Almost everyone has been to a Mexican restaurant at least once in their lives, but there's
a good chance that most people don't know just how rich and expansive Mexico's culinary
tradition can be.
These are the Mexican foods you need to try at least once in your life.
Though you might see the word "barbacoa" listed on a Mexican restaurant menu, the term isn't
so much the name of a dish as it is a method of cooking.
Barbacoa is the process of steam cooking meat in an underground oven until the meat is very
tender.
In the U.S., barbacoa is often made with parts of a cow's head, typically the cheeks.
In Mexico, though, the preferred type of meat ranges from lamb to goat, chicken, rabbit,
and more.
No matter what kind of meat is used, however, barbacoa is generally served on corn tortillas
with onions, cilantro, and a variety of salsas.
Give it a go, and if it does happen to contain cow's cheeks, don't panic.
A little adventure never hurt anybody.
Traditionally made with goat meat or mutton, you may also find the spicy stew known as
birria in Mexican restaurants in the U.S.
If you're traveling in Mexico, however, you'll find birria tacos at roadside stands and small
restaurants across the country.
The slow-cooked, super moist meat is typically served in a shallow bowl and topped with chopped
onions, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime.
You can also use corn tortillas to make birria tacos, or just to sop up that hearty, spicy
broth.
Forget the charro or refried beans, next time you're in a Mexican restaurant, ask if they
have borracho beans.
Frijoles borracho, literally meaning "drunken beans," are pinto beans cooked in beer, bacon
drippings, and spices.
The layers of flavors are genuinely wonderful and act as a nice complement to any Mexican
dishes, but especially those made with pork.
Poblano, jalapeno, or serrano peppers are often added to borracho beans, as well as
diced tomatoes, onions, and cilantro.
Definitely a good choice if you want to shake things up a little.
Carne asada is beef, often skirt steak or tenderloin, that has been marinated and then
grilled.
It's a staple dish in parts of Mexico and a common plate at most good Mexican restaurants
throughout the United States.
You can also find raw carne asada that is already marinated at grocery stores and meat
markets.
If you decide to buy that, it's ready to rock, all you have to do is grill it.
Carne asada is generally served with a side of rice and beans, or sliced and used to fill
tacos or burritos.
This is a simple Mexican favorite that is well worth trying, just don't be surprised
when it becomes a staple in your household, too.
If you've never tried carnitas, you're definitely missing out.
It's kind of similar to pulled pork, a pork shoulder roast is cooked low and slow in lard
or oil so that the meat becomes tender and juicy.
However, unlike pulled pork, the meat is finished by turning up the heat and making the outside
of the pork slightly crisp.
Carnitas are served with corn tortillas and topped with avocado, onions, salsa, and other
condiments.
If you're feeling clever, you can also use carnitas in burritos or tamales.
A cemita is a kind of sandwich served on a soft, sesame seed roll.
The sandwich ingredients include meat, avocado, onion, peppers, and white cheese, along with
red salsa and papalo, a tasty yet often ignored Mexican herb.
Originally from Puebla, Mexico, the cemita is an easy lunch or snack that is jam-packed
with flavor.
You can stuff your cemitas with carnitas, beef, or any of your other favorite meats
and the result will be the same, absolutely delicious.
Ceviche originated in Peru or Ecuador, depending on who you ask, and consists of raw fish cured
in citrus juice.
This common Latin American appetizer is usually spiced with peppers, onions, and other seasonings.
"Actually, ceviche is very easy, very simple.
We believe the origin comes from Peru or Chile, and then Mexico it's been for a very long
time."
Mexican ceviche is often made from shrimp and lime juice, along with avocado, cilantro,
and jalapeno.
And honestly, there's nothing like eating spicy ceviche and sipping on a cold cerveza
while lying on a beach in Mexico.
But if you can't make it out to Mexico right now, don't fret, your local Mexican joint
will likely serve this stuff, or you could even make it in your own kitchen.
