Food & Drink

Authentic Mexican food differs quite dramatically from what is frequently served under that name in the United States. There's quite a bit of regional variety, as is the case in the Yucatán. But despite these differences, some generalizations can be made. Mexican food usually isn't spicy-hot or piquant when it arrives at the table (though many dishes must have a certain amount of piquancy, and some home cooking can be very spicy, depending on a family's or chef's tastes). The picante flavor is added with chiles and salsas after the food is served; you'll never see a table in Mexico without one or both of these condiments. Mexicans don't drown their cooking in cheese and sour cream, a la Tex-Mex, and they use a greater variety of ingredients than most people expect. But the basis of Mexican food is simple -- tortillas, beans, chiles, squash, and tomatoes -- the same as it was centuries ago before the arrival of the Europeans.

The Staples

Tortillas -- Traditional tortillas are made from corn that's been cooked in water and lime, then ground into masa (a grainy dough), patted and pressed into thin cakes, and cooked on a hot griddle known as a comal. In many households, the tortilla takes the place of fork and spoon; Mexicans merely tear them into wedge-shaped pieces, which they use to scoop up their food. Restaurants often serve bread rather than tortillas because it's easier, but you can always ask for tortillas. A more recent invention from northern Mexico is the flour tortilla.

Enchiladas -- The tortilla is the basis of several Mexican dishes, but the most famous of these is the enchilada. The original name for this dish would have been tortilla enchilada, which means a tortilla dipped in a chile sauce. In like manner, there's the entomatada (tortilla dipped in a tomato sauce) and the enfrijolada (in a bean sauce). The enchilada began as a very simple dish: A tortilla is dipped in very hot oil and then into chile sauce (usually with ancho chile), then quickly folded or rolled on a plate and sprinkled with chopped onions and a little queso cotija (crumbly white cheese) and served with a little fried potatoes and carrots. You can get this basic enchilada in food stands across the country. I love them, and if you come across them in your travels, give them a try. In restaurants you get the more elaborate enchilada, with different fillings of cheese, chicken, pork, or even seafood, and sometimes prepared as a casserole.

Tacos -- A taco is anything folded or rolled into a tortilla, and sometimes a double tortilla. The tortilla can be served either soft or fried. Flautas and quesadillas (except in Mexico City, where they are something quite different) are species of tacos. For Mexicans, the taco is the quintessential fast food, and the taco stand (taquería) a ubiquitous sight.

Frijoles -- In private households, pink or black beans are served at least once a day, and among the working class and peasantry, with every meal if the family can afford it. Mexicans almost always prepare beans with a minimum of condiments, usually just a little onion and garlic and a pinch of herbs. Beans are meant to be a contrast to the heavily spiced foods in a meal. Sometimes they are served at the end of a meal with a little Mexican-style sour cream.

Mexicans often fry leftover beans and serve them on the side as frijoles refritos. Refritos is often translated as "refried," but this is a misnomer -- the beans are fried only once. The prefix re means "well" (as in "thoroughly"), so a proper translation would be "well-fried beans."

Tamales -- To make a tamal, you mix corn masa with a little lard, beat the batter, add one of several fillings -- meats flavored with chiles -- then wrap it in a corn husk or in the leaf of a banana or other plant, and steam it. Every region in Mexico has its own traditional way of making tamales. In some places, a single tamal can be big enough to feed a family; while in others, they are barely three inches long and only about an inch thick.

Chiles -- There are many kinds of hot peppers, and Mexicans call each of them by one name when they're fresh and another when they're dried. Some are blazing hot with little flavor; some are mild but have a rich, complex flavor. They can be pickled, smoked, stuffed, or stewed.

Drinks

All over Mexico, you'll find shops selling licuados -- excellent and refreshing juices and smoothies made from several kinds of tropical fruit. You'll also come across aguas frescas -- water flavored with hibiscus, melon, tamarind, or lime. Soft drinks come in more flavors than in any other country I know. Pepsi and Coca-Cola taste the way they did in the United States years ago, before the makers started adding corn syrup.

The coffee is generally good, and hot chocolate is a traditional drink, as is atole -- a hot, corn-based beverage that can be sweet or bitter.

Of course, Mexico has a proud and lucrative beer-brewing tradition. A less-known brewed beverage is pulque, a pre-Hispanic drink made of the fermented juice of a few species of maguey or agave. Mostly you find it for sale in pulquerías in central Mexico. It is an acquired taste, and not every gringo acquires it. Mescal and tequila also come from the agave. Tequila is a variety of mescal produced from the A. tequilana species of agave in and around the area of Tequila, in the state of Jalisco. Mescal comes from various parts of Mexico and from different varieties of agave. The distilling process is usually much less sophisticated than that of tequila, and, with its stronger smell and taste, mescal is much more easily detected on the drinker's breath. In some places like Oaxaca it comes with a worm in the bottle; you are supposed to eat the worm after polishing off the mescal. But for those teetotalers out there who are interested in just the worm, I have good news -- you can find these worms for sale in Mexican markets when in season. ¡Salud!

