If you haven't seen Hulu's This Fool, then you don't love Los Angeles. Co-creator, star, and writer Chris Estrada's love letter to South L.A. is television at its best: hilarious, scabrous, poignant, and of the moment. Sadly, the comedian can't talk about his show right now. Although the WGA strike is over, the SAG-AFTRA strike continues, and Estrada ain't no rata about to cross the line.
But you know what he can talk about? Tortillas.
Estrada is the guest judge for my KCRW #TortillaTournament, which is now in its Fuerte Four stage. He'll be there this Sunday, Oct. 8 at Smorgasburg LA along with myself and fellow judges Evan Kleiman, Connie Alvarez, and Sean Vukan to determine who will win this year's Golden Tortilla and hoist the Chiquihuite Cup. RSVP today!
(If you can't attend, you can still participate in the Tortilla Tournament. Vote for the Bronze Comal People's Choice Award! The top vote-getter will win the inaugural Bronze Comal People's Choice, which comes with a $300 gift card to Northgate Market.)
I Zoomed with Estrada last week for what I told him would be the easiest interview of his life. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Luis (Frankie Quinones) and Julio (Chris Estrada) chat in a Season 2 episode of This Fool. Photo credit: Gilles Mingasson/Hulu
KCRW: What are some of your earliest tortilla memories?
Chris Estrada: My first thoughts of tortillas are probably not the fanciest, but, just Guerrero tortillas, you know? Guerrero tortillas aren't kind of the most fanciest — the least fanciest or the least foodie type. But I think it's just a pretty utility-like (laughs) tortilla. But that's what we would get at the market. And I remember, if I wasn't too hungry, if I just wanted a snack, getting a tortilla de maiz con aguacate and some sal, you know? Like, "Here, eat this 'til we eat later."
Did your mom allow you near the comal to heat your own tortillas?
I was one of those kids — I was a fork kid (he mimics flipping a tortilla with a fork). It wasn't until I got older that I began to flip them with my hands. But as a kid, como un chiquiado [like a spoiled kid] my mom would do all that.
Do you now shame people who use a fork or a knife when they flip their tortillas?
Yeah, absolutely.
One memory, too: cuando se inflaban [when they would puff up]. Me and my older sister at the time, we would get [excited] when we were little. Kind of magical, like, "Oh, look at them inflating." And then my mom would always pop it, you know? Or she would let us pop it. She would be like, "Mira, se infló [Look, it puffed up]." That was like a pretty vivid memory. That felt childlike.
This Fool co-creator Chris Estrada stars as Julio and Yuli Zorrilla plays Teresa. Photo credit: Gilles Mingasson/Hulu
What about today? Where do you like to get your tortillas?
It depends. Like, when I go to Northgate, I like their tortilla. They're pretty good. I live by an Albertsons. Like, donde vivo, you know, like no hay carnicerias. The other day I tried — what's that fuckin' place? It looked like a fancy tortilla but it's called La Tortilla Factory. It's a brand. And that was okay.
I mean, to be honest with you, I think I just have that taste of Guerrero in my mind. I don't think Guerrero is the best tortilla. I just think it's the memory I have. Es costumbre [it's a habit], you know? I know it to be shitty, las tortillas de maiz y harina. I've had better. I just don't know why that packet is a memory I have since childhood. And it's puro costumbre. Even to this day, my mom still buys them. Like cuando voy a la casa, es lo que calienta [when I got to the house, that's what she heats up], you know?
Do you know it's the most evil tortilla in the world?
Oh, I don't know much of the backstory, company wise, but I wouldn't pass it by any corporation to be not evil.
I've been doing the #TortillaTournament now for six years. And part of it is to educate people. You can go to Albertsons and get legit good tortillas. You can go to Walmart and get tortillas from a company called Romero's that's been based in Santa Fe Springs for 55 years.
Yeah, I've gotten Romero's before. Those are good. You know what's crazy? When we were young, sometimes if we ever went to Huntington Park, over on Pacific [Boulevard], on the corner, they have a Gallo Giro. So sometimes we would buy packets of tortillas from Gallo Giro.
Those are good.
Or even growing up, like, en vez en cuando habia una señora que vendía — que hacía a la mano [every once in a while, there was a woman that sold — that made them by hand], you know? Sometimes, we would buy those. Also, a pretty vivid memory is any time we went to Tijuana growing up as kids. Three things that I remember que compraba mi mama [my mom would buy] was una caja de [a box of] Mazapanes. Cacahuates chinos, or — should be called cacahuates japoneses, right? And tortillas que hacían a la mano.
And how often would that be?
Every few months. A mi mama, she doesn't like driving on the freeway. My mom drives all over the city of L.A., but she's not a freeway person. So we would catch the bus Tres Estrellas in Huntington Park. It would make a stop in Santa Ana, I remember that, and then it would drop us off in Tijuana.
I'm trying to think of another tortilla memory. My mom had this thing where, once or twice a month, we would go out for dinner, le gustaba salir. There's a restaurant in Venice. It's an old-school red-booth Mexican restaurant called Casablanca.
