There’s no need to go south of the board for authentic tacos and tortillas — just cross the East River. Brooklyn is home to some of the best traditional tortillerias this side of the Rio Grande. Bushwick boasts a number of Mexican-owned tortilla factories: Tortilleria Buena Vista, Tortilleria Plaza Piaxtla, Tortilleria Chinantla, Tortilleria Mexicana Los Hermanos, and Tortilleria Tenochtitlan 2000.
The area produces millions of tortillas daily, representing the growing local Latino community (69,000 Mexicans have moved to New York City since 2000, according to the 2008 census) and the growing taste for the corn-disks. The tortillerias sell their soft corn stacks to passersby and pedestrians, but their primary business is selling to bodegas, supermarkets and Manhattan restaurants.
Edible Brooklyn reports on the authenticity and differences of each:
For authentic tortillas, freshness and accessibility are key; competition is fierce and brand loyalties ride high. All of the tortillerias get their corn flour base, called masa, from a Maseca milling plant in Indiana—the days when most tortillerias made their own has passed, even in Mexico. But base material is where the similarities end. Production style and masa-to-water ratio creates different textures and flavors among the local brands, distinguishing tastes for the city’s increasing numbers of tortilla connoisseurs (Buena Vistas’s disks vary in thickness from stack to stack, while the tortillas of Los Hermanos have a pleasant ruddy feel), both those who come to it by nurture as well as by nature, following the city’s taco trucks and taquerias.
Many of the tortilleria expanded to include sister businesses like storefront markets with imported Mexican goods, while others, like Los Hermanos, have started offering tacos and tortas in a newly added restaurant in their factory.
Next time you’re in the area, pick up a stack of tasty tortillas:
View Bushwick Tortillerias in a larger map