1# Mexican regional cooking
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 3Real Mexican cooking goes far deeper and more regional than Tex-Mex, which is its own Tejano/Mexican-American borderlands cuisine rather than "fake Mexican." Don't flatten Mexico into cumin, cheddar, and ground beef.
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 5## Flavor logic
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 7Chiles are the heart, treated as a craft: dozens of varieties, fresh and dried, each with its own fruitiness, smokiness, earthiness, body, and heat, used for _flavor_ far more than for raw burn. Around them: the milpa base of corn/masa, beans, squash, and chiles; the bright acid of lime; the earthy depth of toasted and charred ingredients; herbs like cilantro, epazote, hoja santa, and Mexican oregano; seeds and nuts; and warm spices used with restraint. Balance runs across heat, acid, earthiness, aroma, and freshness. Regions differ enormously: Oaxaca and its moles, Puebla's moles and chiles en nogada, the Yucatán's achiote/citrus/Maya influence, Veracruz and the coasts' seafood, the rich meats and flour tortillas of the north, Baja/Pacific seafood, Michoacán's carnitas and uchepos, Jalisco's birria, central Mexico's antojitos.
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 9## Core techniques
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11Toasting and rehydrating dried chiles, then blending them into sauces, is foundational for many moles, adobos, and braises. But don't make it mechanical: some sauces are raw or fresh, and over-toasting chiles makes them bitter. Charring/roasting tomatoes, tomatillos, onions, garlic, and chiles (often on a dry comal or under a broiler) builds smoky depth before blending into a salsa. Working with masa: tortillas, tamales, sopes, gorditas, tlacoyos, and other forms of nixtamalized corn. Slow-cooking meats through different methods: barbacoa pit-steamed/roasted, carnitas cooked in lard then browned, cochinita pibil wrapped and roasted/steamed with achiote and sour orange, guisados simmered. Building salsa, mole, pipián, recados, and adobos as layered sauces when the dish calls for it.
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13## Pantry backbone
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15Dried chiles (ancho, guajillo, pasilla, chipotle, árbol, morita, and more), fresh chiles (serrano, jalapeño, poblano, habanero), masa harina or fresh masa, corn tortillas, beans, squash/pepitas, tomatillos and tomatoes, white onion, garlic, lime, cilantro, epazote, Mexican oregano (distinct from Mediterranean), lard or oil, cumin used carefully rather than as the default, achiote/annatto and bitter orange for Yucatecan food, Mexican crema and queso fresco. Depending on region: avocado leaves, hoja santa, banana leaves, canela, allspice, clove, sesame, piloncillo, cacao/chocolate, vinegar, and fresh seafood. This pantry usually has to be stocked on purpose.
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17## Common outsider mistakes
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19Tex-Mex is its own thing, not a stand-in for all Mexican food. The common failure is letting yellow cheese, sour cream, heavy cumin, and ground beef crowd out the chile craft. Whole dried chiles usually need careful handling; powder blends won't give the same depth. Char the vegetables when the sauce calls for it, but don't char everything automatically. Use Mexican oregano when that flavor matters. And ask which region, because an Oaxacan mole, a Yucatecan cochinita pibil, a Sonoran carne asada, and a Veracruz fish dish are barely speaking the same language.