99 Mexican dishes you have to try al least once in your life

[Xipe Totec]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/javieraceves/la-cocina-mexicana-omg#.cxnQjgKZL

What's your score?

[mackerel]

1. Where is the Arroz con pollo? or Chile Relleno?

[Xipe Totec]

2. It's not a complete list of Mexican cuisine; just a list of dishes you ought to try at least once.

But I agree; chile relleno is a miss.

But they have Chile en Nogada which is a very specific variation of chile relleno.

[blogslut]

13. I love Chile Relleno

Our family would make sure to have it every time we went to Juarez.

[PoliticAverse]

3. I thought "Lonche" was the meal in the middle of the day. n/t

[Xipe Totec]

5. It is also; They are homophones - words that have more than one meaning. nt

[hunter]

4. Okay, now I'm hungry...

...and fortunately living in a predominately Mexican American community with dozens of little restaurants and markets that serve or sell ingredients for most of those dishes.

[hobbit709]

6. I've had over 50 of those.

[Xipe Totec]

7. You beat me. I can only claim 47

But one of my cousins is up to 90.

[Initech]

8. I need to get out more.

I live in Southern California and I've only had 13 of those.

[Downwinder]

9. No Tuna?

[Xipe Totec]

10. Which tuna?

This tuna?



Or this tuna?

[Downwinder]

11. The Sonoran one.

And where is the Flan?

[Xipe Totec]

14. Too vanilla nt

[Kali]

21. they are ALWAYS out of flan!

(this is a personal joke, I can't stand flan, but my two German friends are always trying to order flan or creme caramel wherever we go and they are always fresh out!)

[Xipe Totec]

32. Flan is to Mexican food as Soufflé is to French - almost impossible to get right

It's just a torture chamber for wannabe gourmets.

[hopemountain]

33. atún is a word for tuna

but, and there there are tunas - delicious cactus fruit.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. Ceviche!

[begin_within]

15. No flan, ceviche, chiles rellenos, camarones al diablo, champurrado, horchata, siete mares?

Ay Chihuahua. Forget it.

[Xipe Totec]

16. Chiles rellenos are there, just not the version you expect

Look up chile en nogada.

Anyway, it's not an exhaustive list, just a list of dishes you should try at least once.

[begin_within]

20. ok

[kwassa]

17. Pathetic. A mere 17.

though many of the choices were very specific.

And I've had a lot of Mexican food in my Los Angeles days, I would have no source for any of this here in Maryland. We get mostly corporate Mexican here.

I miss a great chile verde from Lucy's Drive-In on Pico.

[Xipe Totec]

18. Visit San Miguel de Allende, or Guanajuato

You won't be disappointed. It will be an epicurean experience.

[kwassa]

19. I would love to ....

but it isn't likely soon.

Here, Chipotles is the zenith of Mexican food. Imagine that.

[Kali]

22. I only got about 37

some may be names I just didn't recognize or I have had some other version. also I am more familiar with the north.

I can eat sea bugs and some slimey things but, I ain't eating insects or larva on purpose, no way just can't do it.

[Xipe Totec]

24. The escamoles are delicious. Taste peanutty. nt

[gvstn]

23. It is sad.

Even my local Mexican restaurants serve up the same fare. No matter what you order it seems to come out in a soft tortilla with some ground beef etc. Nothing spectacular, where I would really crave Mexican food at least from my local restaurants.

[Lithos]

25. It's Mexican

But no average Mexican would have enjoyed but a fraction as this offering is a survey of many regional favorites.

L-

P.S.

May have missed it - but did not see Napoles - cactus which actually if done right is extremely delicious.

[Xipe Totec]

26. Ensalada de nopal is right there.

I've had nopales.

In salad, cooked with chorizo, and in more ways than you can imagine.

But you are right, only a small group of Mexicans have had the privilege of tasting such a wide variety of these dishes.

That's the whole point of the list.

[kentauros]

27. So, where's the vegetarian version of that list?

[Xipe Totec]

28. Huitlacoche, Ensalada de nopal,...

chapulines (are insects considered vegetarian?)

