Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Pibil cooking (cooking in an underground pit) is a Mayan technique thousands of years old. The achiote-citrus marinade reflects the Mayan culinary tradition of using local seeds and citrus. Cochinita means little pig — the dish was traditionally made with whole suckling pigs.
Cochinita pibil is Yucatan's great pork dish — slow-roasted suckling pig (or pork shoulder) marinated in achiote, bitter orange, and a paste of native Yucatan spices, wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in a pib (an underground stone oven) for hours. At home, a covered Dutch oven in a 160C oven for 4-6 hours produces an approximation. The pork should pull apart in long, vivid brick-red strands. Served with pickled red onion and habanero salsa.
- Peruvian pachamanca (meats and vegetables cooked in an underground pit — the Andean parallel); Hawaiian kahlua pig (whole pig cooked in an underground imu pit — the Pacific Islands version); Tongan umu (underground earth oven cooking — the Polynesian parallel).
Horchata (rice, cinnamon, and sugar drink) — the sweet, cool horchata is the Yucatan companion to the rich, fatty, spiced pork. Or a cold Montejo lager, the beer of the Yucatan.