Corn, chocolate, tomato, avocado, chili peppers… when we think of Mexico, many delicious products come to mind. Those products are already part of many diets around world. However, unless you live in Mexico or one of its neighboring countries, you may never have tried cactus pear pads or even heard of them. Actually, the cactus pear (officially called Opuntia but known as nopal in Mexico) is so much a part of the Mexican culinary tradition and culture that it appears on the country’s national coat of arms.

The legend of the foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, now known as Mexico City, says that the god Huitzilopochtli told the Mexicans to establish their city where they found an eagle eating a snake while perched on a cactus. This is how they chose the valley where the capital is now located.