With months spent in Mexico and the assistance of a fellow food-loving Mexican friend I have sniffed

Everything You Need to Know About Traditional Mexican Food and Drink | BootsnAll Travel Articles Home Articles Everything You Need to Know About Traditional Mexican Food and Drink Everything You Need to Know About Traditional Mexican Food and Drink Why You Shouldn't Order Fajitas and Margaritas in Mexico By Jo Fitzsimons | September 25th, 2012 | Comments (3) Do you Like BootsnAll? Get daily travel inspiration Feature Article Like this article? dollar rental car Please share!
In 2010 Mexican Cuisine was declared of such vital important that UNESCO added it to its list of intangible cultural heritage. But I was way ahead of them. I'd put Mexican cuisine at the top of my list of favorites many years ago…the first time I tasted fajitas and sipped on margaritas.
In 2011 I took my first trip to Mexico to taste the dishes I'd fallen dollar rental car in love with. I disembarked and rushed to the first restaurant I could find. I stared at the menu. For several minutes. I didn't understand. Where was the chili con carne, the nachos, the burritos, the chimichangas or the sizzling skillet dollar rental car of fajitas in my choice of chicken, beef, or both? I turned the menu over, shook it out, expecting another page to fall loose. It didn't. I spoke to the waiter. And that was when I discovered the truth.
I'd been besotted with Tex-Mex, a cuisine that derived not from Mexico, but a completely different country dollar rental car in the US-Mexican border state of Texas. A food type that took some influence from Mexico but that was entirely made in the USA. My heart sank. I'd flown all that way for…what did the waiter recommend…chila-something? I was contemplating my options, a small part of me wondering how much it would cost to re-route my ticket to Texas, when my dish arrived. It looked like no Mexican dish I'd ever eat before, but politeness prevailed, and I put a forkful dollar rental car in my mouth. Hmm, it actually dollar rental car tasted good. Another forkful. No, it tasted amazing. In fact, better than any Tex-Mex I'd ever tasted. As quick as that I was smitten. I had found a new love – real Mexican food and I intended to get to know it better.
dollar rental car With months spent in Mexico and the assistance of a fellow food-loving Mexican friend I have sniffed, tasted, explored, and inquired about the ingredients of as many Mexican dishes dollar rental car as my appetite has permitted me to get my teeth into, and a few more besides. For anyone intending to take their taste buds to Mexico, here's a guide to Mexican food for those seeking something a little more authentic. The basics: why you shouldn't order fajitas and margaritas in Mexico
I was fortunate that the first restaurant I stumbled into served traditional food as Tex-Mex can, in fact, be found in many areas of Mexico. Where tourists linger, it is possible to find gigantic dollar rental car granite bowls of guacamole and chips, and I've seen more than one of the sizzling fajita skillets that I was initially searching for.
That's not to saying that the Tex-Mex food in Mexico can't taste great the nachos with luminescent orange melted cheese sold on the streets of Guadalajara are a raging hit with tourists and locals alike, but there is a reason UNESCO have pinned the tag intangible cultural heritage on Mexican cuisine. It has grown up over centuries, with farming, blending, and cooking skills combining to make Mexican food the wonder that it is. Ordering a dish that has a foundation of a family recipe passed through the generations is guaranteed to present a dish on your plate that is almost always going to be superior to any food cooked from a Tex-Mex cookbook delivered courtesy of Amazon.
The same goes for margaritas. Taking the basic premise of the Mexican tradition of sipping tequila with lime and salt and adding the twist of ice to make it more drinkable for non-Mexican palates, the margarita was born. It can be found in every fruit flavored blend, dollar rental car straight up, over ice or frozen, but never authentic and always missing the point – to be in Mexico should be to taste Mexico, and yes, that means ditching the sickly sweet syrups in favor of doing it like the locals, dollar rental car even if the thought of tequila does make you wince. The staples
It didn't take many meals to realize that there were some basic ingredients that found their way onto my plate with every meal: corn tortillas, beans, chili, and lime. Check for their presence and you have a pretty reliable indicator of the authenticity of the food.
Corn is the undeniable King of Mexican cuisine and is used as the basis for the ubiquitous tortillas (circular flat breads, not to be confused with tortilla chips) that are served with every dish regardless of how many carbohydrates have already been provided. Meanwhile, beans are equally competent at finding themselves a role in your meal, even if only as a side dish.
