Cookware · Hearths
Tiesto
A clay griddle: arepas and tostadas that want the same dry heat a budare gives in iron.
The journey
Colombian kitchens keep a tiesto — a clay disk — beside or instead of a metal budare. Maize cakes puff on it. Coffee was once toasted on it. The vessel is older than the stove it now sits on.
A comal is the Mesoamerican cousin. The tiesto is the Andean-Caribbean one.
In the kitchen
Heat until a drop of water dances. No oil for arepas. Flip when the bottom spots, not when you are anxious.
The Colombian volume's arepas assume this dry heat. A cast-iron skillet is the weekday stand-in.