Onions and many kinds of sauces are seen for sale at a market in Mexico city. Key to Mexican cuisine, fresh ingredients are still sold in markets across the centre and south of the country, where traditional dishes are often found. Prickly pear cacti, yellow zucchini flowers, dark red hibiscus flowers and tropical fruit including the endemic mamey sit alongside delicacies such as grasshoppers on market stalls. Many hope Unesco’s special recognition of Mexico’s entire national cuisine last November - along with French gastronomy and the Mediterranean diet - will help raise awareness of threatened culinary traditions.