New Mexican cuisine

New Mexican cuisine is the regional cuisine of the US state of New Mexico. Part of the broader Southwestern cuisine, New Mexico food culture is a fusion of Spanish and Mediterranean, Mexican, Pueblo Native American, and Cowboy Chuckwagon influences. "New Mexican food is not the same as Mexican and Tex-Mex" foods preferred in Texas and Arizona. New Mexico is the only state with an official question—"Red or green?"—referring to the choice of red or green chile. Combining both red and green chile is often referred to as "Christmas".

Chile and other ingredients

Chile, beans, and corn have been described as the "basic ingredients of New Mexico cooking," and all can be locally grown.

One of its defining characteristics of New Mexican Cuisine is the dominance of the New Mexico chile, which are either red or green depending on their stage of ripeness when picked. Other distinctive elements include blue corn, the stacked enchilada, and sopapillas into which honey is added moments before eating. Tex-Mex additions such as sour cream (lack of refrigeration) and Cal-Mex additions such as guacamole (avocado does not grow in the desert climate of New Mexico) are also noticeably absent in traditional New Mexican cuisine.

Mexican cuisine

Mexican cuisine is primarily a fusion of indigenous Mesoamerican cooking with European, especially Spanish, elements added after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in the 16th century. The basic staples are native foods, such as corn, beans and chili peppers. Europeans introduced a large number of other foods, the most important of which were meats from domesticated animals (beef, pork, chicken, goat, and sheep), dairy products (especially cheese), and various herbs and spices.

While the Spanish initially tried to impose their own diet on the country, this was not possible and eventually the foods and cooking techniques began to be mixed, especially in colonial era convents. African and Asian influences were also introduced into the mixture during this era as a result of African slavery in New Spain and the Manila-Acapulco Galleons.

Over the centuries, this resulted in regional cuisines based on local conditions, such as those in Oaxaca, Veracruz and the Yucatán Peninsula. Mexican cuisine is an important aspect of the culture, social structure and popular traditions of Mexico. The most important example of this connection is the use of mole for special occasions and holidays, particularly in the South and Center regions of the country. For this reason and others, Mexican cuisine was inscribed in 2010 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

New Mexican

New Mexican (noun) may refer to:

New Mexican (adjective) may refer to:

See also