Azteca. WOW!

WOW ladies gather at Azteca

I belong to a group of about 35 American expats called WOW. WOW stands for "Women of Worth" and describes itself as a group of "Like minded and positive women who enjoy spending time together in Joburg (and the rest of Gauteng) seeing the sites and eating at nice restaurants." No meetings. No president. No hassles. 

WOW visits the Bird Gardens in Montecasino

The only requirement for membership is that you organize an outing a year, post an invite on the group's Facebook page and have fun. Sign me up! Outings can be anything you want or can imagine. Graffiti tours and workshops, ceramics classes, visits to Joburg tourist destinations like the Bird Gardens in Montecasino.

lunch is very important! WOW @ Thomas Maxwell's

My favorite WOW outings though are the "behind the scenes" ones which are usually not available to the general public. Like today's WOW outing where we visited the Azteca Tortilla Factory for a factory tour. 

Yolanda, a Mexican native living in Johannesburg, was the organizer for this day. She had heard about Azteca through her consulate connections and convinced Gaby, the owner of Azteca, to entertain 20 or so American expats with a tour and a chance to shop at the Azteca Factory store. She was happy to do it and seemed genuinely thrilled to share her culture with so many interested and enthusiastic women.

Gaby and Yolanda

Azteca was started by Gaby 18 years ago in a much, much smaller space. Like many successful businesses, its origination was not premeditated. It happened as a result of a fluke and an opportunity. 

As an unemployable expat herself, Gaby had been asked by the Mexican consulate to help with a week long Fiesta they were organizing in the Sandton City plaza to promote the culture of Mexico in South Africa. The consulate team had purchased a factory-grade tortilla maker and had it shipped to Joburg from Mexico for the Fiesta. Gaby, a former speech pathologist, had followed her husband to South Africa and couldn't work while she was living here. As a fluke, the consulate asked Gaby to oversee the implementation of the new tortilla maker in the plaza, even though she admits at the time she knew nothing about making tortillas on a grand scale. 

Gaby's first employee is still there! after 18 years!

The Fiesta was a huge success, everything was disassembled, and everyone went back to their normal lives. But now the consulate had an industrial tortilla maker that had been used, albeit for only a week, and was therefore virtually useless. 

Gaby saw an opportunity and negotiated to take the tortilla maker off their hands. She hired one employee and went into business making tortillas for hotels and restaurants, grocery stores and delis. She entered into a long term partnership with Banditos nachos, hired more employees, added more products to her line, bought more equipment and moved to bigger digs. 

the pristine factory floor

Flash forward to about five years ago. The business became so successful that Gaby's husband Hector was able to join the party (that's Hector photo-bombing in the picture above!) He now works for Azteca along with the 18 permanent employees in their beautiful new factory space in Midrand.

"Lucy & Ethel in the chocolate tortilla factory"

Before we took the tour, we had to wash our hands and don these lovely hair nets.

white maize from the Drakensberg

Gaby makes her corn tortillas exactly as the Aztecs made them thousands of years ago and just the way they are still made in Mexico today, using lime to break down the fibers (nixtamalization). However she sources her ingredients in South Africa.

Whether you knew it or not, Bandito brand nachos made in South Africa are actually made by Gaby at Azteca! That's the brand I buy.

If this was America, all these jobs would probably be automated. Gaby employs 18 permanents workers instead!  They all shift around from job to job so that they all are familiar with the processes and are not bored.

They do quality control as they work too!

Hector took this picture of our tour. Don't we look pretty in our hair nets?

a variety of chiles

taco baskets

After our tour we went to the shop to snack on  some of Yolanda's excellent homemade guacamole paired with Azteca tortilla chips  ... and to shop!












Vince sent me with a long list of things to look for and Gaby had them all. She imports products from Mexico and also sells her homemade corn and wheat tortillas, taco shells and these cute round taco baskets.

I found my poblano chiles for my Chiles Rellenos and tomatillos too! She even had Mexican chocolate for my favorite Hot Mexican Chocolate. I will not be able to wait until it gets cold again in Joburg to make some.

You can shop at Azteca too. The shop is open Monday through Friday during the day. Closed weekends. Check out their website for exact hours.

a jalapeno and coriander margarita!

All this talk of tortillas sure made us hungry! We finished off our day with lunch at Perron. I asked Yolanda what she thought of the food at Perron - which Vince and I have tried and do like. She said that while the food was not strictly authentic, it is still very, very good and the best Mexican restaurant in Joburg. 

If it's good enough for Yolanda, it's good enough for me!