Culture of Mexico - Cuisine

Cuisine

Mexican cuisine is known for its blending of Indigenous and Spanish cultures. Popular dishes include tacos, enchiladas, mole sauce, atole, tamales, and pozole. Traditionally the main Mexican ingredients consisted of maize, beans, meat, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, chillies, habenero peppers, onions, nuts, avocados and guavas. Popular beverages include water flavored drinks with a variety of fruit juices, and cinnamon-flavored hot chocolate prepared with milk or water and blended until it becomes frothed using a traditional wooden tool called a molinillo. Alcoholic beverages native to Mexico include mescal, pulque, and tequila. Mexican beer is also popular in Mexico and are exported. There are international award-winning Mexican wineries that produce and export wine.

The most important and frequently used spices in Mexican cuisine are chili powder, cumin, oregano, cilantro, epazote, cinnamon, and cocoa. Chipotle, a smoked-dried jalapeño pepper, is also common in Mexican cuisine. Many Mexican dishes also contain onions and garlic, which are also some of Mexico's staple foods.

Next to corn, rice is the most common grain in Mexican cuisine. According to food writer Karen Hursh Graber, the initial introduction of rice to Spain from North Africa in the 14th century led to the Spanish introduction of rice to Mexico at the port of Veracruz in the 1520s. This, Graber says, created one of the earliest instances of the world's greatest Fusion cuisine's.

On the other hand, in Southeastern Mexico, especially in the Yucátan, is known for their spicy vegetable and meat dishes. The cuisine of Southeastern Mexico has quite a bit of Caribbean influence, given its geographical location. Seafood is commonly prepared in the states that border the Pacific Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico, the latter having a famous reputation for its fish dishes, à la veracruzana.

In modern times, other cuisines of the world have become very popular in Mexico, thus adopting a Mexican fusion. For example, sushi in Mexico is often made by using a variety of sauces based on mango and tamarind, and very often served with serrano-chili blended soy sauce, or complemented with vinegar, habenero peppers and chipotle peppers.

Chocolate originated in Mexico and was prized by the Aztecs. It remains an important ingredient in Mexican cookery.