Mexican Food and Drink – answers and explanations
Here are the answers to all 20 questions in the Mexican Food and Drink quiz, each with a short explanation. From tacos and mole to tequila and mezcal — how well do you know Mexican cuisine? Haven't played yet? Take the quiz first and compare your score.
Play the quiz · 20 questions1. A classic margarita mixes tequila, lime juice and which liqueur?
Answer: Triple sec
The IBA official margarita is 50 ml tequila, 20 ml triple sec (often Cointreau) and 15 ml fresh lime juice, shaken and served in a salt-rimmed glass.
2. Which dish is a tortilla folded around melted cheese and grilled?
Answer: Quesadilla
A quesadilla, from the Spanish 'queso' (cheese), is a tortilla folded around cheese and other fillings and cooked until the cheese melts.
3. The dried chilli known as ancho is the dried form of which fresh chilli?
Answer: Poblano
An ancho is a poblano chilli that has been ripened to red and dried, turning broad, wrinkled and dark. The name means 'wide', and at roughly 1,000-2,000 Scoville units it is mild, with raisin and cocoa notes prized in mole.
4. Which agave spirit is traditionally made from hearts roasted in earthen pits?
Answer: Mezcal
Mezcal gets its smoky character because agave hearts (piñas) are roasted for several days in conical earthen pits lined with hot volcanic rock, most famously in Oaxaca. Tequila's blue agave is instead steamed in above-ground ovens or autoclaves.
5. Vanilla, first cultivated in Mexico, is the pod of which kind of plant?
Answer: An orchid
Vanilla pods are the cured fruit of a climbing orchid, Vanilla planifolia, first cultivated by the Totonac people of what is now Veracruz, Mexico. Outside Mexico it had to be hand-pollinated, a method devised by Edmond Albius in 1841.
6. Which dish is widely regarded as a Tex-Mex creation rather than Mexican?
Answer: Chili con carne
Chili con carne is considered a Texan, Tex-Mex dish rather than a Mexican one; it was popularised by San Antonio's 'chili queens' in the 1800s and became Texas's official state dish in 1977. Mole poblano, cochinita pibil and chiles en nogada are all traditional Mexican regional dishes.
7. Which of these chillies is hottest on the Scoville heat scale?
Answer: Habanero
Habaneros rate roughly 100,000-350,000 Scoville Heat Units, far above serranos (10,000-23,000), jalapenos (2,500-8,000) and mild poblanos (1,000-2,000). The Scoville scale was devised by pharmacist Wilbur Scoville in 1912.
8. Which snack is tortilla chips topped with melted cheese and jalapeños?
Answer: Nachos
Nachos were invented around 1943 by Ignacio 'Nacho' Anaya in Piedras Negras, Mexico, for American visitors, and are named after him.
9. Tamales are traditionally steamed wrapped in what natural covering?
Answer: Corn husks
Tamales are parcels of corn masa steamed in dried corn husks, which are soaked to make them pliable and peeled off before eating; in tropical regions banana leaves are used instead.
10. Which unexpected ingredient is famously used in mole poblano?
Answer: Chocolate
Mole poblano, from Puebla, typically uses around 20 ingredients including ancho, mulato and pasilla chillies, nuts, seeds and spices, with Mexican chocolate stirred in near the end for bitter-sweet depth.
11. Chipotle chillies are made by smoking and drying which fresh chilli?
Answer: Jalapeño
Chipotles are jalapeños left to ripen red on the plant, then smoke-dried over wood for several days. The name comes from the Nahuatl chilpoctli, meaning smoked chilli, and about 10 pounds of fresh jalapeños yield 1 pound of chipotles.
12. Which fresh salsa of chopped tomato, onion, chilli and coriander is a Mexican staple?
Answer: Pico de gallo
Pico de gallo, also called salsa fresca, is made from raw chopped tomato, onion, chilli and coriander, often with a squeeze of lime.
13. Pan de muerto is decorated with strips of dough shaped like what?
Answer: Bones
Pan de muerto is a round, orange-scented sweet bread topped with dough strips shaped like bones (canillas), with a small ball often read as a skull. It is baked for Día de Muertos around 1-2 November and placed on ofrendas.
14. The Aztecs consumed cacao mainly in which form?
Answer: A bitter spiced drink
The Aztecs drank cacao as xocoatl, an unsweetened, frothy beverage of ground cacao and water flavoured with chilli, vanilla or annatto. Sugar and dairy animals were unknown in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and the drink was often served cool.
15. By law, tequila must be made from which plant?
Answer: Blue agave
Mexican law (NOM-006-SCFI and the 1974 denomination of origin) allows tequila to be made only from Agave tequilana Weber, blue variety, grown in Jalisco and parts of four other states; 100% agave bottles use no other sugars, while 'mixto' needs at least 51%.
16. What does the Spanish word 'burrito' literally mean?
Answer: Little donkey
Burrito is the diminutive of the Spanish burro, so it literally means "little donkey"; theories link the name to donkeys' bundled packs or to northern Mexican vendors, with the food sense recorded in an 1895 Mexican dictionary.
17. The word 'guacamole' comes from Nahuatl words meaning avocado and what?
Answer: Sauce
Guacamole derives from Classical Nahuatl ahuacamolli, combining ahuacatl (avocado) with molli (sauce) — the same molli behind the word mole. The dish was already part of Aztec cuisine before the Spanish conquest of 1521.
18. Which traditional Mexican drink is made from rice blended with cinnamon and sugar?
Answer: Horchata
Horchata, in its Mexican form (horchata de arroz), is made by soaking and blending white rice with cinnamon and sugar, then straining it; milk or vanilla is often added. The name came from Spain's tiger-nut horchata de chufa, with rice replacing the unavailable tiger nuts.
19. Which dish is a rolled tortilla covered in chilli sauce and baked?
Answer: Enchilada
Enchiladas are tortillas rolled around a filling, covered in chilli sauce and often baked with cheese; the name means 'seasoned with chilli'.
20. What is the corn dough used to make tortillas and tamales called in Spanish?
Answer: Masa
Masa is the Spanish name for dough made from nixtamalized corn — maize simmered in limewater (calcium hydroxide) and ground — the base of corn tortillas, tamales, gorditas and more. Dried and powdered, it becomes masa harina.