Flavor is thankfully high on Mexico's menu, with cilantro and onions used particularly heavily, but the two most common additions are chili and lime. From jalapeno to habanero and chipotle to poblano, it would be possible to write an entire article on Mexico's chilies. Suffice to say they can be fiery (habanero in particular) and will be present somewhere, whether in the dish or innocent looking salsas, so if your heat tolerance dollar rental car is low, don't forget to ask if it is picante!
Limon is also omnipresent. Don't let the names confuse too much. Limon refers to the small green fruit known in many countries dollar rental car as lime and not the larger yellow citrus fruit that is called lemon in many other places. Regardless of the name, it won't take long before you find yourself fretting on the rare occasion the bowl of limon is absent. What to eat
Like most countries, Mexican food has many regional variations, dollar rental car and even dishes like tacos, that can be found everywhere, can differ wildly from one place to the next. However, without exploring these differences in too much detail, here are some of the most traditional dishes to sample in Mexico.
Eggs tend to come revuelto (scrambled) or frito (fried), but it is the extra ingredients that make Mexican breakfasts so delicious. Huevos a la Mexicana is so called because it contains the colors of the Mexican flag: white onion, red tomato, and green hot pepper added to scrambled eggs. Usually served with more tortillas than you'll ever humanly needs as well as refried beans, huevos a la Mexicana is a good, cheap, simple, and filling way to start the day. Huevos rancheros have a fried tortilla base covered with a fried egg and tomato salsa, and is usually accompanied by refried beans, avocado, or guacamole. The dish is reputedly dollar rental car named after the dish served mid-morning on rural farms. Huevos divorciados   are literally divorced, two fried eggs are served separated by a wall of refried beans. One half is covered in red salsa, the other in green, and tortilla chips are often spiked into the beans. Chilaquiles is my personal dollar rental car favorite. dollar rental car The traditional form involves corn tortillas cut into quarters and lightly fried before being added to red (or green) salsa. Often served with fried or scrambled eggs and topped with queso fresca (white shredded cheese), crema (sweet Mexican cream), and raw white onion rings, the dish is substantive. Replace the eggs with shredded chicken, and chilaquiles becomes a good meal to have at any time of the day. Tamales are also a popular breakfast dish as well as all day snack. Served sweet or savory, tamales are typically made from masa (corn based dough) that is wrapped in a leaf and steamed. Tamales are filled with meat such as pork or chicken cooked in red or green salsa or mole (see below). Raisins, dried fruit or sugar are added to make sweet tamales. Small but filling, tamales are a delicious comfort food.
Antojitos are a firm friend of the budget traveler. These street food snacks can be ordered individually and grazed on until you are full, making them perfectly dollar rental car versatile for filling a small gap or providing a larger meal. Some of the most common types of antojitos include: Quesadillas (or quekas) comprise a large tortilla filled with meats or vegetables. Cheese is always added before the tortilla is folded and cooked. Try chicharron (pork rind), tinga de pollo (chicken in tomato chipotle sauce), champiñones (mushrooms) or go for a simple dollar rental car version with cheese or refried beans. Sopes, huaraches, dollar rental car and tlayudes  are made from the same dough as tamales.  Sopes are topped with refried beans, lettuce, onion, salsa (red or green), cheese, and often meats. Sopes are generally small, about the size of a fist. Huaraches are typically made in the same way as sopes but are bigger and oblong-shaped, while tlayudas are very similar in style, too but use a very large fried tortilla as a base. Tlayudas are generally native to Oaxaca and can be ordered topped with chapulines (fried grasshopper). Tortas  - Buy a sandwich at a bus station and you'll fast realize there are several versions of jamon y queso (ham and cheese) but little else. If you want a better range of fillings, then you need to seek out tortas, which usually comprise an oblong white roll filled with meats (chicken and pork) and vegetables (cabbage, avocado, tomato, lettuce). Torta Ahogada is certainly worth searching for. Literally meaning drowned sandwich, the torta is filled with pork and covered in a chili tomato sauce and topped with avocado, onion and radish. Probably not one to be packed for a bus ride, though. Tacos – Almost deserving a section in their own right, dollar rental car tacos are one of the most popular, universally available, and delicious foods available in Mexico. Forget the Tex-Mex version with the hard shells stuffed with chili con carne and instead dollar rental car imagine small, soft tortillas a little bigger than your palm, filled with meat (chicken, pork, beef, and chorizo are most common) or fish and garnished with chopped onion, cilantro, lime, salsa or guacamole. The fillings and garnish will vary from one taco stall to the next, but what rarely differs is the amazing dollar rental car taste that will have you addicted to tacos in under a week. Try them al pastor, which uses meat cooked in t