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Mexican cuisine is known for its intense and varied flavors,
colorful decoration, and the variety of spices that it has.
Mexican gastronomy, in terms of diversity of appealing
tastes and textures, is one of the richest in the world,
rich in proteins, vitamins, and minerals, though some people
unaccustomed to eating it characterize it as greasy and
excessively spicy. When Spanish conquistadores arrived in
the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan (on the ruins of which Mexico
City was built), they found that the local people's diet
consisted of corn-based dishes with herbs, usually
complemented with beans. Later on, the conquistadores added
to the indigenous foods of pre-Columbian Mexico (including
chocolate, maize, the tomato, and vanilla) the rice, beef,
and wine that they brought with them from Spain. The totopo
(a deep-fried chip of corn tortilla) may have been created
as part of this cuisine.
Most of today's Mexican cuisine is based on Native
American 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, etc. 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 red peppers,
green peppers, chiles, broccoli, cauliflower, and radishes)
and meats in Mexican food.
Major Dishes include:
Barbacoa
Burrito
Cajeta
Chapulines
Pork rinds
Chilaquiles
Churro
Enchilada
Gordita
Guacamole
Horchata
Machaca
Menudo
Mole
Pico de gallo
Pozole
Quesadilla
Refried beans
Salsa
Taco
Tequila
Tortilla
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.
Mexican cuisine has combined with the cuisine of the
southwest United States to form Tex-Mex cuisine.
Another slight version of Mexican food is New Mexican
Food, which can be found in, of course, New Mexico, USA.
Sources:
www.wikipedia.org |
