Mexican cuisine News

Mexican cuisine stands out from the crowd on Cherokee (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Tower Tacos is yet another Mexican restaurant on the already rife-with-great-food Cherokee Street. So how's a girl to choose? Luckily, Tower Tacos is distinctive enough to make it easy.

Mexican fare, with a family touch (Boston Globe)
The beauty of opening a business in a new space is that you're starting over and not being forced to renovate, remove, or recycle someone else's décor - be it good or bad - into your grand design.

Fresh food in a flash at Chipotle (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette)
It became clear pretty early during my first visit as to why Chipotle Mexican Grill is so popular. The line was long, but it moved fast with lunch-break warriors not messing around as they went through the line getting burritos, tacos, salads or bowls.

Taste of Las Cruces: On the go? Si Señor, Aqua Reef can help (Las Cruces Sun-News)
There are some days when you just don't want to cook, and dinning out is out of the question — you want to stay home, enjoy a movie and be in your pjs all day.

Recipe for Health: Family will get a kick out of chicken with twang (Memphis Commercial Appeal)
Most of us who do any cooking at all have a repertoire of chicken recipes we use on a regular basis, but we're always looking for additions to what we have. And why not? Chicken is a perennial favorite, even for picky eaters. And it's leaner than most other meat sources of protein.

Mexican food is a style of food that originated in Mexico. Mexican cuisine is known for its intense and varied flavors, colorful decoration, and variety of spices.



When Spanish conquistadores arrived in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City), they found that the people's diet consisted largely of corn-based dishes with chilies and herbs, usually complemented with beans and tomatoes. 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, tomato, vanilla, avocado, guava, papaya, pineapple, jicama, chile pepper, beans, squash, sweet potato, peanut, fish and turkey.

Corn is its traditional staple grain, but today, rice is equally important. 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.[1]

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 or Queso Oaxaca ), 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 Asian influence due to the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade, which lasted from 1565 to 1815.

There are also more exotic dishes, cooked in the Aztec or Mayan style, with ingredients ranging from iguana to rattlesnake, deer, spider monkey, grasshoppers, ant eggs, and other kinds of insects. This is usually known as comida prehispánica (or prehispanic food).



Foods that are part of the Mexican culinary tradition include:



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 authentic dishes, such as barbacoa, pozole, menudo and carnitas. Southeastern Mexico, on the other hand, is known for its spicy vegetable and chicken-based dishes. 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.