Matagalpa, Nicaragua
You can’t escape tortillas when traveling in Nicaragua. The Nicas eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Nicaraguan tortillas are made from corn flour and are quite thick. For breakfast, I’ll use it to scoop up my gallo pinto (beans and rice) and scrambled egg, I’d place a little (ok, maybe more than a little) slice of cuajada (salty cheese), and add a dash of chili sauce and fold it in half quesadilla style.
One common roadside snack in Nicaragua is quesillo: a string of mozzarella-type cheese with pickled onion, doused with watery sour cream all wrapped in a thick tortilla. It’s a little bit of an acquired taste.
I stopped for breakfast one morning at this tiny market in Matagalpa and I saw these 2 women chatting while making tortillas. Their hands were a blur as they took a pinch of dough and smack it flat with their palm. “Smack-smack” – flip, “Smack-smack” – flip.
Another woman was grilling them on top of a wood fired stove.
I ask how many tortillas they make every day.
“Mil” – 1000. And this is just a tiny stall in a tiny market.
They sure love their tortillas here in Nicaragua.
I loved the tortillas but since I'm not a huge fan of cheese, it kind of ruined the whole thing for me. But I had to make myself eat it because I didn't want to offend my host family. Oh well, I always like trying new things especially food!
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Wow 1000 Tortillas a day! Now they're good, in fact no, they're very good, but as far as eating them for breakfast, lunch and dinner I don't think i'm that hardcore yet. Great post by the way.
An amazingly versatile food! I've been living in Mexico for the past few years and reading about Spain – trying to figure out which things came from which culture. Cuisine is definitely the place where indigenous American culture lives on. Vive la tortilla!
1000 tortillas a day? Wow if every vendor makes a 1000 a day, that is some serious Tortilla consumption. I love watching street vendors prepare food. They are so skilled and fast. Here in Cambodia you can get some friend noodles within two minutes for example.
I love tortillas but authentic and delicious tortillas can be hard to come by in Canada. My search continues. They look delicious!
Murissa
The tortillas sound very good! An enjoyable post…
Oh yum! I'm sure they made any previously eaten US tortilla pale in comparison!;-)
One thousand tortillas a day is one heck of a lot of tortillas. I love them when they're super fresh and would love a lesson on how to be able to make them quickly and well.
Your breakfast sounds good – lunch not so much.
That's amazing! Handmade tortillas taste infinitely better than any store bought-I'm sure the ones in Nicaragua are amazing. Gosh I cannot imagine making 1000 each day though!! I struggle to turn out 8 🙂
Mil tortillas a day? Oh wow! Nicaraguans do love their tortillas indeed! Anyhow, which one do you prefer? The usual tortilla you have back at home or the one in Nicaragua?
Tough questions. We're currently in San Francisco and there's a huge hispanic community here – so we have access to really good tortillas too 🙂 We've been spoiled.
I love handmade tortillas and those thick ones look really good! Almost like a huarache, if you've had that Mexican tortilla variant?
I officially need to go here. I'm obsessed with tortillas. I bet a freshly grilled one tastes fantastic.
I think it's great to learn a thing or two about the cuisine of every country you visit, particularly how to make a dish or two, since it's a great way to bring a little of the magic back home.
That is something I would love to try to do when travelling in those area. I am a big fan of tortilla and making my own one would be amazing. I bet it would be much tastier than the one I used to get from the restaurant 🙂
What I wouldn't do for some homemade tortillas right about now! Latin American food is hard to come by in Shanghai, and the prepackaged tortillas imported from the States cost a fortune!
There are certain foods that I find it impossible to believe that people actually make them from scratch, and tortillas are definitely on the list. I bet freshly grilled tortillas are so much better than the prepackaged ones we get back in the States!
1000 a day?! Holy cow! I would be so interested to taste to mozzarella and pickled onion on – love all the elements in their own right, but not sure how it would be put together?! Now I'm off to find breakfast as my stomach is rumbling from reading this…
It's like this throughout so much of Latin America. I love it so much that I recently built a cast iron dome that rests over a fire pit in my back yard. The dome is a perfect tortilla cooker, reminiscent of the hundreds I've seen in markets down there. Thanks for the memory. I can smell them cooking now! 😀
Can't wait to taste one! We are planning on 3 weeks there in August!!
A good tortilla is worth it's weight in gold!
No joke. It is possible to find bad ones so get 'em when you can.
Love that first photo – tortillas grillin up, Mmmmm.
I've been so spoiled by amazing, fresh-to-order tortillas that, when I can't get them I now contemplate making them at home.
Ah yes, you just reminded me of my 3-week trip to Guatemala and Honduras last year. I've gotten used to hearing those clapping sounds they make when one makes tortillas, and yes, it features on every meal. So after coming back from that trip, whenever I hear clapping sounds, I'd immediately scan my surroundings and look for tortillas!