is a style of food that originated in Mexico.
Mexican cuisine is known for its varied flavors, colorful decoration,
and variety of spices and ingredients, many of which are native to the country.
National cuisine:
When conquistadores arrived in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City),
they found that the people's diet consisted largely of corn-based dishes with chiles and herbs,
usually complemented with beans and tomatoes or nopales.
The conquistadores eventually combined
their imported diet of rice, beef, pork, chicken, wine, garlic and onions with the native
indigenous foods of pre-Columbian Mexico, including chocolate, maize, huitlacoche, tomato,
vanilla, avocado, guava, papaya, sapote, mamey, pineapple, soursop, jicama, chile pepper,
beans, squash, sweet potato, peanut, achiote, turkey and a local variety of fish.
Corn is its traditional staple grain, but today, rice is equally important and Mexico's rice
harvest is abundant. According to food writer Karen Hursh Graber, the initial introduction
of rice to Spain from North Africa in the 4th Century led to the Spanish introduction of
rice into Mexico at the port of Veracruz in the 1520s.
This, Graber says, created one of
the earliest instances of the world's greatest fusion cuisines.
In Pueblos or villages, there are also more exotic dishes, cooked in the Aztec or
Mayan style (known as comida prehispánica) with ingredients ranging from iguana to
rattlesnake, deer, spider monkey, grasshoppers, ant eggs, and other kinds of insects.
Regional cuisine:
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, goat and ostrich
production and meat dishes, in particular the well-known Arrachera cut.
Central Mexico's cuisine is largely made up of influences from the rest of the country,
but also has its authentics, such as barbacoa, pozole, menudo and carnitas.
Southeastern Mexico, on the other hand, is known for its spicy vegetable and chicken-based dishes.
The cuisine of Southeastern Mexico also has quite a bit of Caribbean influence, given its
geographical location. Seafood is commonly prepared in the states that border the Pacific Ocean or
the Gulf of Mexico, the latter having a famous reputation for its fish dishes, a la veracruzana.
In modern times, other cuisines of the world have become very popular in Mexico, thus adopting a
Mexican fusion.
For example, sushi in Mexico is often made with a variety of sauces based on mango
or tamarind, and very often served with serrano-chili blended soy sauce, or complimented with
habanero and chipotle peppers. Mostly using hot spices in many dishes such as menudo and pozole.
>> source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_cuisine