04Experiences

At the table

Mexican cuisine

Traditional Mexican cuisine joined UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage in 2010. Its roots go back to early farming peoples such as the Olmec and the Maya, who domesticated maize and developed nixtamalization, cooking the grain with lime to make dough. Mexico gave the world corn, beans, squash, avocados, tomatoes, cocoa, vanilla, chia, amaranth, cactus and a huge range of chillies, and corn and chilli still anchor everyday meals. Tacos are the national favourite: a small corn tortilla folded around a filling and eaten by hand. Tacos al pastor use thin slices of seasoned pork cooked on a vertical spit, and are also called tacos árabes. Mole is a thick sauce of chillies and spices whose birthplace Puebla and Oaxaca both claim, served on special occasions. Chiles en nogada, stuffed peppers under walnut sauce, are cooked in central Mexico in August and early September, when pomegranates ripen, and their green, white and red echo the flag. Eat where locals do: at taco stands and market food halls.

2010

Intangible heritage