In case you’ve got a hankering for a Plato Tipico…

1. Start with regular corn flour… People here prefer the hand-ground variety, but I settle for Comal, sold in the local supermercado.

2. Slowly add water to the flour, and knead with your hands until it reaches a playdough consistency. Form the masa (corn flour dough) into a ball. Keep a bowl of water by your side— you’ll need it for later.

3. Break off a piece of dough roughly to fill a half cup… maybe a goose egg size? the size of a tangerine? There’s really no good size estimate for that size. I can’t think of a standard sports ball to use. Tangerine’s good I guess. So take a ball…

4. And dip your hands in water to keep the ball moist. Now, play patty-cake with the ball until it forms a round disk. This is the tricky part… you have to kind of shape your hands around the ball while you’re patting it, so it doesn’t crack on the edges. Keep dipping your hands in water as you shape it. The tortilla should be hearty and thick when you’re done. It should now look something like this!

5. Stick it on a griddle, greased using a paper towel dipped in a small bit of vegetable oil. Flip the tortilla three times— that’s important— pressing down on each side. According to the men who work at the site with me, “cook it til it’s almost burned.” My first tortillas were undercooked, and unfit to eat, apparently. But almost burning things is definitely more my style:

6. When you see lots of black spots, like the one on the bottom right, you’re done :)

Freeze them if you don’t plan on eating them right away, and to reheat stick a thawed tortilla directly on the gas burner (Simon style!).

Tortillas are great paired with black beans, scrambled eggs, salsa and fried plantains.