About Arroz in Mexico

• The Spaniards first brought rice to Mexico through the port of Veracruz, an area where the warm, moist climate would prove to be ideal for its cultivation. 
• The introduction of European elements to the Mexican diet by the Spanish colonial settlers was a landmark occurrence in the culinary history of the world and a fine example of the earliest fusion cooking.
• Spanish ingredients were successfully combined with those of the New World to create modern Mexican cuisine, an important part of which is rice.
• Each region of Mexico rice was prepared along with the most abundant indigenous ingredients. Arroz a la tumbada, combining rice with seafood, became a signature dish of Veracruz and surrounding Gulf coast states, while in Michoacan, where the pork introduced by the Spaniards took a strong hold on the local diet, morisqueta con chorizo became a typical regional dish.
• There are two yearly rice crops possible in the southeastern state of Campeche, which borders on Veracruz, where rice is a summer crop. These two states account for over half of the rice produced in Mexico
• Mexicans differentiate between long-grain, called “sinaloa” type rice, and short grain, called “morelos” type rice. The majority of the rice dishes prepared by Mexican cooks use short grain rice.
• Rice is an important part of Mexican meals: the sopa seca, or “dry soup” course, the occasional alternative being some type of pasta. It is also added to some sopas aguadas, “wet soups”, such as the hearty caldo de indianilla, a regional dish of the central Valley of Mexico. 
• Rice as dessert: arroz con leche, the Mexican version of rice pudding, and in horchata made with suero de arroz, “rice liquid.”