Tacos are the national dish of Mexico, dating back to the Mexican silver mines of the 18th century, when the word taco referred to gunpowder that was wrapped in a piece of paper and inserted into rocks. It was used to excavate the precious ore from mines and was called tacos de minero or miner's tacos. Today, the word is widely known to signify the leading street food and fast food item in Mexico – thin, flat griddle-baked tortillas topped with numerous fillings, folded and eaten without any utensils. A taco is basically anything eaten on a soft tortilla, and there is an infinite variety of them. In Sonora, in the north of Mexico, they eat the classic carne asada - thinly sliced meat grilled over coals and topped with salsa, onions, guacamole, and a lime wedge. In Baja, the topping consists of fried fish with cabbage and an acidic mayonnaise sauce. In Mexico City, sudados (sweated tacos) are the most popular option, filled with cooked and steamed meat. In Jalisco and Michoacan, they prepare carnitas, eaten in the morning or in the early afternoon, filled with deep fried pieces of pork that are sliced according to preference. Similar is the taco de cabeza, filled with pieces of cow's head that was steamed for a long time, and the customers can choose from slices of eyes, brains, tongue, lips, cheek, or ears. Tacos are mainly made of corn, except in the north, where wheat flour is used more often. They also differ in size, from the tiniest white tacos (blancas) to bigger ones, often made with blue corn. Most tacos come in pairs of two, in order to be able to hold all the flavorful and slightly wet ingredients. Some of them are fried until they become crispy and crunchy, in which case they're called tostadas. As anything can be a filling, there is a version made with fried veins from dried chiles, usually accompanied by salt, a tasty treat called tacos de venas. However, the standard is ground or shredded meat, cheese, potatoes, or vegetables and a topping of onions and coriander. Eaten at all times of day and night, one can find them on every corner in Mexico, in restaurants known as taquerias. Alternatively, they can be bought from numerous street vendors.
The first, original plate of nachos consisting of tortilla chips, melted cheese, and jalapeños was made for a group of military officers' wives in 1943 in Piedras Negras, Mexico. The ladies of the US Army Air Force base went over to a restaurant in the city, called the Victory Club. Its maitre d', Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya couldn't find the cook, so he combined some readily available ingredients for the ladies and presented them with canapes of tortilla chips, cheese, and jalapeño peppers. Nachos were created, and Anaya became the restaurant's head chef a few years later. The dish was named after his nickname, and was advertised on both sides of the border as Nacho Specials. The combination of chips and melted cheese quickly gained popularity, so by the 1960s, it became a staple of Tex-Mex cuisine. Some people credit a man named Frank Liberto for turning the nachos into a global phenomenon, since he is the one who turned the dish into stadium food in the United States, greatly increasing the sales of nachos and boosting their popularity even more. Today, common toppings include ingredients such as beans, elote corn, guacamole, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and meat, and there is even a special event called the International Nacho Festival, held every October in Piedras Negras.
Gringas is a typical Mexican dish made with flour tortillas filled with al pastor marinated pork meat, cheese, and, most commonly, pineapple slices, although onions, chili sauce, and coriander can all be added to the dish according to the customer's preference. The combination of these ingredients is then grilled in the same manner as a quesadilla. The tortillas are usually folded in half and consumed like a taco. The name of the dish, a feminine form of gringo, is believed to have come from the idea that flour tortillas are more popular than corn tortillas north of the Mexican border.
Fajitas is a popular Tex-Mex dish made from marinated, grilled skirt steak that is served in a wheat flour tortilla. The earliest printed mention of the word fajita referring to food appeared in 1971, and ten years later it had become one of the most popular dishes of Tex-Mex cuisine. The word fajita is derived from the Spanish faja, meaning girdle or strip, referring to a cheap cut of beef covering the diaphragm that was considered somewhat undesirable by many locals. In the 1930s, Mexican ranch workers used to tenderize the skirt steak by pounding and marinating it in lime juice before cooking it over an open fire and serving the meat in a wheat tortilla along with numerous condiments. Today, fajitas can be filled with grilled chicken, shrimp, and even vegetables, because the more popular the dish became, the less likely it was to be made with skirt steak. Typical condiments include ingredients such as lettuce, sour cream, cheese, tomatoes, or guacamole.
Queso fundido is a tasty Mexican comfort food dish that is typically served as an appetizer. It consists of pieces of chorizo, tomatoes, onions, poblano peppers, and gooey, stringy melted cheese. The dish is often prepared tableside in restaurants, where it is flambéed and presented bubbling hot in small casserole dishes. Queso fundido is traditionally spooned onto soft corn tortillas so that it could be eaten individually, as the dish is typically shared between groups of people, making it a great party food as well. It originated in northern Mexico, where it was originally prepared as a campfire dish. Nowadays, queso fundido is also popular in the United States, especially in El Paso.
Chile relleno is a large, mild roasted pepper completely hollowed out, heavily stuffed with melting cheese or spiced meat, coated in a fluffy egg batter, and deep-fried until golden. The recipe starts with blistering a fresh poblano pepper over an open flame until the outer skin turns completely black and charred. The pepper is placed inside a sealed bag to steam, allowing the burnt skin to peel away effortlessly. A small slit is sliced down the side to extract all the seeds and membranes, leaving an empty cavity ready for the filling. Large blocks of stringy, white, melting cheese or a dense mixture of ground beef, raisins, and almonds are packed tightly into the hollow space. The opening is pinned shut with wooden toothpicks. The coating requires separating raw eggs, vigorously whipping the whites until stiff peaks form, and gently folding the yolks back in to create an airy, cloud-like foam. The stuffed pepper is lightly dusted with wheat flour, submerged entirely in the foamy egg mixture, and immediately dropped into hot oil. It fries rapidly until a soft, spongy golden-brown crust forms on the outside. Upon leaving the hot oil, the battered pepper is transferred directly to a shallow bowl and consumed immediately while the interior cheese remains molten. A thin, savory tomato broth, heavily flavored with oregano and garlic, known as caldillo, is poured generously over the fried crust just seconds before eating. A side of warm tortillas, seasoned rice, and mashed pinto beans constantly accompanies the plate, absorbing the remaining red sauce and stray bits of batter. The genesis of this stuffed vegetable dates back to the city of Puebla in the mid-16th century, arising from the fusion of indigenous ingredients and imported European livestock. Nuns in local convents used native poblano peppers as a vehicle for newly introduced dairy products and pork. Over time, numerous distinct iterations branched off from the original cheese-filled version. Some coastal regions swap meat and dairy for shredded fish and shrimp, while arid northern territories rely heavily on long, slender Anaheim or Hatch green chiles rather than the wider poblanos. A highly elaborate iteration known as chiles en nogada bypasses the frying phase entirely, featuring a sweet-and-savory, fruit-laced meat filling and a topping of chilled walnut cream sauce scattered with bright red pomegranate seeds. Another adaptation skips the egg batter and hot oil altogether, instead wrapping the stuffed pepper in flaky pastry dough before baking it in a hot oven. The dish is traditionally served as a snack or an appetizer, most commonly in late August and early September, since it is associated with Mexican Independence Day and the Day of San Agustín.
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