Speaking of Tortillas.....
mindrobots
Posts: 6,506
I noticed tortillas at lunch in the pictures that Rich posted of OPC2013.
Were those made on the TortillaMaster-8x32a???
Were those made on the TortillaMaster-8x32a???
Comments
What to do?
Maybe set up shop and serve the community.
http://www.tortilladepot.com/
Here is a video of the corn tortilla line in operation. There was a Propeller chip in a counter/stacker we rebuilt, but that counter/stacker was not mechanically adequate for the line, so we had to get another machine that you'll see at the end. We scrounged around and bought all this stuff for about 20% the cost of new equipment. Much of it we refurbished ourselves. I've learned to TIG weld and form up sheets of stainless. It took several months of experimentation to get a handle on just cooking and grinding the corn. The best corn we've found is an organic yellow type that a guy up the road grows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVaa0iJij1A
These tortillas smell and taste like corn, as that's all they are. The stuff in the stores is so loaded with acidifying preservatives that people have come to think that corn tortillas are supposed to taste like acid.
Jeff
It looks as if I could by good grain corn and lime, I could prepare the masa myself with a grinding mill. I might even be able to wet grind through a traditional rice stone mill that is intended for making a dry grind of rice flour.
But I don't even have a kitchen and have been dieting. I've lost 30 pounds since Chinese New Years and for me the tortillas might just reverse all the progress so far. So I guess I will have to dream.
Still, having a store front torilla-ria is not a bad small business to be into. They are very common in Mexico and as Chip said -- the fresh ones without all the preservatives have a better flavor. To be fresh, they have to be made daily and sold locally. Beside, the masa alone is used in traditional tamales and other Mexican dishes. Masa Harina is just dried out masa that is commonly called 'tortilla flour', but in traditional production the masa is never dried out.
You might have to run flour torillas as well. And any left over daily runs of corn tortillas could be made into chips.
If Chip were to fry his tortillas, he could ship us Chips from Chip.
It looks like a tortilla maker... but is that it's real purpose?
You show fire... but how do we know that you aren't using the fire as a cloaking device?
What other secrets is Parallax hiding in that building?
I guess I will just have to accept live without fresh tortillas as long as I live in Southern Taiwan. Also lacking is peanut butter, a good onion bagel, and real polish sausage.
But there are some very good Chinese foods that you can't get in the average city in the USA. Have you ever tried smoked duck tongues? Shredded pork? Pig's ears?
Now I'm really sorry I didn't go to OPC... Fresh made tortillas with home made Mexican food, and the expo, I don't think anything could get better than that!
Jim...
I guess I will have to drop by Smokey Joe's soon. I've not had anything Mexican for many years.
Here is a good pork recipe.
http://indiainkelephant.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/diy-tamales-myrnas-secret-recipe/
I'll trade you: I have some great Mexican places around where I live, but nothing else. No Indian, British, Italian, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, or Taiwanese (is there a Taiwanese specialty?). I really wish I lived in a more culturally diverse town, with the food options.
I went to China a few years ago for two months on an academic scholarship. The food was great, and there was lots of variety, but it taught me that I'm used to certain types. Within an hour of landing at LAX I was a Mexican place getting a burrito.
British cuisine??? Really? .....oops, did I say that out loud??
It was really good food (to me, anyway).
We've built a wood-fired brick pizza oven here recently, and I'm planning on making 10 more. I've got a friend who's taken a real shine to an old travel trailer we've got and he's willing to build ten more ovens for it. Here's the first oven (and Todd the bricklayer):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rm-_QKetJo
This and the tortilla factory are all two hours north of Parallax.
Maybe next year at OPC we'll have a brick pizza oven on a trailer.
By the way, this Jeff Varasano's pizza site makes real pizza plain to anyone's understanding, as if you passed on and the mysteries were finally laid bare:
http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm
Thailand is more diverse as it has a lot of immigrants, including Hindu and Muslim influences. It also seems a lot of European chefs prefer to set up shop for the tourist trade there -- all kinds of good food. And Tokyo has a Michlen guide of five star restaurants as they are recognized by the French to have a lot of Five Star restaurants, maybe the most outside of France.
I was born and raised in San Francisco and learned that it is not the location that makes great food, it is having the best cook. It really doesn't matter what I eat as long as the cook is good.
Still, we all have a lot of favorites and nostalgia for certain foods. But having moved to the far side of the world really forces you to try new things and not hang on to what you claimed as your personal comfort foods.
