There is a great variety of Mexican dishes, which is not surprising in a country with so many different climates and foods and with the influence of both Indian and Spanish cooking traditions.
Dishes such as tacos and tortillas, are made all over the country and are becoming well known outside of Mexico, as you are aware! Remember your visit to Taco Bell!
Mexican dishes take a long time to prepare because they are fresh ingredients. In the past, people shopped every day in the local market. Today, people in the cities shop less frequently and often go to supermarkets instead.
Most Mexicans have tortillas, a kind of pancake made from ground corn, with every meal. Breakfast for people in the cities may include packaged cereals, such as we eat. (Cornflakes, fruit, eggs with tortillas, and beans, or some sweet bread.)
For people in the villages, breakfast may be tortillas, beans, meat in a hot sauce, or piosol ( a drink made with ground corn, water, and salt with chili or honey.
Workers in the fields often have a mild mid morning snack of piosol or tacos, which are filled tortillas.
Lunch between one and three in the afternoon, is the mail meal. People used to have a few hours off from work to go home and eat, but in the cities this is changing. Lunch might include chicken or vegetable soup, rice or pasta, a meat casserole, vegetables, beans, tortillas or bread, a fresh fruit drink, and dessert. Sounds like a lot to eat, doesn't it?
The reason for such a heavy meal at lunch is because the evening meal is normally quite light. It may be just a cup of hot chocolate and sweet bread, or a couple of quesadillas, which are tortillas with melted cheese in them.
Think about how we eat. We eat large quantities of food for lunch and dinner, along with high calorie snacks.
Maybe that is why our nation, as a whole, is overweight!
