Los Siete Guerreros

I've been thinking about this one for a while.

1. MaíIz

Foods made principally from corn: tortillas of all sizes and colors, tostadas, pozole, pinole, tamales, esquite, elote, tlacoyos, chalupas, sopes, gorditas, atole, chilatole, and mucho mas.


2. Frijol
I counted 11 varieties of beans growing up the cornstalks in Tomas' milpa. To extract the beans from the pod, you spread the pods on a flat surface and beat them with a stick all monket-like until all the pods have split open to reveal the bounty.

3. Chile

These chiles are known as "chiles de amor" because they are eaten "de a mordida." I can't eat anything without chiles now.

4. Nopal

Mexicans eat a lot of these slimy vegetables, after cutting off the spines first. Nopal is like a double-whammy because it also produces tuna, a delicious fruit.

5. Amaranto
Always puffed, most often encountered as "alegría" the candy made from amaranth and some sweetener like sugar packed into a bar or disc shape. Alegría is a throwback to an aztec meal made from amaranth, blood, and spirulina. The spaniards forbade it because it made the aztecs so strong.
6. Pulque
Pulque is an alcoholic beverage made from maguey, a type of agave that I think we 'mercans call century plant. After about 15 years, the plant is ready to tap. You cut out the middle leaves and out flows the nectar, many liters of it that have to be collected twice a day. The nectar is thick like watery cream, and is fermented in the pulquerías and sweetened obscenely before being served. Tomás grew up tending his father's cows and magueyes, two surprisingly similar beasties.
This plant still has a few years left before being ready to tap.

7. Tequesquite
Tequesquite is a mineral salt that the mexicans here use when cooking some dishes. It's not much to look at.

These are los Siete Guerreros that have sustained the mexica people for centuries. They need no other comestible to live and thrive. With the addition of squash and the subtraction of pulque, which I have unfortunately only tried once, it is what I eat too.