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[mapache]

After four years in Mexico, I still don''t have a taste for tortillas. I mean I don't really dislike them but I find it boring that people eat the same thing for meals three times a day every day. I'm wondering if this is unique to me or if it is common phenomenon among other Anglos.

For me, tortillas are gooey and bland. In Chiapas, the regional word for puppy is "Chucho" My Mexican family calls me this because I eat the contents of a taco and skip the tortilla. (!Mira, el chucho no come tortillas!)

Are they good for people? My vet said not to feed them to my dog because they stick in the teeth and help decay.

What's the deal with Mexicans and their unsationalbe appetite for tortillas?

[wildchild]

[dixie]

To answer your question - yes. I thoroughly enjoy them.

More importantly however, your vet might just have answered a question of mine:

[MELEE]

Having a staple--something you eat at EVERY meal, and feeling like it wasn't really a meal if that thing wasn't present is connected with poverty in our subconscience. So we Anglos don't usually do that. I've talked with Mexicans who are under the impression that we eat bread with every single meal. Well some Americans/Canadians/Brits/etc. do I guess, but certainly not everyone. And we wouldn't sit down at the table and say "hey, where's the bread?" (I've had Mexicans ask that about tortillas when I was serving a pasta meal, or and Asian meal.)
I do like tortillas and enjoy them, and in the past when I was out of Mexico I missed them. But I also get sick of them. I can't eat them 3 times a day. I make a point of not doing tortillas on the weekends. But still there are days when I come home for lunch and think to myself, jeez, tortillas again! And when I was laid up and being served my three meals a day, I had to ask my husband, to make sure I got something that wasn't accompanied by tortillas every couple of days or I'd go mad.

As for gooeyness that is probalby regional. In some regions tortillas are thicker than others. I get annoyed by those tiny tortillas they have in some parts of Mexico to. In Oaxaca, tortillas are the size of a dinner plate.

Tortillas can be a valuable source of calcuim--from the cal (lime) used to soak the corn before making the dough. They are an important source of carbs in the traditional Mexican diet, and the corn can be stored for more than a year and made fresh into tortillas everyday, so you don't need refridgeration and will get people through times of drought/cold when there isn't an abundance of other foods.
Tortillas do have a higher glycimic index rating than whole wheat bread so too many tortillas are bad for you, especially if you are diabetic...

[GueroPaz]

Thanks, Melee. Checking wikipedia, I found this under the entry for calcium oxide, "CaO is a key ingredient in the nixtamalization process used to create corn hominy and masa or tortilla dough."

That prefix or root of nixta sounds Nauhatl to me. I did not realize that it gave calcium. I read that the lime (cal) in masa helps to break down the dietary intake into the necessary amino acids, and one scientist theorized that it saved the Mayas from prehistoric extinction.

I knew many Mayas who subsisted almost entirely on black beans, corn tortillas, fresh fruits in season, and home-grown coffee. Three meals every day!

Once I got a refrigerator in southern Chiapas, my Honduran houseboy started buying corn tortillas by the kilo. Then he asked me how many I wanted with each meal, and was amazed that I only wanted one or two (about the size of a salad plate, not as big as a dinner plate, and thin). Apparently Hondurenos eat a dozen or more with a meal.

Does anybody in Mexico call a refrigerator refriado? Or was that how my daughter extended fido to refriado on the way to saying refrigerado when she was two years old?

Maybe it is a Western fixation that you cannot eat the same meals every day. It never bothered me much.

[EverReady]

Tortillas, while not the worst food for you, are definately not good for you. Basically, they are just refined carbohydrates, which if you are health conscience (or overweight), you should try to avoid eating them as much as possible. Again this doesn't make them terrible, but most tortillas are about nutritionally equivalant to eating white bread. Also, to the previous poster, what is a "significant source of carbohydrates"? Most peolpe eat waaaaaay too many carbs. Basically you can cut your carb intake to almost nothing and you would be much healthier than the average 60% of my calories come from carb diet. Most people get 60-70 percent of their calories from carbs.

[notamiss]

Tortillas are more than just carbohydrates. As mentioned above, the nixtamalization process adds calcium and modifies the amino acids to make them more available (in other words enhances the protein value). Moreover, tortillas and beans have complementary amino acids which means that when eaten together, they provide complete proteins.

[Phil_K]

Tortillas just bought, still hot from the tortiller�a are delicious, but we really don't eat too many. Although my wife is Mexican, she is pretty international in her tastes....and she loves Fish 'n' Chips!

On average, we buy about 1/4 kilo per month, and finish up throwing some away.

The one mexican food we eat a lot of is Molletes - made with La Sierra canned beans with chipotle, and homemade Salsa Mexicana.

[EverReady]

Just one more thing, I didn't mean to imply that tortillas have no nutrional value, and they can be eaten in moderation. Still, the nutrional value doesn't make up for all the refined carbs you take in when you eat tortillas. Nobody who exercises seriously eats lots of refined carbs (tortillas, bread, pasta, white rice, etc.), and people who are overweight should try to avoid them as much as possible. In general, if you are trying to get in better shape, calorie breakdown should be mostly protein, then fat (not trans fat) then carbohydrates.

[MELEE]

I'm sorry everready ready that I was not clear enough for you.
The traditional Mexican diet does not include bread, pasta or even, *gasp* rice. Therefore, tortillas are a significant source of carbs in the traditional Mexican diet which is made up of beans, nopales, quelites, squashes, salsas, tamales, pozole, and a little meat--all accompanied by tortillas. Mexicans became prone to being round and diabetic when they adopted bread, rice and pasta from the Spaniards.

[EverReady]

You were clear Melee, I was just mentioning that tortillas are a refined carb just like bread, rice, etc.

[notamiss]

[dixie]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7432164.stm

Maybe it�s better not to enjoy them too much . . .

[Not-th@-m@]

[CharlieBaloney]

Maybe it's just me, but I really love corn tortillas in quesadillas and chilaquiles. Also, every time I go to Sanborn's I order the sopa de tortilla and, from the bread basket they bring, I leave all the bread, but eat all the tortilla chips.

Charlie