Mexico tourist information

Mexican cuisine is known for its intense and varied flavors, colorful decoration, and variety of spices.

When Spanish soldiers, arrived in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan (the ancient city on which Mexico City was built), they found that the people's diet consisted largely of corn-based dishes with chilies and herbs, usually complemented with beans and tomatoes. The soldiers eventually combined their imported diet of rice, beef, pork, chicken, wine, garlic and onions with the indigenous foods of pre-Columbian Mexico, including chocolate, maize, tomato, vanilla, avocado, papaya, pineapple, chile pepper, beans, squash, sweet potato, peanut, fish and turkey.

Most of today's Mexican food is based on ancient traditions, such as 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, and so on. The indigenous part of this and many other traditional foods is the chili pepper. Foods like these tend to be very colorful because of the rich variety of vegetables (among them are the chili peppers, green peppers, chilies, broccoli, cauliflower, and radishes) and meats in Mexican food. The French occupation of Mexico influenced Mexican cuisine with baked goods such as sweet breads and the bolillo (pronounced bo-lee-yo), a Mexican take on the French roll. There is also a minor Filipino influence due to the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade, which lasted from 1565 to 1815.

Appetizers

• Guacamole - Of Aztec origin, it was originally valued for its high fat and vitamin content. Guacamole was originally made by mashing the avocado with a molcajete (a type of mortar and pestle) and adding tomatoes and salt. After the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors, guacamole became popular in Spain. Since avocados failed to grow well in Spain guacamole remained an American food.
• Spanish Rice - Spanish rice is a side dish made from white rice, tomatoes, garlic, onions, parsley, cilantro and other ingredients. One common preparation is to saute the rice until golden brown and cook it in chicken broth. Vegetables such as peas, carrots, or corn may also be used depending on the recipe. It is a popular dish in the American Southwest, where it often features generous chunks of grilled and stewed vegetables in a Tex-Mex style. The version of the dish cooked throughout South America tends to be a more homogeneous character, often with just enough tomato and chile to give the distinctive red-orange color and a smoky, garlic and onion-laden flavor. It is usually served as a side dish alongside other Venezuealean Cuisine.
• Refried beans - Refried beans (frijoles refritos) is a dish of cooked and mashed beans and a traditional staple of Mexican cuisine, Latin American cuisine, and the cuisine of the Southwestern United States.
• Pico de gallo - Pico de gallo (Spanish for "rooster's beak") is the term generally referring to a fresh condiment made from chopped tomato, onion, and chiles (typically jalapenos or serranos). Other ingredients may also be added, such as lime juice (or lemon ), fresh cilantro (leaf of coriander), avocado, cucumber, or radish. In some regions of Mexico, a fruit salad tossed in lime juice and sprinkled with a salty chile powder is also known as pico de gallo, while the tomato-based condiment is better known as salsa picada, which means minced or chopped sauce, or salsa mexicana, because the colours red (tomato), white (onion), and green (chile) are the colours of the Mexican flag.
• Salsa - In Spanish or Italian, salsa can refer to any type of sauce, but in American English it usually refers to the spicy, often tomato or corn based hot sauces typical of Mexican cuisine, particularly those used as dips, whereas in British English it more typically refers to Salsa Cruda which is common in Spanish or Italian cuisine.
• Nachos - Nachos are a popular snack food, originating in North America. In their simplest form, nachos are usually tortilla chips covered in melted cheese. First created circa 1943 by Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya, the original nachos consisted of fried tortilla chips covered with melted cheese and jalapeno peppers. The International Day of the Nacho is celebrated on 21 October with the International Nacho Festival held at Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico.

