Welcome to ¡Ask a Tortilla Expert!, the world's premier column on all things tortilla! Each week until the finals of the 2023 Tortilla Tournament on October 8, judge Gustavo Arellano will take your most burning (but never burnt) tortilla questions. Grab your butter and salsa macha because things are about to get caliente.
P.S. — For the first time, KCRW's Tortilla Tournament features a Fantasía Bracket so you can play along at home. It's like March Madness… but for tortillas! And the winner of the Fantasía Bracket receives a $200 gift card from Northgate Market. Download and fill out your bracket now! They're due by Sep. 6.
Here's the Mid-City location of Sonoratown, which won our inaugural #TortillaTournament with fabulous Sonora-style flour tortillas. Photo by Gustavo Arellano
I keep seeing you and other folks referring to "Sonoran flour tortillas." What's the difference between those tortillas, and, say, my family in Coahuila's tortillas or those in the RGV? Is the actual flour from Sonora? Is it a style, size, or thickness thing?
All of the above. At its most basic, a Sonora-style tortilla has roots in Sonora's flour tortilla scene, the purported birthplace of the style. In the state, they're made impossibly thin, and can come as small as the palm of your hand or as giant as a basketball hoop (the sobaqueras — "armpit tortillas," so called because their circumference goes from someone's wrist to their armpits). In Southern California, anyone that advertises their tortillas as "Sonora-style" will try to nail the thinness, or at least the wheat-forward taste, or at least use flour from Sonora, like Bonfil flour (which Sonoratown uses for its Golden Tortilla-winning tortillas).
"Sonora-style" has become such a trend that Northgate Gonzalez has sold their own delicious brand (complete with the silhouette of a Yaqui deer dancer) for years. Even Stater Brothers got into the Sonora tortilla game this year — and they're not half-bad!
More importantly, "Sonora-style" teaches the American consumer that there is diversity to flour tortillas. As you hinted, Coahuila's tortillas taste a certain way, as do those from the Rio Grande Valley (which is what RGV means, Angelenos). Sadly, we don't have these varieties in Southern California, so I can't say whether they're better than Sonora-style until #TortillaTournament invades Texas in about a decade.
Totally love the work you do and putting your followers on to all these fantastic spots!!! This tortilla tournament is wonderful! Any chance you know of any places that ship tortillas?!
I'm assuming you don't live in Southern California, and probably live in a tortilla desert like, say, Eastvale. Any place that makes their own tortillas will probably ship you some provided you pay them for that service. But it's a risky proposition. The only tortillas you want to receive via mail are those with no preservatives — and those tortillas keep their freshness a maximum of five days. So even if you find spots that will ship, make sure they're shipped frozen. But better yet? Drive to your local tortillería — they're around! Unless you're in Eastvale.
Got a puffy tortilla question? Ask Gustavo at mexicanwithglasses@gmail.com!