Used fresh, stale, or dried to a crisp, the essential tortilla begins as corn kernels briefly cooked in a solution of slaked lime and water, then left to soak until they are soft enough to be ground to a smooth dough, or masa.
![[tortilla]](images/food.jpeg)
The tortilla is formed by hand, press or machine and cooked on a hot,
ungreased griddle, comal, until slightly speckled with brown, but
still soft and pliable. At this point, it is eaten as a bread, or used
as an edible spoon.
Wrapped around small pieces of meat, vegetables, or cheese, it becomes a taco in its simplest form. Slightly stale, cut into triangles and fried crisp, it becomes a scoop - totópo or tostadita - for guacamole or fried beans.
Stale and dried, cut into pieces and lightly fried, tossed into a sauce and garnished lavishly, it becomes chilaquiles - literally, pieces of broken up old sombrero. Or, use like pasta in a casserole; as the basis for a dry soup (sopa seca) or a pudding (budín). Whole tortillas can be fried flat and covered with a paste of fried beans, topped with meat and salad to become an edible plate - a tostada.
Even when the tortilla is dried out to a crisp, it can be ground to a rough textured meal and moistened to form a dough for little round, fat cakes - gordas, sopes or chalupas, or savory balls - bollitos - to drop into soup. Then, to take the tortilla at every stage, the raw corn dough can be used alone, or mixed with cheese, potatoes or chiles, and transformed to produce any of the antojitos (little fancies or snacks) such as quesadillas or empanadas.
Oaxaca is justly renowned for its antojitos. You will see these snacks almost everywhere. They are almost invariably made of masa (corn dough) stuffed or topped with cheese, beans, salsas, meat, potatoes, etc. Unlike the greasy antojitos of other parts of México, a majority of those made in Oaxaca are cooked on an ungreased griddle, a comal, not fried.
The most traditionally Oaxaqueñan, and one of the most popular, of these delicious snacks, is called a tlayuda this is a giant tortilla prepared like a Méxican pizza, others are sopes, chalupas, picadas, molotes, tostadas and empanadas.
Tacos are also popular here, but most taquerías (taco shops) have a variety of tacos with fanciful names such as alambre (wire), sincronizadas (synchronized), gringas, mula terca (stubborn mule), among others.
Most taquerías also serve pozole, a hearty pork or sometimes chicken based soup with tender hominy corn and other vegetables. It's served fairly bland with a plate of seasonings that you add according to your taste: onions, oregano, lime, chilis, chili powder.
HOW CORNY CAN YOU GET?