Soft corn tortillas and pinto beans

Yeah, posting that was a mistake.

The whole hard-shell taco idea may have come into being as a solution to the problem of long-term storage of tortillas, which go stale rather quickly.

I’m just guessing, but it makes sense.

The hard-shell ones like the El Paso brand have a very short lifespan too. It’s better to freshly fry some frozen and thawed ones rather than buying those (or even better yet, make fresh ones, then fry them if you want a hard shell). Real corn tortillas taste better and have a nicer texture than the El Paso type, which seem fake and processed to me.

[quote=“Dragonbones”]Thanks VERY MUCH Chief for those links!

Turns out that the phone numbers are for [color=#0000FF]Florida Bakery[/color]. They DO make their own corn tortillas fresh (6" only; either white or yellow corn; $48 per bag of a dozen) as well as flour ones ($65 for 6", or $100 for 8"), and tortilla chips.

I’ve been there but have never seen fresh corn tortillas. I mentioned this and Daisy at their head office said they often don’t have them made fresh because locals don’t buy them. [color=#BF0000]She says just call first and place an order, and they’ll have fresh corn tortillas ready for you. [/color]:discodance: EDIT: The lady in the Ren’ai store says you may have to call 3 days in advance to get them if they’re out of stock.

She also says they have two kinds of dry masa for sale, fine (for tortillas) and coarse (for corn chips); $126/kg. I asked about masa for tamales and she said yeah, the coarse one. I’ll have to try that to see if it’s the right stuff.

They will also deliver by courier, $180/trip flat charge.

In addition to the Zhongshan N. Rd. Sec. 3 No. 23 store, they also have a store at Ren’ai Rd near Da’an Rd (sec. 4 #26; 2702-1175) as many of you probably know; hours are 7a-10p, 7 days.[/quote]

So, a fellow country woman got hold of quite a bit of harina de maiz -corn flour- for tortillas and such, from Florida Bakery. She says it is certainly not on the counter, but rather as DB says: you ask for it and put the order. They do have a minimum -about 10 kilos, me thinks- but my new friend split it among a few of us. I’ll experiment with mine when I have the time but it is a real treat.

Florida Bakery’s tortilla’s are still a bit too hard for my taste, and I have to call home and ask one of my aunts how to make the tortillas softer, as soft as possible. My friends experimented with sweet corn tamalitos and it worked fine, let’s see how cheese tortillas or any other dish comes along. At least we have this option. Masa Harina it may not be but it does the work.

Oh, and she got pinto beans at traditional, wholesale grains market.

On soft corn tortillas: Poco Loco brand soft corn tortillas are available at City Super - or at least at The Mall branch, where I bought them today; I assume they’re available at other branches as well. That’s the first time I’ve seen soft corn tortillas available in Taipei, apart from Florida Bakery (disappointing quality, although their flour tortillas are fine) and the freezers at Wellman’s or the other stores of that ilk up in Tianmu.

I haven’t tried them yet. They’re big too, about 8" - huge for tacos, but good for things like Mexican Lasagna or enchiladas or casseroles: the kinds of dishes which I’ve never got in the habit of making because I can’t be bothered to make that many corn tortillas.

Florida bakery has soft corn tortillas. You can also buy masa flour from them, but you have to pre-order it. For beans, there is a type of runner bean that is close to a pinto here. Perhaps other Forumosans can help us with the name of it.

I checked those and they are mixed: mainly wheat flour with corn flour. The thing that had me a bit worried is that they have them right on the shelves, checked the ingredients label
mmm, chemistry set. Last time I saw other corn tortillas there, they were in the freezer area. Price was 180 NTD if I recall correctly. In summary, I did not take them.

BTW they had a humongous white beans can on sale. With pork “skin”, should be great.

I second the suggetsion to buy masa and make your own stuff. Furthermore, with the Venezuelan exodus, it is easier to order masa harina from the States. Anyways, teh Florida Bakery tortillas are not soft enough for me.

Icon, you’re right: the packaging says corn tortillas, but the ingredients are wheat flour 31%, water, corn flour 22%, and then the chemicals begin. Oops. Although when I bought them, they were in the fridge section, which was reassuring.

Florida Bakery: I’ve had bad luck with their corn tortillas. Maybe when ultra-fresh they’re good, but when I’ve bought them they’ve gone bad (as in mold) within a couple of days, and they always seem stale.

Yes, making corn tortillas is great, and basically a necessity for things like tacos, but I’m hoping these Poco Loco ones will work with recipes like casseroles that have “12 corn tortillas” on the ingredient list. I simply haven’t bothered making those kinds of dishes in Taiwan because that’s a lot of corn tortillas to make and then render near-tasteless in a casserole.

Masa harina is often available at City Supers now, and also from iHerb. Probably cheaper from iHerb, despite the shipping!

Masa harina is often available at Wellman’s and Willie’s Deli up in Tianmu too, but at a price.

Aikaili, how much does the masa harina (pre-ordered) from Florida Bakery cost?

Yeah I have some friends asking about Masa Harina too. I don’t like the ones from Florida because it’s too coarse and the tortillas tend to crack easily.

I use Harimasa (Mexico) now, it’s available in 1kg packs. You can buy it online here
Website https://www.summerpalm.com.tw/pages/harimasa-masa-harina?locale=en
or
on Shopee
and good news looks like they have tortilla press, too!

2 Likes

花豆
https://mall.pchome.com.tw/prod/QFAINL-B90095MO7-000?fq=/S/QFCL2E/pick