Chocolate, avocados, tacos – Mexico’s culinary gifts to the world, and ways to use them in the kitchen

Spanish conquistadores went to Mexico in search of gold, but it was culinary treasures their ships carried home to Spain: tomatoes, squash, peanuts, chocolate

In recent decades more exotic Mexican ingredients, such as squash blossom, and dishes like ceviche have been popularised, two food writers recount

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Cooking tamales in Mexico City. A 1991 book, México: The Beautiful Cookbook, introduced readers to ingredients that originated in Mexico and described how to make popular Mexican dishes such as tamale. Photo: Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Susan Jung

Published: 4:15am, 7 Feb 2022

What would Italian food be without tomatoes, or Indian food without chillies? Imagine life without chocolate, or squash or beans.

In México: The Beautiful Cookbook (1991), authors Marilyn Tausend and Susanna Palazuelos point out the contributions Mexican ingredients have made to world cuisines.

In the introduction, they write: “Until recently, most average food lovers thought of Mexican cooking in terms of tacos, tamales and tongue-scorching salsas. Few were aware of the exquisite moles and pipianes with their sauces of ground pumpkin seeds and spices, or the naturally ‘cooked’ ceviche, a medley of raw seafood marinated in lime juice.

“Nor did they know that the soul-satisfying cup of hot chocolate they happily sipped on a cold winter day was a gift of the cacao and vanilla of Mexico’s first civilisations.

A woman in Mexico makes chocolate from cocoa beans the traditional way. Photo: dpa

“Then, in the mid-1970s, British-born Diana Kennedy stirred up the gastronomical world with her cookbooks on the regional cuisines of Mexico, and it was realised that such exotic ingredients as squash blossoms and the fleshy paddles of nopal cactus were being used by Mexican cooks to create subtly flavored dishes very similar to those prepared by the Aztecs.

“It became obvious that Mexican food was not just another fast food but a distinct and truly great cuisine.”