Tlayuda

The tlayuda, also known as clayuda, is a corn tortilla typical state of Oaxaca in Mexico. It usually has a diameter of 30 centimeters or more, it is browned on a griddle, which gives it greater hardness than a conventional tortilla, with a brittle and leathery consistency. It is usually served with beans, meat, vegetables and other additions. Originally, the word refers only to the type of tortilla used. It differs from other types because of its large size (with a diameter of around 30 cm), different taste, and tougher texture. A tlayuda can be filled with a variety of ingredients, including different meats, seafood, cheese or vegetables. Due to their thickness and cooking, they guarantee their conservation in good condition for long periods of time.

Corn tortilla about 30 cm in diameter or more, which is made with white corn dough. Allow enough time for the dough water to evaporate in the griddle and, once cooked and with a firm consistency, remove it from the griddle and place it on the side of the coals, resting on the griddle. This is how it finishes drying and becomes brittle and leathery. Due to the way it is cooked, it can be preserved for a long time. It is the tortilla with which practically any stew is eaten in the region of the Central Valleys of Oaxaca. At night you eat sprinkled with sugar when you drink coffee.

In the restaurants of Oaxaca food it is sold as a snack while you drink mezcal or beer, and it is heated with a bit of pork rinds. To this base you can add cheese, refried beans, casserole, cecina or chorizo. Nowadays, in the restaurants of contemporary Oaxacan food, pieces of toasted and crispy tlayuda are served as if it were bread. Also, old tlayudas are used to prepare chilaquiles.

One of the best aspects of Mexican cuisine is the wide variety of dishes that can come out of a single ingredient, and the best example is that of corn, which gives us tortillas, tlacoyos, chubby, tamales and for this specific occasion, the wonderful and incomparable tlayudas.

Although it can be considered a simple dish, the Tlayudas have gained fame as one of the best Oaxacan dishes, and it is not for less, since it can be accompanied by virtually anything we want.

The name Tlayuda refers to the corn tortilla sometimes more than 30 centimeters in diameter where the ingredients are placed, which is browned on a comal, which gives the tortilla more hardness than other dishes such as tacos.

If you have ever traveled to Oaxaca you will know that the classic tlayuda is smeared with pork seat (the remains after preparing carnitas), quesillo, chopped cabbage, roasted beetle and a good spicy and freshly made sauce. Tostadita is served, so that each bite, apart from feeling all these incredible flavors, feels the crispy consistency and is enjoyed even more.

Of course, the ingredient options for tlayuda are broad, they can be found with beans, chopped lettuce, tomato, avocado, casserole, beef jerky, chorizo, dried meat, chicken, chili peppers, pork rinds, guacamole, pasilla chili sauce, roasted chili peppers, radishes and even chambray onions. No matter what they decide to decorate the tlayuda, while crunching each bite, they will know they are in the right place.

To try the best, you have to go through the stalls in the streets of Oaxaca, although in other areas such as Puebla, Mexico City and the Metropolitan area, it is also a popular dish of traditional restaurants.

In addition to having an exceptional flavor, this dish is the ideal food to be satisfied and pay little, since it has now become a very commercial snack, both within Oaxaca and outside the state.

The Tlayuda has become a representative of the Oaxaca and Mexican traditions, so in 2010 it was named Intangible Cultural Heritage of the State along with the Oaxacan mole, the chapulines and the soup of guides, since it preserves the millenary customs of the people of Oaxaca.

Etymology

The word tlayuda comes from the Nahuatl tlao-li (shelled corn), plus the Spanish suffix uda (abundance).

Features

Its main characteristics are the large size (even more than 40 cm in diameter), its taste completely different from that of another type of tortilla and the slight hardness in its consistency (without being roasted, but rather leathery), which acquires the when cooked on a griddle commonly mud, which is left semi-roasted, ie greater than the other tortilla, then to be stored in a cooked tenate (container made of palm leaves). It acquires the characteristic consistency: from flexible to semi-brittle, very slightly moist, fresh, difficult to chew for those who are not accustomed, very light aroma like burnt tortilla almost imperceptible. A very light amount of salt in the nixtamal mass with which it is prepared in some cases, as well as its cooking almost to the roast, they make the tlayuda last longer without decomposing, as it happens with common tortillas.

Classic Tlayuda

The classic tlayuda is smeared with a pig seat. Then cheese is added - also known as Oaxaca cheese, lettuce, roasted beet or beef jerky and spicy sauce made in molcajete. Finally, the tlayuda is placed on the anafre to be roasted and crispy.

Variants

There are many variants in its preparation, some are with beans ground black and fried, cabbage or lettuce chopped known as cabbage, jerked beef, corned pork, sausage pork, beef jerky, quesillo and chutney peppers green or yellow (sometimes with sauce maguey worm) and as well as pasilla chili sauce. It is also spread with a seat (unrefined lard), with pieces of pork rindsBy porc. The tortilla can be folded, making a kind of sandwich ("empanada" or "quesadilla"), and grilled on a special grill, which gives the tortillas a toasted texture and a certain smoky flavor, or grilled. It is also usually accompanied with avocado (guacamole) and tomato. In the region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec it is usually folded in the form of a large block.

Tlayuda in most regions of Oaxaca, when served is accompanied by a roasted green chili, commonly called water chili, and also roasted chambray onions, and optionally lemon. There are also those who accompany it with radishes and some branches of a vegetable called chepiches, which are typical of Oaxaca.

Where to eat tlayudas

In the isthmus they are often located in food stalls or simply in pedestrian street stalls, which can also find other foods in addition to selling fresh water and soft drinks to accompany them. Tlayuda has become a very commercial and common delicacy within the city of Oaxaca and in the Central Valleys, within the markets most visited by tourists, located in the center of the city of Oaxaca.