Mexican cuisine
Mexican cuisine consists of the cuisines and associated traditions of the modern country of Mexico. Its earliest roots lie in Mesoamerican cuisine. Mexican cuisine's ingredients and methods arise from the area's first agricultural communities, such as those of the Olmec and Maya, who domesticated maize, created the standard process of nixtamalization, and established foodways. Successive waves of other Mesoamerican groups brought with them their cooking methods. These included the Teotihuacanos, Toltec, Huastec, Zapotec, Mixtec, Otomi, Purépecha, Totonac, Mazatec, Mazahua, and Nahua. With the Mexica formation of the multi-ethnic Triple Alliance, culinary foodways became infused.
Today's food staples native to the land include corn, turkey, beans, squash, amaranth, chia, avocados, tomatoes, tomatillos, cacao, vanilla, agave, spirulina, sweet potato, cactus, and chili pepper. Its history over the centuries has resulted in regional cuisines based on local conditions, including Baja Med, Chiapas, Veracruz, Oaxacan, Lebanese Mexican and the American cuisines of New Mexican and Tex-Mex.
After the Spanish Conquest of the Aztec empire and the rest of Mesoamerica, Spaniards introduced a number of other foods, the most important of which were meats from domesticated animals, dairy products, rice, sugar, olive oil and various fruits and vegetables. Various cooking styles and recipes were also introduced from Spain both throughout the colonial period and by Spanish immigrants who continued to arrive following independence. Spanish influence in Mexican cuisine is also noticeable in its sweets, such as alfajores, alfeniques, borrachitos and churros.
African influence was also introduced during this era as a result of African slavery in New Spain through the Atlantic slave trade and the Manila-Acapulco Galleons.
Mexican cuisine is an important aspect of the culture, social structure and popular traditions of Mexico. An example of this connection is the use of mole for special occasions and holidays, particularly in the south and central regions of the country. For this reason and others, traditional Mexican cuisine was inscribed in 2010 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
In American English, this is sometimes referred to as "Mex-Mex cuisine", contrasting with "Tex-Mex".
Basic elements
Mexican cuisine is a complex and ancient cuisine, with techniques and skills developed over thousands of years of history. It is created mostly with ingredients native to Mexico, as well as those brought over by the Spanish conquistadors, with some new influences since then.In addition to staples such as corn and chili peppers, native ingredients include squashes, avocados, cocoa and vanilla, as well as ingredients not generally used in other cuisines, such as edible flowers, vegetables like huauzontle and papaloquelite, or small criollo avocados, whose skin is edible. Chocolate originated in Mexico and was prized by the Aztecs. It remains an important ingredient in Mexican cookery.
Vegetables play an important role in Mexican cuisine. Common vegetables include zucchini, cauliflower, corn, potatoes, spinach, Swiss chard, mushrooms, jitomate, and green tomato. Other traditional vegetable ingredients include chili pepper, huitlacoche, huauzontle, and nopal.
European contributions include pork, chicken, beef, cheese, herbs and spices, as well as some fruits.
Tropical fruits, many of which are indigenous to the Americas, such as guava, prickly pear, sapote, mangoes, bananas, pineapple and cherimoya are popular, especially in the center and south of the country.
Edible insects have been enjoyed in Mexico for millennia. Entemophagy or insect-eating is becoming increasingly popular outside of poor and rural areas for its unique flavors, sustainability, and connection to pre-Hispanic heritage. Popular species include chapulines, escamoles, cumiles and .
Maize
Despite the introduction of wheat and rice to Mexico, maize is the most commonly consumed grain in almost all areas of the country and serves as the main ingredient in many local recipes. While also eaten fresh, most maize is dried, nixtamalized and ground into a dough called masa. This dough is used both fresh and fermented to make a wide variety of dishes, from drinks to tamales, sopes, and many other foods. However, the most common way to eat maize in Mexico is in the form of tortillas, which accompany almost every dish. Tortillas are made of maize in most of the country, but other regional versions exist, such as wheat in the north or plantain, yuca and wild greens in Oaxaca.Chile peppers
The other basic ingredient in all parts of Mexico is the chile pepper. Mexican food has a reputation for being very spicy, but it has a wide range of flavors and while many spices are used for cooking, not all are spicy. Many dishes also have subtle flavors. Chiles are indigenous to Mexico and their use dates back thousands of years. They are used for their flavors and not just their heat, with Mexico using the widest variety. If a savory dish or snack does not contain chile pepper, hot sauce is usually added, and chile pepper is often added to fresh fruit and sweets.File:Molcajete y tejolote.jpg|thumb|A molcajete and tejolote, the traditional mortar and pestle of Mexico
The importance of the chile goes back to the Mesoamerican period, where it was considered to be as much of a staple as corn and beans. In the 16th century, Bartolomé de las Casas wrote that, without chiles, the indigenous people did not think they were eating. Even today, most Mexicans believe that their national identity would be at a loss without chiles and the many varieties of sauces and salsas created using chiles as their base.
Many dishes in Mexico are defined by their sauces and the chiles those sauces contain, rather than the meat or vegetable that the sauce covers. These dishes include entomatada, adobo or adobados, pipians and moles. A hominy soup called pozole is defined as white, green or red depending on the chile sauce used or omitted. Tamales are differentiated by the filling which is again defined by the sauce. Dishes without a sauce are rarely eaten without salsa or without fresh or pickled chiles. This includes street foods, such as tacos, tortas, soup, sopes, tlacoyos, tlayudas, gorditas and sincronizadas. For most dishes, it is the type of chile used that gives it its main flavor. Chipotle, smoked-dried jalapeño pepper, is very common in Mexican cuisine.
