The pork "history" was interesting. I think the corn story is pretty far
fetched.
"Wayne Lundberg" wrote in message
...
Don't know if a bit of this and that will give readers of this newsgroup a
reason to participate... but what the heck, nothing ventured, nothing
gained.

Why pork is so popular in Mexican food. Those of you who managed to stay
awake reading any of my stuff will know that I will take you back into the
centuries between nomads hunting the mammoth, to when Cortez conquered
Mexico. The Wisconsin ice age, which is still with us, and still receding,
as it has done thousands of times over the last few million years, receded
by leaving lush greenlands where herds of all kinds of grass eaters
thrived.
The Amerindian ancestors, some surely from Mongolia, hunted these herds.
They lived by hunting and gathering. As the ice age receded the deserts in
Chihuahua, New Mexico, Arizona and California became.. deserts. The meat
on
hoof went north, and some went south. As did the hunters.

So they come to the high valley where Mexico city now thrives, and these
nomads and meat on hoof also went to the tropics. The meat on hoofs met
their match in the tropics and only a few survived by becoming small. Thus
we see the start of cochinito a pibil, a delicacy to this day. Cochinito
is
little pig. It is a native of the tropics of Veracruz, Tabasco, Yucatan,
Quntana Roo and neighboring states. These are small pigs. They act like
any
normal pig by using it's nose to dig through the earth in search of
delightful roots, and tubers. They are, to a degree, omnivorous in that
they
will eat something with meat, but prefer roots.

Deer, cochinito, armadillo, iguana, turtles, birds of all kind with turkey
being the king of them all, monkey... fish, insects, worms ant-eggs...
all,
of these things were plentiful and easy to get even with primitive spears,
rocks, bows and arrows, atlatls.

About five thousand years ago a love-struck teenager tossed the grain of
sand sized maiz seed into the garbage heap next to the campsite. The next
year she was amazed to see a cornstock with a cob with a kernel of corn
just
a tad larger than the one she had tossed the year before. Thus began the
American civilization where people learned to plant and harvest, and use
their spare time in creating art and a religion, politics, warfare...
civilization!

The greatest delight among these Amerindians were the festive days in
which
a cochinito was killed, cooked in a green chile sauce, eaten by holding
the
meat in a tortilla, and adding the hot sauce to your taste. That sense of
joy and good taste remains and when cochinito is not available, well a
descendent of the Spanish imports of pig will do. It's the same animal
only
cochinito tastes just a bit better. A bit less fat, a little more gamy,
but
not much.

Wayne
www.pueblaprotocol.com