00:00The most important component of Mexican food is masa.
00:06They nixtamalize corn to make masa with six or seven different varieties of heirloom corn.
00:11Nixtamalization turns corn, specifically dent corn or sometimes called field corn,
00:16from a not very nutritious, undigestible kernel into a highly nutritious, fully digestible
00:24product, which is called masa. By far the best masa in Los Angeles.
00:28It's one of those things that really connects our menu back to, like, the roots and traditional
00:33Mexican cooking.
00:35The tostada is one of my favorite things that we make here. Fresh ball masa, hand-pressed
00:39tortilla. When we cook this tortilla, we mostly cook one side. So essentially one side is
00:43slightly overcooked, the other side is raw. Then it comes off the plancha and it goes on
00:47to what's called a metate. Metate is a volcanic stone grinding table used to grind nixtamal
00:54or spices and chiles for mole. After that, we have a super thin, like, single layer hand-pressed
00:59tortilla. We pop it in the dehydrator. Once it's fully dry, then we fry it. And when you
01:03fry this dehydrated tortilla, it puffs up ever so slightly, almost giving it, like, a chicharron-like
01:09crackle. It's a really great tostada. And it has a lot of, like, nooks and crannies that
01:14makes it, for me, the ideal tostada to serve a ceviche on. Because those nooks and crannies
01:19kind of hold the juices all in. It's a great tostada. I love them.
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