tortilla a mano!

Have you ever thought about bread?  I mean world-wide.  There is a flat bread made in almost every culture, many made from wheat flour.  Of course, the corn tortilla is the flat-bread in Mexico.  Flour tortillas are unheard of in many places, Oaxaca included.

Tere offered to introduce me to her tortilla source: hand-made tortillas, just 2 blocks from their apartment. Tere, being a local woman, knows tortillas and has high standards.  The tortillas here are lighter in color, and I think tastier, than most other places in Mexico, the corn is different. You must understand that most tortillas, which are called 'blandas' in Oaxaca, these days are made by machines. The machines crank out dozens of blandas per hour, partially cooked on a conveyor belt, and stacked warm in coolers for sale. Many restaurant owners buy their tortillas from the factories, which are small businesses scattered all over town in the most unlikely places. Sometimes, when I'm walking, I'll smell the tortillas before I look through an open doorway to see the machine cranking them out. The native women sit for hours in the same place in the mercados around the city, calling out, "Blandas and tlayudas!", selling the over-sized tortillas from burlap and plastic bags. When I pass the tortilla factory in the mornings, there is a line of women dressed in the clothes of their puebla, waiting with their bags in hand. At 2pm, housewives are scurrying to the neighborhood mercado to buy tortillas for the mid-day meal.

Now, I'll tell you a secret: take your own cloth towel, and plastic bag. Wrap the tortillas first in the towel, and slip that package in a plastic bag. They'll keep for several days like that. Of course, a comal is the perfect re-heating vessel. No comal? A few seconds in a hot cast iron skillet will work, too.

Tere had plans with friends Saturday morning, and Dan took me down the street for tortillas. Imagine my surprise when we walked straight off the sidewalk, into the house, and there was a foot tub full of soaked corn, a wood fire, and a huge pile of dough being worked by hand! One look at that dough, without even touching it, and I could tell that it was made from cornmeal unlike any I would have access to.  She makes her tortillas completely from scratch, beginning with the corn kernals. I was so surprised, I couldn't ask any questions. Don't worry, it won't happen again! In this picture, you can barely see the soaking corn in the foreground, and the cook turning one on the huge comal. I ordered 6 tortillas, looking for an excuse to come for another visit very soon! It was a cool morning, but warm in the house, from the fire for the tortillas. She was also making quesadillas for sale on the sidewalk later. When I asked for a quesadilla, she asked which salsa I'd like. Not knowing which to choose, she said, 'hold out your hand" (in spanish, of course!), and spooned a little of each in my palm. I wished I had a bigger hand! I chose the salsa verde, the green salsa, and it was delicious! We ate, walking home, passing the hot treasure between us, hot tortillas swinging from the bag on my arm.

While I'm no photographer, I'm most proud of capturing this image.