Mexico

Mexican cooking is startlingly sophisticated and diversified. Few American cooks have access to the foods they need to make authentic Mexican dishes, but it is possible to give soups and other dishes a distinctly Mexican character if you know how to use a few basic products.

Chilies are of course nearly universal in Mexican cooking and enter into soups in almost bewildering variety—fresh, dried, and pickled. The variety of chilies available in the United States rarely matches that of Mexico, but it’s still possible to make do with dried chilies or the more common varieties of fresh chilies such as jalapeños and serranos or even sweet peppers spiced up with a little cayenne or Tabasco.