Mayan Experiences in the Yucatan Peninsula 🇲🇽

Mar 27

Mar 27 Mayan Experiences in the Yucatan Peninsula 🇲🇽

Throughout our travels in the Yucatan Peninsula, we learned about the Maya, what used to be an old civilization back in the 1400s. These Mayas used a style of cooking called pibil. This Mayan style of cooking involves a pib (a pit) a few feet deep that has hot coals inside of it. Sometimes the process of creating these coals can take many hours as the coals need to be hot, but without risk of being on fire. They marinate the meat (which are typically pork or chicken) with special regional spices and place it in a pot or griddle to put on top of sticks that are holding the meat over the coals. After, they cover the meat with banana or palm leaves and put dirt on top of it all. They leave the meat ‘cooking’ for many hours (for the chicken pibil it was 4 hours and the cochineal pibil 8 hours) This unusual style results in deliciously tender meat with a smokey flavor. While we were in the Yucatan Peninsula, we went to two pibil cooking experiences with two local families that have been practicing this tradition for many generations.

The Cochinita Pibil at Rosalia being uncovered after 8 hours!

Rosalia Chay Chuc - Rosalia is a Mayan woman that is eager to keep her Mayan culture. She was on the Netflix show Chef’s table BBQ. She offers lunch where she and her family prepare an astounding cochinita pibil, the typical type made out of pork cooked inside the ground. Rosalia also offers relleno negro, a delicious turkey soaked in a regional black sauce and handmade, coal cooked tortillas. She also explains how she makes the spices for the pibil, how long the pot is in the ground, what types of pigs she uses, and lots more! Rosalia is a great cook and she is awesome at making delicious cochinita pibil. She is a genuine and humble person that is making a difference in keeping old traditional alive. If you haven’t, make sure to watch the Netflix show!

Learning how to make handmade tortillas. They are SO delicious!

Nuevo Durango Uma Nojoch Keej - Another cute little place on the side of a road in central Yucatan, this family gives delicious pollo pibil or chicken pibil. Here, you can see the fire before they put the chicken in the ground, and you can watch them make the pibil. They also offer a tour of their land. They are wildlife refugee site, taking care of endangered animals. They also have other regional projects, including the ‘stingless bees’ that make honey. They have a huge variety of local plants that are really cool to learn about. The family that runs the place depends on donations to keep the tour up and running. You can also learn how to make handmade tortillas and besides being fun, they are delicious and SO fresh! The chicken pibil that they made is delicious! The chicken easily falls off the bones after 4 hrs on the hot coals. They also sell the honey from the stingless bees. This family makes delicious chicken pibil and has a unique place with conversation efforts for regional endangered animals. And the experience, which included a informative and fun full day (including a delicious meal) only costs US$9 per person!!!

Overall, learning about the pibils (both cochinita and pollo) has been a very fun experience (s). Both the tasting and learning about the making and the animals have been very fun! I totally recommend you try some if you happen to be in the Yucatan Peninsula.