Evan Dillingham

Kelsey Fender
Senior Project
15 November 2016

Foreign Cuisine
There are many differences physical, and cultural between a meal in Mexico and
America. The time, place, formality, and company are all varieties as such. The highlights of this
paper will include table setting, meal composition, location, and formality.

In Mexico the largest meal is typically eaten around 1:00 in the afternoon. This would be
considered lunch in America, typically this meal is eaten with friends and family and used to
generate energy for the rest of the work day. In America typically the largest meal is eaten around
6:00 which is dinner. Americans eat at this time to signify the end of the work day. The ideology
sways from just the time and size.

The setting of the table for mexico is very different than america, examples in mexico the
tablecloth is very colorful, the way its setup is traditional and hasnt changed much through the
years. In mexico most meals are eaten with the family and taken seriously. In America the table
setting even if theres one is extremely practical simple one tone table cloth, one spoon on the
left of the plate followed by a fork and knife to the right of the plate. But more times then not a
meal is eaten in the living room, of the home. Meals are usually very informal in the U.S.A,
eaten around the t.v very casually, theres none to little emphasis on family time.

Main course composition in mexico consists of basic things such as beans, corn,
cow, chicken, tortillas, and chiles. This is because these foods grow the best in mexico's climate.
The main course composition in America is cow, wheat, chicken, eggs and vegetables. Both
cultures eat generally the same produce and meat but the usage of each item is the difference.

In America the least used room in a home is the dining room, in most cases a meal
is eaten in the living room while watching a television. Basically americans have less of a family
social standard than they do in mexico. While in mexico they socialize twice a day at the dining
room table, they are not allowed to move from the table until everyone else around them is done.
Also americans typically have only 2 to 3 items on their plate which is made by the main parent.
But in mexico most adults bring something each so they have more of a variety than Americans
would.
Americans mexican food is based around mexican restaurants, taco bell, and chipotle.
This is generally called tex-mex; american version of mexican food.There is many different
regional tex-mex spread across america and other regions of the world. These restaurants serve
the standard mexican food such as tacos, burritos, quesadillas, and nachos. Americans love and
feen over tex- mex but only a few have actually experienced how they do it in mexico people
from mexico don't have a standard american food because they always put a latino twist to each
meal. If they were to classify some food as american it would be like burgers, hot dogs, french
fries, and sloppy joes. But our mexican food hack is just add some brand of hot sauce, peppers,
hot spices, etc.
These cultures have impacted one another outstandingly from both perspectives. A main
example is corn, america inherited it from mexico for many uses. We have also inherited specific

food such as salsa, tamales, tex mex, and arroz con pollo. Mexico has embraced our food by
selling and advertising in airports, billboards, and radio ads. The ads are mostly based around tex
mex from their point for example McDonalds, Wendys, and Taco Bell. But they only eat these
restaurants for breakfast because of their family routine for meals. Americans eat more of these
restaurants day by day because they believe it's cheap and a fast meal. Although Americans do
not advertise many mexican food based restraunts, word of mouth is how its spread.

Family in mexico is everything to them! They cook, eat, go out, plan events, all together.
No one gets left behind is what they base their lives on. But for Americans not so much, theirs
is more of one for all or all for none. Because it wasn't apart of their everyday lives. In
america you become an adult at the age of 18, you can do things like move out, go to college,
make your our family. However in mexico the age of 15 is celebrated with a quinceanera for the
beginning of adulthood. Therefore they decide at that point on weather they want to move out
and start a new life or continue with their usual routine. On the contrary Americans throw a large
party as well but they have their held for their 16th birthday rather than 15. This does not mean
they have become adults, this means they are old enough to drive and have more freedom for the
most part.

Alcohol consumption is a part of daily life for both countries. In America most people
have a beer with dinner, alcohol has been a part of american lives since the dawn of the
constituion. There have been many fights to end this and one of them being the 18th amendment
prohibition but this hurt the economy so bad they repealed it with the 21st. In mexico the most

common alcoholic beverage to drink with a meal is tequila. America is most famous for their
beer, beer was created because water was unsafe to drink because of the bacteria. There was no
way to purify the water unless it was put with malt, water, barley and yeast. After this it's let to
ferment and the yeasts reaction creates the alcohol and removes impurities in the water. Mexico
creates tequila by boiling the agave plant and taking that and fermenting the juice for at least a
month. The reason why mexico created tequila is the same, except they are in a dry desert
climate and agave grows best in this temperature.

In america the obesity rate is immense, a study conducted in 2016 shows that in the
United States the percentage of people unhealthily overweight is 31.8%. Whereas in Mexico the
percentage is very similar at 32.8%. The percentages put the two countries in the top 10 most
overweight in the world, U.S at 10 and Mexico at 9. The reason for this is processed meat now
being a trend in the both countries, this has been the way since the early 1980s because of mass
production.

The percentage of people in poverty in the United States is 14.5%. This a cause
for the obesity rates in the United States because fast food is extremely cheap and if you have a
family with low income you can feed more people with less money. Although this food is highly
processed and causes many issues with health, such as Gastrointestinal distress, weight gain and
even acne! In Mexico the poverty rate is a whopping 45.5%. This is also a cause for their obesity
because processed food is much cheaper than the healthier option.

The reason for this research is to show that in America, there is not enough time
spent together collectively as a family, and it was compared to a country that is nearly

opposite theirs. As a nation there should be an easier way to just sit down relax and eat
with your family, everyone is so caught up with their work that they don't have enough
time to come home and eat a meal. Otherwise in mexico they get to leave work and
school to enjoy their lunch and dinner. Conclude that both of the countries impacted one
another greatly by not just food, but an exceptional amount of products. Obesity is
obviously more of an epidemic in mexico rather than america, because they have more
time to sit an enjoy while americans are always on the go.

In conclusion the countries are very much similar as well as different. They will
trade amongst one another for trillion of years beyond this point. But perhaps the trade
will expand within that time. As analyzed the projects that are being exchanged in our
day has also generated a 531 billion dollars overall. americans export total is 316.4 billion
and Mexico's import total is 316.4 billion while rising increasingly. The countries mainly
started to play an important role to one another was 1810. There will be more creative
and delicious ideas coming from both sides in the next 100s of years.