New Arrival

A few weeks ago, I went on a search for fresh masa through the Mexican owned grocery stores in Sunset Park.  I was surprised that despite the growing Mexican population in New York, it wasn’t sold anywhere.  Settling instead for masa de harina, the dried corn flour that can be reconstituted to make fresh tortillas at home, I actually thought of taking a closer look at corn grinders instead.  If I couldn’t find fresh masa, how hard could it be to have my own corn nixtamalization set up at home?  Was it a slippery slope?  If I ground my own corn would end up churning my own butter?  When I read this article in today’s New York Times about Tortillería Nixtamal which now offers fresh masa, I knew I had been rescued from a bad and expensive idea (for now).