Beans
In addition to corn, common beans are a historical component of the Mexican diet. Genetic evidence indicates domestication occurred in Mesoamerica as well as South America Common bean varieties and cultivars used in Mexican cuisine include the pinto bean and the black turtle bean. Beans and corn are deficient in different essential amino acids but complement each other. When eaten in combination, they provide a complete protein source.Spanish contributions
Together with Mesoamerica, Spain is the second basis of Mexican cuisine, contributing in two fundamental ways: Firstly, they brought with them old world staples and ingredients which did not exist in the Americas such as sugar, wheat, rice, onions, garlic, limes, cooking oil, dairy products, pork, beef and many others. Secondly, they brought various culinary traditions from the Iberian peninsula which have become prevalent in Mexico. Equally, the discovery of the incorporation of New World ingredients to Spanish cuisine has led to the shared naming of foods such as chorizo, which uses paprika.Spanish cuisine was in turn heavily influenced by its Moorish heritage and this created one of the earliest instances of fusion cuisine. The Spanish also introduced the technique of frying in pork fat. Today, the main meats found in Mexico are pork, chicken, beef, goat, and sheep. Fish and other seafood are also popular, especially along the coasts, and the cooking method commonly has a Spanish origin such as with Huachinango a la vizcaina.
Cheesemaking in Mexico has evolved its specialties, although Spanish-style cheese such as Manchego is also produced in Mexico. It is an important economic activity, especially in the north, and is frequently done at home. The main cheese-making areas are Chihuahua, Oaxaca, Querétaro, and Chiapas. Goat cheese is still made, but it is not as popular and is harder to find in stores.
Churros are a common snack originating in Spain and because sugar cane was brought to the Americas through Spanish colonization, all of Mexico's sweets have a Hispanic origin, often with a Muslim heritage such as Alfeñiques.
Food and society
Home cooking
In most of Mexico, especially in rural areas, food is commonly eaten at home.The typical Mexican household has four meals throughout the day: a light breakfast, commonly including coffee/atole, and a light meal around 11 a.m., which includes a snack and drink. These are followed by "comida", tacos, enchiladas or meat with eggs. This is usually served with beans, tortillas, and coffee or juice.
Food and festivals
Mexican cuisine is elaborate and often tied to symbolism and festivals, which is one reason it was named as an example of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. Many of the foods of Mexico are complicated because of their relation to the social structure of the country. Food preparation, especially for family and social events, is considered to be an investment in order to maintain social relationships. Even the idea of flavor is considered to be social, with meals prepared for certain dinners and certain occasions when they are considered the most tasty.The ability to cook well, called "sazón" is considered to be a gift generally gained from experience and a sense of commitment to the diners. For the Day of the Dead festival, foods such as tamales and mole are set out on altars and it is believed that the visiting dead relatives eat the essence of the food. If eaten afterwards by the living it is considered to be tasteless. In central Mexico, the main festival foods are mole, barbacoa, carnitas and mixiotes. They are often prepared to feed hundreds of guests, requiring groups of cooks. The cooking is part of the social custom meant to bind families and communities.
File:Barbacoa.JPG|thumb|left|Barbacoa in Actopan, Hidalgo. The barbecue in a ground oven is a typical dish from the Mezquital Valley.
File:Café_de_olla_.jpg|thumb|right|Fruit punch is popular around Christmas time during Las Posadas.
Mexican regional home cooking is completely different from the food served in most Mexican restaurants outside Mexico, which is usually some variety of Tex-Mex. The original versions of Mexican dishes are vastly different from their Tex-Mex variation.
Some of Mexico's traditional foods involved complex or long cooking processes, including cooking underground. Before industrialization, traditional women spent several hours a day boiling dried corn then grinding it on a metate to make the dough for tortillas, cooking them one-by-one on a comal griddle. In some areas, tortillas are still made this way. Sauces and salsas were also ground in a mortar called a molcajete. Today, blenders are more often used, though the texture is a bit different. Most people in Mexico would say that those made with a molcajete taste better, but few do this now.
File:Mole in Puebla.JPG|thumb|Mole sauce, with dozens of varieties across the Republic, is seen as a symbol of Mexicanidad and is considered Mexico's national dish.
The most important food for festivals and other special occasions is mole, especially mole poblano in the center of the country. Mole is served at Christmas, Easter, Day of the Dead and at birthdays, baptisms, weddings and funerals, and tends to be eaten only for special occasions because it is such a complex and time-consuming dish. While still dominant in this way, other foods have become acceptable for these occasions, such as barbacoa, carnitas and mixiotes, especially since the 1980s. This may have been because of economic crises at that time, allowing for the substitution of these cheaper foods, or the fact that they can be bought ready-made or may already be made as part of the family business.
Another important festive food is the tamale, also known as tamal in Spanish. This is a filled cornmeal dumpling, steamed in a wrapping and one of the basic staples in most regions of Mexico. It has its origins in the pre-Hispanic era and today is found in many varieties in all of Mexico. Like a mole, it is complicated to prepare and best done in large amounts. Tamales are associated with certain celebrations such as Candlemas. They are wrapped in corn husks in the highlands and desert areas of Mexico and in banana leaves in the tropics.