Platano frito,

Escamoles (again, insects?)


Guacamole,

Huauzontle,

There's a few...


PS: Crema de Elote

[kentauros]

29. That's just it:

It's a "few."

As I don't speak (or read) Spanish, it's too much work to load each entrée into Google for a translate.

Now, I do know at least one I managed to glimpse before closing the window (Chiles en Nogada) can be done vegetarian style, but my favorite local Mexican place took that off their menu when they relocated. I'm still shaking my head in wonder at that menu choice...

Plenty of Mexican food can be done for vegetarians (no insects) but finding a similar list done that way is likely futile. I just thought I'd ask in case you knew of one

[Xipe Totec]

30. Other than the insect ones, those I listed are vegetarian

I would add mahuacatas, but that's such a local thing that it's impossible to get outside the area of origin.

They are the seeds of the so called Texas Ebony that grows exclusively in the Tamaulipas region.

They taste like peanuts.

[kentauros]

34. I understand the ones you listed are vegetarian.

But I seriously doubt there's an online list somewhere of "99 Mexican Vegetarian Dishes" in which to vote or boast having eaten

In fact, Mexican food is one cuisine where I don't see chefs really delving into making their traditional dishes into vegetarian versions. And, after doing a quick check of Houston restaurants that are either all-veggie or veg-friendly, the few Mexican places are only veg-friendly, and most of them are chains.

Mexican food is big in Texas (Tex-Mex) so you'd think with all the thousands and thousand of restaurants here that there'd be one Mexican place with more than a few veggie options, or even one that's all vegetarian. Not so. If Indians, Chinese and Vietnamese can do it, and with quite successful restaurants, why not so for our neighbors to the south?

I just find it rather weird, that's all

[Xipe Totec]

36. Well finding 99 dishes that are vegetarian, of any genre, is going to be tougher

Than finding 99 dishes no hold barred.

I think you understand that; that vegetarian dishes are a subset of all dishes.

If you restrict the ingredients, you limit the possibilities.

That's just the way it is.

Within those parameters, I'm all for finding vegetarian versions of popular dishes.

But I also think that it is up to the vegetarian community to come up with those dishes.

[kentauros]

39. Well, the vegetarian community does come up with those dishes.

Probably the most popular veggie restaurant in Houston is Chinese. They make their own meat analogues that are so good even meat-embracing omnivores love it (my past-wife loved that place and couldn't tell the difference in texture and flavor.) So, technically, you don't even need to restrict the ingredients with the option of meat analogues. And really, how many meats are there in comparison to how many vegetables/fruits there are?

My question is more along the lines of: why aren't there vegetarian Mexican restaurants when it's possibly the largest cuisine of its kind in this city alone? Why wouldn't the most popular ethnic cuisine have even just one single restaurant that's vegetarian?

There are enough vegetarians out there (and omnivores that love veggie cuisine) to keep such a place in business.

I didn't want to hijack your thread on this topic. It was just a tease about such a list maybe existing out there somewhere

[KamaAina]

50. Get thee to south Berkeley at once!

On Adeline near Ashby, you will find Flaco's, a vegan taqueria.

http://www.flacos.com/

!Delicioso!

[kentauros]

52. That's a bit far to drive

I'd expect as much in California, anyway. Most people wouldn't think any vegetarian places would exist in Texas, save Austin, but they'd also be quite wrong. Just no Mexican vegetarian places here (Houston.) Or none listed by the vegetarian sites.

Well, I'm about to get ready so I can do a little Chinese grocery shopping. Need to stock up on bunches of mint

[KamaAina]

53. Veggie burritos are popular out here as well

Your basic burrito minus the carne asada or carnitas or whatever, sometimes with cheese.

[Xipe Totec]

31. PS: My wife makes wonderful vegetarian dishes

She makes some fried tacos with potato, chile and bell pepper filling,

And refried beans, baked eggplant...

Mole is also vegetarian. Right up to the point when you put it over chicken or turkey.

