If you walk past Lomelee’s at 6:30 in the morning, you’ll see the kitchen lights already on. That’s when our day starts: with corn, lime, and a lot of patience.
People sometimes ask why we go to the trouble of making our own tortillas when you can buy perfectly good ones by the case. The honest answer is that we’ve never known any other way, but there’s a better reason too: you can taste the difference.
It starts with nixtamal
Real corn tortillas begin with a process called nixtamalization, which has been used in Mesoamerica for thousands of years. Dried corn is simmered in water with food-grade calcium hydroxide (cal), then left to soak overnight. This does three important things:
- It loosens the tough outer skin of each kernel.
- It makes nutrients like niacin easier for your body to absorb.
- It changes the flavor, giving the corn that unmistakable earthy, toasty taste.
The next morning, we rinse the corn and run it through a stone grinder to make fresh masa. That’s our first job every day.
Pressed and cooked to order
We portion the masa into small balls, press them flat, and cook them on a hot comal for about thirty seconds a side. A good tortilla puffs up on its second flip. In our kitchen, that puff is a little moment of pride. Abuela Rosa used to say a tortilla that doesn’t puff “isn’t happy yet.”
During dinner service we keep two cooks on the tortilla station, pressing them as orders come in. Every taco, every enchilada, and every basket on your table comes from masa that was corn the day before.
What we use
We buy dried heirloom corn in white, yellow, and occasionally blue varieties, depending on the season. In late summer, we mix in a little fresh sweet corn from a local farm for a special run of sweet corn tortillas. Keep an eye out for those in August.
Want to see it?
On Saturday mornings at 10 am, before brunch rush, anyone is welcome to stop by the kitchen window and watch the tortilla station in action. Kids especially love it. Just don’t be surprised if someone hands you a warm one with a pinch of salt. That’s the best way to eat them.
Lomelee’s is a fictional restaurant, and the people, places, and events in this post are made up for a portfolio demo site.