Ode to the Tortilla

I cannot express how much I am missing my fresh-made tortillas now. When I was home my mom and I would buy the "masa" (dough) from the "tortillería" across the street instead of buying tortillas, and then I would make tortillas every morning and night fresh. In the morning for the eggs and at night for the quesadillas. When we bought the dough it would still be warm from having been ground. Making tortillas just right is quite an art. I don't even do it the real way, by hand. I do it with a press and plastic sheets, and still there is some artistry involved in knowing just when to flip over the tortilla. I'm very particular about texture, the amount of time they're cooked, making sure they blow up like one of those mylar balloons so they get the "skin" on one side, getting a good thickness.... Man, if I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life it would probably be corn tortillas.
I bought "Maseca" here, which is one of the commercial corn flours they sell, but it is just not the same thing. AT ALL! My aunt says it's because they grind the corn cob in too. It's pale white and it's a lot grittier. The dough we buy at the tortillería is ground there fresh, while the Maseca flour is dehydrated, so that could be another factor. I remember Masa Harina not being as bad a brand, but I couldn't find it the other day (despite there being tons of Mexican "tiendas" here). I went to the Whole Foods store where they used to have it bulk, but they didn't even know what I was talking about. They pointed me to cornmeal, which is radically different than the corn flour used to make tortillas. They add lime to corn to make Mexican corn flour. Not lime as in the citrus, but as in the mineral. I don't know the chemistry of it, but I'm sure it's what gives it the distinctive taste. If you're gonna buy corn flour to make tortillas, make sure it lists lime as an ingredient or says that it has "maíz nixtamalizado" (which means it's corn treated with lime). I'm so desperate for my real corn tortilla taste that I'm thinking of going all out and making my own corn flour with the explanation given on this site. *sigh*