MAiiZ Nixtamal Tortilleria & Eatery

Chef Israel Alvarez Molina hails from Mexico City where Nixtamal Tortillas are essential to the cuisine, culture, and spirit. A reverence for the skillset, knowledge, and respect required to make high-quality, delicious Nixtamal Tortillas from scratch was instilled in him while he worked at Pujol where he rose to the position of Chef de Cuisine. His love for all that Nixtamal Masa provides has, of course, been in his heart forever. It is this love that he carried with him when he moved to Canada in 2008 that inspired him to start MAiiZ Nixtamal Tortilleria. Chef Israel finds immense joy in making MAiiZ Nixtamal Tortillas in the heart of Victoria’s Chinatown with Organic BC Corn. His hope is that everyone, from the curious home-chef to those like him that grew up with Nixtamal and miss it dearly, will love MAiiZ Tortillas as much as he does. Nixtamalization is an ancient process by which the dry corn is cooked with slake lime to break down the husk surrounding each kernel. This process allows the human body to properly digest corn while also imbuing it with accessible calcium. Even better, the nixtamalized corn can then be ground into FRESH Nixtamal Masa which makes delicious, pliant, beautiful tortillas that even the finest dry corn flour simply can’t beat. Our tortillas, salsa and mole can be found at numerous grocers and restaurants throughout Victoria as well as a recent addition on Saltspring Island.