Before the arrival of the Spaniards, Mexico became the home of many indigenous "pueblos" like the Maya and Aztec. These civilizations developed in the arts, agriculture, astronomy, math, and so on. One of the areas where they were experts was on the culinary.

One of the ancient stories talks about the Montezuma meals (remember Montezuma was the Aztec Emperor), and this has been discovered to be true. Montezuma would request many meals to his chefs from fresh fish to pork, or even armadillo. Well, just imagine that he was in the mood for fish, so his runners would hurry to get the freshly fished tilapia from Veracruz (about 300 miles East of Mexico City) as quickly as possible. These Aztec runners even had developed forms to transport the fish without damaging the quality.

That might explain the Mexican obsession with fresh food. But I also have to add to this, that Mexicans always had the best ingredients available (even before the Spaniards): corn, peppers, beans, avocados, tomato, sweet potato, squash, chocolate, etc. Dishes were baked, roasted, boiled or stewed.

Some of the typical Aztec dishes were: adobo (a red spicy marinade), red spicy meatballs, rice pudding, grilled steak,  pork and beans, avocado sauce, pickled jalapenos, pork stew (pozole), tamales, tortillas, etc.

When the Spaniards arrived to Aztec domains, Spanish cuisine and ingredients were introduced. The two cuisines began a fusion. Today's Mexican food keeps deep roots in the Aztecs and Mayas, but they have modernized the techniques since they were colonized in the sixteenth century.