What Is Salsa

What is salsa? Is it a dance? Is it a food? The answer is it is both. However, the food certainly came first. Salsa is the Spanish word for “sauce.” While generally the word refers to sauce in general, in the United States salsa is synonymous with tomato based hot sauces that are traditionally found in Mexican cuisine. Typically, salsa is used as a dip, often paired with tortilla chips.

One of the fun things about salsa is that there are many different varieties. The most common is classic mild salsa dip. Classic mild salsa dip, also called salsa roja is made with tomatoes, chili peppers, onion, garlic, and fresh cilantro. Another common variety is pico de gallo salsa dips. These are made from raw tomatoes, lime juice, chili peppers, onions, cilantro leaves, and other coarsely chopped raw ingredients. Other interesting salsas can be made from carrots, mangos, and corn. In fact, there is no limit to what kinds of salsas you can create, and there are limitless recipes using salsa as well. You can find recipes with salsa dip on the internet.

But what about the dance? The dance called salsa originated in New York in the 1970’s. It was a mixture of many different types of Latin music and dance. The origin of the name is unclear however. Some claim that the dance gets its name from the idea that it is a mixture of many different styles of dance, just how salsa is a mixture of many different ingredients. Others claim that it is because the dance is hot and spicy like many salsa dips. Regardless, the dance and the sauce remain popular and well known today in the United States. If you would like to learn more about salsa, the dance or the sauce, search the internet.