Tacos de huitlacoche is my absolute favorite vegetarian dish.

[kentauros]

35. Mole is one of those sauces I have to be careful about.

Because it can also be made with chicken broth (often in restaurants, it is.)

I really loved that Chiles en Nogada plate, though. It was stuffed with wild rice, slivered almonds, and green olives. I never could eat both chiles; always had to take one home. It reheated well, so it worked as a second meal

Mexican cuisine is probably the second most popular cuisine in the state, and in Houston, with typical American being top (burgers, steak, BBQ.) A good chef could make a good living with a vegetarian Mexican restaurant here. Maybe your wife is up to the challenge?

[Xipe Totec]

38. That's true. Both about the broth and about the challenge

She wants to start up a food truck.

And although we're actually in South Texas at the moment, my company is in Boston and there's a good chance we'll end up back there at some point. And there's a huge market for vegetarian and vegan dishes there....

So,... yea...

I'm not a vegetarian per-se, but I love vegetarian dishes. Particularly Indian.

Not on philosophical grounds, or health reasons. I just think they taste awesome.

[kentauros]

40. Is there a "Foodtrucks for Dummies" book?

Short of cornering foodtruck people and picking their brains, I don't know where you'd learn how to set up such a thing. It's popular, yet might be harder to keep in hygiene compliance.

Hmm, what about an Indo-Mexican fusion?

[Xipe Totec]

41. Food truck for dummies is called "Google"

Seriously. There's a lot of info out there. You just need to google

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+do+i+start+a+food+truck+business+in+texas

Indo-Mexican sounds great! We actually had some Indian friends over for dinner one night and served them the dishes I mentioned earlier. They loved them.

Of course we prepared them especially or them, knowing they were vegetarian.



But if you think about it a little deeper, you realize that 500 years ago, the old world had never heard of tomatoes, potatoes, chiles, or corn.

Dishes that contain these ingredients are, by definition, fusion cuisine...

And spaghetti & tomato sauce is the first Chinese-American fusion dish.

[kentauros]

42. While I don't really need the foodtruck info,

it might be one for y'all to bookmark

I was looking at one of the vegetarian Indian places here, and it said it was even Jain-friendly (Sagar Indian Cuisine.)

Oddly enough, the mention of the New World foods reminds me of Firesign Theater:

CONQUISTADOR 1: What the Father means . . . is what is the cross made of? Gold! Have you got any?

INDIAN 1: No.

CONQUISTADOR 1: What about the seven cities of gold? Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas?

INDIAN 2: Uh, this is gold.

CONQUISTADOR 1: What’s that?

INDIAN 1: Corn.

CONQUISTADOR 2: Hey, corn! Now we can make tortillas!

CONQUISTADOR 3: We’ve been waiting for this for hundreds of years.

CONQUISTADOR 4: I’ve just invented tacos.

[Xipe Totec]

43. I call this dish East Indian meets West Indian

[kentauros]

44. It looks spicy!

It looks good, too

[Xipe Totec]

45. It is spicy, yes. With East Indian spices. The heat is all inside the chiles

Which you can bite into depending on your heat tolerance.

[kentauros]

46. I'd probably just leave it alone.

Food that's too spicy makes me hiccup, and then I can't eat until that subsides.

[Xipe Totec]

47. My daughter's boyfriend told me after a visit: It's pointless to ask a Mexican if a dish is hot

They always say: No, not really. Try it!

He's from Slovakia, by the way.

[kentauros]

48. That's funny!

Thanks!

[jonno99]

37. K&R

[KamaAina]

49. Solamente siete.

Y vivo en Califas.

!Tengo hambre!

[mainer]

51. Where are the recipes? The descriptions?

The places where we can eat them?

It's not enough to make us hungry. You have to tell us how to satisfy that hunger.

[IDemo]

54. Les faltan mi favorita - la campechana

http://www.food.com/recipe/campechana-mexican-seafood-soup-333310

[Xipe Totec]

56. Vuelve a la vida. nt

[Major Nikon]

55. ...