READERS' PICK: These tortillas should come with a warning. You'll be spoiled by eating what are simply the best flour tortillas ever made, and you'll never be able to run down to the supermarket for tortillas again. The gorditas are the sturdy flour tortillas that are great to build on. The grandes are the big, folded kind, translucent in their delicacy. At $2 and $2.50, respectively, they're a steal. Owned and run by the Salazar family, St. Mary's Mexican Food and Tortilla Factory has graced the west side for the past 13 years. While you're there try the machaca, available prepared or unprepared by the pint or quart. St. Mary's even takes phone orders. At $1 a taco, 85 cents per enchilada, and 90 cents for a tamale, it's hard to beat.
READERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: Grande Tortilla Factory, 914 N. Grande Ave. Owned by the Pesqueira family since 1947, Grande Tortilla Factory manufactures the flatbread of the gods. Light, flaky and flavorful, the tortillas are never over-larded. Roll whatever you want in them, but they're also irresistible as-is, emerging warm and fresh from the "factory" kitchen. Although the shop started in the front of the Pesqueira home, the place has been expanded and modernized so much that you'd never guess its domestic origins--except for the friendly conversation with proprietor-brothers Art and Frank, which always comes free on the side.
