Don't leave Mexico without trying Mexican Food

Before we get started

Mexican food is, in my opinion, some of the best on the planet. But here's the thing: it was never really about the food alone. It's the culture wrapped around it. The history. The people who hand you a plate and then watch your face to see if you like it. So when you're in Mexico, eat everything. Talk to the locals and ask what they'd order. Ask why a dish matters to them. In this post I'll walk you through the Mexican foods I think you can't skip, and a bit about where each one comes from.

A quick primer

Few cuisines cover as much ground as this one. Street tacos on one end, proper sit-down gourmet plates on the other, and a flavour range in between that keeps surprising you. A few things I'd tell anyone landing for the first time:

-Order widely. Don't lock into one dish. The food shifts enormously from region to region, so the more you sample, the better a picture you get.

-Ask the locals where they eat. Seriously, this is the whole trick. The best places I've eaten were tips scribbled on a napkin, never anything I found in a guidebook.

-Say yes to the weird stuff. That thing you can't quite identify? Try it. Nine times out of ten you'll be glad you did.

Dishes worth crossing town for

There's a long list of things you'll want to eat here, and honestly it's hard to rank them. A few I'd start with:

1. Tortillas - Thin, unleavened flatbreads, and the backbone of pretty much everything. Eat them on their own, or use them to build tacos and quesadillas.

2. Tamales - Corn-based dumplings, steamed or boiled inside a leaf wrapper. Usually stuffed with meat, cheese or veg, and filling enough to be a whole meal on their own.

3. Pozole - A traditional soup built on hominy (dried maize kernels) and meat, usually pork. It comes garnished with shredded cabbage, radishes, lime and chilli, and half the fun is piling those on yourself.

4. Chile relleno - A roasted poblano pepper stuffed with cheese and deep-fried, then usually served under a tomato-based sauce. Rich, messy, worth it.

5. Enchiladas - Tortillas rolled around a filling, normally meat or cheese, then drowned in chilli sauce and baked before they reach you.

6. Burritos - A big tortilla packed with rice, beans, meat and whatever else, rolled up tight. The one you grab when you're eating on the move.

Where the good stuff is

Want the best of it? Head to Mexico City. That's where the traditional plates live - mole poblano, chiles en nogada, barbacoa de borrego. And the street food, too, like tacos al pastor and quesadillas that you'll be dreaming about weeks later.

For something more modern, Playa del Carmen is your spot. The restaurants there play around, mixing Mexican flavours with influences from all over. Some of it shouldn't work and somehow does.

And I'd never leave Puerto Vallarta out of this, not with the seafood they're doing. Fresh fish tacos, ceviche, whole grilled fish laid out in front of you. Anyone who likes food from the sea will eat well here.

Pick any of the three and you won't go hungry. Bon appetit, as they don't say in Mexico.

So what actually is Mexican food?

At its core it's a cuisine that grew up in Mexico, blending indigenous Mesoamerican cooking with European - mostly Spanish - influences that arrived after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in the 16th century. The three staples that hold it all together: corn, beans and chilli peppers.

It changes as you travel, but you'll run into tacos, burritos, quesadillas, enchiladas, tamales, mole sauce and chimichangas just about everywhere. For drinks, there's horchata (a rice-milk drink), and of course tequila and margaritas when the sun's going down.

If you want the real thing on your next trip, work your way through the dishes above. I don't think you'll regret a single one.

The main categories to know

It's one of the world's best-loved cuisines, and rightly so. Street tacos, enchiladas, the lot. Here's a rough map of what you'll be ordering:

Tacos: Probably the first thing anyone pictures. A corn or wheat tortilla, some meat, some veg, some sauce. Simple, endlessly variable.

Enchiladas: A tortilla filled with meat and cheese, then buried under chilli sauce. Comfort food, plain and simple.

Burritos: Cousins of the taco, but bigger and wrapped in a flour tortilla. Expect meat, cheese, beans and rice in the mix.

Tamales: The traditional one. Corn dough steamed inside a banana leaf or corn husk, filled with meat, veg, or sometimes fruit.

Pozole: A soup or stew, usually pork or chicken, thick with hominy (that's a type of corn), chillies and spices. The kind of thing you eat slowly.

My personal shortlist

So much to eat, so little stomach. If I had to point you at a handful of favourites:

-Tacos: The classic street snack, everywhere you look. Fresh corn tortillas, a rotating cast of meats, veg and sauces. Never the same twice.

-Enchiladas: Corn tortillas rolled and stuffed with meat or cheese, smothered in chilli pepper sauce, then baked until they're hot and bubbling at the edges.

-Tamales: Corn dough wrapped in a banana leaf or corn husk, filled with meat, cheese or veg, and steamed. There's a ritual to unwrapping them that I've come to love.

-Pico de gallo: A fresh salsa of diced tomato, onion, chilli and cilantro. Spoon it over tacos or enchiladas and everything gets brighter.

-Guacamole: Mashed avocado, diced tomato, onion, a good squeeze of lime, a pinch of salt. Top your tacos with it or just eat it on the side. No judgement here.

Trying it at home

Few things are as flavourful, or as colourful, as a table full of this stuff. Bright salsa, deep savoury enchiladas, the works. A few pointers if you want to make it in your own kitchen.

Start by pulling your ingredients together. Most recipes lean on tomatoes, onions, garlic, chilli peppers, cumin and a good bunch of fresh cilantro. Can't find fresh cilantro? Dried does the job in a pinch, no need to panic.

Then you cook. For something like salsa or guacamole, chop everything small, tip it all into a bowl, and stir until it's evenly mixed. That's basically it.

Enchiladas or tacos take a little more work. Cook your meat first - chicken or beef, usually - all the way through. Once it's done, add it to a big bowl with the rest of your ingredients and combine.

Now you assemble. For enchiladas, start by spreading a little sauce across the bottom of a baking

Last word

Mexican food gets under your skin. One good meal and you're hooked - I'm speaking from experience here. If you make it to Mexico, eat as widely as you possibly can, and don't overthink it. And if a trip isn't on the cards right now, plenty of solid Mexican restaurants across the United States will tide you over until it is. Go find those flavours. They're waiting.