You’re Eating Fake Tortillas and Diane Kennedy is Pissed About It

I was going to write my own title for this blog share but the original was so damn good, I am using it — thank you Daniel Hernández, for a great story! 

I am so relieved to find out that it’s not tortillas I hate, it’s fake—even if they’re made in Mexico by real Mexicans—tortillas I hate. Like eating tinned food versus real food (although my next blog post may dispute this opinion), fake tortillas have no taste, no texture, no soul. There is a tortillaria on every block in Centro Merida and they are all pumping out the same bland imitation of the real thing. Someone once suggested I make my own tortillas and I suggested they build their own Mayan temple.

There is a reason why real tortillas are so hard to find in the city—they take a lot of time and energy and knowledge to make authentically, and with whole generations growing up eating ‘McTilly’s’, the art of tortilla making is a lost one.

I tasted the best tortillas on the planet a couple months ago, when friends took us to a roadside lunch place near Oxcutzcab. This is the same friend who took us to the Secret Cenote so I figure he knows his tortillas. The restaurant only serves lamb, rabbit and quail, complemented with fresh passionfruit juice and real authentic tortillas, hecho a mano. I bought a huge batch to bring home and have been pining for them ever since.

If you want to know more about what makes an authentic tortilla, keep reading. This is a great story by Daniel Hernández on the legendary Diana Kennedy, who at 91, is still living in Mexico and telling it like it is when it comes to eating and cooking authentic Mexican cuisine.

http://munchies.vice.com/articles/youre-eating-fake-tortillas-and-diana-kennedy-is-pissed-about-it/