If you think Mexican food means eating chimichangas or throwing cheese and cream on every dish, you really need to read this post!
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The other day I was looking at my Pinterest boards and I suddenly realized that it’s amazing how much Mexico has influenced other cuisines from all over the world.
However, I have also noticed there’s a belief that throwing some chili powder and cheese on a dish makes it Mexican, but that’s not very accurate at all.
As always, I am here to enlighten you and share some very surprising facts about the best kind of food there is- Mexican food!
10 Surprising Facts About Mexican Food
There are a few Mexican dishes that are famous, like tacos, guacamole, tamales, and enchiladas. It is true that those are very popular in Mexico too, but they are merely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to real Mexican food.
There so many dishes and ingredients, it’s almost impossible to know them all. In fact, authentic Mexican cuisine is very different from all the Mexican-inspired food that you normally get in any place that is not Mexico.
To give you an idea, take a look at this list of surprising facts about Mexican food.
1. Mexican cuisine is a rainbow
Every single Mexican dish is a mix of Native American and European ingredients and flavors with hints of African and Middle Eastern influence. This makes for an explosion of flavors that is truly surprising. It definitely takes a lot more than chili powder and cheese to cook like a Mexican.
2. Mexican cuisine is infinitely varied
There’s a whole lot more than just tacos in Mexico. The country is enormous, and so is the variety of food. There is a completely different kind of cuisine in every region.
For example, black mole sauce and tlayudas are typical of the southeastern province of Oaxaca. And in the Yucatan peninsula, you will find dishes like cochinita pibil and panuchos, which are traditional there.
So which is the most Mexican kind of food? Honestly, it depends on where in Mexico you are!
3. Mexican cuisine was influenced by immigrants
There many traditional dishes and ingredients that were adopted in Mexico after each wave of immigration.
For example, pastry-making and confectionery turned popular after two French invasions in the 19th century. Later, the arrival of more French and Italian immigrants brought other new ingredients, such as pasta and strong cheese.
In the central province of Hidalgo, Cornish settlers brought their traditional pasty, which later became the Mexican paste. In the coast, Caribbean influence is also noticeable in the local cuisine, with plantains and coconut oil.
In the 19th century, Chinese immigrants made rice a popular food and Lebanese arrivals made great contributions to Yucatan cuisine.
As you can see, Mexican food is really a melting pot of nationalities.
4. Mexican cuisine has a lot of vegetables in it
The main ingredients of Mexican cuisine are not cheese and meat, but vegetables. Ancient Mexican dishes were mostly veggie-based, and that has not changed too much.
Many typical dishes require corn, chili peppers or beans, and there’s also a whole parade of widely used vegetables that you probably have never heard of, such as quelites (lamb’s quarters), quintoniles (amaranth greens), huauzontles, romeritos, chayotes, cactus, and verdolagas (purslane), just to name a few.
Most of these are wild greens, and they are eaten cooked in spicy soups and stews.
5. Mexican cuisine has given many delicious gifts to the world
Mexico has contributed greatly to all the world’s cuisines with ingredients such as corn, tomatoes, avocados, cacao, beans, chili peppers, and vanilla. Would you be able to live without chocolate or vanilla? I didn’t think so. You’re welcome!
6. Mexican cuisine has some strange ingredients
You might be surprised to know that Mexicans eat flowers.
For example, flores de calabaza (squash blossoms) are great in soups and quesadillas. Flor de izote (yucca flowers) and gasparitos (coral tree flowers) are cooked in soups, stews, and even tamales.
Other strange ingredients are native mushrooms, like huitlacoche (corn smut), which is used as a filling for quesadillas.
And finally, the most terrifying ingredients of all are insects. You read that right! Mexican appetizers include roasted grasshoppers, maguey worm tacos, escamoles (ant larvas caviar), or ahuautle (salty mosquito-eggs). Hungry, anyone?
On a note, I have personally tried some of these insect dishes and they are pretty good, and a great source of protein too!
Flowers are also delicious. Squash blossoms taste like sweet spinach, and yucca flowers and coral tree flowers have a soft flavor that goes well with chili heat.
Grasshoppers taste like salty chips, worm tacos are creamy, ant larvas do taste like caviar, and mosquito eggs taste like ground shrimp. Surprising, right?
7. Mexican cuisine requires special utensils
There are several exclusively Mexican kitchen tools that are required to make authentic Mexican dishes.
A molcajete, for example, is not a dish. It is a small mortar that is used to grind spices or ingredients for salsa. Another is the molinillo, which is good for making frothy chocolate. There is also the comal, a flat pan which you need to properly make and heat tortillas.
These utensils have been used in Mexican kitchens for centuries to this day. Other traditional tools are almost no longer in use, like the metate, which was a large stone mortar that was used to grind corn to make flour.
8. Mexican cuisine represents an entire culture
Food is extremely important in Mexico. People and families define themselves by the dishes they make and eat, and everybody has a traditional food they love. Food is present in movies, books, and songs.
I especially recommend the book “Like Water For Chocolate”, by Laura Esquivel. It will help you understand Mexican people’s relationship with food, and it’s also a fascinating novel.
9. Mexican cuisine is a world treasure.
In 2010, Mexican Cuisine became a part of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list. The only cuisines on that list are French and Mexican. That’s how amazing Mexican food is.
10. Mexican food is best outside of a restaurant
Until recently, there was no such thing as high Mexican cuisine. Fine and authentic Mexican dishes are served in establishments across the country, but there is no Mexican restaurant on this planet that can compete with homemade food cooked by a Mexican mom or granny.
