Here’s a great recipe for “The Three Amigas Tlayudas” (think Mexican Pizza) from food blogging superstar, Aida Mollenkamp. I love the fact that she’s taken memories from her tween years eating at Taco Bell and turned them into something good. I can so relate to what she’s talking about in terms of Taco Bell’s Mexican Pizza or in my case it was all about “Tuesday Taco Night”. For $2, we could get six tacos and be absolutely stuffed and in our teenage minds, content. I look back in horror at my eating habits back then, but I still love the concept of tacos or in Aida’s case, Mexican Pizza (which she rightfully goes on to correct its correct name, a tlayuda. The only difference now, is that I make them myself and use ingredients like grass-fed beef, aged cheddar cheese, and fresh guacamole (as opposed to the stuff that comes out of a tube). While I wouldn’t even come close to a fast food restaurant now, there’s nothing wrong with taking inspiration from some of your favorite childhood meals and modifying them to be something really good. Thank you for the inspiration Aida.
“I really didn’t like TexMex. I blame it on overexposure to crappy quick service chain restaurants and the fact I never set food in Texas until a few years ago. But even more than TexMex, I really didn’t and still don’t like Taco Bell Mexican Pizza (although, as a tween I’d scrounge coins from my sister’s car and buy them on a regular basis). So, when I found myself in a TexMex restaurant in San Antonio, I was simultaneously intrigued and mortified to find a Mexican pizza on the menu.
In fairness, it wasn’t called a Mexican pizza, but a tlayuda, and, out of respect to Mexican culinary connoisseurs like Diana Kennedy, I should explain that a tlayuda isn’t a pizza but a traditional Oaxacan street food. It’s made by charring a handmade tortilla over a comal, smothering it with refried black beans, piling it with a heap of cabbage, and topping it with an assortment of garnishes from tomatoes and avocados to cecina or chorizo.
Honestly though, who has a comal? And, for the record, when you look at a tlayuda, it kinda resembles a pizza, no? Just swap a tortilla for pizza dough, refried beans for tomato sauce, Mexican cheese for Italian, and sprinkle on some fresh, uncooked toppings. But no matter how you slice it, an authentic tlayuda resides in a place far away any pizza much less that Taco Bell pizza…”
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