Americans are a lot of things, including big fans of food. One of the favorite foods in America is Mexican food, which is why foodies across the country always have a wide variety of some of the best mexican restaurants around to choose from whenever they get a craving for a cheesy quesadilla or spicy taco. In fact, according to studies, there were about 38,000 Mexican restaurants scattered throughout the U.S. as of 2011 and an estimated one out of every 10 restaurants have Mexican food on their menu, solidifying the cuisine as the most popular type of food in the country. That’s saying something, considering the fact that America is the melting pot of the world and therefore has many types of food to choose from.
But Americans aren’t just crazy about getting Mexican food when they eat out at restaurants. American households, nearly 71 percent, enjoy cooking their own delicious Mexican food using authentic ingredients. Why all the love for Mexican food, you might wonder? Well, a large chunk of Americans enjoy trying new flavors of ethnic cuisine and tend to favor bold flavors and unfamiliar foods.
So what are some of the traditional Mexican dishes that Americans enjoy? For starters, we really like our enchiladas, a term that was first used in the U.S. in 1885. Burritos are also popular, which is why an estimated 67,391 restaurants serve the burrito on their menu. Americans also enjoy the variety of delicious, mouth watering sauces that Mexican cuisine has to offer, including the 7-mole sauces: Negro, Rojo, Coloradito, Amarillo, Verde, Chichilo, and Manchamantel. Fortunately for fans of these sauces, the best mexican restaurants in the country use these sauces in their authentic dishes. Then there’s salsa. Who doesn’t like salsa and all of its many variations? Salsa is so widely used in the U.S. that it is now the number one condiment used in the country. It’s used even more than ketchup and mayonnaise, now that’s saying something!
But where did Mexican cuisine come from? Well, many believe that the boldly flavored cuisine came from cuisine prepared by Mayan Indians as far back as 2000 years. We can only hope that the best mexican food will continue to excite the taste buds so that it endures for another 2000 years or so.