The best and most authentic dishes are made by ordinary people in little eateries or humble homes. Recipes are passed down across generations as part of a family’s heritage and dishes are gradually transformed and embellished. This is what makes Mexican food so special.
Feeling hungry yet? Run to nearest Mexican restaurant. Or better yet, come over to my beautiful country and enjoy the most colorful and delicious food in the world!
Hermana Friend, I look forward to your blogs, Make my desire to visit your homeland even more enticing! Tremendo!
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Thanks amiga! 🙂
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That was a very good insight to Mexican food. Im going to see you whenever Im in Mexico 🙂
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Sounds great 🙂
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yum! this made me so hungry! i love mexican food and learned a whole lot more about it through this post!
http://www.footnotesandfinds.com
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I’m glad you found it interesting 🙂
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Woww great to know 🙂
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Great information!
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The thing about the veggies is so true. I didn’t really like it as a kid but when I moved to San Antonio I tried a lot of new things and was shocked by how many healthy variarions there are. Thanks for sharing this
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that’s a great description!
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This is so true of Mexican food! Being Mexican myself, I’ve been around this stuff my whole life! Even better, I married into a Mexican family, and my in laws owned their own Mexican restaurant!
Amanda | thedeerandthewolf.com
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Wow! Having a restaurant in the family would be a dream for me! 😀
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Nice article that showcases how mexican food CAN be very healthy. There are a lot of myths out there and this puts them all to rest. Well done!
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Thank you Debra! 🙂
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Thanks a lot, Debra! 🙂
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¡Excelente labor de difusión!
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Gracias Ross! 🙂
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Yes. This. I had a friend growing up who was Mexican by way of El Paso and through her cooking I learned so much about Mexican food. Growing up on the east coast so many view Mexican food as tacos. So sad for them. Now that we live in southern California I get some great authentic Mexican food.
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Exactly! It’s like Japanese food is not just sushi and there’s a lot more to Indian food that just curry. Thanks so much for reading!
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I loved reading this!! My husband grew up in Arizona and we honestly get the best Mexican food there- I love it! We look forward to going back every year and getting fresh tamales. Now I feel pretty hungry after reading this post :)!
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And now I feel like running out to get some tamales! lol 🙂 Thanks for reading
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Wow, what a great post Fabiola! I definitely learned a few things and I love your passion for your country and your heritage that shines through 🙂
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Thanks, Wendy! I’m glad you liked my post 🙂
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Quality post! Some of it was surprising and we’re really wanting to experiment with Mexican dishes more now.
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Mexican cuisine is my favourite. It’s fresh, colorful and loaded with veggies.x
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I’ve never had real Mexican food until I moved to California. This is really helpful. Thank you!
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Reblogged this on Dream Big, Dream Often and commented:
Meet My Heart of Mexico!
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I love Mexican food. This list was very surprising and interesting to read. Thanks for posting it!
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I’m glad you liked it 🙂 Thanks for reading!
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My husband’s family is from Mexico and I love when they cook! Everything is so delicious!
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Now I’m considering eating grasshoppers and it’s all your fault. Lovely post
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Grasshoppers are crunchy!! lol 😀 Thanks for reading
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I never knew about the special utensils! Super interesting!
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I’m glad you liked the post. Thanks for visiting! 🙂
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This is such a great post! It is so hard for people to wrap their mind around it sometimes – when Mexico as a country is really a big place – so shouldn’t surprise us that it is so diverse. I was lucky to have a good friend growing up whose mama was Mexicana, so I experienced good, authentic food from your country earlier on. What a blessing. Love all your points here and they make me sooooo hungry!!
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I’m so glad you liked my post, Vi 🙂 It means a lot
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I LOVE Mexican food- all the local Mexican restaurants where I live are terrible, it makes me sad 😦 but you’re right, nothing will ever beat family cooking!
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Oh, so sorry about that! I wish you could have some real, delicious Mexican food.
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Such an interesting post! I love learning about your country. I was surprised to find out how much your country’s food was influenced by other cultures and how different it can be depending on the region. One thing I would be interested in learning is how to make homemade authentic enchilada sauce. I have tried it several times, but it came out too bitter. It seems like the recipes from the US are tomato sauce based instead of chile based. How do you make yours? I would love to read a post about it. Thanks for all the interesting information about Mexican cuisine!
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As a matter of fact, I am planning a salsa post. But definitely, chili-based salsas are a lot spicier than tomato-based salsas, so be ready 🙂
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I love Mexican food – Thanks for sharing all of this great info about your country and food!!
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Thanks for reading 🙂
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Thank you for sharing this wonderful post. I enjoyed reading it.
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Thanks for reading! 🙂
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I love Mexican food! So many people assume it’s always unhealthy, but there are so many great ways to make it healthy 🙂
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Yes! Authentic Mexican food is actually very healthy. Imitation Mexican food is deep-fried, drowning in cheese and not healthy at all.
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Mexican food is definitely a rainbow! A rainbow of deliciousness! TAKE THAT Skittles! 😉
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lol 😀 thanks for reading!
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Excelent post, what you say it’s true, mexican food is delicious and very traditional. Congrats
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Thanks for reading!
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Ahh! I loved “Mexican-inspired” food, so I wanted to try a local authentic place. I loved their tostadas partly because they had vegetables! Very interesting to see how Mexican food has been influenced and how varied it is. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised- I’m Filipino, and it’s like everybody has their own way of making a dish! Thanks for sharing!
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This was wonderful! I only recently have been introduced to Mexican food via a Mexican woman. I just made (yes by myself) her recipe for Mexican chili. I LOVED it!
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Sounds delish! 🙂
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This was a great read! Our food is much more than just tacos and beans. You gave a great snippet of Mexican cuisine. Thank you for sharing.
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