Food — Mexico

Mexican cuisine has been on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list since 2010 — a first for any national cuisine. It rests on a founding triad — corn, beans, chiles — around which centuries of know-how have built one of the most intricate and varied culinary traditions in the world. The Spanish conquerors brought pork, chicken, dairy and certain spices; Mexicans absorbed them without ever surrendering the pre-Hispanic core of their diet.

Corn is far more than an ingredient in Mexico — it's a sacred being in Maya cosmogony and the raw material for tortillas, tamales, tlayudas, tostadas, sopes, huaraches and grilled elotes. The ancestral technique of nixtamalization — soaking dried corn in lime water — preserves its nutrients and gives the tortilla its unmistakable flavor. This single technique is what separates a Mexican tortilla from every other flatbread on earth. Chiles are the soul of the cuisine: fresh (jalapeño, serrano, habanero), dried (ancho, mulato, pasilla, chipotle), smoked — each variety brings its own note, and Mexico cultivates more than 60 distinct species.

Mole is often cited as the most sophisticated dish in Mexican cuisine: a sauce of colonial origin built from 20 to 40 ingredients (chiles, dark chocolate, spices, sesame seeds, tomatoes, broth), whose preparation can run two days. The mole negro of Oaxaca, deep and almost obsidian, is regarded as one of the greatest sauces in world cuisine. Tacos — the global emblem of Mexican food — are in reality an infinity of regional specialties: tacos al pastor (marinated pork with pineapple), carnitas (slow-cooked pork), de guisado (stewed fillings), barbacoa (pit-cooked lamb), and grilled fish on the coast. Mexican street food is endlessly inventive: steamed and leaf-wrapped tamales, quesadillas, gorditas, chilaquiles, chiles en nogada (the national flag on a plate, green/white/red).

The national drink is, of course, mezcal — and its industrial cousin tequila — both distilled from agave, a plant endemic to Mexico. Artisanal Oaxacan mezcal has caught fire globally in the last decade, and the palenques (small distilleries) of the Ejutla and Tlacolula valleys now welcome enthusiasts from around the world. Cacao, originally Mexican, gives us the chocolate that the Aztecs drank cold and spiced (xocolatl) — a tradition Oaxacan chocolatiers still keep alive with style. Visitors who skip Mexican food in favor of safer international fare miss roughly half the country.