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Appetizers
The most common Mexican appetizers are Queso Blanco?a white cheese sauce meant to be eaten with corn chips, and Salsa Picante, a tomato and pepper based sauce also meant to be eaten with corn chips. In Mexican restaurants across the US, in fact, a small dish of Salsa Picante is usually given on the house, though occasionally one will be given the cheese sauce instead. Salsa Picante literally translates into Spicy Sauce; it usually has jalapenos, onions, cayenne and crushed chili peppers in it.
Tread lightly; this dish can usually peel the paint off of a prison wall with its spicyness.
Another appetizer, and not incidentally, another dip, is pinto-bean dip, sometimes served with the beans still whole, other times served with the beans mashed up. This dish is usually seasoned with garlic, and sometimes with a spicy pepper. Even adding peppers, though, this dish is mild. Yet another appetizing dip: guacamole, made from the mysterious Guaca fruit. Just kidding. It
is made with avocados, among other things. It can be made spicy, but its light green color is deceiving. It always looks milder than it really is. You have been warned.
But dips are often made into meals, especially at informal gatherings. An appetizer more true to the word is the fried quesadilla, which is literally just melted white cheese on a flour tee, or on corn tortillas. There are also Gorditas (Little Fatties) which are basically small, fried flour dough cakes. Then there are Flautas, (Flutes) which are named for their long, thin shape. Flautas
are somewhat difficult to prepare, and they have to be served hot,
or else they become chewy and unpleasant but at their core, they are just tortillas fried in seasoning and then rolled up.
This concludes your crash course in Mexican Appetizers, and food in general.
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