Just cure the shrimp in lime juice long enough that the shrimp turns pink, and then start
adding whichever ingredients and spices you like.
Chalupas are kind of like open-faced tacos.
The base is a deep-fried corn tortilla that is slightly curved on the edges to hold in
the ingredients.
The tortillas are typically topped with ground beef (or shredded chicken or pork), along
with cheese, lettuce, and tomato.
Some people like to slather refried beans on their chalupas before adding the meat;
others like to load them up with sour cream and guac.
Whatever you prefer, these crispy delights make for a truly tasty meal.
And, to be clear: The things Taco Bell sells under the name chalupa are totally different.
Okay, sure, chapulines are fried or roasted grasshoppers.
But don't make that face, this is one Mexican dish you really should try at least once.
A popular snack in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, chapulines are seasoned with garlic, lime,
and salt.
You'll often find them sold by the scoop by street vendors.
You can eat them plain, wrapped in a tortilla with a few slices of avocado, or mixed with
sausage and cheese.
Believe it or not, grasshoppers are actually a healthy, high protein food.
Give them a go: you might just be surprised by their mild, smokey flavor.
Chicharrones are thin cuts of pork belly that are fried until they're crispy, and you'll
find them sold throughout Latin America as well as in the Southwest United States.
In Mexico, they are made and sold at farmers markets as well as by street vendors.
They can be eaten as a snack or served as a main dish.
Munch on them plain, dip them in sauce, or wrap them in a tortilla along with avocado,
queso fresco, and salsa, it's totally up to you.
Snack food companies often sell their own crispy, fried pork rinds that are spiced with
different flavorings.
And although they may be marketed as chicharrones, they're just not the same as the authentic
variety.
Pork rinds are just the skin, whereas chicharrones consist of skin, fat, and a little bit of
meat.
Don't go confusing one for the other.
Chorizo is a spicy ground pork sausage that is widely used in Mexican and Spanish cuisine.
Mexican chorizo is generally sold raw, and is seasoned with spicy red peppers and vinegar.
Spanish chorizo, meanwhile, is sold fully cooked, and appears either dry or semi-cured
and soft.
The Mexican version is often scrambled with eggs and served with tortillas for a breakfast
dish, but you can eat chorizo anytime of day.
Chorizo can be used to make chili, can be added into queso, or can replace ground beef
or pork in pretty much any other Mexican recipe.
Cochinita pibil is a dish made when a whole suckling pig is marinated with sour oranges,
onions, and achiote, wrapped in banana leaves, and then roasted.
Historically, it's roasted underground in a pit with a fire at the bottom.
If you don't have the means to cook it this way, you can roast the meat slowly in your
oven or, better yet, just find it at a local Mexican eatery.
You might discover it on the menu listed as Mayan-style pork.
Wrap your cochinita pibil in lightly fried tortillas, along with avocado, radish, and
red onion for a delectable Mexican meal.
Elote, otherwise known as Mexican street corn, is typically grilled on a skewer and slathered
in a mixture of mayonnaise, crema, and chili powder.
It's then dusted with cotija cheese.
You can buy elote from Mexican street vendors, and you'll also find it at festivals in Mexico
and the United States.
If this is the kind of thing you've seen but never tried before, consider giving it a go,
because this sweet and spicy treat should make the perfect snack.
Just remember to add a little extra chili powder if you really want to turn up the heat.
A staple of Mexican cuisine, enchiladas are corn tortillas that have been rolled around
a filling of some sort, usually beef, chicken or cheese, but sometimes a combination of
those ingredients.
The tortilla is then smothered in a special sauce.
While there are different types of enchiladas, enchiladas verdes are normally filled with
chicken and topped with green enchilada sauce, crema, cilantro, and cheese, and they go great
with a side of Mexican rice and refried beans.
Flan
"Flan!
Flan!"
"Flan!
Yay, flan!
Flan!"
"What's flan?"
Funny you should ask.
