- Today's episode is sponsored
by Cheez-IT SNAP'd.
Cheez-IT SNAP'd are a thin,
crispy and cheesy way to take your lunch to
the next level and make you wonder why you ever settled
for boring old chips.
If you want to find out how I level up my lunch on set,
head to the Cheez-IT's YouTube channel
and watch my episode of what's for lunch,
the link is in the description.
- I don't think I've ever been so happy to walk up a hill.
- Exactly.
(laughing)
(upbeat music)
- Welcome to Mexico, Pruébalo.
(talking and acoustic music)
So Choco and I just drove into Tamazula, Jalisco
it's a town about five hours southeast of Mazatlan.
We're here because my friend, Juan Garcia,
he's a birriero from LA.
He was born and raised here in Jalisco.
And he's invited us down to try some of
the best birria in Tamazula.
So I'm meeting him at the Mercado.
He's going to take me to his favorite little puesto
and I'm really excited.
Also, I'm really hungry.
(talking)
Juan!
- Hey, how's it going, man?
- [Rick] I'm good, how are you?
- I'm fine.
Ready to eat? - [Rick] Yes, I'm so hungry.
- So this is a popular birrieria in Tamazula.
- [Rick] Wow.
- It looks good.
(talking in Spanish)
(laughing)
(talking in Spanish)
- That's pretty much the basic plate
that you would order here.
- [Rick] Okay.
- The (Spanish word) here is a little bit clear.
- [Rick] Yeah, yeah.
- I'm not sure if it's a salsa or vinegar base
but it's probably vinegar based.
- Okay.
Oh.
- It's different huh?
- That's so good.
I'm going to taste each component, just.
- [Juan] I think you have to. - Yeah, yeah.
- And they gave us a machito,
which is practically the testicles.
The manolito which is all the innards,
potatoes, carrots, calabasa.
They even do chayote on there sometimes.
(talking)
- Wow.
- It's like subtle.
It's not too goaty, right?
- It's so rich.
- And the spice is just right, I think.
- So you were telling me that clearer broth
is an evolution.
- Yeah, so I don't know why.
I remember a time when it was a little bit darker than this.
It wasn't too red, but it was a little bit darker.
And then I don't know, like maybe 10 years back,
it just, it went clear.
- Wow. - It went straight up clear.
- How is this compared to yours?
- Mine is more red, it's rich in chiles.
And this one is not, so there's no color.
There's no, nothing giving it that, that lick.
- Even though I really love this,
I really want to try yours.
- Yeah definitely, come out and we'll do it.
Sounds like a plan.
- Let's go, let's go.
(soft acoustic music)
(knocking)
Juan!
- Hey Rick, what's up, how are you doing man?
- Great.
- All right. - Let's go make some birria.
- Yeah, let's go, let's go check out the ovens.
Come on Choco, let's go.
- Oh.
- So here we are.
- This is so cool.
- [Juan] So yeah, we're with Jesus Montana,
we call him El Chusy here in his birriero la manana.
He's an old school birriero.
And he let us use his oven.
- [Rick] What are they made of?
- [Juan] Donkey manure.
- [Rick] Really?
- Among many things, yeah.
And then donkey, they eat a certain plant
and it allows it to like, bind everything together
so it doesn't crack, so it doesn't like split.
- That's insane.
Now have you cooked in an oven like this?
- I have not and we're gonna learn today.
- [Rick] Okay so now we're gonna start the fire.
Okay, how do we do that?
- [Juan] So we use a cote.
We put it in, we start the wood.
We light it up and then when that dies down,
we add more wood.
We continue doing that until like,
the oven is pretty hot to touch.
- [Rick] Okay.
- [Juan] So once you can't like stand your hand in there,
like that's it, it's ready to go.
- [Rick] All right.
All right, so we'll be back in like, what?
- About two hours.
- Two hours? - Yeah.
- All right, let's go prep the goat.
- Let's go.
(upbeat music)
You like it hot?
- Yeah, watch, my mom's gonna say, it's too much.
- No.
(laughing)
Okay, so this, there's a lot of chile,
how much goat are we using?
- Uh, the goat initially weighed 25 kilos.
And now it's less, I don't know exactly how much
but like I told you, it's by feel.
- Yeah yeah.
- So this is enough to cover the pieces
and to have a little bit more just to pour over.
And that should be enough.
- Okay.
- We're gonna first put these in hot water,
let 'em soften up a little bit more.
We're gonna blend it,
and then we're gonna combine all these spices here.
And then we toast animal crackers.
We're gonna incorporate orange juice as well.
We're gonna have fun.
- Okay, all right, well let's go to work.
(chill music)
All right so this is the last batch of the chiles.
So we're gonna start adding the spices,
we're gonna blend it and then put it onto the rest.
- [Rick] Okay.
(soft music)
Oh.
