Gorditas Doña Panchita

🇲🇽 MÉXICO (DURANGO)
📍 9719 Vermont Avenue, Westmont, South Los Angeles

(Located inside Durango Auto Repair shop)
🅿️ Street Parking
💲 Cash Only
🥤 No Alcohol

When you are headed to a weekends only restaurant that opens up at 06:30 on Saturdays and Sundays, you are wise not to get there towards the back end of their opening hours. In the case of Gorditas Doña Panchita, who sets up in the Durango Auto Repair lot on Vermont Avenue in Westmont, coming at normal lunch hours could mean that any number of their homemade guisados have already sold out.

Come as the sun rises on a brisk January morning and you will find a constant swirl of humanity milling around the truck, ordering their corn and flour gorditas and Durango-style menudo. You may think the pink reflecting in the clouds at dawn is from the deep reds in those bowls, but this would be too romantic. The customers here are hard-working folks who may or may not have switched their focus to playing hard last night, and need these guisados and menudo to quickly cure them as they switch back and prepare for another day.

The operation takes the place of Gorditas Salcido which seemed to peter out at the onset of the pandemic but came back strong a year later with this new name. They work from a truck that serves much less rare food on weekdays; burgers, sandwiches, breakfast, and some tacos and burritos. A list of twelve options are available to stuff inside both corn and flour gorditas, most of which are guisados made before service starts on each weekend morning.

Unfortunately the prep area is hidden away in the truck because watching the skill of a gordita slice is always a pleasure. You can hear the fat tortillas being patted out in another area opposite the truck, where customers also take their tickets for menudo after paying to claim their prize. Most start spooning it immediately as they wait for their gorditas to come out of the truck's window.

When ordering gorditas ($3 each, above) you have the option of corn or flour tortillas just like when you are eating in Victoria de Durango, but the latter is probably the big draw here and what makes the meal unique. The flour package gets magically crispy on its toasted sides and remains superbly chewy on the thicker bottoms. One of these small beauties is a true joy to have between your teeth.

The guisados near the top of their list of twelve are probably the most popular, like the rojo carne de puerco (bottom) and chicharrón verde (middle) seen here. The rajas con queso (top) is always a favorite option and was no disappointment, maybe the spiciest of the three even though they all brought decent heat. Customers who are not meat eaters will be happy here since they will have quite a few more options than bean and cheese including that delightful rajas con queso and either potato or cactus with egg and an egg with chili version.

Look for the blue Durango Auto Repair shop.

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