I've got a little friend he's wanting to get
into my pork
Don Jaime muy rico, gracias, muchas gracias
we're in Michoacan Mexico and we're here to eat
we're taking
you to the heart of this state's street
food, indigenous food all the food in this
incredible state
Michoacan's food
culture is distinct bold and absolutely
delicious this is our second video from
Michoacan and we're eating some of the
state's tastiest food we start off with
Michoacan's most famous food carnitas
we travel to Quiroga the heart of carnita's
country to eat succulent pork
from the king of carnitas, devour a fruit
salad on steroids, sample the state's
enchiladas and eat a dish which is the
definition of ugly delicious in this
massive Mexico series we're eating where
the locals and sharing with you some of
the country's best food from iconic
street food to heritage recipes you
don't want to miss this series get ready
for some mouth-watering food
I'm Thomas
and I'm Sheena and we're Chasing a Plate we
hope you're hungry let's eat
for this
video we're in the state of Michoacan
and we're in the city of Morelia which
is the capital of the state so most of
the video is going to be all around this
city however we are starting with this
state's most famous dish which is
carnitas and carnitas is you'll get it
all over the city however the town where
it began and the town where the real
heart of this dish is is about 40, 45
kilometers outside of town so we're
going to get a couple of buses to get to
this much smaller country town to have
some of the most incredible carnitas
you've ever seen
I'm so pumped about this video because we
get to start it with carnitas, carnitas
is Michoacan's most famous food
carnitas are pork which has been slow
cooked in its own fat and we thought if
we're in Michoacan we may as well make
the effort to go into the heart of
carnitas country and that is to the
little town of Quiroga, Quiroga is famous
famous for its carnitas these are
the best carnitas in the world
we're actually right in town now and
we're standing in front of the plaza
there's one two three four something
like ten stalls lined up in front of the
plaza all selling carnitas I am super
excited to get into these carnitas
this stall that we've got on our list to
visit is rammed with people there's about
five deep of people on either side of
the stall so there's not really a line as
such everyone's just sort of crowded
around the stall and then shuffling
their way forward I can see the carnitas
and they look tender as anything
muchas gracias
so I've been waiting in line and I got
given a sample oh my gosh so I've got
this really fluffy warm tortilla and
then look at the meat holy moly so
that's the pork which has been slowly
confit really I've got a little friend
he's wanting to get into my pork so the
carnitas is pork which is sort of
slowly cooked in its own fat so confit style really all this little taste of the
carnitas has done is just completely
whet my appetite
I've got to get in for some more si gracias
it's really neat because everyone's
lining up really patiently but they're
giving out samples to keep everyone
happy so everyone's just munching away
and waiting for their turn I
managed to just put my order in so I 
ordered four tacos
I've just been given a whole plate of carnitas I ordered surtido which
is a mix of lean and fatty bits and oh
my goodness look at that fatty bit of
pork
I've got a few tortillas there and then
they've got a whole load of pickles
and also some chilli and some nopales
which is cactus right up there so you
can just help yourself
I think I'm gonna get some jalapenos and
also some pickles
alright so I've got a huge jalapeno
here so I'm gonna grab that might
get a couple actually oh bottom of the
barrel that was the last of it and also
some pickled onions and also some chili
these are really gonna be great oh muy rico wow
gracias oh my gosh I just got given some more so we were
admiring a huge huge huge pile of carnitas that were there and I was sort of
loitering about and then got given some
more to add onto my pile look I'm just
gonna get into this I'm not even gonna
bother with the tortillas yet I'm just
gonna get a bit of this meat and also
some of this fat here look at that it is
so gelatinous all right
unreal completely phenomenal the meat
is so tender the fatty bit of skin that
I ate was a little bit gelatinous
holy moly I can see why they have
such a crowd of people
so this stall is super famous because
they are a fifth generation family
business they do the whole process from
start to finish so they raise the pigs
they slaughter the pigs they cook up
the carnitas then they bring it
out here to the plaza in Quiroga to
sell and this is such a cool atmosphere
because people are yelling for everyone to
come to the carnitas stand people are
tucking into the food on this street it
is wild and so worth coming to the heart
of carnitas country in Michoacan
to eat this famous food so carnitas
is slow-cooked pork pork which is
cooked in its own fat in these big
copper pots and you can get any cut of
the pig that you like so you can go
for lean meat you can go for the fatty
meat you can go for offal you can even
ask for uterus if you like I go for the
surtida he mix of the fatty meat
and also the lean meat it is honestly 
melt in your mouth
I want to find a nice
fatty bit as well under here ohhh look at that so
there's a nice bit of skin which they've
all cut into the lovely shape to get all
that fat in there when it's been cooking
and I'm gonna have a little bit of the
the leaner meat with that
oh my god oh
oh it's so juicy
hmm it melts in your mouth it's really
salty as well in a good way so it's very
well seasoned I'm gonna have some jalapeno to
chase that
whoa
yum so pickled
jalapeno you often see them chopped but
those are the whole jalapenos and that
is a beautiful zing nice little spice
