When it comes to regional specialties, the state of Oaxaca has a lot to offer. And not surprisingly so. With its great diversity of indigenous cultures and regional delicacies, there seems to be a whole world of taste to be discovered in its markets. But more about that later… For now I want to look at the Tlayuda, the simplest food item, and the levels it can be taken to.
The Tlayuda is in essence nothing more than a corn-tortilla, only it is the size of a dinner plate. Tortillas don’t have uniform sizes, but there is a general tendency: bite-sized ones for tacos are around 10 cm (4 inches) in diameter, and hand-sized ones to accompany a meal are about twice as big. Well, a Tlayuda starts at 30 cm (a foot)! With so much material, the logical thing to do is fill them with whatever you can, fold them in half, and treat it as the square meal it is meant to be.
In this case it is filled with chorrizo and Oaxacan cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, purple cabbage, and a deliciously hot salsa. But in most places all you gotta do is ask, and they put whatever is available on it, or even go out to look for whatever they may not have. This makes the Tlayuda awfully similar to a pizza (Sicilian style for being so thin and crispy) or a calzone, folded in half as it is. In any case, it’s the perfect street food for the quick hunger, or to accompany a beer in the evening. Otherwise, they are treated as mere tortillas among the Oaxacan locals, broken and eaten to accompany any family dinner.
For more on Mexican food, check out my series What to Eat in Mexico:
- Tamales, the Best Way to Eat Corn
- Chapulines, Escamoles, and Maguey Worms
- Carnitas of Michoacan
- Huitlacoche, a Mold That Just Tastes so Good
- Nopales, A Vegetraian Delicacy
- Pozole, Not Just for Indipendence Day!
- Chilaquiles, for Stale Tortillas and a Hangover
- Making Salsa
- Tortillas and Other Incarnations of Maize
- Tacos, As Basic As You Can Get
- Guacamole, With and Without Spirulina