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Mexican tortillas An essential to Mexican cooking. Like nahn bread to Indian cuisine, totillas are often used as an eating utensil: to pick up Mexican eggs, to dunk in soup and tismole, as the shell of garnachas, and the crunchy edible plate of tostadas.
tor-TEE-yah por favorJust checking your pronunciation before we go any further. In the Southern Hemisphere there was a 2008 KFC commercial offering tor-till-LAHS. Be happy that you're more cultured than KFC!
maize versus wheatWhen my Mexican fiancé came to my home country (New Zealand) it took him months to stop requesting tortillas with every meal. To Fidel, they are as much of an essential to a meal as salt is for most people. So what do you do with a Mexican who just HAS to have them? We went to the supermarket where we found the ‘mexican food’ section. First of all, Fidel finds it odd how there are ‘mexican food’ sections in most supermarkets. Mexican supermarkets certainly don’t have sections with ‘New Zealand food’. So, in the Mexican food section we found them. Bingo. Except that they are made from wheat flour and not maize. What’s the big deal you ask? Well, maize ones are used for most things in Mexican cooking and wheat-flour ones for but a few.
Food allergies? Maize is your answer.Of course a huge benefit of using the maize ones is that those with gluten allergies can enjoy your wonderful Mexican cooking. More and more people these days are being diagnosed with celiac's disease. The corn, beans, rice, and potatoes of Mexican cooking eliminate any worries over such food allergies.
Mexico imports US maizeMexican maize farmers lost out to those of the USA. It’s hard to compete with farmers who get government subsidies and the sad reality is that Mexico actually imports maize from the USA. What’s so sad about that? Well maize has been cultivated in Mexico for thousands of years, and til this day continues to be the staple food of Mexico.
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