Unique Holiday Foods: Best 5 Mexican Holiday Foods: Mexican food often reminds me of one my favorite Looney Toons; Speedy Gonzales, the fastest mouse in Mexico. Oh, how can I forget Speedy's famous line, "Hello, Poosie-cats! You looking for a nice fat mouse for deenner?" So my little Poosie-cats, what is going to be the best Mexican foods apart from the mice, this Holiday season? The flavors and elements of the Mexican cuisine is ancient. And in November 2010, Mexican cuisine was added by UNESCO to its lists of the world's "intangible cultural heritage".

Corn, beans and rice are the most commonly used elements in the Mexican cuisine. However, this Holiday season, we are going to discuss about some of the off-beat Mexican food.

1. Chiles en Nogada

This is a super traditional Mexican dish, considering the fact that it has all the colors of the Mexican flag. The Mexican flag has 3 colors; red, white and green. Incidentally, those are also the colors of Christmas. This dish consists of Poblano chillies stuffed with ground meat or other fillings. The chili is topped with a white walnut cream sauce and finally pomegranate seeds are sprinkled on top of the dish.

2. Rice with Chicken Mole Poblano

In Spanish, Poblano means 'of Puebla'. Yes, the dish is named after a Mexican state. The Mole Poblano is a thick sauce made with 20 or more ingredients including red hot chili peppers anD chocolate. When the sauce is used in a dish, it gives that deep brownish-red color to it. This dish is usually served at weddings. But you can make it at Christmas too; if you want to, that is.

3. Champurrado

I love Champurrado. The last time I drank this was during the All Souls' Day this year. Then my friend Guillermo told me that the Champurrado is also served on Christmas along with tamales. Awesome! The Champurrado is a warm, dense and chocolaty drink made from hominy flour, piloncillo, milk and water of course. The Champurrado is whipped up using a wooden blender for that nice creamy froth on top. You can flavor the drink with some cinnamon if you want to.

4. Balché

The Balché... Ai Carramba! If you are looking at getting drunk and passing out, then this is your drink of the Holiday season. This is pretty much an inebriating drink made from the bark of a tree known as Lonchocarpus violaceus. The bark is fermented in honey and water. The ancient Mayans believed that they could get some super powers by drinking this. I wouldn't blame them much. Lol.

5. Tlayuda

The Tlayuda is a snack food, native of the state of Oaxaca in Mexico. It is a handmade tortilla that is either toasted or fried. These are topped with beans, avocado, meat, cheese or salsa. Sometimes, the Tlyudas' come topped with chapulines which are nothing but roasted grasshoppers. Eww! But hey, you wouldn't settle for nachos, would you? Lol!

And finally, ¡Andale! ¡Andale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba! ¡Yii-hah! Now, which Poosie cat wants deener?

Image Courtesy: flickr.com