[Aztlan] Modern Mexican Cuisine Text

[Richard A. Diehl]

Modern Mexican Cuisine Text 

Last month Sue and I attended the Society for American Archaeology annual meeting in Austin, the good-food capital of Texas. Later, while verbally reliving an especially fabulous Mexican meal (not Tex-Mex, Nouveau-Mex, Alabama-Mex or any other hyphenated Mexican cuisine), we began discussing the pre-Columbian roots of modern Mexican foods. Anthropologists frequently emphasize the long history of this great culinary tradition but as we talked, we realized that virtually all of "Mexican cuisine" except for a few ancient cultivated plants is based upon Old World plants, animals and cooking techniques. Sophie D. Coe had looked at the issue from the American perspective in her delightful book America's First Cuisines but when I delved into the matter looking through the other end of the telescope, so to speak, I was astounded. In one Mexican cook book on our shelf, (Fonda San Miguel: Thirty Years of Food and Art by Tom Gilliland, Miguel Ravago and Virginia B. Wood) only one of the 106 recipes can be made without Old World ingredients. What might that be? Why of course, maize tortillas!

So what foods were not here before the Spanish Conquest? Well, just a partial list includes the following animals: cattle, pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, European ducks, and domesticated rabbits and bees. Among the plants we find rice, wheat, grapes, olives, sugar cane, lettuce, cabbage, bell peppers, onions, garlic, cinnamon, coffee, tea, apples, citrus fruits, watermelons, cantaloupe, cumin, and cilantro.

A list the food stuffs is one thing; a look at the dishes for they go into makes one shudder. Meat dishes include mole, carnitas, chicharrón, cabrito al horno, barbacoa, chorizo, carne asada a la Tampiqueña, cochinita pibil, albóndigas, loma adobada, pollo asado, huachinango a la  veracruzana (no olive oil, black pepper, limes, onion garlic, bay leaves, olives or capers), camarrones empanizados (no breading) or camarrones a mojo de ajo (no garlic). Other favorite foods Hernan Cortes could not have found in Tenochtitlán eateries include chili relleno, huevos rancheros, gorditas, enchiladas suizas (I know one archaeologist who would change professions if he could not get his daily enchilada suiza fix), sopa Azteca, quesadillas, guacamole (no lime juice, cilantro, or onions), sopa de elote, sopa de fideo, pellizcadas, helados Tres Marias, orange juice, flan, or café de olla.

Finally, no beer, wine, tequila or brandy! Yes Justin, I know, that means no Margaritas. Perhaps the only upside, for at least a few of us, is that the lack of lard and cooking oil meant no fried foods. 

In the absence of all these dishes, ancient Mexico would still have been a fun place to visit but not the gastronomic delight that awaits the modern visitor. This is not to say that the ancient Mesoamerican diet was inadequate, boring or unhealthy. It was not; in fact, it may have been much healthier than the one I've come to love. One wonders about the ancient incidence of obesity, diabetes, coronary disease and other nutrition-related maladies. I suspect they were not a problem, although studies of skeletons do not provide information on such topics. Nevertheless, I simply hate to think of what turkey mole would taste like without rice, vegetable oil, black pepper, garlic, cinnamon, sesame seeds, anise, cilantro, raisins and almonds. 

Any thoughts, fellow listeros? 

Dick Diehl