Corn Tortillas

Unlike tamal, which was the Spaniards’ attempt to pronounce the Aztec word tamalli, tortilla is a Spanish word—though one that often leads American tourists into trouble in Spain, where it refers only to omelets! The original meaning was a little round, flat cake, and in Mexico the word eventually came to refer primarily to thin cakes of prepared masa baked on a griddle or a softer equivalent made with wheat flour.

One legacy of the Mexican food craze in the Uni