Cheese-less Quesadillas

The quesadilla is eaten so often stateside that it's practically as American as pizza and hamburgers. Who hasn't eaten a quesadilla dripping with goopy cheese inside a flour tortilla? So it came as shock when I started to order quesadillas in Mexico City and they came with...no cheese.

The north and south of countries are often divided and marked by sharp cultural and culinary differences, and it's as true in Mexico as it is in the U.S. For example, it's a given that American southerners eat grits—mmm, cheese grits!—and northerners usually don't. In Mexico, northerners eat quesadillas the way we think of them: flour tortilla, melty white cheese. But in Mexico's southern region, a quesadilla is made with a hand-tossed corn tortilla and stuffed with all sorts of delicious fillings—but don't expect cheese unless you ask for it extra.

Mushrooms, zucchini flower, beef picadillo, mashed potatoes (yes, really), chicken in red sauce... The list goes on. Order a quesadilla, and the señora will ask, "With what?"