MEXICAN CUISINE VARIES FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD’S, MARKED BY COUNTLESS INGREDIENTS THAT MAKE FOOD GET UNIQUE FLAVORS, COLORS AND TEXTURES.

Food and language are by far the only underlyingrelationships among human beings. Throughout history, the ways of choosing, preserving and cooking food have been steadily changing. Cuisine turns into gourmet when a perfect layout of expertise and knowledge related to ingredients and utensils comes into being. The bottom line is to bring pleasure to all the senses. And it’s here where common points with language pop up again since each and every people have their own expressions of basic essences.

When it comes to Mexicans, their peculiarities single them out from the rest of the countries. Their basic ingredients are varied, with such standouts as corn, beans, chili and an endless array of vegetables and fruits. They count of a variety of oneand- only mixtures –like mole- unique utensils like metate, molinillo or comal and molcajete. And something of their own: their liking for out-of-meals antojitos.

This wealth of ingredients is coupled with the cultural diversity they have cultivated and used to transform these elements –there are 62 different ethnic groups in Mexico with their own ways of understanding the world and, therefore, with a cuisine of their own that they have managed to whip into shape using techniques from other cultures without losing their essence.

Today’s cuisine is building on the civilizations that inhabited the country, like the Mayans, the Toltecs or the Teotihuacans. But perhaps among all ingredients and dishes, there’s one ingredient that has become an active player in Mexico’s history and lifestyle: corn. Its origins hark back to the pre- Hispanic era, to the so-called “maize civilizations.” According to the Mayans, maize was created by the gods and it’s in itself the origin of mankind. This particular element has been the feeding underpinning of all Mexican cultures, a token of their creed and identity.

Therefore, Mexico’s cuisine is the result of millenarian cooking traditions handed down by indigenous peoples, melted with details and traditions hailing from Spain and, to a lesser degree, sprinkled with elements from Asia, the Middle East, the rest of Latin America, and even from Africa.

Mexican cuisine shares common ingredients and bases, yet each and every state has cooking traditions of its own that lead us to believe in it as a whole. However, there are local dishes and recipes that have evolved into national plates, like the cochinita pibil (yucateca), the mole poblano, the pozole (found in Jalisco and Guerrero), the cabrito (originally known as coahuilense and mistakenly pegged down on Nuevo Leon) among others. And speaking of elements that have edged out of the boundaries, Mexican antojitos are on the top of the list of Mexican cuisine and stand tall as an example of the vast use of maize. Some of them are well known around the world, like the tacos, the quesadillas, the enchiladas, the sopes or gorditas.

In addition to those traditional dishes, there are chocolate sweets and pastries, the ate (sweetened cheese stuffed with guava or quince), cajeta (sweetened cheese paste made from gota milk), or the obleas.

Based on a rich history of unique roots that resulted from many ancestral civilizations that came together, all of them with their own ways to understand the world, Mexican cuisine was presented to UNESCO for future World Heritage status. Whether it wins passage or not, this is an unprecedented development in the history of mankind.

Nevertheless, Mexican cuisine is not solely made up of those traditional dishes. Over the past decades, a movement called the New Mexican Cuisine is rescuing recipes and national ingredients to blend them with elements coming from worldclass gourmet.