Some of the city’s freshest tortillas are bubbling up on the planchas of Komal in Historic South-Central, arriving just-blistered and blue, yellow or white in color. The highly anticipated molino and restaurant from a Holbox and Damian alumna, is now open in Mercado La Paloma for freshly ground masa, a range of antojitos and, eventually, a tasting menu. “I love my culture, and the base for Mexican culture is corn,” said Komal founder Fátima Júarez.
Júarez oversees one of the region’s only craft molinos, nixtamalizing and grinding heritage-breed corn sourced from small farmers across Mexico. She’s part of an intimate group of tortilla makers that includes the likes of Tehachapi Heritage Grain Project and Kernel of Truth’s Ricardo Ortega and Omar Ahmed . At her new restaurant stall in the famous food hall, she and her husband, Conrado Rivera, offer the masa by the pound or as tortillas, or in antojitos reminiscent of her childhood spent in Oaxaca and upbringing in Mexico City.
Júarez grew up cooking with her mother and grandmother at their family’s restaurant, and still remembers playing with fresh masa as a child. There are roughly 60 unique varieties of corn in Mexico, and at Komal she offers a few of them: yellow bolita from Oaxaca, red Cónico from the state of Mexico, and blue Chalqueño, also from the state of Mexico; future batches of corn will vary, depending on availability from farmers. Komal sources its heritage corn via import company Tamoa, .