and cuts through all that fat and the
salt so really nice balance between the
fattiness the saltiness and the zingyness
of that jalapeno and look at this
place it is absolutely mad and it's so
interesting like Sheena said that all
of the other stalls don't have a huge
crowd there's a crowd at
some of the stalls but this one is the
one to eat at it is absolutely going on off
this fifth generation family
business has been around since 1898 that
is so so phenomenal
muchas gracias Don Jaime
Don Jaime muy rico, gracias muchas gracias
we're now back in the city of Morelia so
we jumped back on the bus and I have to
say how good it was going out to Quiroga
to have the carnitas so going to the
home of that dish and that was not an
easy trip in the end so it was about 40-45
kilometers to get there and it took us
three hours on two different buses we
got caught in the rain it was crazy but
so worth it because they were unreal
but now we're back in Morelia the sun is
back out and we are going to have
gaspachos now gaspachos is not what I
think of here when I think of gaspachos
I think of cold soup but that is not the
case here in Morelia it is a crazy dish
which you have just got to see this
thing is wild
when you walk into this
gaspachos shop the smell hits now
gaspachos is all about fruit you can see
up here there's a tonne of chopped fruit
there's rockmelon honeydew mango all
sorts let's go and order
una normal litro por favor, litro? Si gracias, con todo
muchas gracias si everything con
todo so we ordered a litre of
gaspacho and we ordered it with
everything now this is a crazy snack
come around here and look at them
chopping up all of the fruit
so there's papaya there's pineapple there's
all sorts of melons and the guys are
going to mix that all up with a ton of
different ingredients so he did
mention cheese and he mentioned chilli
so we'll see what else goes in
I can't get
over the smell of the fresh fruit it's
like walking into a tropical paradise it
is so strong and the guy's just preparing
our one right now so there's
mango there's pineapple there's jicama
which is a Mexican turnip I suppose
and then he's adding some cheese
wow
layers of cheese and fruit and hot
sauce this is so crazy more chilli powder
more fruit oh look the piece de resistance
orange juice wow he's chucking on some fresh lime juice
mandatory in Mexico
bit of salt
more cheese why not
muchas gracias
oh my gosh this gaspachos
weighs a ton so a litre of fruit cheese
chilli sauce powdered chilli this is gonna set
us up for the day
this gaspachos is
totally nuts so definitely not what I
think of when I think of gaspacho but
this is a regional specialty here in
Morelia the shop we got this from has
been around since 1970 it was a
really neat place buzzing with locals
 going in there and getting their
gaspachos feast for the day so we got a
litre so we've pretty much got a kilo
here which is incredibly heavy 
it's hurting my wrist to hold it up so
we've got all that cheese on top which
is the most interesting ingredient I
think but so cheese it's a hard cow's
cheese we've got the chilli sauce the
chilli powder is the brown stuff all of
the liquid is orange juice and then
the fruit so we got there were two
versions this is the traditional version
so there was a really colorful version
which had things like papaya and
watermelon in but that's not the
traditional one so we went with the
traditional and it seemed that most
people were ordering this style as well
I'm just going to dive in so we'll get
some of that jicama we've got the
pineapple there and some mango some
cheese some chilli
oh that is good
Oh spicy salty
the perfect sweet salty spicy combo it's
all going on that orange juice pulls it
all together really nicely too look at
this spoon covered in all the good
stuff
that is so good it works so well I love
this sort of thing in Mexico and in
Asian you see it a lot
fruits often tropical style fruit so nice
sweet fruit with some sort of chilli on
them really common combination works so
well and that added element of the
creamy cheese with the salt in the
cheese works a treat will have a really
cool shop as well so much going on those
huge piles of fruit looks so neat being
cut up
Morelia is a beautiful town to explore
there's stunning colonial architecture
really ornate churches we're just
passing through the zocalo at the
moment the main square and we're off to
find our next street food
all along this stretch of road are a
number of stalls that specialise in
antojitos which are small snacks so
we're going to pop into one of them and
grab some enchiladas
so we have ordered
one lot of enchiladas the enchiladas placera
here in Morelia are really
special they do them a certain way and
then we ordered two glasses of atole
which is one of our favorite things to
drink here it's a corn dough drink and we
got chocolate flavored
I love when you can get right up close
and see your food being cooked so she's
cooking up our potatoes and carrots for
the enchiladas placera and the smell
is beautiful is it guajillo 
chile? Wow you can see the tortillas
being fried up in the oil she's actually
dipped them in a guajillo chilli sauce and
now she's crumbling some cheese and also
some onions over it the smell is just
intoxicating can't wait to eat them
ohhh what a plate of food so these
enchiladas placeras are a Morelian
specialty so what they're made up of you
will have seen what she did was she
grabbed these tortillas and she
dipped them in a chilli sauce so a
guajillo chilli and then she popped them
into the oil
she sprinkled some cheese over the top
so the cheese is cotija cheese and it's
famous in Michoacan it's a hard
cow's milk cheese and then there's a ton of
cooked potatoes and carrots over the top
there's some lettuce there's some
fresh onion to add a bit of crunch and
freshness and then there's also some
chicken get some of that cheese and the
