[soft dramatic music]
- Wow, these mountains. Look at that!
I feel so small.
So we are arriving in Monterrey.
It's literally "the land of mountains."
That's what it means, king of mountains.
I'm in the state of Nuevo León in northeast Mexico.
You see the mountains and the rocks.
This terrain is not easy on the people.
It's very, very tough living, and because of that,
they've had to be very innovative with their cuisine.
I'm Eva Longoria, born and bred in Texas
with Mexican American roots, which makes me a Texican.
I'm exploring Mexico to see how the people, their lands,
and their past have shaped a culinary tradition
as diverse as its 32 states.
- The food of Nuevo León is the food I grew up with.
It's like every childhood memory is wrapped up
in a flour tortilla for me.
The chefs here are inventive and resourceful...
- [speaking Spanish]
- Transforming simple ingredients
into mouthwatering classics...
You guys need a tamale!
And age-old recipes into culinary works of art.
- One bite?
Look, go ahead and say adiós to vegetables for a while.
[speaking Spanish]
This is the land of meat.
This is definitely a Mexican kitchen tool right here.
Mountains of meat.
- But I'm not complaining.
I love meat.
This is amazing!
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
[acoustic guitar music]
You know, I'm Mexican American.
We've been in Texas for 13 generations.
We never crossed the border. The border crossed us.
And I think that's why I have so much in common
with Nuevo León and the north.
It's so similar to how I grew up.
Nuevo León and Texas were once part of the same country
ruled by Spain and then by Mexico.
In 1845, the U.S. annexed
what would become the Lone Star State.
But the people of Nuevo León and Texas
still have so many shared tastes.
Nowhere is this more present than in the state capital,
Monterrey, the industrial hub of the northeast.
The locals are nicknamed regios, meaning "royals."
They are hardworking and ambitious.
And when the daily grind is over, just like us Texans,
they like nothing better than throwing
some steak on the grill.
[both speaking Spanish]
Cómo estás?
Mucho gusto.
This is every guy I dated in high school.
I'm in downtown Monterrey to meet Alejandro Gutierrez,
founder of the Mexican Society of Grill Masters.
He's invited me to experience
the ultimate Nuevo León barbecue.
I've never been to a carne asada in Monterrey.
- In Monterrey? - Yeah.
[dog barks]
- Carne asada literally means "grilled meat,"
but it's come to embody a much-loved social ritual.
- Hola!
- [speaking Spanish]
- This is where everything happens.
- Hola!
Today, Alejandro's whole family has come together.
Hola, señora. Cómo está? - Mucho gusto.
- Oh, I love that sound!
That's my favorite sound in the world.
- We call it carne asada, but we don't
have to grill meat every time.
It's about the gathering, about being together.
- The fire unites us. [speaking Spanish]
This is what happens when you get united by fire.
[speaking Spanish]
- Sí, sí.
- Cooking over fire goes all the way back to the nomads,
the first people to live in this harsh terrain,
constantly moving camp in the hunt for food.
But it was the Spanish in the 1500s
who introduced hardy breeds of cattle
that thrived in Nuevo León.
And for the regios, beef has been king ever since.
Oh, my God, look at that.
- These are most traditional cut of beef.
- What's that called?
- Oh.
- Okay.
Are you making filets right now?
- But look at the marbleization.
- You got marble.
That's why you love it, because it has a lot of flavor.
We're gonna grill it, really high heat.
- High heat? - 650 to 700 Fahrenheit.
- Oh, wow. How do we season these now?
- We use salt.
- Oh, that's amazing.
Like, how long do you leave it? Isn't there a rule?
- For a cut this thick, 15 to 20 minutes.
That's enough.
- That's how you clean it?
It looks like you're making it dirtier.
- You can do it with a brush.
- Oh, yeah. Or?
- Or you can do it with an onion
because it starts smelling, and that is the way you tell
your neighbors that you're grilling
and they're not invited, so--
- It makes them jealous.
[sizzling]
And it's hot.
- If you're doing this cut of meat...
But you need that heat to make the crust.
- Yeah. - To make the brown color.
- But there's more to carne asada
than what's on the grill.
Arturo is preparing his famous charro beans.
This smells so good.
- He has a secret? [laughs]
This is...
- Yes. Yes. - Oh, my God.
Y'all, I grew up with this.
I grew up with ranch-style frijoles.
Every day of my life, I think, I ate these.
- So you just use that, but you add
other stuff to it, obviously.
- Oh, wow.
- Jalapeño? - Okay.
