Food~Comida
Mexico's rich history and cultural heritage are deeply ingrained in the country’s identity and cuisine. From the indigenous Aztec and Mayan cultures to Spanish colonization, Mexican cuisine has evolved over time to become a unique blend of flavors, spices, and ingredients, creating one of the the most diverse and vibrant cuisines in the world.
In 2010, UNESCO declared Mexican food as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Definitely, this is a big win for Mexican gastronomy. Indeed, Mexican food conveys cultural aspects of every region of the country.
Feast for Your Eyes
Mexican Food looks as beautiful as it tastes...
La Tortilla de Maiz
Corn ~ Maiz
Mexico is home to one of the world’s staple crops, corn. Most people think of the classic yellow cob when they hear the word “corn.” In Mexico, over 59 varieties of corn are produced.
Farmers in Mexico have continued the tradition of growing corn, collecting their own seeds, and preserving them for the next generation, despite the efforts of international trade organizations and genetically modified imports to change their growing process
November 26, 2019 by Lindsay del Valle
Tortilla Culture in Latin America
A staple of the Central American diet, and the star of every Taco Tuesday, is the modest (yet truly remarkable) tortilla de maíz, or corn tortilla. While we are all pretty familiar with its taste and utility, we may not know much of anything else about this marvelous food. Do you know where the tortilla originated? Or how it’s been made since its creation? And why did copying the corn and tortilla-centered culture of the New World make Europeans deathly ill in the 1500s? The answers will surprise you as there is more to this common comestible than meets the eye.
History
Corn appears in history as a cultivated source of nutrients at least 8,700 years ago in Mesoamerica where the creation story of the tortilla begins. After the indigenous culture of these regions learned to modify teosinte, a type of wild grass, into corn, they began to process the corn into masa, or dough. They did this through an ingenious method called nixtamalization. They soaked the corn kernels in a limewater solution (from limestone, not the fruit lime), which removed the hulls, made it more easily digestible, and helped the ground corn form a dough (instead of turning into mush) for tortilla-making. The resulting mixture of masa is called nixtamal, an Aztec word for hominy. Interestingly, the chemical process of mixing corn with lime releases a crucial vitamin that is otherwise unavailable to the human body. When the Europeans learned to farm corn from the natives of the New World in the early 1500s, they failed to copy the process of nixtamalization. Eventually, high corn yields in European fields led to high corn consumption, and vast populations whose diets relied primarily on corn became extremely sick, often dying, from a severe type of malnutrition called pellagra
Nutritional Value
The corn tortilla is an extraordinary human invention. Coined tortilla by the Spaniards who compared it to a smaller version of the torta (cake) they knew back home, this small round corn cake packs a hefty punch of nutrition. Thanks to the process of nixtamalization, tortillas are rich in minerals like calcium, iron, and magnesium and provide essential vitamins like A, B, and E. They are also a good source of protein and fiber. Indigenous cultures named corn, beans, and squash the Three Sisters, since they grew better together and created a perfectly balanced diet for health and well-being.
Hominy Stew ~ Pozole
When you sit down to a warm bowl of pozole today, filled with hominy, pork, and all the toppings, it feels like pure comfort food. But this dish has a history that stretches back to the Aztec Empire, where pozole was not just food but ritual, and its earliest versions carried some of the grislier myths of pre-Columbian religion.
Pozole: The Ancient Ritual Stew of Mexico with Questionable Origins...
According to early Spanish chroniclers, the Aztecs prepared pozole for important religious ceremonies, and the meat in the pot was not always from animals. There are accounts, passed down through sources like Bernardino de Sahagún’s Florentine Codex, that the meat was at times human, taken from sacrificial victims. The combination of sacred maize and ritual sacrifice made pozole a dish of power, consumed in honor of the gods.
Today, pozole is comfort food. Families gather around steaming bowls topped with shredded lettuce, radish, oregano, and lime. It is served on special occasions, but also in everyday life, tying Mexicans back to their ancestors in every spoonful. It is both a reminder of ancient rituals and a symbol of cultural continuity, proof that food outlives empires.
So the next time you enjoy a bowl of pozole, remember that you are tasting a dish that began in temples under the shadow of the gods, passed through conquest and change, and still lives on the Mexican table today.
Chocolate’s Odyssey:
Cacao —Chocolate
Mexico is the birthplace of cacao —chocolate was unknown to Europeans before Columbus— and the esteemed bean is an integral part of Mexico's history
by Mexperience
A Journey from Mexico to the World
Hernán Cortés was one of the first Europeans to taste xocolatl: the strong, bitter drink taken with prodigious gravitas by the high priests and elite of the Aztec order; they offered him the beverage served in pure gold cups believing that he was a god.
A 3,500-year history that begins in Mesoamerica
But even before then, cacao beans were being fermented and turned into drink by the Olmec, and the Maya who mixed it with vanilla and spices to create a beverage taken during important religious and social ceremonies
The precise date when humans began consuming cocoa is unclear —recent archaeological evidence suggests that Mesoamericans may have been cultivating the cacao plant and using it to make beverages as far back as 1400 B.C.— but historians agree that cocoa was an important substance held in high regard by our ancestors.
A precious bean also used as a form of currency
Cacao beans were also used as a form of currency; Cortés’s men observed how precious the beans appeared to the native peoples, and ancient records show that livestock and other goods were traded in exchange for them. The Aztecs also accepted cacao beans in payment of their taxes, or tributes as they were known.
The Spaniards did not take to the bitterness of the Aztec cacao, but discovered that blending it with cane sugar (from Europe) or honey (from Yucatán) made it more agreeable to their taste. In its sweetened form, the beverage became popular across Spain from the seventeenth century although, like tea leaves in England during the same period, cocoa was expensive and taken almost exclusively by the social élite and well-heeled.
Little Known Facts
The Ceasar Salad
Caesar salad was invented in the early 1920s by Caesar Cardini, an Italian chef who owned a restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico. He moved to Tijuana from California to avoid Prohibition, and it was here, on July 4th, 1924, where Caesar is believed to have invented the Caesar Salad.
The salad's creation is generally attributed to the restaurateur Caesar Cardini, an Italian immigrant who operated restaurants in Mexico and the United States. Cardini lived in San Diego but ran one of his restaurants in Tijuana to attract American customers seeking to circumvent the restrictions of Prohibition. His daughter, Rosa, recounted that her father invented the salad at the Tijuana restaurant when a Fourth of July rush in 1924 depleted the kitchen's supplies. Cardini made do with what he had, adding the dramatic flair of table-side tossing by the chef. Some recountings of the history state that Alex Cardini, Caesar Cardini's brother, made the salad, and that the salad was previously named the "Aviator Salad" because it was made for aviators who traveled over during Prohibition.