- It's pretty good.
We're gonna dip the goat into the adobo
and then we're gonna start placing it.
It's gonna get a little bit messy.
- Wow, that is so beautiful.
- Yeah.
- And pretty generous?
- Uh, yeah.
See if we can.
(barking)
(soft music)
So this is a special Tejuíno spot here in Tamazula.
What makes this special is that they use
the actual corn sprouts, they sprout the corn.
And then they ferment it, they blend it,
they ferment it, the add the (Spanish word)
all that stuff.
So it's like a, almost like a beer.
Like a very light beer.
- Yeah, yeah, okay.
(solo guitar music)
(talking)
Oh my god.
Okay so it's been five hours.
I'm starving.
- [Juan] Me too man.
- I had my nap, I'm ready to go.
It looks, it's crazy, it looks like it's
been just cemented over.
Let's look.
Oh my god.
- [Juan] Look at it, I just,
honestly I think this is the best I've ever done
and we haven't even tasted it yet, so.
- [Rick] Well, we gotta walk up a hill with this.
- [Juan] Down a hill.
- [Rick] Oh down, okay great.
I'm not worried anymore.
- Well if it falls.
- I am going to eat this off the pavement.
- I'm down, I'm down, let's do this.
- All right, let's go.
Oh my god.
(upbeat music)
Ah. - Here we go, man.
- So excited about this.
- The moment we were waiting for.
- Yes.
So tell me about this salsa.
- So this salsa is tomatillo based.
- Oh it is? - Yeah.
- Okay.
- It has a couple tomatoes in there too.
It has all the spices that the birria has.
- And then tell me about your macha.
- The macha is guaillo.
It's chile de arbol, salt and a bunch of garlic.
- It's so beautiful.
- Yeah, it gives it that nice heat.
I think birria needs to be, you know.
- Hot. - Yeah.
- I think everything needs to be spicy.
- Yeah. Fair.
Here's to you.
- Cheers, thank you for doing this, god.
- Oh man.
- That's incredible.
- I'm used to my birria but
this oven makes a huge difference.
- Really? - Yeah.
- If we had this birria and the one
that you normally make, side by side,
blindfolded, you'd know which one.
- Mhm.
- There's just, there's so much happening.
The salsa with the tomatillo,
kind of the dark smokiness of the macha,
you have a little bit of the smoke
and the earthiness in the birria.
- And I don't know if it's because I'm used to it
but you can taste the citric
of part of the birria, you know, from the oranges.
- And it's, even though this is very complex
the birria itself is actually pretty simple.
I mean relative to the other recipes that I've seen.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Okay, so why is this important to you?
- Oh man.
Many reasons.
I guess in a way, to preserve, like the history
of this dish and the second part would be intertwined
with that, which is part of my family.
This dish is part of my family,
it's just, you know, for generations,
I'm the fourth generation birriero in my family
so it's like, if I don't keep
it going for the new generations,
like I don't know who else will.
And I think that's important.
I think it's important for my children to know
their past and possibly in the future, you know.
- What do you think is the most important
thing for Latinos in the US right now,
young Latinos to know about our culture?
- Look at today,
I never cooked in the oven before.
If it wasn't for this, who knows if I would've.
And so today was a learning experience
for me too.
I'ma take that back, I'm gonna build on that
and I'm gonna share that.
Keep digging, I always say that,
keep digging, like you never know
what's in your family, what's in your family history.
And food has this weird part to it
where it connects people from different places
and you may think you don't have anything
in common but food brings you together.
And birria is an example of that, you know,
Spanish and then the Aztecs, you know.
So keep digging, that's all I can say, yeah.
- I just wanna tell you how incredibly grateful I am
that you did this.
You know I've eaten birria all over the country.
But actually like cooking it with someone
and being able to like experience it
and also, you know, seeing
the process of the oven through your eyes
was so incredible.
And meeting your family and.
I'm so touched that you shared your family's recipe with me.
- Well I feel same man.
I mean, first of all, I'm glad you guys,
you know, were interested in this
and thank you for helping me spread
the birria gospel.
- Yeah. - Yeah, I mean.
- Preach brother.
Are you gonna build another taco?
- Uh, are you?
- I will if you do.
- Yeah. - Let's do it.
- I mean we're here for a reason, right?
(laughing)
- I'm so happy right now.
I'm full, the weather's amazing,
this place is gorgeous and I can't wait for
the next episode.
We will see you again.
Thank you for joining us on Pruébalo.
Today's episode is sponsored by Cheez-IT SNAP'd.
Thin, crispy and cheesy.
Cheez-IT SNAP'd pair well with any kind
of sandwich and the jalapeno jack flavor
pairs especially well with the muffaleta I made
for my episode of what's for lunch.
Head over to the Cheez-IT's YouTube channel now
to see how I took my lunch to the next level.
The link is in the description.