Mexican Live Fire Recipes

Mexico’s live fire tradition doesn’t need a grill. It needs a trompo, a wood pit, a clay pot buried in the earth, or nothing but coals on the ground and time. Al pastor spinning on the trompo. Barbacoa wrapped in maguey leaves and slow-cooking underground since the night before. Birria braising in its own consommé. Carne asada on an open comal in the Sonoran desert. I’ve eaten my way through Oaxaca, Mexico City, Tijuana, and the north — this is the live fire tradition that most people outside Mexico have never seen.