Mexican food is fusion food. It’s a blend of Spanish, other European and even Mennonite traditions tossed in with the indigenous food and cooking traditions. While Mediterranean food was founded, though, on the trinity of wine, bread and the olive, the foundation for Mexican food is corn, beans and squash. Mexicans didn’t stop eating what they were used to eating when the Europeans arrived. Rather they took the new ingredients brought by the Europeans (such as pork) and blended them in.
Mexico almost 2,000 miles long, with mountain ranges separating various regions from each other. Consequently, there are many regional variations in Mexican cooking, and sauces can be more complex than French sauces. In northern Mexico, a good deal of meat is grilled over charcoal fires. This is called “al carbon.” On Yucatán Peninsula, seafood is very prevalent.
Cooking in the state of Oaxaca is considered particularly interesting by many gourmets. It is a state in southern Mexico, where 25% of the Indian population of Mexico lives. It’s believed that corn was first domesticated there, and today there remains a wealth of varieties of corn that are still cultivated. They also grow an incredible number and variety of chiles. Seven different kinds of Mole sauces are made in Oaxaca alone. Oaxaca’s original mole was called “clemole:” ancho and pasilla chiles mixed with cinnamon, cloves, coriander and garlic.
Much food in Mexico is still sold by street vendors. Breakfast in cities is cafe con leche (café au lait), and some sweet rolls. In the countryside, often there is a second, heartier meal mid-morning called “almuerzo.” “Comida” is the main meal of the day, served mid-afternoon. A light snack in the evening is called a “merienda.” A fancy, fuller dinner in the evening is called a “cena”, just as it was by the Romans.
Rice and beans are not actually often combined together in the same dishes. They will often appear at the same meal, but in separate courses. Coffee is served separately after dessert. Hot Chocolate is served at feasts such as fiestas and weddings. It’s also often used as a breakfast drink.
Mexicans don’t make salads. That’s a Tex-Mex thing. Chili is a Tex-Mex version of a Mole dish.
Mexican sauces, instead of being thickened by flour, are thickened by puréed vegetables such as tomatillos and chiles, or seeds and nuts. Flour will be used though in European style recipes — gravy, cream soups, etc.
The use of chile is a unifying factor in Mexican cooking. Chiles were being used as a food item long before the Mayas and the Aztecs. In July 2004, the National Council of Chile Producers in Mexico stated its intention to achieve Protected Designation of Origin, such as the PDO status in Europe, for Mexican chiles. As of 2004, at least two peppers in Europe had a European PDO — Pimentón de la Vera, and Piment de Espelette. However, it is probably too late for something such as jalapeños, which are now grown all over the world, and which, even though named after the Mexican city of Jalapa, are no longer actually grown there commercially. It would probably be easier to achieve PDO status for processed chiles, such as smoked chiles.
Sterile drinking water is sold throughout Mexico. Ice cubes sold in plastic bags in stores are made from purified water. People from outside Mexico should treat any tap water, even from taps in hotels or restaurants, as impure. No teeth brushing with it, no washing of food in it, no washing of dishes in it, and certainly no drinking.
At the start of the 2000s, Mexico began looking abroad to import new technologies in dehydration systems, freeze-drying, greenhouses, hydroponics, in order to produce higher-quality fruit and vegetable products for export.
As of 2006, Mexico remained one of the largest dairy importers in the world, a large portion of which was butterfat in order to make Mexican cheeses.
Some Mexican recipes still are given in cups (called “Taza”), as in “¼ de Taza de Leche” (¼ cup of milk.) Dry ingredients may even be given by Mexican recipes in cups “¼ de Taza de Semillas de Ajonjolí” (¼ cup of sesame seeds.) Mexicans also use tablespoons “Cucharada” and teaspoons — “Cucharadita.”
History Notes
Frying wasn’t a cooking technique used in the New World before the Spanish. It’s a technique that requires pans that can withstand high-heat, which usually means metal.
Mexican food was dramatically influenced by the introduction of Frying.
Kraft opened its first processing plant in Mexico in 1955 near Monterrey, Mexico.
In 2010, Mexican Cuisine was added to UNESCO’s List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. [1]
Sources
[1] Traditional Mexican cuisine – ancestral, ongoing community culture, the Michoacán paradigm. Retrieved July 2012 from http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/en/RL/00400 .
Everett, Brooke Alexandria. “Filling The Gap: The Economic, Culinary, and Cultural Significance of Oaxacan Kitchen Gardens”. Unpublished baccalaureate thesis, The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Anthropology, 2004.