Flour tortillas: an end to my quest

White bread was forbidden in my household as a child. We only ate whole-grain bread, the coarser, tougher and browner the better. I hated it. Especially since all the other kids brought their sandwiches to school on Mrs. Baird’s lily-white bread, so soft it practically melted in your mouth. I felt like such an oddball. But my mother told me that eating white bread was like eating poison, and that half the diseases in the world could be prevented from not eating refined grains. Yes, I realize she was acting out of concern for my health, but it still didn’t make me like whole-wheat bread any better.

There was, however, an exception to the no-white-flour rule: flour tortillas. Unlike today where you can find whole-wheat flour tortillas at the store, when I was young there was only one kind: the thick, tender and chewy flour tortilla made out of white flour. And as Tex-Mex is unthinkable without flour tortillas, there was always an ample supply on hand.

I should prefer corn tortillas over flour—they have more depth of flavor and are a better complement to most Tex-Mex ingredients. But because I once viewed them as something decadent and a chance to partake in something forbidden, I still always opt for flour over corn. Many people say flour tortillas are strictly gringo, but that’s not true. You can find them in Northern Mexico, especially the state of Sonora. But the varieties eaten there are different from the ones I prefer. While the Mexican version is thin, smooth and flat, Texan flour tortillas are thick, soft, puffy and chewy.
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