The Yucatan was once considered an isolated region of Mexico, due to the mountainous terrain surrounding it. Yet the influence of the Spanish conquistadors and other Europeans, its geographic proximity to other cultures, and its own rich lore shaped this peninsula's evolution, architecture, society and cuisine.

Before Spanish settlers arrived, the foods of choice included game meats, squash, bananas, tomatoes, pumpkin seeds, achiote and chiles. Over time, pork, beef and chicken became part of the mix, along with herbs and spices such as garlic, oregano, cinnamon and cumin.

"The Yucatan was inhabited by the Maya, a different tribe from the rest of Mexico. Initially the Maya cooked with wild game, deer, and turkey," explains restaurant consultant and menu expert Jim Peyton, author of cookbooks including "Jim Peyton's New Cooking from Old Mexico" and owner of Lo Mexicano Consulting. "After the Spanish arrived, those dishes translated into pork and chicken. When the Spaniards settled, the foods mixed."

While pinto beans are widely used in northern Mexico, black beans are he legumes of choice in the Yucatan, according to Peyton. Pollo pibil, papadzules, sopa de lima, shark meat enchiladas, and salsa salpicón made with habanero chiles, radishes and sour oranges (the latter a key ingredient in the Yucatan) are other dishes he mentions as characteristic dishes of the region.

Peyton adds that restaurants in the U.S. can mix lime and orange juice to achieve the sour orange taste. "In restaurants today, it's hard to find any of the Yucatan traditions done exactly as the Mayans did," he notes.

Peyton describes some seasoning styles used in Yucatecan cooking. "They use recado, a spice rub. There is a red and a black spice rub called chilmole. The red or rojo recado contains achiote mixed with garlic and cumin, cloves, chiles, and cinnamon," he says. "They rub the meat with that and wrap it in banana leaves and then smoke the meat in the ground. Nowadays restaurants steam or cook the meats in the oven. Most cookbook instructions say to wrap in banana leaves, then foil, and then place the meat in the oven."

To attain that Old World flavor without pit- or oven- cooking, restaurants can use a watersmoker, Peyton explains. "A watersmoker, which is a barrel about one foot wide by three feet high, has an electric element. It heats up, the water boils and you get steam and it also creates smoke whereby you get the smoky flavor and heat in the meat. This mimics the action of the Mexican pit," he says.

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Though some ingredients and preparation methods have changed, diners can discover great dishes of the Yucatan on U.S. restaurant menus. Pico's Restaurant in Houston, Texas, is an example.

"The cooking in Mexico is divided into seven regions, all unique because of the terrain and weather. The Yucatan, with its Mayan influences, is one of the regions," explains Pico's owner, Arnaldo Richards, a Mexico City native who has been serving customers traditional Mexican dishes at Pico's for 19 years.

Pico's most popular Yucatecan dishes include the pollo (chicken) and cochinita (pork) pibil, which were both on the original menu. A recent addition is the conejo (rabbit) pibil, which manager Alex Richards says "has done very well." All are marinated in achiote, wrapped in banana leaves, baked, and served with pickled red onions.

Other favorites: the Pescado en Tikin-Xic', an achiote-marinated red snapper fillet that's grilled and then served atop a banana leaf with pickled red onions and rice; salbutes filled with black beans, cochinita pibil and pickled, marinated red onions; and Huevos Motuleno, an egg dish made with tomato sauce, black beans and tortillas that's similar to huevos rancheros. Pico's offers the motul-style eggs as a special and on the catering menu.

Banana leaf-wrapped cochinita pibil is also served at another Houston landmark – the decade-old Otilia's.

"We fly the achiote in from the Yucatan, which is why our food has the same flavor [as that served in Mexico]," manager Louis Cortes says of the signature pibil dish. "We serve it with red onions and black beans."

Otilia's also offers the Yucatecan rice milk drink horchata. "It's our best-selling soft drink. We make our own," Cortes says.

Papadzules are the Yucatan-inspired offering at The Red Iguana in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is an establishment the Cardenas family has operated for 17 years.

That dish includes two corn tortillas dipped in mole verde, filled with pipian, onion, and chopped hard-boiled egg, drizzled with chiltomate sauce, and garnished with pickled onions, says Antonio Cardenas, the general manager and a grandson of the founders.

"The papadzules are very popular. The 'real' way they're made [in Mexico] is tamal-style with masa, hard-boiled eggs and chiltomate," Cardenas explains. "The way we do it is easier – we do it enchilada-style."

And at El Camino restaurant in Seattle, Wash., owner Alice Hughes uses her appetizer and specials menus to introduce customers to Yucatan flavors.

"We serve our guacamole with plantain chips, and we have people say they can't believe we don't offer regular [tortilla] chips," says Hughes, who started El Camino "strictly as a business" seven years ago, but has since come to love and appreciate Mexican food and culture. "We're real mainstream and want to please the American palate, but we're trying to educate our customers, too," she explains.

Some of that "educating" comes in the form of special offerings like the poc chuc (pork chops marinated in guajillo chiles and sour orange) and the mole verde made with pumpkin seeds, she notes.

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Offering foods of the Yucatan (and other regions) can enhance menus at all kinds of Mexican eateries. But if you want sales of unique dishes like papadzules, pollo pibil and poc chuc to soar, it's a good idea to teach waitstaff and customers about the nuances of each region.

"We try to impart as much [information] as we can, and we do promote our foods," notes The Red Iguana's Cardenas, who makes sure employees are familiar with the history behind each dish. "We try to educate our servers in case people ask for traditional dishes and questions come up."

Other promotional suggestions: Briefly describe the regional characteristics of a dish on your menu, or use table tents or cards to explain the history of a particular region.

"It's a tricky line you walk – trying to stay true to the cuisine, yet having a broad appeal," Hughes concludes. "But Mexican food is a real adventure and when you and your staff get excited, it's easy to translate that to diners and to get them to try new things."

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