Curated playlist
Mexican cuisine
- PapayaPapaya's white sap can tenderize meat, but it also stops jelly from setting. The enzyme papain is the reason.
- GuavaStrawberry guava threatens more than 100 other plant species in Hawaii. Birds spread its seeds in their droppings.
- Sweet potatoSweet potatoes were in Polynesia centuries before any European ship arrived.
- ChocolateChocolate began as a bitter, foamy drink, not a sweet bar. For most of its history it was reserved for the elite.
- Chili pepperBirds can eat the hottest chili peppers without distress. They lack the pain receptor that responds to capsaicin.
- Cooking bananaCooking bananas feed more than 70 million people across Africa alone. They are starchy and largely inedible raw.
- TacoIn 2024, El Califa de León in Mexico City became the first taco stand to win a Michelin star. The taco itself is a small, hand-sized tortilla made of corn or wheat. A filling goes on top, the tortilla folds around it, and the whole thing…
- VanillaVanilla, the flavor behind countless cakes, ice creams and perfumes, owes its place in the world to a 12-year-old boy on the island of Réunion. His name was Edmond Albius, and he was enslaved. In 1841 he worked out how to pollinate the…
- TamaleA red light burning outside a home in Guatemala at night signals that tamales are for sale inside. The tamale itself is a parcel of corn dough and filling with roots thousands of years deep. Today it appears in Andean valleys, Caribbean…
- ChayoteChayote is an edible fruiting vine of the gourd family, and in Brazil its local name doubles as a pet name. Chuchu is the Brazilian word for the fruit, and it is also a term of endearment, much like calling someone "Honey" in English. The…
- CevicheCeviche is a cold dish of raw fish or shellfish, and it travels under at least four spellings: ceviche, cebiche, sebiche and seviche. Versions of it are considered native in places as far apart as Chile and Mexico, all connected by the…
- Chili con carneIn 1977 the 65th Texas Legislature passed House Concurrent Resolution Number 18, and chili con carne became the official dish of the state of Texas. The dish is a spicy stew built from chili peppers, meat, tomatoes and often beans. Texas…
- EmpanadaThe empanada turns up in a medieval Galician-Portuguese poem from around 1282, part of the Cantigas de Santa Maria. The poem describes the worst rascal in a band of robbers. He has pulled a cold chicken leg out of a pasty and hides it…