The meaty dish is an explosion of flavours that combines tastes from the New World and the Old - the history of Guatemala on a plate, but with less bitterness and more spice.

Pepian blends foods brought from Europe by the Spanish conquistadors - such as onion, sesame, cinnamon and coriander - with the key ingredient, an indigenous spice called pepitoria, made by roasting and grinding the seeds of a native squash.

The dish is a cultural cornerstone in Guatemala, despite the impoverished Central American country's sometimes uneasy relationship with its Mayan heritage.

Guatemalans' passion for pepian is so intense that the government declared the dish part of its national heritage in 2007.

Pepian has a thick, deep-red sauce made of tomatoes, garlic and chillis, dotted with chunks of meat, carrots and potatoes.

Spicy but not tongue-numbing, it is typically served over rice and savoured by Guatemalans of all walks of life.

Morales has served several presidents at her diner, Rosita, in a basement in the market at the heart of Guatemala City's historic centre.

"Once they come, they always come back," said the 62-year-old chef.

Historians say pepian originated among the Maya-Kaqchikel ethnic group in the western region of Chimaltenango before Europeans arrived in the Americas.

"In the pre-Hispanic world, pepian was served at major religious and political ceremonies and rituals," said Ericka Sagastume, an expert on Guatemalan cuisine at the Center for Folkloric Studies at the University of San Carlos.

"So indigenous groups continued the tradition and pepian became Guatemala's quintessential ceremonial dish."

Originally, the dish was made of pepitoria, chillis and tomatoes, she said. Over time, the recipe shifted to incorporate ingredients brought from Europe.

But pepitoria has remained the key component.

It is a rare cultural victory for Guatemala's indigenous peoples, who have endured five centuries of Spanish conquest, colonial subjugation and marginalisation under successive post-independence governments.

They were also the main victims of Guatemala's 1960-1996 civil war, during which some 200,000 people died in a country of 15 million.

Today, indigenous Guatemalans make up about 40 per cent of the population, according to census figures.

The other 60 per cent identify as "ladino", the Guatemalan term for people of European or mixed descent, and the group that has dominated Guatemala's politics and economy since colonial times.

Despite being pushed to the edges of Guatemalan society, the country's Mayan peoples have left a subtle imprint on the national culture.

"Every day we see different cultural contributions to our daily life, particularly from indigenous peoples," said the anthropologist Ervin Us.

He cited a tradition of community-based decision-making and "collective prayer", which endures although the population today is overwhelmingly Catholic and Protestant.

"The idea of understanding the supernatural is something deeply anchored in the indigenous population," he said.

Other signs of indigenous influence include prized indigenous paintings from Chimaltenango and the nearby region of Solola, the corn tortillas that are even more ubiquitous than pepian, and the colourful clothing, bags and fabrics that are the hallmarks of Guatemala's markets.

"Even if there's a push to deny the country's indigenous past, the proof [of this influence] is so strong that it extends even to fashion," Us said. AFP