Taco shell
Flour tortilla
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| Type | Flatbread |
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| Place of origin | Mexico |
| Main ingredients | Wheat flour |
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A flour tortilla (/tɔːrˈtiːə/, /-jə/; or wheat tortilla to differentiate it from other uses of the word tortilla, which in Spanish means "small torta", or "small cake") is a type of soft, thin flatbread made from finely ground wheat flour from Mexico.
Originally derived from the corn tortilla, a bread of maize which predates the arrival of Europeans to the Americas, the wheat flour tortilla was an innovation by exiled Sephardi Jews who considered corn meal as non-kosher and used wheat brought from Europe, while this region was the colony of New Spain. It is made with an unleavened, water based dough, pressed and cooked like corn tortillas. In Spanish the word "tortilla", without qualification, has different meanings in different regions. In Spain it is an omelette; in Mexico and Central America it is a corn tortilla; and in many other places a flour tortilla.
Flour tortillas are commonly prepared with meat, mashed potatoes, cheese and other ingredients to make dishes such as tacos, quesadillas and burritos (a dish originating in the Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico / El Paso, Texas area).
Tortillas are also very similar to the unleavened bread popular in Semitic, eastern Mediterranean and southern Asian countries, though thinner and smaller in diameter. In China, there is the laobing (烙餅), a pizza-shaped thick "pancake" that is similar to the tortilla.
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Wikipedia