BEEF TARTARE tostada, the first of five courses one recent evening on Carlos Salgado’s mercurial tasting menu, rumbled with tastes and textures. Smoky chile morita saturated the chopped dry-aged meat and charred avocado cooled the palate. What accounted for the nutty, roasted-oat flavors that permeated every bite? Ah, of course, it was the same source as the dish’s thick crunch: the tostada made using exceptional corn.

Since Taco María opened in 2013, Salgado has been working with small farms in Mexico to obtain superior maíz varietals that he and his restaurant staff nixtamalize and grind into masa. In philosophy and practice, masa anchors Taco María’s Alta California cuisine. Somewhere between campechano reimagined with tomato consommé gelee and a block of pork belly served over meaty cocoa beans and grilled nopales strips, you will hold a blue corn tortilla in your hands. Its color will be as inky as the face of a new moon. Inhale its aromas, then tear into it and marvel at the nuances. The tortillas alone are worth the evening traffic from whichever county you may be driving. To experience Salgado’s influential genius and his small, spare indoor-outdoor restaurant, you must navigate through warrens of design stores in a fancy Costa Mesa mall. This is Southern California. No one thinks twice.

• 3313 Hyland Ave., Suite C21, Costa Mesa, (714) 538-8444, tacomaria.com

Tocino, above, is grilled pork belly with fresh coco beans and grilled nopales; Ensalada Verde has Green Bee tomato and emerald pluot.