Flan is a silky, creamy custard made from milk, eggs, vanilla beans, and salt.
Caramelized sugar is used to make a mold for the mixture to cook in.
When it's removed from the oven, the flan is flipped over onto a plate, and the caramelized
sugar becomes the top layer of the dessert.
If you've been to any Mexican restaurant in your life, you've probably seen flan on the
menu.
Next time you see it, give it a try, after all, there is a reason it's so popular.
Flautas are flour tortillas rolled around a filling and then deep-fried.
They're typically served with guacamole and sour cream on top, or on the side for dipping,
and usually come in threes.
If you like crispy tacos, you'll love flautas; or taquitos, which are pretty much the same
thing but made with corn tortillas.
Even better, they can be filled with just about anything, although chicken flautas are
especially delicious.
Yes, huaraches are a kind of sandal, but it's also the name of a popular Mexican food, too.
The edible variety are flattened masa shaped, funnily enough, to resemble the sole of such
sandals.
The fried masa base can be large, like a pizza, or made small enough to be bite-size appetizers.
Huaraches are traditionally topped with beans and cheese, but you can put just about anything
on them, and in Mexico and parts of the Southwest U.S., huaraches are often eaten alongside
fried cactus leaves, otherwise known as nopales.
Menudo is more than just a 1980s Latin boy band.
It's also tripe soup with a red chili pepper broth that is seasoned with hominy, oregano,
onions, and lime.
Though you might be hesitant to try menudo, on account of the whole tripe thing, you really
should grab a spoon next time you see this soup on the menu, because this traditional
Mexican dish is hearty, filling, and tasty to boot.
It's cooked over many hours and, in Mexico, is often served at wedding receptions and
other family gatherings.
But here's an added bonus: In the U.S., many people believe that menudo is the perfect
hangover cure.
What could possibly go wrong?
You're probably used to making hot chocolate by opening a pack of powder, pouring it into
your cup, and adding hot water or milk, the standard method, basically.
But Mexican hot chocolate is completely different.
It's made from whole milk, finely chopped chocolate, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg,
salt, and even a little bit of cayenne pepper.
Just like with the plain version, you'll want to pour this chocolate deliciousness into
a mug and top it with whipped cream and a dusting of cocoa powder right before serving.
You'll also want one of these.
"This is a molinillo, and it's for frothing your drinking chocolate."
The result is an amazing beverage that warms the body and soul on even the coldest of nights.
It might take a little more effort to make, but every sip will be more than worth it.
If you like bruschetta, you'll love molletes, which are basically the Mexican version of
the Italian classic.
Molletes are broiled, open-faced sandwiches.
Typically refried beans are spread on bolillos that have been sliced lengthwise.
The bread is then sprinkled with cheese, topped with sliced jalapenos, and broiled in the
oven until crispy.
You can top these sandwiches with salsa, pico de gallo, or anything else you'd like, for
a simple lunch or an easy-to-make appetizer.
Pico de gallo is fresh, uncooked salsa traditionally made from chopped tomatoes, diced onions,
chiles, cilantro, lime juice, and salt.
Luckily, pico de gallo is very easy to make at home and can be found in almost every Mexican
restaurant.
You can use it on just about everything too, from tacos to scrambled eggs to fish to cheeseburgers.
Whatever you use it with, pico de gallo will add a fresh and spicy element that you'll
never want to miss out on again.
While bananas are a fruit favorite across the United States, relatively few people have
experience with plantains.
Even fewer will have tried platanos fritos.
Platanos fritos are plantains that have been sliced and then fried in oil.
Weirdly enough, in Mexico, you'll often find this dish topped with either sour cream or
some sort of cheese, rather than any kind of sweet topping.
But it's possible to plan ahead and get a handle on the flavors of platanos fritos,
if you're getting your plantains from the local grocery store, keep this in mind: the
darker the plantain, the sweeter it will taste.
