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It can be a surprise for many people to find out that authentic traditional Mexican food is pretty unlike the dishes that are served in Mexican or Tex-Mex restaurants (Tex-Mex is a combination of US Southwestern and Mexican cuisine). People normally expect Mexican menu to be all hot and spicy, but traditional Mexican food is mild and much more diverse than it is usually imagined.It has many regional varieties, but of course the uniting theme of all the versions of traditional Mexican food is sauces, daring recipes and colourful decoration.

Mexican cuisine owes its diversity to its rich history. Food traditions of Mayans and Aztecs became the basis for traditional Mexican food. Before the Spanish colonists came, the population of modern Mexico kept mostly to a vegetarian diet: corn-based dishes, flavored with chiles and herbs, completed with beans and squash. The conquistadors imported their diet, consisting of rice, pork, beef, chicken, wine, onions and garlic.  Mayan and Aztec cuisine fortunately went on  perfectly well with Spanish cuisine, so that today we could have all these queer, but so delicious quesadillas,enchiladas, tortillas, tamales, tacos, salsas and sopapillas (check on mexican food cooking tips). Caribbean cuisine has also left its traces in the Mexican food, especially in some dishes of the Veracruz and Yucatan region (fish and fruit-based salsas). 

Traditional Mexican food varies with region, because of geographical location, ethnic peculiarities and dergee of Spanish influence. North of Mexico specializes in meat and beef. Southeastern Mexico is known for chicken-based and spicy vegetable dishes. And Veracruz traditionally performs the best seafood.

Mexican cuisine has also inherited from its Aztec and Mayan ancestors some more exotic dishes than  tortillas and tacos, some Mexican recipes constitute from rattlesnakes, spider monkeys, deer, iguanas and even insects. Such dishes though not very popular are known as comida prehispanica (prehispanic food).