Carnitas, Gringas and Esquites: the dishes that put Mexico at the top of world street food

Mexican gastronomy is extremely varied and delicious, which is why the Taste Atlas site, which is a page specialized in food from around the world, released a list of the top 50 street foods worldwide.

Among the numbers on the list were several snacks and Mexican food dishes that positioned themselves in a good place, such was the case of the gringas, a street food item that appeared in the top 6.

Gringas are a street dish that was invented by two American girls in the 1960s when Mexico City began to receive many foreigners as residents.

Jennifer Smith and Sharon Smith did not eat the tortillas for fear that the corn would turn their teeth yellow, they saw that they had several flour tortillas stacked up so they asked to have their tacos in them.

In addition, seven other Mexican dishes were placed, most of them tacos:

Carnitas

This dish in eighth place has its origin in colonization since it emerged shortly after the pig arrived in the country. The animal arrived on the American continent at the hands of Christopher Columbus who left eight pigs on the island of Hispaniola and later it was Hernán Cortés who brought more along with other animals.

Carne asada tacos

There are several versions of the general origin of tacos, the beef taco in ninth place, some historians affirm that they were a dish invented by Hernán Cortés, but what is a fact is that the food has a mixture of cultures since the beef was brought from Spain and the tortillas are originally from Mexico.

Cochinita pibil

The pibil cochinita is in twelfth place, a native to Yucatan, and has its origins in the pre-Hispanic era of the Mayan lands, it was made from October 31 to November 2 during Hanal Pixán. Its original preparation was with venison, pheasant, wild turkey, and peccary meat, and it was cooked in the pib, an earthen oven.

Tacos Gobernador

These tacos in sixteenth place are originally from Mazatlan, Sinaloa, and have shrimp, cheese, poblano pepper, onion, and butter and are served in a corn tortilla.

Tacos al pastor

It was the historian Jeffrey Pitcher who said that the children of Turkish migrants were the ones who began to transform al pastor into the delicious tacos that are the most sold tacos in Mexico. For this type of taco, pork marinated in chili sauce is used.

Esquites

Esquites rank at thirty-third, they are a street dish and their name comes from the Nahuatl Ízquitl, from Icehqui which means toast. And it is that this food is usually heated until the corn is tender and it is customary to season it with lemon, mayonnaise, cheese, chili, and other ingredients to your tasting.

Only in the top 10 were gringas, carnitas, and carne asada tacos, however, the gastronomy of Mexico competed with nearly 30 countries and beat well-known and delicious dishes such as pizza and kebab.

The gringas had a rating of 4.8, where the maximum is 5, and the carnitas and carne asada tacos rated 4.7. Tacos Gobernador appeared in 16th place, also rated 4.7, according to the list.

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