<div id="subtitle">Mexico asks UNESCO to add country's rich cuisine to world heritage list</div><div><p>Mexico already has many of its monuments on UNESCO's list of protected sites. Now the government is asking for international recognition for the country's cuisine.</p><p>U.N. officials will decide in April or May whether to add Mexico's food to the organization's list of intangible cultural patrimony, Mexican cuisine expert Gloria Lopez said Friday.</p><p>She said the methods of preparing traditional tamales and salsas should be protected as much as Mexico's recognized physical heritage, such as the pre-Hispanic city around the pyramids of Teotihuacan or Mexico City's historic center of colonial buildings and remnants of ancient structures.</p><p>"They are pure culture, pure wisdom about life," Lopez, who directs the Conservatory of Mexican Gastronomic Culture, said in a presentation discussing the country's proposal to UNESCO.</p><p>The triad of corn, beans and chiles form the foundation of Mexico's food, with each region of the country adding its own ingredients and seasonings to the mix, Lopez said.</p><p>Food writer Jose Iturriaga said Mexican cuisine is a fundamental part of national identity. "We encounter it from our cradles to our graves," he said.</p><p>Traditional Mexican cuisine dates back 3,000 years to the Mayans, who based their diet on corn, beans and vegetables.</p><p>Mexico's pride in its cuisine is long-standing, Lopez said, and increasingly important as globalization and pollution jeopardize traditions in many of the country's small towns.</p><p>Mexican officials previously lobbied UNESCO to recognize Mexican cuisine with a more general proposal focusing on corn. This year's application features the traditional cuisine of the Mexican state of Michoacan.</p><p>Genovevo Figueroa, Michoacan's tourism secretary, said women in the state's small towns cook savory meals using healthy, organic ingredients — a sharp contrast with the processed cheese and sour cream-covered nachos and tacos that many people outside the country typically confuse with Mexican food.</p><p>Figueroa said he hopes this year's UNESCO application will help others learn about authentic Mexican cooking.</p><p>"The world identifies Mexican food with lots of grease and spices," he said.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=68546788&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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