Oh, yeah. With all the Humphrey Bogart stuff.
Yeah! So in Casablanca, hacen las tortillas a mano. Tienen comal, like, so, tienen un hornito. We would go there once, twice a month maybe, or like, after some sort of — if we graduated from school or something, you know, like íbamos a la [we would go to] Casablanca. And we still go. I think the last time I went was a few months ago with my girlfriend.
In the fourth episode of Season 2 on This Fool, cashews are the perfect meal for Julio (Chris Estrada), Minister Payne (Michael Imperioli), Luis (Frankie Quinones) and Chef Percy (Jamal Malachi Neighbors). Photo credit: Gilles Mingasson/Hulu
So as a comedian, what is the comedic possibility of a tortilla?
[Laughs] Oh, I try to stay away from that. I guess that old-school pie-in-the-face can be a tortilla on the face.
That was a YouTube thing or a TikTok thing for a while. They would slap you with a tortilla.
Oh, yeah! You know, it's funny you mention that. I saw that the other day. That made me laugh. I don't have any jokes about food, so I'm hard-pressed to think about — you know, what's so funny? This is what I think is really funny, and this is more of an anecdote from when I was a kid. The way mi mama, mi abuela — Everybody would say the way to cure when somebody has bad breath? But it's kind of a condition?
Yep.
They would say "Cómete una tortilla quemada [Eat a burnt tortilla]." It helps with that. Did you hear that growing up?
Of course!
That's a big thing. That always made me laugh. Like, your breath stank so bad that you had to fucking eat a charred-up tortilla, you know?
Did it ever work on anyone that you knew who had bad breath?
[Laughs] No, I don't think so, man. I was just like, "My man, you just got to wash your teeth, you know? Brush."
So when you do eat good tortillas, what do you look for in a good tortilla?
Flavor and texture. I always like when tortillas have a little seasoning or when they do tortillas al vapor [steamed]. She wouldn't do this often, but my mom would sometimes — si cocinaba frijol, me daba la grasita [if she cooked refried beans, she gave me the lard]. Like, calentaba [she would heat up] la tortilla, and that was always a treat.
For a tortilla de harina, It can't be too doughy. I hate those Mission tortillas. Just the worst, dude. Just an offense. I want something soft and thin. I think that's the best for tortilla de harina. And for my maiz, something that doesn't fall apart, that can handle some sense of weight.
How are you going to prepare to be a judge for the #TortillaTournament finale?
This is interesting, because I've never done this. I've never judged food. I almost feel self-conscious. In my mind, I'm like, let them all win. But there has to be a winner.
There can be only one.
Yeah, there can be only one. I'm going to go in with an open mind and try not to have any allegiance to regionality. Trying to keep an open mind about new types of tortillas. It seems like in food, there's always innovations, you know? And sometimes, people want to be traditionalists, which I think is great. I think tradition is important. But I'm always surprised when people come up with new ideas for something as simple as a tortilla, which I guess has its own complexities, you know?
This year, you're going to have four completely different tortillas. For corn, you're going to have a Guatemalan tortilla.
Yeah, I've had those. Those are great.
Then you have a blue corn tortilla. So that's the corn category, and then the flour category, there's going to be a Tex-Mex style tortilla versus a tortilla made from beef tallow.
Oh, wow.
For a first-time judge, you're going to have some of the most complex tortillas going on right now.
This is interesting. I like the fact that there is a Guatemalan tortilla in there. That's really cool. And that last one, I've never heard of that. That's amazing. And I'm excited to have blue corn. I remember the first time I had a blue corn tortilla, in La Ciudad de Mexico. We went there — mi mama fue a una manda a la basilica [my mom went to fulfill a promise she made to visit the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe]. And then we had blue corn tortillas. That was pretty special.
Oh, one thing that I keep remembering. When I was growing up, my mom went through this thing where she was — like all Mexican parents, she was scared that we were all going to get diabetes. So she started buying tortillas de trigo [wheat tortillas]. Which, in hindsight, I don't know how much healthier that could have been. I'm sure that was a decimal point healthier?
Final question: If you were a tortilla, would you be corn, flour, trigo or gluten-free or something else? And why?
I would be half and half. You know those tortillas de harina, tortillas de maiz?
I hate those.
I kind of hate those, too. But I'll tell you why. Because growing up, me gustaba [I liked] tortilla de harina. And then my mom would go, "No, no, no." En la canasta, siempre tenia tortillas de maiz [in the basket, she always had corn tortillas].
Now, I love tortillas de maiz. But also just hearing the joke that, like, los pinche pochos les encantan las tortillas de harina [damn Americanized Mexicans love flour tortillas], you know? So I feel like I'm a little bit of both.
That's so funny, man. I just don't think they have any flavor. They can't decide whether they want to be corn or flour.
Yeah, you're right. I bought a pack during quarantine. And I remember not being that thoroughly impressed. Liking the concept, you know, thinking, "Oh, this is kind of cool," but yeah, nah.
But you have hope that one day they could be good.
There's always innovation.
See the second season of This Fool on Hulu. Follow Chris Estrada on Instagram @chrisestradacomic