Tequila 101 -- In the past 15 years, both the quality and the popularity of tequila have skyrocketed. The makers of tequila are, with one exception, still all based in the state of Jalisco. They have formed an association to establish standards for labeling and denomination. The best tequilas are invariably 100% agave, which means that they were made with a set minimum of sugar to prime the fermentation process. These tequilas come in three categories based on how they were stored: blanco, reposado, and añejo. Blanco is white tequila aged very little, usually in steel vats. Reposado (reposed) is aged in wooded casks for between 2 months and a year. And añejo (aged) has been stored in oak barrels for at least a year.

Regional Specialties

As in Mexico as a whole, cooking in the Yucatán is based on corn, beans, tomatoes, and chiles. What principally distinguishes this regional cooking is the use of several ingredients acquired from other lands, such as achiote or annatto and bitter orange, from the Caribbean Islands, peas, which probably came from interacting with the English, and Edam cheese through historical trade with the Dutch. You will even see a strong Middle Eastern influence thanks to recent immigrants living in the larger cities.

To start your day in the Yucatán, try huevos moluleños -- fried eggs over sliced plantains, beans, and fried tortillas and topped with a dusting of salty cheese, some tomato sauce, and peas -- but only if you're ravenous. Another morning dish is the well-known cochinita pibil (pork marinated in achiote and bitter orange and baked in a pit). The best place to have the former is in any reputable restaurant; the best place to have the latter would be a market such as el Mercado de Santa Ana in Mérida.

Original dishes for the afternoon meal include relleno negro, turkey cooked with a paste of charred chiles and vegetables with bits of hard boiled eggs; escabeche blanco, chicken or turkey cooked in a vinegar-based sauce; or queso relleno, mild Edam cheese stuffed with seasoned ground beef. For something lighter you can order grilled fish that has been lightly marinated in an achiote-based paste -- it's called Tikinxic, or some variant of this. All of these dishes are served in restaurants for the afternoon meal, but in restaurants in Cancún and on the coast, they will also appear on the evening menu.

Evening foods traditionally are based on turkey and include different finger foods such as salbutes and panuchos, two dishes of masa cakes with various toppings, such as frijoles and shredded turkey or chicken.

Beyond the Yucatán, one enters into more familiar culinary terrain, with more of the same dishes that are available across Mexico. When I'm in Villahermosa, Tabasco, I generally look for some kind of seafood. They have a fish in Tabasco called the pejelagarto, which has a delicious mild nutty taste. La Jangada in Villahermosa is my favorite place for this type of fish. Otherwise, I try to limit myself to simple dishes as neither Tabasco nor Chiapas have strong culinary traditions. Chiapas's cooking is similar to that of neighboring Guatemala -- they use a lot of beef either grilled or in a stew. Either of these options is usually a safe bet. Chiapan tamales can be good; they are heavier and larger than central Mexican tamales and flavored differently, often with the leaf of a variety of pepper tree called hoja santa.

Dining Service Tips

• For the main meal of the day, many restaurants offer a multicourse blue-plate special called comida corrida or menú del día. This is the most inexpensive way to get a full dinner.
• In Mexico you need to ask for your check; it is considered inhospitable to present a check to someone who hasn't requested it. If you're in a hurry, ask for the check when your food arrives.
• Tips are about the same as in the U.S. You'll sometimes find a 15% value-added tax on restaurant meals, which shows up on the bill as "IVA." This is effectively the tip -- a boon to arithmetically challenged tippers.
• To summon the waiter, wave or raise your hand, but don't motion with your index finger, which is a demeaning gesture that may even cause the waiter to ignore you. Or if it's the check you want, you can motion to the waiter from across the room using the universal pretend-like-you're-writing gesture.

Food Hygiene -- Many travelers to Mexico ask about the safety of beverages with ice. The truth is that most restaurants and bars buy ice made from purified water. This ice is made by the same kind of machinery all across Mexico. It produces ice cubes that have a rough cylindrical shape with a hollow center. They're easy to spot in your glass and are a sign that the ice is hygienic. Plain block ice carries no such guarantee. Likewise, almost all restaurants that cater to middle-class Mexicans use filtered water and disinfect vegetables, but street vendors and market stalls may not. I do eat in the market and in the street, but I'm careful to find places and pick foods that are relatively safe.