Mexican Foods Recipes |
|
The popularity of Mexican food cannot be denied. Mexican food is a style of food that originated in Mexico. Mexican cuisine is known for its intense and varied flavors, colorful decoration, and its variety of spices. Mexican gastronomy, in terms of diversity of appealing tastes and textures, is one of the richest in the world.
Mexican food has a widely diverse history that started with the natives. Then the Spaniards introduced new spices and foods and finally there are the Americanized versions of Mexican dishes. Mexican food is not only colorful and tangy but also immensely varied. There’s a lot more to it then nachos and tacos. Salads, soups, rice dishes and the ever popular barritos, quessidillas served along with salsa and guacamole. This food has been always considered to be very spicy. Well, that is partially true. Mexican food history shows that Mexico has given chocolate to the world, as well as several other specialties, including peanuts, vanilla, beans, coconuts and tomatoes. The traditional Mexican cooking makes use of these native elements to produce tasteful meals. With the arrival of specialties like pork, lamb, beef, wine, vinegar and cheese from Spain (brought by the conquerors), the Mexican cuisine evolved, by integrating these European elements into their own traditional meals. Mexican food continued evolving as new products and techniques were introduced into Mexico from different places. We can find recipes and ingredients originally from South America, the Caribbean and even Africa.
There are actually three types of Mexican food, Tex Mex, New Mexican and traditional. The kind of Mexican food that we enjoy here is Tex-Mex, which combines tastes of Texas with those of Mexico. Tex-Mex cuisine is characterized by its heavy use of meat (especially beef), beans and spices. Nachos, crispy tacos, crispy chalupas, chili con queso, chili con carne, chili gravy and fajitas are all Tex-Mex inventions. Mexican food from Mexico is different in that it is prepared differently. Similar to Cal-Mex, this food relies more heavily on corn in handmade tortillas, thicker and more irregular than the machine made, a unique type of lard for frying, and pickled vegetables. Vanilla and chocolate often grace the tables of Mexico City diners. When a dish or recipe is referred to as "native" then it should only contain ingredients that were available to the native Mexicans. This includes corn, tomatoes, goat and fish. Calling a dish or recipe "authentic" usually means it is something that has been prepared traditionally in Mexico usually for 50 years or more. Claiming something has "authentic" tastes or flavors, just means that the spices used in flavoring the dish are authentic to Mexico. |