Looking for something tasty on the side or the something that stars the night? Let’s make Pico de Gallo that won’t lose its shine!

Pico de Gallo is a Mexican salsa that has no clear recipe instructions other than all the ingredients have to be chopped up into small pieces, just like the fodder for chickens. The true origin of the salad is lost, just like references why it is called “rooster’s beak”, but explanations surfaced during the decades.

Some like to think that the name comes from the resemblance of the cut-up peppers’ shape to rooster’s beak. Others are adamant the need of beak like finger positions while eating the salad with bear hands gave the name for the salad.

If we wonder who in their right mind would eat a salad like that with bare hands then the answer is simple. Those who don’t have forks. There were times when affordable cutlery or plastic didn’t cover all of the globe and even spaghetti was eaten by hand. Not to mention that even now, there are cultures who prefer to eat food with bare hands.

It seems, where Pico de Gallo comes from, it is not one of those so we can use our favorite fork without risking missing some crucial flavor or being unauthentic.

Nowadays, the base for Pico de Gallo includes ingredients typical in Mexican cuisine like tomato, onion, Serrano peppers, salt, lime juice and cilantro. These vegetables curiously match the colors of the Mexican flag, hence the dish is sometimes called ‘salsa bandera’ which translates to ‘flag sauce’.

It seems that not exclusively the Italians are who like mix patriotism with food. If the founding fathers had been more aware of how food trends could be intertwined with national identity, they would have ditched blue and added a bit more yellow to the Stars and Stripes, so we could make it out of hot dogs or burgers without food coloring.

Well, there is always something that we wish it could have been done differently in the past, but we have to live to the present. Luckily, Pico de Gallo is not enshrined in any constitution so changing it only requires a bit of imagination or stray vegetables from the fridge.

As long as we follow the simple rules of cutting the vegetables up into small bits, we are basically making Pico de Gallo. Sure, if we don’t live in Mexico and don’t want to dive deep into food history lectures that shatters onto pieces on our head from the heights of our daydreaming audience, it may be a good idea including the socially expected ingredients and maybe a bit of jalapenos or habaneros for spiced up authenticity.

We can use Pico de Gallo on its own as a salad or side for various meat dishes like carnitas, but unsurprisingly it is most comfortable with something starchy around, like corn tortilla or the nowadays more well-known flour tortilla.

If we want it to take the gatherings top spot then we can put it all out to be enjoyed in its purest form. Maybe try throwing in there (keto tortilla chips) something more exciting than a piece fork.