Main Courses

• Burrito - A burrito or taco de harina is a type of food found in the Mexican and Mexican-American cuisine. It consists of a flour tortilla wrapped or folded around a filling. The flour tortilla is usually lightly grilled or steamed, to soften it and make it more pliable. In Mexico, refried beans, spanish rice, or meat are usually the only fillings and the tortilla is smaller in size. In the United States, however, fillings generally include a combination of ingredients such as spanish rice, beans, lettuce, salsa, meat, guacamole, cheese, and sour cream, and the result is considerably larger. The word burrito literally means "little donkey" in Spanish. The name burrito possibly derives from the appearance of a rolled up wheat tortilla, which vaguely resembles the ear of its namesake animal, or from bedrolls and packs that donkeys carried.
• Empanadas - Mexican empanadas can be a dessert or breakfast item and tend to contain a variety of sweetened fillings; these include pumpkin, yams, sweet potato, and cream, as well as a wide variety of fruit fillings. Meat, cheese, and vegetable fillings are less common in some states, but still well-known and eaten fairly regularly. Depending on local preferences and particular recipes the dough can be based on wheat or corn. The state of Hidalgo is famous for its empanadas, or pastes, as they are locally known. These trace their origins from the Cornish pasties imported by British miners. In Chiapas, empanadas filled with chicken or cheese are popular dishes for breakfast, supper or even as snacks.
• Enchiladas - An enchilada is a traditional Mexican dish, which is made in many very different ways. It is typically made with a corn (maize) tortilla dipped briefly in hot lard or oil to soften then dipped in the chosen enchilada sauce. The tortillas are filled and rolled up, placed in a casserole dish, then layered with sauce and possibly other additions such as cheese and chopped onions or olives. Enchiladas can be filled with almost anything, depending on the cook's taste and means. While enchiladas made with meat or cheese fillings are very popular (chicken enchiladas being common), vegetables, seafood, eggs, or bananas may also be used. One popular variant consists of potatoes and white cheese.
• Fajita - A fajita is a generic term used in Mexican cuisine, referring to grilled meat served on a flour or corn tortilla. Though originally only beef, popular meats today also include chicken, pork and shrimp. In restaurants, the meat is often cooked with onions and bell peppers. Popular condiments are sour cream, guacamole, salsa, pico de gallo, cheese, and tomato. Inclusion of rice and beans in a fajita is not only an incorrect interpretation of the basic fajita, but an obvious flaw in the proper fajita-making technique.
• Quesadilla - A Quesadilla, usually anglicized as is a dish in Mexican cuisine or Tex-Mex, which involves cooking ingredients, most importantly cheese, inside a corn or wheat tortilla or a wrapping of masa dough. The word comes from Spanish, and literally means "little cheesy thing". Exactly what constitutes a quesadilla varies from region to region and between the U.S. and Mexico, and is not universally agreed upon by chefs, but there are certain similarities between the different versions that people generally agree upon, namely that the quesadilla is cooked after being filled or stuffed, while a taco or burrito is filled with pre-cooked ingredients. The purist faction may argue that only the folded-masa, empanada-style Mexican version is a "real" quesadilla, but some well known chefs such as Rick Bayless make more liberal interpretations.
• Taco - A taco is a traditional Mexican dish composed of a rolled, folded, pliable maize tortilla filled with an edible substance. According to the Real Academia Espanola, the word taco originally means "plug" and refers to rolled paper or cloth patches for musket balls. The word taco is used differently outside of Mexico; the RAE lists 27 possible meanings for the word. A taco is normally served flat on a tortilla that has been warmed up on a comal; since the tortilla is still soft, it can be folded over or pinched together into a U-shape for convenient consumption. In the variant known as the taco dorado (fried taco), flauta (flute in English, because of the shape), or taquito, the tortilla is filled with pre-cooked shredded chicken, beef or barbacoa, rolled into an elongated cylinder and deep-fried until crisp. Sometimes cooked in microwave or broiled in oven.
• Tamale - Tamales are a favorite quick dish in Mexico, where street vendors can be seen serving them from huge, steaming, covered pots (tamaleras). In some places like Mexico City, the tamal is often placed inside a wheat bread roll to form a torta de tamal, which is substantial enough to keep the breakfaster going until Mexico's traditionally late lunch hour. The most common (and traditional) filling is pork or chicken, in either red or green salsa or mole. Another very traditional variation is to add sugar to the corn mix and fill it with raisins or other dried fruit and make a sweet tamal (tamal de dulce). Since the cooking of tamales is traditionally done in batches of tens if not hundreds, and the ratio of filling to dough (and the coarseness of the filling) is a matter of discretion, there are commonly a few "deaf", or filling-less, tamal (tamal sordo), which might be served with refried beans and coffee. Instead of corn husks, banana leaves are used in tropical parts of the country such as the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Veracruz, and the Yucatan Peninsula.
• Taquito - A taquito (from the Spanish diminutive of taco) is often considered a Mexican dish consisting of a small rolled-up tortilla and some sort of filling, usually beef or chicken. They are also called rolled tacos and are more recognized that way in Northern Mexico and Southern California. There are many varieties of taquitos in different regions. Taquitos most often contain beef or chicken, and sometimes include cheese, pork, potato, or vegetables. They are generally thin and tend to be about six inches long.
• Tortilla - In Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, the United States, and Canada, a tortilla is a type of thin, unleavened flat bread, made from finely ground maize (corn) or wheat flour. A similar bread from South America is called arepa (though arepas are typically much thicker than tortillas). This form of bread predates the arrival of Europeans to America, and was called "tortilla" by the Spanish from its resemblance to the traditional Spanish round unleavened cakes and omelettes (originally made without potatoes, which are native to South America). The Aztecs and other Nahuatl-speakers called their tortillas by the name "tlaxcalli": these have become the prototypical tortillas. The maize version is the original North American tortilla and is regarded by many as the "authentic" tortilla. Flour tortillas originated in regions of Mexico unsuited for growing corn.
• Tortilla - word translating to "toasted" in English and, in Latin American cuisine, refers to a flat tortilla that is toasted or deep fried. It also refers to the finished dish using a tostada. Corn tortillas are used more than ones made of wheat flour for this purpose. The tostada was created when tortillas went stale but were still fresh enough to eat. Not wanting to waste old tortillas, which was one of the staple foods of the Mexican people, beans, rice, meat, cheese and vegetables were spread onto the tortillas like an "open faced" taco. This invention became very popular and people soon began to fry fresh tortillas to recreate the dish.
• Empanadas - Mexican empanadas can be a dessert or breakfast item and tend to contain a variety of sweetened fillings; these include pumpkin, yams, sweet potato, and cream, as well as a wide variety of fruit fillings. Meat, cheese, and vegetable fillings are less common in some states, but still well-known and eaten fairly regularly. Depending on local preferences and particular recipes the dough can be based on wheat or corn. The state of Hidalgo is famous for its empanadas, or pastes, as they are locally known. These trace their origins from the Cornish pasties imported by British miners. In Chiapas, empanadas filled with chicken or cheese are popular dishes for breakfast, supper or even as snacks.