California
A tournament to find the best tortillas in Southern California
Good morning, and welcome to the Important California publication. It’s Tuesday, Oct. 4. I’m Gustavo Arellano, writing from Orange County — and I’m a columnist, so I’m allowed to offer opinions.
Equivalent to: Tortillas are cool.
Yellow, white or blue corn. Sonoran, Tex-Mex, or Cal-Mex flour. As small as your palm; as giant as a manhole cowl. Tortillas are the each day bread for lots of of hundreds of thousands of individuals throughout Mexico, Central America and the United States. In Southern California, tortillas can be found at markets hipster and never, nook shops, Mexican eating places and, after all, in tortillerias.
My favourite corn tortillas comes from Miramar Tortilleria in East Los Angeles — thick, earthy and so yellow that they’re virtually brown. In 2018, whereas taking a look at a bundle after making some quesadillas and noticing that Miramar has been open since 1955, I puzzled:
What’s its historical past? And what’s the most effective tortilla in Southern California?
Thus, KCRW and Gustavo’s Nice Tortilla Match was born (for the document: I didn’t suppose up of the identify).
Our premise is fiendishly easy and completely ludicrous: Match up 64 tortillas — 32 corn, 32 flour — obtainable in Southern California and break them up into 4 seeded brackets of 16 individuals (No. 1 seed in opposition to No. 16, No. 8 in opposition to No. 9) in a sports-style playoff. Have 4 judges face them off till solely 4 tortillas stay — two corn, two flour. Maintain a dwell occasion with samples, pit the corn champion in opposition to the flour champion, and crown the winner with the Golden Tortilla, a plaque with — sure — a gold-colored corn tortilla on it.
Return the earlier yr’s 16 finalists, and add 32 new ones. Repeat.
Wacko, proper?
And but we’re now in our fifth yr of the event. We’ve had over 150 Southern California tortillas compete, from Santa Barbara to Coachella, the San Fernando Valley to San Diego, and all factors in between. This yr, we’ve acquired the mighty (former champion Taco Maria), the upstarts (El Burrito Home in Bell sells the most effective breakfast burritos in Southern California proper now) and the gross (Wal-Mart and Von’s tortillas, come on down!) We’ve seen a distinct winner yearly and surprising upsets. We’ve helped to spark a renaissance of tortilla tradition throughout the Southland and eaten lots of tortillas.
However, as Emiliano Zapata would’ve stated if anybody had ever bothered to ask him, there can by no means be sufficient tortillas.
Extra necessary, my #tortillatournament has helped to pop not less than one of many many bubbles that rule life in Southern California.
Most individuals have go-to manufacturers that they purchase at their neighborhood market or tortilleria. So meaning the individuals in Oxnard who get their tortillas from La Central Bakery (open since 1948) in all probability haven’t tasted the good corn tortillas from Playa Azul Tortilleria in Florence-Firestone. By means of my event, individuals can learn the way the opposite aspect eats — tortilla diplomacy for the win!
A number of the contestants on this yr’s KCRW and Gustavo’s Nice Tortilla Match, now in its fifth yr.
(Gustavo Arellano / Los Angeles Instances)
Yow will discover this yr’s contestants at this web site, together with tales and a map (my fellow Instances columnista Carolina A. Miranda did an exquisite evaluation of the artwork on native tortilla packages). The competitors is so fierce that Miramar isn’t a contestant — darn.
So who makes the most effective tortillas in Southern California?
The winner final yr was Burritos La Palma, which makes fabulously fluffy flour tortillas. Proper now, we’re all the way down to eight contestants, with our Fuerte 4 being unveiled on Wednesday. We’ll crown a winner Oct. 16 at Smorgasburg LA — see you there!