You might hear them called polvorones, Mexican wedding cakes, or Mexican wedding cookies,
but they are all the same thing: Balls of dough made from butter, sugar, flour, and
ground almonds, pecans, or walnuts, that are then baked and rolled in powdered sugar.
The result is a very crumbly yet very tasty little cookie that is, as you might have guessed,
often served at Mexican weddings.
If you've never tried them before, you might be surprised how crumbly and delicious they
really are.
Have your napkin ready, and don't be surprised if you can't eat just the one.
Okay, full disclosure here: pozole was originally made with human meat...but don't let that
put you off.
Today, this traditional Mexican soup is mostly made with pork, which, according to some sources,
is pretty much the next best thing.
As well as pork, pozole also contains hominy, chiles and a wide array of seasonings, and
should make for a hearty winter warmer once the cold weather starts to set in.
Quesadillas are tortillas sprinkled with cheese, folded over, and heated until the cheese melts.
Now, this may not seem too exciting compared to some Mexican dishes, but quesadillas can
be a whole lot more than just that.
Although simple cheese quesadillas are loved by kids everywhere, many people include far
more fillings than just cheese.
For example, spicy chicken and caramelized onions make amazing quesadilla fillings.
Other combinations often used include blackened shrimp and crunchy bacon; chorizo, queso fresco
and eggs; or smoked gouda and mushrooms.
You can put just about anything inside your quesadilla to jazz it up, and that's half
the fun of it.
Queso fundido is basically molten cheese.
To spice things up a little, you'll want to use a combination of cheeses rather than simply
one.
In particular, many people like to mix Oaxaca cheese, Chihuahua cheese, and mozzarella for
an amazingly gooey result.
There should also be some other ingredients included in the queso before you start dipping
your chips.
Chorizo, chiles, tomatoes, and onions are among the top choices here.
In restaurants, the cheese concoction is also often flambéed to add a little more excitement
to the proceedings.
After that, all you need to do is grab some nachos and get dipping.
Sopa Azteca is the authentic version of what many in the United States call tortilla soup.
While American tortilla soup usually has just a handful of ingredients, however, and isn't
known for being especially flavorful, that's not the case with sopa Azteca.
In Mexico, they add a whole host of ingredients including diced tomatoes, chile, garlic, cilantro,
onion, multiple types of peppers, and various kinds of cheese.
On the top of your sopa Azteca, you'll usually get slices of avocados, a scoop of sour cream,
wedges of lime, and tortilla chips.
Tacos al pastor is a dish that features some of the tastiest pork on the planet.
The pork in these tacos has been marinated in a variety of spices and then spit-roasted.
When the pork is ready, it's added to a corn tortilla and then topped with chopped cilantro
and onions.
Even if you think you don't like cilantro, it's mandatory in tacos al pastor, and you're
bound to love it in tandem with all those other ingredients.
Once just a Christmas tradition, tamales seem to be growing in popularity by the day.
You can't go anywhere without seeing this traditional Mexican food, and for good reason,
too.
Tamales are made up of masa or dough, steamed in a corn husk.
The middle filling of tamales varies greatly.
Beef, pork, and chicken are all popular fillings, but there are plenty of tasty dessert tamales
out there that are filled with fruits, jams, and even cheeses.
A torta tecolota is a breakfast sandwich that can be found almost exclusively in Mexico
City.
The bread of this sandwich is a bolillo roll that has been toasted and slathered with refried
beans and then blessed with cheese crumbles, cilantro, and onion.
Sometimes a fried egg is also placed in the sandwich, and to add a little flavor and texture,
many people like to add fried pieces of tortilla that have been bathed in salsa, for the perfect
final touch.
Like many other Mexican sandwiches, torta ahogada uses a bolillo roll for the bread,
and is filled with beans or a certain kind of meat, in this case, that's typically chicken
or pork.
But the most important part of a torta ahogada is what happens next: it's all drenched in
a spicy red chili sauce.
And remember: "Ahogada" means "drowned", so it's not a true torta ahogada unless your
sandwich is dripping wet.
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