Eating Mexican style is an adventure and a delight. The highly piquant and pungent flavours have been enjoyed almost unchanged for centuries. The food in Mexico today is a blend of Indian, Spanish and many other cultures.

The meals of different Mexicans

The basic elements of Mexican cooking is similar for the majority of the population, but there are huge differences in what people eat according to their wealth.

The rural peasant.

Rising before dawn, peasant women prepare the tortillas and strong black coffee for desayuna (breakfast). When the men return from the fields by late morning, almuerzo (second breakfast) is waiting for them, which consists of more tortillas and black coffee with frijoles (beans) and perhaps biscochos (sweet buns). La comida (lunch is then had around 2pm. This includes more tortillas and frijoles with perhaps a sopa (soup) and maybe a little meat and salsa de jitomate (tomato sauce). The drink that is usually drank with la comida would be a cerveza (beer). La cena (dinner) would be then served into the late evening. La cena is a small meal likely to consist of tortillas, frijoles, coffee and perhaps fruit.

The poor city dweller.

The daily meals are very similar to those of the rural peasant. The main difference being that it is unlikely that the tortillas are made at home. Instead they are bought from a tortilla shop. Meat or a chorizo (sausage) might be bought on special occasions.

The middle and upper classes.

Mexicans with more money are able to enjoy a wonderful and extremely healthy cuisine. Desayuno consists of fresh orange juice or half a cantaloup melon, hueuos ranches (ranch-style eggs), biscohos and black coffee or chocolate caliente (hot chocolate) which the children really like. For office workers in Mexico City, La comida can be a very long meal as the lunch break stretches from 1pm until 4pm. This meal which is usually eaten in a restaurant may consist of several courses and will include sopa a guada ('wet soup'), sopa seca ('dry soup' made of rice or pasta), a meat dish, vegetables, beans and salad, together with tortilla and salsa cruda, and a tropical fruit salad.

Try these Mexican recipes

Internet links to Mexican recipes

10 Authentic Mexican Recipes

Two recipes plus links to other recipes

Leslie's Mexican recipes