in #CASE you were curious about TORTILLAS
February 24th is National Tortilla Chip Day!
Rebecca Webb Carranza invented tortilla chips in the 1950s. Carranza and her husband owned the El Zarape Tortilla Factory in Los Angeles and were among the first to automate the production of tortillas.
The machine often produced misshapen tortillas, and Carranza decided to try and use them instead of throwing them away. She cut the rejected tortillas into triangles, fried them, and sold them for a dime a bag.
Tortilla chips soon became a nationwide sensation, served alongside salsa, chili, guacamole, and a variety of other appetizers. In 2003, the state of Texas made the tortilla chip the official state snack!
The word tortilla comes from the Spanish "torta," meaning "round cake."
A tortilla is unleavened flatbread made from white, yellow, blue or red corn or wheat.
In Guatemala and Mexico, there are three colors of maize dough for making tortillas: white maize, yellow maize and blue maize (or black maize).
According to legend, a Mayan peasant first invented tortillas for his hungry king. But other research says that corn tortillas date back around 10,000 years before Christ and were made of native corn with dried kernels.
Tortilla chips and salsa were so popular in Texas, that in 2003 they were designated the official state snack.
In 2016, Americans ate over 4.5-billion tacos! That’s 490,000 miles of tacos, which could take you to the moon and back or, if you prefer, could, at 775-million pounds, equal the weight of two Empire State Buildings.
In 2015, tortillas outsold white bread in America.