Mexican Cuisine
When 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.
RECIPES
TEQUILA
Tequila is an agave-based spirit made primarily in the area surrounding Tequila, 65 kilometres (40 mi) in the northwest of Guadalajara and in the highlands (Los Altos) of the western Mexican state of Jalisco. The volcanic soil in the region surrounding Tequila is particularly well suited to the growing of the cactus-like blue agave, and more than 300 million of the plants are harvested there each year. However, U.S. and Mexican laws state that tequila can be produced anywhere in Mexico, and the country boasts several other tequila-producing regions. Another important aspect of tequila is it must have the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) - no other place in the world can produce Tequila, because it can only be made from the plant produced in Mexico Agave Tequilana Weber that grows in the States of Jalisco, Nayarit, Michoacan, Guanajuato and Tamaulipas, with a process abiding by all the official regulations.