I am already drooling over the eats at next year's OPC. Pizza has been on my personal 'no eat' list for about 15 years as it too is expensive here and not so great. Besides, good pizza would just make me that much fatter.
Regardless of what you cook, using all fresh ingredients.. including fresh herbs .. will make it so much better. And cooking over a wood fire adds a heck of a lot of flavor. For pizza and Italian in general, grow your own Basil, Oregano, Rosemary, and Garlic -- it is worth it. But I don't think you have to grow your own chili peppers or jalape
Hi Loopy Byteloose,
When I came to Taiwan I missed a lot "tortilla de patatas".
You are lucky, do you know restaurant "Hola" in kaoshiung? Maybe they can make some corn tortilla for you.
My main substitute for tortilla here is 葱抓饼 (Cōng zhuā bǐng). (Corn, bacon, cheese, but NO sauce, and NO pepper too)
Quite true. Why sooooo expensive? and why sooooo small?
I have been here just 2 years, and eat pizza just three times.
Jim
Pizza is generally a "franchise food" with outlets such as Domino's Pizza. Anything that is a foreign food franchise in Taiwan is more expensive. Also, Chinese do not have a real cheese industry, so the cheese is all imported as well.
I've never heard of "Hola" in Kaohsiung, but I don't get around as much as I used to. Do you have an address or a district?
~~~~~~~~~
Chip is just expanding... After all, that is what good food does to you.
My wife and I both love going to Albuquerque NM, primarily for the food. New Mexico style food is a cross between Spanish, Mexican, and Native American. One thing we love is New Mexico style enchiladas, which are served open face, with blue corn tortillas, a fried egg on top, and your choice of either green or red chili sauce (doesn't matter which, both are great).
So do you think that you'll ever try blue corn?
Thanks...
Jim...
We bought half a ton of organic blue corn and we've made tortillas from it a few times, so far. Blue corn is soft so it cooks very quickly. It is rather sweet and nutty, too. The tortillas have a purplish-black velvet appearance. They're quite different than yellow corn tortillas. We've mixed yellow and blue corn and the tortillas still came out very dark. This picture is probably of 1/3 blue and 2/3 yellow corn:
Ok, but I decline responsibility if you add any new kilo ;-)
高雄市三民區河堤路578號
Ten pizza ovens!? Chip, how about a stove specialized for all those tortillas?
A neighbor here builds traditional Latin American patsari stoves for tortillas, , pupusas etc. and the fixin's. Not too traditional though. He's always improving the firebox and the overall design. Hi latest innovation is a built-in oven made from a stainless steel beer keg with an hub cap for a front door, great for roasting.
Our hosts took us out the first night and fed us all kinds of tasty fried things, including tofu that smelled like pig manure. We were there for two more nights, on our own, and we walked around and ate until we were completely saturated with fried stuff. My farmer friend decided that it was actually all "carny" food. We renamed the "night market" into the "nocturnal regurgitorium". Of course, I'd go back.
Did I read that right? You are putting 10 brick pizza ovens inside a travel trailer? Whoa.....
Taiwan Night Markets are best evaluated by a drive by on a motorscooter. If they reallly smell delious, stop and eat. If not, move on.
My Taiwanese mutt is a professional mooch. When we go walking, if he likes a restaurant, he will stop and not move until he gets something to eat from it. Sometimes th owners give him something and often I am deeply embarassed and have to buy him a snack. But the thing is, he actually picks only the best restaurants and passes by the mediocre ones.
So Chip, if you come to Taiwan agian and visit Kaohsiung, I will let you borrow the dog.
BTW, you don't need to eat fruits and veggies to get your vitamins. That is why the Chinese eat the lung, liver, heart, intestines, and whatever else you might be questioning. And of course, the duck's blood and rice is high in iron.
The pig's ears are just nice and chewy.
Oh, by the way, the gadgets attached to the chimneys contain propeller based data loggers and XBees, part of a study of stove usage and improvements for air quality and efficiency.
The ten ovens will go ten different places. Only one will go on a trailer.
Your dog is really sensitive to good food. I noticed our chickens will eat the very best things first, and maybe not even bother with some processed foods. It seems animals know what's good for them, unlike the rest of us.
Wow! I wish households in Red Bluff would desire 5 kilos of tortillas a day. I think most are getting by on a 12-ounce bag of Cheetos.
How many stoves have you outfitted with those data transponders now? Is it just in South America?
I've been intrigued by these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=wfsu5Kj_THM&feature=endscreen
This enables good Chinese saute dishes, as the cook time is only 30 seconds, or so.