Tortillas hechas con Maseca
they're horrible!
by Yours Truly
Do you enjoy the fresh, thick tortillas that come with that queso relleno or escabeche oriental you ordered in the fancy Yucatecan restaurant? Or maybe you like to roll your own taquitos from that order of almost crispy Poc Chuc with the sweet and sour pickled red onions at the Principe Xiu restaurant in Maní? There's nothing better than eating at these places that offer fine Yucatecan food and definitely one of the highlights is the corn tortilla itself. Hand made, thick, yellow and bursting with the taste of fresh corn...Well, you'd better enjoy them now because it appears they are on the brink of extinction! Yes, the traditional hand-made tortilla, made from real corn and baked over a wood-fired comal, seems to be on the verge of a major disappearing act.
Eating out at some of Merida's taquerias and even the usually very good Hacienda Teya, the Casual Restaurant Critic has observed the alarming tendency to phase out the thicker handmade tortilla for the thinner Maseca version. These tortillas, while also handmade, are thin, tasteless and brittle to the point of being useless, since they break when rolled up and everything inside spills out. There is no flavor to be enjoyed from these stale cardboard tortillas, compared with the mouthgasms you experience when you take a freshly made original tortilla straight from the comal, sprinkle a little salt on it and then roll it up and eat it with your eyes closed. (Please don't try this while you are driving).
Who is at fault for the slow erradication of the tortilla in its' original form? Operating costs must be considered as well as government policies that insist on free market reforms on the one hand while subsidizing and controlling the price of the tortilla to keep the popular classes happy. If the owners wanted to make a better quality tortilla and thereby raise the price all hell would break loose. Have you ever been to a tortilleria lately? Isn't it the most technologically advanced business venture you have ever seen? Of course not. Who can afford to modernize in that kind of a over-regulated situation?
The Critic has a suggestion:
Since freeing up the price of tortillas will make the masses restless, that is out of the question. Instead, tortillerias should be allowed to sell:
The Casual Restaurant Critic strongly opposes the phasing out of this delicious staple food, and urges all others who appreciate the difference quality makes to do the same. Perhaps a list should be started indicating the places where one can still eat a real tortilla.
- the basic tortilla, made with Maseca or other filler ingredients as defined by some government nutritional agency, at a price that the government feels will keep the poor happy and distracted, thereby perpetuating the myth that the government is really interested in helping the people, therefore earning the chance to be re-elected; and
- a premium tortilla, made only with real corn and other real ingredients, either hand made (extra premium) or machine, at a price set by the tortilleria, that the market will bear. As in FREE market - no government price regulating thank youu very much. Since this tortilla would be a free market product, it would therefore be subject to the laws of supply and demand, and apart from the regulation of it's content, completely free of government regulation, thereby giving the tortilleria owners a chance to actually make some business decisions on their own.
Tell the Critic what you think. Send an email right now! Click here.
Speaking of tortillas...
Looking around the web for information on tortillas, I found a great site...
"What to do if you really want to make tortillas from
scratch. If you were truly to begin from scratch, you'd
get some white corn grain and set it to low boil in a
covered pot with some slaked lime or wood ashes. You
can get this in Mexican open-air markets by asking for
"cal," or "tequisquite." Much of the language employed
to talk about corn, tortillas, and the process of making
tortillas, is based on the Aztec language, Nahuatl, and
I'll mention these terms as we go along."From the excellent article on tortilla making at :