What can I tell you, since I can remember Mexico has been present in my life through movies and music. In the country where I lived, which was created by a revolution, closeness to Mexico due to its revolutionary history was inevitable. Later, we added to that closeness the crazy paintings of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, their even crazier love story and lives and Trotsky, of course, whose words "Only revolution ends war", in the form of graffiti, decorate a wall somewhere on the Lower East Side in New York.

And we knew about Mexico that it is a country known for its rich culture, ancient ruins, Mayan temples, sparkling beaches and incredible cuisine. Many countries in the world can boast of phenomenal tourist attractions, but Mexico is teeming with places that have been inscribed on the World Cultural Heritage List by UNESCO: not only the aforementioned ancient pyramids, but also entire preserved colonial cities and natural parks. In that sense UNESCO had to a lot of work to do in order to include the plethora of different things in Mexico in that list. One tourist guide states that Mexico offers all the opposites: from beaches to mountains; from the desert to the jungle; from sweet to spicy flavors, from opportunities for solitude to big parties.

Later we learned about the less expected facts - that the country where the largest pyramid in the world is located is not Egypt but Mexico – the Great Pyramid of Cholula. That in addition to Spanish, 69 other indigenous languages ​​are in use there; that it is a country with a huge number of museums, perhaps the most in the world and that, can you imagine, the color television was invented by a Mexican, Guillermo Gonzalez Camarena, born in the Mexican city of Guadalajara, Jalisco. In 1940, the then 23-year-old applied for a patent for the first color image transmission system, which would later be used in the Voyager 1 spacecraft. 😊

We all know about tacos, enchiladas, the famous guacamole spread, yum, yum… The traditional Mexican cuisine is unique and appreciated even outside of Mexico, and in 2010 UNESCO included it in the list of intangible cultural heritage and thus became a gastronomic heritage of the whole world. Indigenous ingredients include corn, chili peppers, avocados, beans, cacao, and much more originating from Mexico. The roots of this phenomenal cuisine date back to colonial times, when Spanish mixed with local cuisine, creating this unique mix.

There is no country in the world, café or restaurant that does not have at least one Mexican delicacy on its menu and in which the smell of tacos, quesadillas can be felt or burritos, some salsa or antojitos, small corn pastries with finely chopped meat and strong sauces, are eaten with the fingers.

Two summers ago in Paris, where the most beautiful cuisine in the world is waiting for us, in the cafe where the cult movie "Amélie Poulain" was filmed, Café des Deux Moulins, while taking a break from wandering through Montmartre, I ate such good guacamole that it was pure poetry, like the Amelie movie itself.  As I dipped my nachos into it, I had only one thought in mind: "Salsa now, siesta later", baby.

Some say about Mexico that it is the country "where the sun is the most beautiful, where the margaritas are cold, and the sand is warm."  And in that warm sun and soft sand, you can hear the most beautiful tones of mariachis, small musical groups. Played mainly with stringed instruments, this unique Mexican sound emerged in the early 1800s as a mixture of domestic, local traditions and foreign influences. The singing was added later, and the trumpets, which are now very important, found their place in these ensembles at the beginning of the 20th century, when the simple, white, peasant clothes of the mariachi  musicians were replaced by the clothes of the Jalisco cowboys: uniforms with tight, decorated pants, boots, wide bow ties, sombreros and short jackets. This kind of appearance and musical style gave the mariachis national importance in the first half of the 20th century and UNESCO also recognized them as world intangible cultural heritage. And as order dictates and God commands, it is obligatory to drink tequila with the mariachi, the famous Mexican drink made from the blue agave plant, because of which, they say, people do the craziest things 😊 The best tequila in the world is made in the city of Tequila, after which the drink logically got its name, in the state of Jalisco, and it has different flavors. I'm not much of a fan of tequila and I didn't drink it at a pace that would make me a connoisseur of it, but when I did drink it, I drank the one with passion fruit flavor.
Admittedly, I didn't drink it in Mexico, but in San Francisco, but that counts too as tequila is tequila. 😊

The combination – salt, tequila & lime, is considered one of the most interesting ways of drinking a strong alcoholic drink and represents a kind of ritual. As I come from a country where strong drink - rakija is a mandatory inventory of every house, whether for drinking or as medicine, and it's not that I don't know what the sharpness of an alcoholic drink means, but when I first tasted tequila, arrogantly because I am a rakija girl myself, I almost passed out.  That first tequila was not flavored, but plain, and it was like drinking a bottle of acetone. Lightning flashed through my head. Although one guy answered the question: Why salt and tequila with „ Because that *hit tastes nasty by itself “😊 one of the primary reasons is that salt has the ability to reduce the burn that can occur from strong alcohol and lemon to reduce the burning sensation in the palate, without which everything can look like you've shoved a tube of hot wasabi paste in your mouth. Later I knew the secret and I didn't try any other kind except the one with passion fruit flavor and methodically started with the ritual – I lick the salt from my hand like crazy, drink the tequila bottoms up, then hit the lime, like George Carlin „One tequila, two tequila, tree tequila. Floor! “😊 Bob Dylan taught me that "Some things that happen for the first time seem like they are happening again"

And then, as if it could have been any different, because of its historical and cultural importance, the region near Tequila, where the best tequila in the world is produced, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006. And yes, if it weren't for such a popular drink, one of the best tequila brands in the world, Casamigos Blanco tequila, known for its premium quality, wouldn't be produced in the distillery founded by George Clooney, which today is owned by the Diageo company. George Clooney also knows the secret. 😊