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Mexican Food
| Mexican Food There are three types of Mexican food native to the United States: Cal-Mex, Tex-Mex, and Sonoran (developed in Arizona). Tex-Mex makes use of ground beef and pork. Cal-Mex uses long grain beef and seafood. Sonoran uses different spices and chili pastes for unique sauces. 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.
Mexican Food is very popular in the United States, more popular than in Mexico with the upper classes, who prefer French or Italian food because they believe that traditional food is for peasants. Mexican food flourished in the American Southwest because of an influx of Mexican migrants. Americans then experimented with different ingredients and ways of cooking which lead to the three types of cuisine in the Southwest. Cooks in the Northern part of the US, as recently as a few decades ago, tried to cash in on the Mexican food craze by using as a staple tomato paste and sauces. Needless to say, this didn't work so well.
What are the staples of Mexican food? There is the taco, the American staple which is much more prevalent in America than in Mexico. Another staple, the tamale (corn paste with shredded meat wrapped in a corn shuck) is more Mexican than American, and is baked and used as a traditional Christmas entree throughout Hispanic communities in the US. As for spices, we all know about chili pepper, paste, ground and whole, and cilantro. But the next time you pass the spice rack at your grocery store, take a whiff of cumin (or "comino"). You will recognize the very essence of Mexican food. |