dough with something savory or sweet, fold it in half, seal, and deep-fry until crispy.

Enchiladas:

A corn tortilla is rolled around a meat or cheese filling, quickly deep fried, and served hot. Enchiladas should not be fried to a crisp -- only until soft.

Flautas:

Corn tortillas filled with cheese are rolled into 'flute' shaped tubes and deep-fried. The flutes are then served with a green tomatilla, serrano, and avocado sauce, and a red chile sauce. Toppings of cheese and cream cool off the concoction.

Quesadillas:

Especially popular in central Mexico, corn tortillas are folded in half (as empanadas) around a filling of anything, from mushrooms to tripe to cheese, and then deep fried.

Sopes:

Masa is fried into crispy, silver-dollar sized boats and spread with all sorts of toppings -- anything from the raw to the cooked.

Tacos:

Most (but not all!) tacos in Mexico are soft. Fresh corn tortillas, two-thick, are folded around something tasty -- perhaps meat, perhaps potaotes with sauce and cilantro or seasoned with chile. Sometimes the corn tortillas are fried first to keep them from drying out, and then they are folded around the tidbit. Sometimes the taco is rolled instead of folded. Pretty much anything with a corn tortilla and a filling can be called a taco -- even a burrito, which uses a flour tortilla, has a taco name -- taco de harina. So much for crunchy Taco Bell.

Tamales:

Mexicans have been making tamales for a long, long time. They were given as gifts to the Aztec gods during the twelfth month of the eighteen-month year. A tamale is a parcel of corn dough filled with nearly anything, wrapped in a package made from a corn husk or a banana leaf, and steamed.

Tostadas:

Thick, meaty tortillas are cut up (or not) and fried for chips -- tostadas.