Mexico City’s Barbacoa El Calandrio

Barbacoa is Mexico’s pit barbecue. Wrapped in maguey leaves and slow roasted underground, barbacoa meats are steam-cooked for hours until they are “fall off the bone” tender. Usually barbacoa calls for lamb or goat or beef, even cow’s head, but many regional variations occur throughout the Mexican states. Here, in Mexico City, Ruth Alegria and Francisco de Santiago show us the best way to enjoy barbacoa at Barbacoa “El Calandrio” owned by Teresa Jesus Alvarez.