- Always.
- Carne asada.
both: Carne asada.
- And Eva's here, so carne asada.
- Carne asada.
[upbeat music]
And in order to have a juicy cut of beef,
you need to let it rest.
- Same thing as poultry, right?
Chicken. - Everything.
You have to let it rest.
What are we doing?
[indistinct chatter]
- We're ready to feast,
and the star of the show is the aguja steak.
- You got to cut it... - Okay.
- Against the grain. - To make it less chewy.
More tender.
Oh, my God, look at that.
This is gorgeous.
Look at that. You still see the marbling.
[both speaking Spanish]
- Hmm? - Oh, my gosh.
She loves it. Can I taste this?
- Yes, please. - Let's see.
Oh, my God.
[laughs] Oh, my God.
This is amazing!
Mmm!
- You can even dip into it some garlic.
[upbeat mariachi music]
- I'm gonna do this. I'm so happy!
- [singing in Spanish]
♪ ♪
- The marriage of the roasted garlic's subtle acidity
with the succulent steak is divine.
[cheers and applause]
The flames of carne asada bring people together
over the age-old pleasures of food and friendship,
a living tradition that reminds me of home.
[cheers and applause]
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
- Monterrey is an economic powerhouse.
It's a city of factory workers,
engineers, entrepreneurs,
and nothing's more important to kickstart their day
than a hearty breakfast.
- [speaking Spanish]
- Ah!
- Cómo estás?
Local food bloggers Jero Alvarado
and Neto Esquivel
are the go-to guides for the best place
to grab a bite on the rush to work.
- Ready for frittatas? - I'm ready.
I'm ready for breakfast.
[all speaking Spanish]
- She's a yeller. - Exactly.
- Why? Why does she yell?
- Well, she loves to yell.
- Hola! - Hola, Mary. Cómo estás?
[laughs]
Doña Mary has been serving breakfast tacos
in the center of Monterrey for nearly 20 years.
- They're the perfect fast food
for people in a hurry.
- Yeah. So it's like a cured beef.
- Machacado. I know.
I had this when I was little, in Texas.
- I love this.
So we get the salsa.
- [speaking Spanish]
There you go.
- This is so delicious.
- It's really nice.
- These are the best tortillas I've ever had.
- Muy salado? That's good, that's--
- I love it. - Part of the dry meat.
- Yes, in the north, in Nuevo León,
is one of the only places that has tacos for breakfast,
and in Texas, we have breakfast tacos.
And those are the only places
you can ever get a taco in the morning.
- Yeah. Super regional.
I grew up with breakfast tacos.
It was actually a road
linking Monterrey with the Texas border
that fueled the rise of machacado con huevos
in the 1920s,
when a café owner invented this snack
to feed hungry construction workers.
Today, Highway 85 carries the bulk of goods traded
between the U.S. and Mexico, and the breakfast tacos,
enjoyed at both ends of the road,
are still as popular.
[laughter]
- Doña Mary offers a choice of 21 different taco fillings.
And today, she launches number 22.
The new taco she just invented.
I'm gonna take half. - Okay.
- I'll share it with you. Oh, my God.
- Oh. - Ah!
Packed with crispy pork, potatoes, beans, and cheese.
[all speaking Spanish]
Oh, yeah. This is--
- Taco Eva. - Taco Eva.
- Okay. - Okay.
[accordion playing]
- [singing in Spanish]
♪ ♪
- Do you know how to dance? - Yes.
No, we did not plan this.
Accordion players just seem to follow me around.
♪ ♪
- This--we have to drink beer first!
- Exactly. [laughter]
- The breakfast taco may be the simplest of street food,
but it's been hitting the spot for the workers of Monterrey
for nearly a century.
And thanks to cooks like Doña Mary,
it's not going out of style anytime soon.
[upbeat guitar music]
- In most of Mexico,
you'll see lots of corn tortillas.
But in Monterrey, the flour tortilla dominates.
It's the building block of fajitas, quesadillas,
and the beloved burrito.
Hey, mama! Hey, mama!
[laughter]
And it's what we make for breakfast in my home.
But this modest flatbread has surprising origins.
- Hola, Eva.
- I have come to the Museum of Mexican History in Monterrey
to meet Katya Schoening,
who started the city's Sephardic Jewish Center.
- I'm a researcher specialized in the history of the Jews
that arrived from Spain after the Edict of Expulsion.
First of all, they were, like, crypto-Jews,
and they lived in secret.
- Is it hard to find evidence? - Yes.