lettuce and the onion and potato and
carrot okay
hmm I love this type of food because it
is just what it is
the flavors are what you're expecting
and they're just so delicious the
potato is smooth and creamy the guajillo
chilli sauce which the tortillas
are dipped in it's not that spicy just a
tiny little tangle but a really
beautiful flavour I really really like
the lettuce and the onion on there
because they add a real freshness and
zingyness time to get into this chicken
so I've got a drumstick as well as a
wing so it looks super tender so grab a
bit of the tortilla as well the
enchilada stuff some lettuce over the
top
hmm the chicken is super tender and I
love the cheese it adds a real
saltiness to each mouthful this is
comfort food very very satisfying I'm
washing down my enchiladas
placera with a mug of atole atole is drunk
often in the mornings and it's a really 
warming drink
it's very hot but it's
beautiful it's made out of masa which is
corn dough and so it's got a really
thick texture almost gluggy but in a
nice way and this is chocolate flavored
you can get all sorts of flavors chocolate
flavor's also known as champurrado
it's one of my favorites look at
it it's got a great texture whoa
something we haven't stopped eating
whilst in Michoacan are paletas paletas
are ice blocks and these ice blocks are
like nothing you've ever seen they're ice
blocks on steroids absolutely packed
chock full of fresh fruit now you can
find paletas all over Mexico they're
a very very common street food but
we're filming them here in Michoacan
because Michoacan is the home of the
paleta the reason we love this paleta
shop is because their ice blocks are
really jam-packed full of fruit so you
can get a milk version or a fruit
version so I'm always so indecisive
because there are so many different
delicious looking paletas ooooo una
 guanabana por favor
perfecto gracias
alright I went with guanabana which is soursop
and these paletas are just amazing
because they're chock full of fruit like
I was saying muchas gracias amiga hasta luego and they're really really nice
and thick so they have milk based
ones and also fruit based ones I find that
the fruit based ones are really
refreshing
you can see here it's even got the
pits of the soursop if you've never had soursop
before it tastes a little bit like apple
and pear to me and it's almost got like
a fibrous creamy texture really
delicious and super refreshing cause it's
little bit hot here today in Morelia
next up we're gonna grab some regional
food now I've seen a photo of this dish
and I've got to tell you it's not the
prettiest looking thing I've ever seen
in my life
however the restaurant we are getting it
from which is in this garage over here
in fact this white door garage gets
incredible reviews locals have told us
this is the place to come and eat this
regional food so I am very much looking
forward to trying out this dish here
the dish that we're here to eat is called morisqueta so it's a traditional dish
of the state of Michoacán it's made up
of beans and rice and I think we ordered
it with pork if I got my Spanish
correctly we ordered it with pork so beans rice pork
and it's cooked with a tomato based
sauce should be real good
we've got the morisqueta and it
totally lives up to expectations of
these photos I saw so it is definitely
not the best looking dish in the world
so what we've got is some rice under here I
think there's some frijoles you can just
see there it's underneath this tomato
sauce that's all over it but so I think it's
doused in frijoles and then doused in
this tomato sauce and I believe it's
actually beef not pork so these chunks
of meat on the bone that's the entire
dish so I think this
sums up quite a bit of what our channel's about actually we're about just finding
those really regional or local things
really getting to the heart of the food
in the place we're visiting so we're
clearly clearly not here because this is
spectacular or click bait-y it's
just a plate of food but it's a real
specially here and this place is really
interesting this restaurant so it's a
garage like I said it was it's just a
concrete floor with lines on the ground
actually where cars can park and
it's very full there's a lot of people
here they have quite a big menu that
everyone is eating this dish and this
dish alone so it's incredibly popular
with the locals let's just dive in and
get some rice covered in that sauce and
frijoles first
yum
that looks so bland but it's not it's
got a really good
chilli just real kick really whacks you
quickly with a sharp spice a lot of
tomato in there so you've got sweetness and
acidity from the tomato
we've gotta try and rip into some of
this this beef break that off
oh there we go break a little bit off
there so we got some beef just a hold lot
of everything
yea it's good it's not incredibly tender
or anything like that
it came away from the bone but with a little bit of difficulty but then it's not chewy
and it's just doused in all of that
sauce and the sauce is what makes this it
is so much better than it looks
I'm really glad
it is quite spicy it
builds and builds it just jumped down my throat
I've dug into this meat a bit and had
some by itself I had a very small piece
before and the flavor of that sauce is
very strong so I couldn't actually taste
the meat but I've had some by itself
it's not beef at all it's pork so it's
very nice pork this dish can be made
with beef or with pork depending where
you are but that is definitely pork it's
just a perfect sort of homely feel to it
so very nice dish to eat and totally
what we love to hunt down and I really
like this restaurant it's quite neat
packed with locals sitting in what is a
garage and everyone is just chowing
into this dish pretty much and it's
great it's very very good and really neat to
have such a regional dish while we're
here in Morelia
