[Percussive music playing]
[Francisco de Santiago] Hola, Ruth. How are you this morning?
[Ruth Alegria] Well, I'm chilly, but everything here on the table looks absolutely fabulous.
Tell me about where we are.
[Francisco de Santiago] Well, we are here in the north of the city — of Mexico City.
This is the legación Azcapotzalco.
And we are in a third-generation business of Barbacoa — the Alvarez family.
This place is known as Barbacoa el Calandrio.
We are going to see how they are opening the oven that has been previously set a night before
with all this land meat. This is a very traditional dish from the state of Hidalgo.
And in Mexico City, is one of the favorites of the people,
that they come very early in the morning to enjoy it.
And the connoisseurs, they like to come right at the moment of the opening of the oven,
because that's the perfect timing where you can really enjoy and witness all the action.
The whole lamb meat has to be prepared the night before.
And basically it is a steamed.
They set a fire wood bed at the bottom of this brick oven
and they have to lightly cure the meat before they set it inside the oven.
And they use different grills, in order to set at the first moment
the whole meat, and then above the — that grill with the meat,
it would be a big container to catch all the broth from the lamb meat....
And that is called Consommé, and is one of the hangover remedies that we Mexicans — we love to to enjoy.
We can see it here in the Consommé [...]. It has rice, chickpeas, onion carrot as well.
And Epazote, which is a wild green from Mexico.
[Ruth Alegria] This is what we're supposed to put in our soup.
A little onion — I like onion.
And a little corriander.
[Francisco de Santiago] That is correct.
[Ruth Alegria] And then a little lime.
[Francisco de Santiago] Mmmm!
[Ruth Alegria] Oh God, that's lovely. [Francisco de Santiago] Delicious.
[Ruth Alegria] That is really lovely. And this is all....
[Francisco de Santiago] This is called the broth or Consommé de Barbacoa.
And this is just one of the products that we obtain from this [...] underground....
That it is covered with urn and also more of these [....]
which all the container with the meat, it is wrapped with the [....].
It gives a special flavor to the meat.
And it is important to say that the whole tender lamb is going to be prepared.
In the Mexican cuisine, we waste nothing.
So, we have used the tripes,
[...] in the stomach.
[Ruth Alegria] What I like to call "Mexican haggis."
[Francisco de Santiago] Oh, I see. [Ruth Alegria] Stomach that's stuffed with tripe.
[Francisco de Santiago] That's correct.
[Ruth Alegria] And there's two kinds, though. He said there's a red seasoned with guajillo.
[Francisco de Santiago] This is guajillo chili. And this has habanero.
And um....
And Manzano chili.
[Ruth Alegria] And this one he called a "white." [Francisco de Santiago] We call this Pancita Blanca and this is Pancita Roja.
[Ruth Alegria] And then, as he was mentioning, is almost a whole rib....
And back piece. Because the lambs are only eight months old.
[Francisco de Santiago] It has to be a tender lamb, yeah. [Ruth Alegria] It has to be a tender lamb.
[Ruth Alegria] And then, it's fourteen hours worth of cooking.
Slow even cooking.
Wrapped in nogales. And then we have cactus,
avocado — and the avocado still has the skin on, so you have to peel the avocado skin off,
some thistle....
[Francisco de Santiago] This is queso panella. Mhmm.
[Ruth Alegria] Which is a lovely white cheese. And chili?
[Francisco de Santiago] This is chili de arbol. [Ruth Alegria] Oh, lovely.
[Francisco de Santiago] And the cactus leaf that we call nopales, you know, this is so delicious when you use it in a taco....
And many people love to add a condiment to their taco or barbacoa meat....
with everything of these now put together.
[Ruth Alegria] A seasoning of chili sauces on the table as well....
This one's a green one. It looks like a fresh tomatillo....
....with jalapeño or serrano?
[Francisco de Santiago] I think this is Serrano, garlic, onion, mm-hmm, and that's it.
[Ruth Alegria] And it's a fresh sauce.
[Francisco de Santiago] But the highlight of the barbacoa, every place of barbacoa must have this....
....Which is the salsa borracha or "drunken salsa."
[Ruth Alegria] Look at that! It has so much in it! And what makes it a drunk salsa?
[Francisco de Santiago] The fact that it is elaborated with pulque, but you know is the nectar of the [...], is fermented
alcohol drink from agave sap.
And this is combined with different chilis for this menu....
....and little bit of Morita, has to be lightly kind of roasted....
on the [...] for a little bit.
And orange juice — that's part of the secret of the family.
[Ruth Alegria] And this is.... This is also very [....]
[Francisco de Santiago] We have to mention the Pápalo. This is pápaloquelite.
Basically it's a wild green, very Mexican, that grows amongst the corn fields.
And the name is pre-Hispanic. It comes from [...].
The word, "Pápalo" — it means "butterfly."
So, the shape of the of the leaves, as you can see, they remind — like a flying butterfly.
That's why it is called this kind of pápaloquelite.
And in the countryside, they love this wild, because it helps the digestion.
[Ruth Alegria] It has a very strong aroma. I can smell it....
[Francisco de Santiago] Yeah, when you break it, the idea is to put it rolled right down on your taco.
When you are eating it, and it breaks, there is a wonderful, wonderful aroma that....
....that widespread. So, this helps digestion,
and it is very common to see it in the late-night taco scenes, no?
[Ruth Alegria] And we have to mention that we're here, and it's 8 a.m. in the morning.
[Francisco de Santiago] That's correct. We forget to say that.
[Ruth Alegria] And we have already seen many people coming in and buying enormous amounts!
[Francisco de Santiago] Yeah..... [Ruth Alegria] ....Of this Pápalo.
[Francisco de Santiago] When we just arrived, we just saw a woman,
it was — she was coming with the with her entire family.
And they were buying a lot of kilos of barbacoa,
[Francisco de Santiago] ....to take them to Cancún. [Ruth Alegria] To take them to Cancún?
[Francisco de Santiago] Yeah, to Cancún, yeah. Because over there, I mean, you cannot find this kind of dish.
[Francisco de Santiago] Bon Appétit, Ruth.
[Ruth Alegria] Bon Appétit
[Music playing]