quesadillas

Queso (kə'-so) cheese + tortilla (tor-tē'-ya) fried flatbread = cheese in flatbread. 

The tortilla can be either processed corn type (masa), or it can be flour tortilla. The more common kind is corn-tortillas. These use a flour tortillas, because that is what I wanted today.  The cheese is usually Oaxacan (wa-ha'-kan, a state in Mexico), this cheese is queso blanco because that is what I have on hand. 

We're not having any argument about authenticity. It's all authentic. Once I ordered quesadillas at a place on the beach at Puerto Vallarta (Ignacio Vallarta, onetime governor of Jalisco, had a port named after him, not a door, which would be puerta) and was so disappointed with what was delivered; three little corn tortillas rolled up with traces of melted queso blanco. That's it. No sauce, no filling, no carne, no nuth'n, and I'm all, "Wut?"  Let's try this again. "Señor, Señor, ¿Si qué puedo extiendo mi orden, por favor? Si es posible, tendré uno burrito soffocado y dos chile rellenos, por favor." It's very important when traveling to always be polite. 

And make that muy grande, Bitch, the boy's hungry.    

Okay, I will admit, this is weird. The spices are put inside the tortillas. That's just not done, and yet, here I am doing it. Cumin and cilantro with Mexican oregano. It made these tortillas different from any other on Earth. 

That and the duck fat that was substituted for lard. I almost forgot to mention that. This was a test to see how well duck fat performed in a tortilla. Turns out, duck fat performs very well indeed. I do not understand why duck fat is not more broadly used.

These tortillas also are not very round. There is a certain carelessness to them. Perhaps a dopiness. Maybe I'm just inept at forming tortillas, and maybe I don't care. 

I suppose it is hard to justify making one's own tortillas because they are so readily available and incredibly cheap. The thing is, the main thing is, I do not want to have a package of a dozen tortillas around. I only want two or three. For my part, making dough is as easy as fiddling with one of those plastic bag closing pinching things. They're a total pain in the butt when I don't lose them, and then the tortillas go stale anyway. Plus tortillas made fresh at home taste ten times better. Possibly five times better. OK FINE, they probably taste twice as good as store bought tortillas, maybe even less, what do I look like, a qualitative analyst over here? They're better, that's what counts, and for their obvious flaws, these quesadillas are the best I've ever had.