March 8, 2020
Our lazy days continued and our big quest for the day was to try Barbacoa. Barbacoa is a regional food prepared by digging a hole in the ground with hot charcoal, lining it with agave leaves, putting an entire goat inside, covering it all up and then letting it cook overnight. It is the same idea as what the Hawaiians do with pigs at a luau. We have been seeing advertisements for Barbacoa everywhere as we have been driving around and watch the Netflix series “Taco Chronicles” which had an episode about Barbacoa so we really wanted to try it.
We wandered around a bit and finally found the Barbacoa Luis Suarez restaurant which specialized in the dish. It was only open on weekends as Barbacoa is traditionally a weekend and fiesta meal. Inside we found several earth pit ovens and a very friendly staff who immediately gave us a free sample Barbacoa taco. We saw other tables had Barbacoa served on Agave leaves so we ordered a pound of Barbacoa, a bowl of soup made from the goat drippings and some sodas. The meal came with tortillas and various salsas, like all Mexican meals.
The Barbacoa itself reminded me a lot of Brisket. It was tender and did not have a particularly strong goat or mutton taste. It was pretty good and the pound of Barbacoa was too much for us to eat in one meal so we took some to go.
Afterwards we went to the local market to pick up some vegetables and stopped on the way home for some freshly made rolled ice cream. The rolled ice cream is made by mixing cream, flavorings and fruit and then pouring it onto a frozen surface and then flattening it out and scraping it into rolls.
We had planned to go to Mexico City on day after tomorrow. We had a bunch of Holiday inn points so we planned to take the bus into Mexico City and then stay at the Holiday Inn Express downtown for four nights. We had the Holiday Inn Premier card which gives one free day for every three rewards nights redeemed. However when I went to make the reservation they only had reward availability for four nights starting tomorrow. That was fine, we were flexible and four nights at a centrally Holiday Inn Express for 75,000 points was a decent deal for a Hotel that generally runs $100 a night.