Mexican Cuisine

The cuisines and ingredients of Mexico

Mexican cuisine is extremely varied and extensive, with some wonderfully exotic taste concoctions as well as down to earth food that sticks to the ribs (and hips!). The commonly-identified dishes such as tacos, tamales, ceviche and tortillas are only a small part of the intensely diverse and savory regional specialties of Mexico.

When the Spanish arrived in what is now Mexico and the surrounding lands of the North and South American continents, they found a wealth of new foods, herbs, fruits and vegetables to delight their palates – products not found or grown in other parts of the world.

Some of these products included avocados, tomatoes, papayas, pineapple, maize, chocolate, vanilla, chile peppers, peanuts and turkeys. Melded over the years with the products that the Spaniards and other explorers imported from abroad: spices from the Orient, olives and their oil, many nuts and grains and vegetables, Mexican cuisine has evolved into a kaleidescope of intriguing flavors.

Some of the national and regional specialties Mexico:

Arrachera: skirt steak marinated in oil and spices.

Caldo de pescado or Caldo de mariscos: fish or seafood soup – usually quite spicy.

Red Snapper

Carnitas: shredded roast or barbecued pork, eaten wrapped in baby tortillas, usually accompanied by marinated red onion slices, green sauce and chopped fresh onion and cilantro (coriander)

Carne Asada: savory grilled meat, and Cabrito al Pastor: roast goat – other northern Mexico specialties

Chiles en Nogada: chile peppers stuffed with ground meat, nuts and dried fruit in a creamy walnut sauce and decorated with pomegranate seeds. From Puebla and, because of the color combination of green, white and red, the colors of the Mexican flag, a dish traditionally enjoyed during the September Independence Day festivities.

Enchiladas verdes y rojos: tortillas filled with cheese or chicken in a spicy green or red sauce and topped with cream, crumbled cheese and onions

Flan: Mexico’s milk and egg custard with caramelized sugar, the equivalent of Creme Caramel.

Frijoles charros or borrachos: Ranch-style or drunken beans – savory beans in their own broth, the drunken ones cooked with beer

Frijoles refritos: beans, mashed and refried with lard, often black beans but not always and often served sprinkled with crumbled dry cheese

Guacamole: avocado puree with chopped onions, tomato, chiles, lime juice

Huachinango a la Veracruzana: Red Snapper in a savory tomato/olive/caper sauce), and from Veracruz

Machaca and chorizo: reconstituted dried beef (jerky) and spicy sausage, specialties of the northern areas of Mexico

Mixiote de Pollo: spiced chicken steamed in maguey or banana leaves.

Mole Poblano:  mole is a thick, complex sauce containing a variety of ingredients such as chiles, chocolate, ground seeds and nuts, cumin, oregano and other herbs and spices – the Poblano part specifies it’s from Puebla in this particular case.

Nacatamales: like regular tamales but wrapped in a banana leaf, and larger – a specialty of the central areas.

Papatzul: tortillas stuffed with chicken and topped with a creamy, ground pumpkin seed sauce, served with hard-cooked egg, from the Yucatan

Pastel de Tres Leches: a super moist cake soaked in 3 kinds of milk

Pozole: hominy soup with pork and chicken, served with chopped onions, chiles, ground oregano, ground red pepper, avocado slices, chicharron (fried pork rinds), fresh cheese, and a variety of other trimmings. A specialty particularly of the state of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Morelos.

Queso asadero and queso Chihuahua: traditional cheeses made in Northern Mexico. Queso Oaxaca, a fairly fresh, string cheese, is a product of the hills of that state in southern Mexico.

Sopa de Huitlacoche: corn fungus soup – a delicacy.

Sopa de Hongos : wild mushroom soup with the distinctive flavor of pigweed herb, or epazote.

Tacos of any kind with shrimp, chicken, beef – tacos are usually stuffed, rolled tortillas fried golden brown in oil or lard. Unfried tacos in soft tortillas, such as tacos al pastor, shaves seasoned pork usually served with chipped roasted pineapple chunks and green sauce, are another, less greasy variation.

Tamales: cornflour dough stuffed with pork or chicken meat (sometimes jabali or wild boar) in red or green sauce or mole, or other ingredients such as squash-flowers, rajas de chile (strips of chile pepper) and even sweet fruits such as strawberry and pineapple, wrapped in a cornhusk and steamed

Uchepos - from Michoacan, a fresh corn tamale served with a light, red sauce and cream.

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Originally posted 2009-07-31 16:06:09.