Boye Feria

This past Saturday morning we took another small trip to a small city about an hour away. The pueblito de Boye is nestled on the side of hill and has less than 2,000 inhabitants. Every year in the month of September they have a festival that revolves around two very traditional items. Barbacoa y Pulque. Barbacoa does not just mean barbeque, or the meat you can choose at Chipotle, but rather lamb that has been slow- cooked in giant underground earth-ovens. This meat is extremely lean, tender, and delicious (makes for excellent tacos!) The meat is covered with the thick leaves of a Maguey plant while it cooks.... And this brings us to pulque! Pulque is an alcoholic drink that is made from the juice extracted from the Maguey plant. (Maguey is in the same family as Agave plants which are used to make tequila) In order to extract the liquid from the Maguey plant, a pipe is placed down into the center (heart) of the plant and the juice is manually sucked out and deposited into a bucket. The juice is called aguamiel when it is extracted, or pulque after it goes through a fermentation process. Different batches of pulque are made and different flavors are often added.

Barbacoa pits

Serving my pulque!

The meat was delicious, the drink...could definitely live without it but definitely glad I tried it. Yet another great adventure and many more to come!

1/2 kilo of Barbacoa, fresh tortillas, and a cup of pulque

And these are the supposed benefits of drinking pulque. Pretty sure you can find the humor without knowing all the words!