At one of my favourite local Mexican haunts they list Flautas and Taquitos as separate meals.
One day, they were out of flautas and the waiter suggested I get taquitos as they are "the same".
They definitely tasted similar, but why are they listed as separate entities if they are the same?
Can anyone shed some light on this?
The flauta I'm refering to is a deep fried corn tortilla filled with chicken approximately the same size as a spring roll.
Best Answer
If I remember correctly, flautas are made with a softer flour tortilla while taquitos are made with a harder corn tortilla. Both are filled with similar fillings and then wrapped and deep fried.
However, you can oftentimes find taquitos made from flour tortillas and flautas made from corn tortillas...so what's the deal? There is another differentiation: size. Flautas are often longer than taquitos, as taquitos are made from taco sized tortillas, while flautas are made from burrito sized tortillas.
Another little tidbit if you go to a fancier Mexican place: flautas are often narrower on one side to create a funnel shape. But this is not common in your standard places.
TL;DR; They're oftentimes the same thing