And now, right here’s what’s occurring throughout California:
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L.A. STORIES
Proposal to accommodate homeless in Boyle Heights Sears constructing is scaled again from 10,000 to 2,500 beds. And even that’s too many for a lot of, if not most, residents. Los Angeles Instances
103-year-old Eagle Rock fuel station nominated as a historic monument. The Jay Threat Normal Oil Service Station — solely 14 ft sq. — is squeezed between two buildings within the 1600 block of Colorado Boulevard. The Eastsider
Chook flu spreads to Southern California, infecting chickens, wild birds and different animals. Get that pollo a la brasa when you can. Los Angeles Instances
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POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
An L.A. “mansion tax” goals to boost cash for housing. Karen Bass, Rick Caruso don’t assist it. Town’s mayoral candidates discover one thing to agree on. Los Angeles Instances
In turnaround, L.A. council candidate presents “deepest apologies” over wage-theft instances. Danielle Sandoval, who’s working to switch Joe Buscaino, started to belt a distinct ballad as soon as she began to lose endorsements. Los Angeles Instances
L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Instances)
New ballot reveals challenger Robert Luna holds lead over L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva. My invite to Villanueva to go looking for Stetsons to save lots of his faltering marketing campaign stays open. Los Angeles Instances
CRIME, COURTS AND POLICING
How feds choreographed an elaborate pretend homicide to cease L.A. developer’s alleged plot. That sound you heard is Keith Morrison packing his suitcase and getting the primary flight to LAX to do his tackle a narrative with so many twists and turns it makes a double helix appear as swirling as a ruler. Los Angeles Instances
California relies on jail labor for combating fires. This should finish. To paraphrase the legendary e-book by Carey McWilliams, a critique of our factories within the fires. Truthout
Monterey County supervisors say unhealthy habits should cease at Sheriff’s Workplace. As a result of outgoing Sheriff Steve Bernal doesn’t need Southern California to dominate the bad-sheriff sweepstakes, you understand? Voices of Monterey Bay
HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT
California drought pits farmers vs. cities. However neither is the largest water sufferer. As a result of the noticed owl doesn’t want something to drink — wait, fallacious state, fallacious decade … Los Angeles Instances
California struggling by driest three years ever recorded, with no reduction in sight. Nicely, hell. Los Angeles Instances
New webseries “Regular Ain’t Regular” examines inequities in a post-pandemic Oakland. The four-episode webseries follows 4 working-class residents as they wrestle to navigate their lives amid rising inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic. The Oaklandside
Josh Heinz’s Live performance for Autism blends music and charity for a fifteenth consecutive yr. The Coachella Valley is wealthy with musical icons, bands and charities—and the Live performance for Autism melds all of these collectively annually into one of many space’s cornerstone occasions. Coachella Valley Impartial
CALIFORNIA CULTURE
As a younger man, I traveled the Excessive Sierra by mule. After 59 years, I attempted it once more. Doug Smith, my Pulitzer Prize-winning colleague and maybe the one Pittsburgh Pirates fan in The Instances newsroom, presents a poignant, playful remembrance of who he was, is and all the time can be. Los Angeles Instances
No cleaning soap — Procter & Gamble’s Lengthy Seaside plant closed in 1988. The legendary Tim Grobarty takes us into the Iowa-by-the-sea time machine in his weekly publication. Lengthy Seaside Submit
A San Francisco socialite coined “sugar daddy” and used her wealth to vary town. When is the Netflix restricted collection on Alma de Bretteville Spreckels occurring? SFGATE
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CALIFORNIA ALMANAC
Los Angeles: 84, partly cloudy. San Diego: 75, partly cloudy. San Francisco: 68, morning clouds. San Jose: 77, partly cloudy. Fresno: 91, solely metropolis on this listing forecast to be sunny! Sacramento: 88, partly cloudy.
AND FINALLY
Right now’s California reminiscence is from Debora Masterson:
Once I was about 11, dwelling in Sepulveda (now known as North Hills), my buddy and I have been using horses within the neighborhood. She stated, “Hey, let’s go journey up on the freeway.” The 405 was within the means of being constructed and it was completed, besides it had not been paved but. I informed her that we couldn’t try this! However she stated “Let’s go!” So I adopted her and we rode up the Nordhoff Road south ramp and rode onto the freeway. It was a phenomenal view from up there! Each time I enter the freeway from there, I consider that when in a lifetime second!
In case you have a reminiscence or story in regards to the Golden State, share it with us. (Please preserve your story to 100 phrases.)
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