Tostada (tortilla) facts for kids
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Gabriela Cámara's tuna tostada dish at Contramar
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| Course | Appetizer or snack |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Mesoamerica |
| Main ingredients | Tortillas, Vegetables |
A tostada is a popular dish from Mexico and other parts of Latin America. The word "tostada" means "toasted" in Spanish. It's usually a flat or bowl-shaped tortilla that has been deep-fried or toasted until it's crispy. Think of it like a crunchy, edible plate!
You can eat a tostada by itself, or use it as a base for many other delicious foods. Most tostadas are made from corn tortillas, but you can also find them made from wheat or other ingredients.
How Tostadas are Made
Making a tostada is a clever way to use tortillas. If a tortilla isn't fresh anymore, you can fry it in hot oil until it turns golden, stiff, and crunchy. This makes it tasty again! Tostadas you buy in stores often taste and feel like tortilla chips.
Tostadas are a meal on their own in Mexico and the Southwestern United States. They are also served with other Mexican foods, especially seafood and hearty stews like menudo, birria, and pozole. You can find tostadas all over Mexico.
Delicious Toppings
The toppings for tostadas are very similar to those used for tacos. First, you usually add a layer of beans, cheese, sour cream, chopped lettuce, sliced onions, and salsa. Then, you can add diced and fried meat, like chicken, pork, or beef.
Tostadas are also very popular with seafood. You might find them topped with tuna, shrimp, crab, chopped octopus, or ceviche. While less common, you can also find tostadas made for vegetarians. Because a tostada is fragile, the first layer of topping (like beans or cream) needs to be thick enough to hold everything else on so your meal doesn't fall apart!
In the Oaxaca region of Mexico, there's a special kind of large tostada called a tlayuda. It's about the size of a pizza! Sometimes, these are topped with fried chapulines, which are a type of grasshopper.
Tostadas as Snacks
Tostadas can also be a great snack or "botana." They are often cut into small triangles, just like tortilla chips. You can then dip these into salsa, guacamole, beans, cream, or chile con queso. This way of eating tostadas is similar to how totopos and nachos are enjoyed. Many stores sell commercial tortilla chips, which are also sometimes called nachos.
In Central America, tostadas are often made with black beans, parsley, ground beef, and a pickled cabbage salad called curtido.
See also
In Spanish: Tostada mexicana para niños
