Mexican grilling

For spicy, tasty grilled food, Mexican takes some beating.

One of the reasons for Mexican food being so flavoursome is the use of mesquite, a wood which burns to give off a distinctive, smoky taste. Originally, mexican cooking fires were built with mesquite wood, with food placed on stones near or in the heat of the fire. When iron was brought to the country, cooking grates were built to suspend food just over the heat.

Mexico's reliance on mesquite for cooking has seen other countries adopt the method. Nowadays we tend to use it in the form of mesquite charcoal for barbecuing, or in the form of mesquite woodchips crammed into the smoker boxes of more convenient gas grills. Smoking like this used to be an advantage charcoal grills held over gas versions, but modern day gas barbecues are more than capable of infusing your food with smoky goodness!

A few woodchips in a foil pouch over the burners can do the trick even if your barbecue doesn't have a smoker box.

There are other ways to achieve that mesquite taste, with bottled sauces and food sprays claiming to help replicate the flavour without too much effort.

There's more to Mexican barbecues than just mesquite though. Chillies are used frequently to add a real kick to the smoky flavour, with more varieties used than probably any other nation. Salsa is a popular main meal accompaniment, with "recados" - dry, spicy rubs, providing more flavour still.

Countrywide speciality dishes are few and far between, as most specialities are specific only to the region in which they were created. One of the nation's favourite grilled dishes however, is barbecued steak wrapped in leaves from the Maguey plant - or Barbacoa de Lomo, as it is known in Mexico.