Mexican cuisine
Mexican food is a style of food that originated in Mexico.
Mexican cuisine is known for its intense and varied flavors, colorful decoration, and its variety of spices. Mexican gastronomy, in terms of diversity of appealing tastes and textures, is one of the richest in the world in proteins, vitamins, and minerals, though it is characterized by some as excessively spicy.
When Spanish conquistadores arrived in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan (the ancient city where Mexico City was built on), they found that the common people's diet consisted largely of corn-based dishes with chilis and herbs, usually complemented with beans and squash. Later on, the conquistadores added to their original diet of rice, beef, pork, chicken, wine, garlic, and onions that they brought with them from Spain to the indigenous foods of pre-Columbian Mexico (including chocolate, maize, tomato, vanilla, avocado, papaya, pineapple, chile pepper, beans, squash, sweet potato, peanut and turkey). The totopo (cooked in a fire oven corn tortilla) may have been created as part of this cuisine.
Most of today's Mexican cuisine is based on pre-hispanic traditions, including the Aztecs and Maya, combined with culinary trends introduced by Spanish colonists. Quesadillas, for example, are a flour or corn tortilla with cheese (often a Mexican-style soft farmer's cheese such as Queso Fresco), beef, chicken, pork, and so on. The indigenous part of this and many other traditional foods is the chile pepper. Foods like these tend to be very colorful because of the rich variety of vegetables (among them are the chili peppers, green peppers, chilies, broccoli, cauliflower, and radishes) and meats in Mexican food. There is also a sprinkling of Caribbean influence in Mexican cuisine, particularly in some regional dishes from the states of Veracruz and Yucatán. The French occupation of Mexico also yielded some influences as well: the bolillo (pronounced bo-lee-yo, with the "o" as in "bore"), a Mexican take on the French roll, certainly seems to reflect this.
Mexican food varies by region, because of local climate and geography and ethnic differences among the indigenous inhabitants and because these different populations were influenced by the Spaniards in varying degrees. The north of Mexico is known for its beef production and meat dishes; southeastern Mexico, on the other hand, is known for its spicy vegetable and chicken-based dishes. Veracruz-style is a common method of preparing seafood.
There are also more exotic dishes, cooked in the Aztec or Maya style, with ingredients ranging from iguana to rattlesnake, deer, spider monkey, and even some kinds of insects. This is usually known as comida prehispanica (or prehispanic food), and although not very common, is relatively well known.
A distinction must be made between truly authentic Mexican food, and the Cal-Mex (Californian-Mexican) and "Tex Mex" (Texan-Mexican) cuisine. Mexican cuisine combines with the cuisine of the southwest United States (which itself has a number of Mexican influences) to form Cal-Mex and Tex-Mex cuisine. Another style of cuisine that is commonly mistaken for Mexican food is New Mexican cuisine, which can be found in, of course, New Mexico, USA.
Traditional dishes
Foods that are part of the Mexican culinary tradition include:
Appetizers (botanas) and side dishes
- Arroz amarillo
- Arroz con lima
- Arroz con pollo
- Arroz Español (Spanish rice)
- Arroz verde
- Bolillos
- Calabasa (squash)
- Calabaza
- Camote, Mexican Sweet potato
- Dry soup, sopa, typically pasta with flavoring of meat or tomato consomme
- Consomme, broth, either made from drippings of meat roasted for barbacoa, or dry bouillon cubes and powder (usually known by its most common brand name, (Knorr-Suiza)
- Curtido
- Ensalada de fruta Fruit salad
- Fideos Noodles
- Frijoles pintos, pinto beans
- Frijoles negros, black beans
- Frijoles charros
- Frijoles de olla
- Guacamole
- Jicama
- Lentejas, Lentil beans
- Refried beans (frijoles refritos)
- Nachos
- Nopalitos
- Pambazos
- Papas (potatoes)
- Pico de gallo
- Salsa
- Yuca Cassava
WARNING!!!
Mexican food will give you the shits.
Entrees
- Albóndigas
- Arroz con camarones
- Bacanora
- barbacoa
- birria
- bistec picado
- burrito
- caldo, soup, (generally considered an entree rather than an appetizer) which has many variations, such as
- caldo de pollo, chicken soup
- caldo de res, beef soup
- caldo de queso, cheese soup
- caldo de camaron shrimp soup, typically made from dried shrimp
- carne en su jugo, meat and beans in a meat broth
- caldo de mariscos, seafood soup, similar to the Italian dish zuppa di pesce. Popularly supposed to be an aphrodisiac.
- carne asada
- carnitas
- cecina
- cemitas sandwiches
- chapulines and escamoles
- charales, small fish, basically a type of smelt
- chicharrón and chicharrones
- chilaquiles
- chiles en nogada
- chiles rellenos
- chilorio
- chilli con carne
- chimichangas
- choriqueso
- chorizo
- churipo
- cochinita pibil
- cocido
- cóctel de camarón and other seafood cocktails
- coyotas
- empanadas
- enchilada (red or green)
- flautas
- fritadas de camaron
- gorditas
- glorias
- gringas
- huevos divorciados
- huevos motuleños
- huevos rancheros
- lengua
- longaniza
- machaca
- mancha manteles
- mariscos
- menudo
- milanesa
- mixiotes
- mole
- molletes
- moronga
- parilladas
- pasties, a speciality of Cornwall, adopted as comida tipica of Pachuca
- picadillo
- platano
- pollo asado
- pollo picado
- pollo rostizado
- polvorones
- pozole
- pulpo, octopus
- quesadillas
- rajas con crema
- romeritos
- sopes
- sopa azteca
- sopa de pollo
- sopa tarasca
- tacos
- tamales
- taquitos
- tortillas
- tortas (sandwiches)
- "Tortas de...." Small omelettes similar to egg foo yung patties. See also romeritos.
- tostadas
- tlacoyos
- tlayudas
- tripas
- venado, particularly in the Yucatan.
Drinks
- Chocolate Generally known better as a drink rather than a candy or sweet
- Atole or Champurrado
- Horchata
- Mexican beer and soft drinks are very popular and are major export products.
- Aguas frescas
- Mezcal
- Michelada
- Tepache
- Tequila
Desserts and sweets
Mexico's candy and bakery sweets industry, centered in Michoacan and Mexico City, produces a wide array of products.
- Arroz con leche, rice with milk and sugar
- Pay de queso, cheesecake
- Jamoncillos
- Cajeta
- Capirotada
- Carlota de limón
- Empanadas
- Flan
- Pastel de tres leches (Three Milk Cake)
- Alegrías
- ates
- Churros
- Dulce de leche
- Chongos zamoranos, a milk candy named for its place of origin, Zamora, Michoacán.
- Jarritos (spicy tamarindo candy in a tiny pot), as well as a brand of soda
- Pan dulce sweet pastries, like American doughnuts, very popular for breakfast. Nearly every Mexican town has a bakery (panaderia) where these can purchased.
- Pepitorias
- Obleas
- Glorias
- Pan de Acambaro, (Acambaro bread) named for its town of origin, Acambaro, Guanajuato. Very similar to Jewish Challah bread, which may have inspired its creation.
- Ice Cream. Pancho Villa was noted as a devotee of ice cream. The Mexican ice cream industry is centered in the state of Michoacan, most ice cream stands in Mexico are dubbed La Michoacana as a tribute to Michoacan's acknowledged leadership in the production of this product.
- Popsicles (or ice lollies), paletas, the street popsicle vendor is a noted fixture of Mexico's urban landscape.
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