Eating a Tostada with Your Hands
Spread the toppings evenly over the tostada. Before digging in, make sure your bite has the right amount of toppings: enough that you’re getting all the flavors, but not so much that you can’t fit the tostada in your mouth. Use your hands or a fork to spread the toppings evenly over the top of the tostada, and ensure that the proportions are correct for your bite. If there is an excessively large pile of toppings, it’s ok to scoop some off and eat them directly with a fork. You can also nibble some toppings off the top of the tostada with your mouth before trying to take a real bite.
Grasp the edges of the tostada with two hands. Slide your index and middle fingers underneath the left and right sides of the crunchy tostada base, and gently pinch the edge of the base with your thumb resting lightly on top and other fingers underneath. Use your other fingers to support the middle of the tostada and prevent it from snapping. If the tostada base is very durable and the toppings are stable, you may be able to hold it with just one hand, but you run a much greater risk of cracking with this technique. Be gentle and don’t squeeze the base too hard or try to fold it; it will collapse.
Lift the tostada to your mouth. Make sure not to tilt the tostada too much, or your toppings are likely to fall off. Try to keep the base parallel to the table. It’s okay if some of the toppings fall off; you can put them back on later or eat them by themselves. Just lean forward to ensure they fall onto the plate, not your lap. If you’re having a lot of trouble balancing the toppings, scoop some toppings off to eat separately.
Take small, evenly distributed bites. Eat the tostada head-on, like a slice of toast. Take one shallow bite, then turn the tostada a little to the left or right and take another. Continue rotating back and forth to take small nibbles and work your way through the tostada. After your first bite, move your mouth from side to side to the left and right of the bite to evenly work your way through the tostada. Rotate the tostada as you eat, going from the outside toward the center to minimize the risk of cracking and to keep the ingredients balanced. If you try to take too large of a bite, your tostada base is more likely to crack. Don’t stress if each bite doesn’t have every single topping in it; you can eat them all eventually.
Set your tostada down and readjust. After 2-3 bites, it’s perfectly OK to put the tostada back on your plate and move toppings around or otherwise reconfigure. It’s also hard to take a drink or have a conversation while holding the tostada, so you will likely need to put it down anyway. If your tostada breaks, don’t worry! You can pick up the smaller pieces, pile toppings on them, and eat them separately. Or you can crush up the shell and use a fork to eat instead.
Eating a Tostada with a Fork
Spread the toppings out. Adjust the ratio of toppings to shell with your fork and spread them out evenly over the top of the tostada, so that each section of the tostada has a similar quantity of food. While eating a tostada with a fork isn’t the traditional method, it can be appropriate to avoid getting your hands dirty.
Cut off a chunk of the tostada. Use the edge of your fork or knife to saw off a small piece of the tostada base. The rest of the base is likely to crumble if you cut off a large piece, so make sure you’re committed to a fork and knife approach before you start.
Pile toppings onto each tortilla piece. Use your fork to pile the right toppings onto the crispy piece so that you get plenty of toppings alongside your crunchy tortilla base. Also, ensure that the bite is the right size for your fork to hold. If the bite is too large, you can break it up into two smaller pieces and eat one at a time. If the bite is too small, you can cut off another piece of the base or add more toppings.
Scoop up your chunk. Use a fork to pick up the bite of tostada into your mouth like you would eat a hard taco salad. You can also use your hands to scoop the toppings with your small piece of the crunchy tortilla tostada base.
Repeat the process with the rest of your tostada. Continue spreading out the toppings, cutting off new pieces of tostada with your fork, and eating them as described above until your plate is empty. That’s it, you’re on the way to tostada town!
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