Compelled to Go: In Heaven there will be Tortillas...

I remember my first real Mexican taco. It was in 2013 and I was in Guadalajara. It was un taco de asada (beef). I remember thinking, I will never be able to eat a taco in the States again. When I finally moved to Mexico in 2014 I realized these tortillas filled with meat and salsa went way deeper than I thought.

Tortillas are the lifeblood of Mexican food and culture. Every Mexican table has a basket of tortillas on it, no matter what the meal is. There are perhaps hundreds of different variants of tortilla. Let me break it down.

There are the flour and corn tortillas. Flour tortillas tend to be a lot bigger and are typically used for quesadillas, a meat and cheese filled creation, there are burritos, when meat, cheese, salsa, beans, and anything else you can think of are stuffed and rolled into a yummy concoction. There are the classic enchiladas, meat and cheeses wrapped in tortillas with a yummy special salsa over the top. And finally the multia. This can be eaten with flour or corn tortillas. Its basically a tortilla hamburger, two toasty tortillas with meats and cheeses inside.These are only a few examples of the many different dishes made with the ever versatile flour tortilla.

Now the corn tortilla is a lot smaller than the flour tortilla and is ALWAYS used for a taco. Asada (beef), pastor (pork), tripa (intestine), cabeza (head), suadero (mixed meats), pescado (fish), camarron (shrimp) ...again you put whatever meat you desire in a taco, your imagination is the only thing limiting you. I ate a cow tongue taco in Mexico City, so like I said, your imagination is the only thing keeping you.

If you want to spice up your taco, there is the quesotaco, easy, taco with cheese (my favorite).

You can also fry your corn tortilla, making a tostada, a crispy corn tortilla typically used for ceviche. If you take two tostadas and add cheese you get a vampiro, a tostada hamburger of sorts. You can roll your corn tortilla, fill it with meat or cheese and fry them into another one of my favorite dishes, flautas.

Now, to go even farther when you make your tortilla masa (dough) you don't necessarily have to make tortillas. You can make gorditas, a thicker tortilla topped with refried beans and meat. Or you can make empenadas and fill them with anything of your choice, sweet or savory.

The classic dish of chilaquiles take old fried tortillas and mix them with a special salsa until they are soft.

Last but not least there is the ultimate party food. You make this amazingly Mexican food when you have any type of celebration, birthdays, funerals, Christmas, Easter, baptism, you name it. They are called tamales. Now, the dough used for tamales is much more wet than the dough for a tortilla, but corn is always the main ingredient. After filling your tamal with meat, cheee, or even fruit or nuts you wrap them in corn husks. Then you steam the tamales for about 4-6 hours until they are soft. Unwrapping your tamal is like unwrapping a present for your stomach.

This was the most basic information you can read about tortillas. I am still in the learning process but I hope your mouth is watering and that each and every one of you can experience a real Mexican taco at least once in your life. If not don't worry, in heaven there will be tortillas.