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.
It's Sophie's Choice time. If you had to choose only one, corn or flour, which would you pick? And why?
You had to go there, didn't you? It's like asking whether you prefer John or Paul as your favorite Beatle. The answer, of course, is both. But I can only pick one, so the answer is John — I mean, corn. Because while flour — I mean, Paul — has so many different manifestations (Sonoran, Tex-Mex, New Mexican; made with lard, beef tallow, vegetable shortening, even avocado oil; the goofy love of "Love Me Do," the magisterial orchestration of "Eleanor Rigby," the too-cool-for-school howls of "Oh, Darling!" ), John is a three-trick pony of rage/humor/introspection-corn/water/lime, and the latter just hits your soul harder, you know? What's better: "In My Life" with a Miramar corn tortilla that's redolent of maize and the ancients, or "Here, There, and Everywhere" wrapped around a butter-slathered flour tortilla? You can't go wrong with either, unless you pick the Guerrero that is "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and Mission-style "Silly Love Songs."
How come there aren't more blue corn tortillas making it into the Tortilla Tournament?
Because not enough places offer blue corn tortillas. They're just not as common in the tortilla world as yellow or white corn tortillas. Traditionally, blue corn tortillas have been most popular in central Mexico, among indigenous communities that were able to maintain heirloom varieties even after the Conquest and NAFTA. Because of that, blue corn and blue corn tortillas have long been looked down upon as poor people's food, and that perspective crept into the United States. In my 2012 book, Taco U.S.A.: How Mexican Food Conquered America, I talked about how a high-end Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles tried to serve freshly made blue corn tortilla chips during the 1970s but diners wouldn't eat them because they thought that the chips were rotten.
That perspective has changed in the United States, of course, because of high-end chefs like Carlos Salgado, whose incredible blue corn tortillas at his late, great Taco María in Costa Mesa have made it into five of the six Fuerte Fours in our KCRW #tortillatournament, including this year's Oct. 8 finale at Smorgasborg L.A. The only year Salgado didn't make it was last year, when another blue corn tortilla gem — the late, great Tallula's in Santa Monica — got in. Done right, blue corn tortillas have a creamier, more buttery texture than their yellow and white corn rivals. But mere utilization of maíz morado doesn't guarantee success. We've seen other blue corn entries over the #tortillatournament years, and they haven't gone far. The #TortillaTournament doesn't mess around.
Got a fluffy tortilla question? Ask the Tortilla Expert at mexicanwithglasses@gmail.com. The more obscure, the better!