Yeah. I was following the whole sordid drama of Herb Spanfeller once the former Gawker sites found their way into his clutches. I’m glad most of them found their way over to Paste for the moment.
I agree about the dearth of good food writing for lay people on the Interwebz at this time. I bought a subscription to Vittles, but that mostly just covers London. I wish there was something similar Stateside. I have been supporting Food is Stupid by Dennis Lee , Michael Ruhlman’s newsletter, and That One Dish by Shayne Chammavanijakul in the meantime.
I suppose that is true in many places. But overall, if a place can source good quality ingredients, regardless of the type of cuisine, then it’s a good indicator. I’ll take a fresh, good quality tortilla from a small producer that specializes in them any day.
But we are talking about indicators of high quality Mexican restaurants where tortillas are a fundamental part of the culture and in that case buying it from a vendor indicates less focus on ingredients and quality
What if the vendor is highly specialized in making fresh, good quality tortillas?
There’s a woman in Berlin, aptly named The Tortilla Lady who does just that. She mostly sells to private households, tho, which is why good quality Mexican restaurants are still lacking in town.
It’s similar to making any good dish and than delivering it somewhere and it gets warmed up a few days later - it is a good dish but still just warmed up and not made fresh - it doesn’t taste as good. A freshly made tortilla in-house is much better than any warmed up pre-made tortilla
That’s a good question and hard to answer. At the same time, it might be perhaps also a commitment by a restaurant owner which is more important than community size - we were recently in Vacaville when we were looking for a good lunch option and picked La Guagua. I doubt the community size for Venezuelan food is big in Vacaville but the arepas etc were all fresh, handmade and outstanding. It was obviously that the owners were interested to present their cuisine in the best possible way.
At least with respect to tortillas (and dumpling skins), it’s not that difficult in terms of time or effort to make vis-a-vis customer demand.
It’s akin to making your own pizza dough and (in my opinion) just a bit more difficult than making your own white rice.
You can definitely tell the difference in quality between purchased versus in-house tortillas and dumpling skins.
Those items just don’t travel well, and having to reheat (or in the case of dumpling skins, using after they’ve been refrigerated) just makes for wrappers that are tougher and less “Q” than freshly made, in house ones.
Boston is notorious for not having great Mexican restaurants. There are few Mexicans who re locate to this area. Many more from El Salvador. One tiny restaurant near us in Somerville owned by a family from Mexico is much too small to be able make their own tortillas to order. They are already hanging on by a thread economically, and street traffic in our neighborhood has fallen off recently.
We don’t have fantastic alternatives and I really want to support this restaurant.
For all those suggesting that tortillas are so easy to make, any thoughts on why Corima in nyc is getting away with charging $9 for a single flour tortilla (and everyone is so gaga over it)?
Also consider some of the latent gendering in things that “should” be easy / made fresh.
Btw, I grew up with fresh chapatis and other flatbreads at every meal - no tortilla press - and the idea that anything like that is “easy” is laughable – it’s a skill developed with repetition and practice. And even then, not everyone can do it – there are more bad handmade flatbreads than good, people in those families just get used to eating what’s available to them They also get outsourced, btw – there are people (women) who are great at making them who supply them to other homes around them.
So expecting fresh, handmade tortillas from a place as a bar for whether the place is good or bad means you need a skilled tortilla specialist for that place to qualify. The guy who makes good birria may make terrible tortillas – so now they have to have the $$ to hire a good tortilla maker too to be considered legit? Nope.
We have a lot of Mexican restaurants in this area, at least compared to every other kind of restaurant, and I enjoy and support at least three of them! I’m sure Mexican restaurants are better where @ipsedixit and @honkman eat, but a lot of things (except maybe the cost of living) probably are. I’m still going to eat at my local restaurants! At several of them, the same person cooks, takes your money, and busses tables at least some of the time.
Seriously? I won’t argue. I don’t eat much rice anymore either.
What is CKD? Chronic kidney disease? I don’t have that, but I have had pre-dm. The carbs aren’t worth more than a mouth full here and there to me. I’d rather the restaurant spend their expertise on birria, lingua, or even carnitas ETA or salsa, or chile rellenos, or… But I do indulge in a really nice dumpling now and again.
Because it is NYC and high-end restaurants can try (and be successful) to work with these high prices, especially with in cities which don’t have many great examples of a cuisine at a cheaper price point.
As is every station in the kitchen - why should a tortilla station be less important than any other station where restaurants also invest in highly skilled line cooks.
Our favorite local Mexican place makes their own flour tortillas. I have never actually seen them making the torts, but they are so random and amoeboid in shape that they could not possibly be from an outside commercial source. They’ve been the same for nearly 60 years as far as I can recall. I don’t know if they make their own corn torts or not. I do know, though, that they fry their own chips, too, both flour and corn.
They also get outsourced, btw – there are people (women) who are great at making them who supply them to other homes around them.
– so now they have to have the $$ to hire a good tortilla maker too to be considered legit? Nope.
ETA Oh; I see.
Seriously? I won’t argue. I don’t eat much rice anymore either.