I mean, they lived as Christians,
but inside the houses and inside their life,
they have Jewish practices.
And here is full of Jewish practices, actually.
- And it's influenced the food. - Definitely.
- The founding governor of Monterrey,
Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva,
was one of the many Jews who left Spain
at the time of the Inquisition.
They had to pose as Catholics in public
while keeping their forbidden Jewish faith hidden,
a phenomenon known as crypto-Judaism.
- [speaking Spanish]
- So they felt safer hiding in the mountains?
- Of course.
- For the first Jewish settlers,
life under Spanish rule was dangerous.
If exposed, they faced brutal execution.
While the crypto-Jews had to conceal their identity,
their food couldn't be suppressed,
and their legacy lives on in the state's classic dishes.
- Katya has taken me to a pioneering restaurant
that's celebrating this little-known Jewish history.
[all speaking Spanish]
Okay.
Chef Hugo Guajardo is the founder of El Jonuco.
- That's what the name means? - Yeah.
- Like a hidden room where you keep everything
that you forgot about.
Now I know why you guys are friends.
You guys are both trying to uncover secrets.
We're starting with one of my favorites.
This is my specialty.
I think I'm gonna teach you something.
The flour tortilla.
I know, I usually end up making the shape of, like, Africa.
The exact history is hazy, but a theory goes
that after the Spanish brought wheat to Mexico,
the crypto-Jews used it to make unleavened bread
and this led to the flour tortilla.
It's interesting that you can go all the way to North Dakota
and find a flour tortilla.
You can go to Washington state and find a flour tortilla.
Like, the flour tortilla is the one that traveled,
not the--not as much as the corn tortilla.
- Okay.
This is basically another form of unleavened bread.
- One of the most iconic dishes of northern Mexico
may also have crypto-Jewish origins.
I grew up with cabrito.
I remember this.
To avoid being found out by the Catholic authorities,
crypto-Jews used cabrito, a young goat,
instead of traditional lamb in religious feasts.
This is definitely a Mexican kitchen tool right here.
[laughs]
The young goat is fed exclusively on milk,
which gives it its delicate flavor.
- What's in your marinade?
- Oregano is obviously known as a very popular Italian spice,
but we use it in everything.
[upbeat music]
Oh, yeah, this is super fragrant.
- So do you think this is the best oregano in the world?
- We're gonna start a fight with Italy, yeah?
- [laughs] - Oh, it smells so good.
After roasting in the oven for 90 minutes,
they crisp it up on the grill.
And then how long do we leave it?
- We'll leave it for, like, five to ten minutes.
- Okay. Now we just wait.
The cabrito is served simply, on the bone.
- El cabrito.
- It may not be a looker,
but cabrito is all about the flavor.
- Delicioso, eh?
- Oh, my God.
It's so soft from putting it in the oven for so long,
and then the grilling has that crispy skin.
I think a lot of people may think that goat has
a gamey taste, but it doesn't.
It's very smooth and subtle.
- Also that--the spices you put on the cabrito,
they don't overpower anything.
- And to finish, those fresh flour tortillas.
My God!
This takes me back to my kitchen in Texas.
It's like every childhood memory is wrapped up
in a flour tortilla for me.
- So what is the characteristic of a regio?
- Yeah.
It's amazing to think that two staples
of north Mexican cuisine,
the flour tortilla and cabrito,
may come from the legacy
of centuries of Jewish history here.
I think it's so impressive that something so hidden
is now at the forefront of gastronomy in Nuevo León.
Muchas gracias. - Salud.
- This is amazing.
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
- Hola!
- Hi, Eva. How are you?
- Good. Nice to see you.
I've come 30 miles north of Monterrey
to meet ranch manager Jorge Montemayor
to collect a cherished ingredient
that's been on the menu in Nuevo León
for thousands of years.
So you raise them here and then let them go?
- Yep.
- Rancho Del Puerto, one of the hundreds
of ranches in Nuevo León, specializes in deer farming.
- So we have, like, three or four breeding pens,
with 20, 25 does per stud.
- Mm-hmm.
So there's only one man in here?
- Yeah. - And these are his ladies.
- His ladies. - So are they all pregnant?
- Right now? We hope they are.
[laughs] - Oh.
The deer may be bred in captivity,
but then they're freed to roam,
just like their ancestors did.
There's many stone carvings made
by the nomads who lived here 8,000 years ago
that depict the food they hunted.
Wow.
That's gonna be a lot of meat.
- Yeah. - That's gonna be good.
Jorge supplies premium venison
to restaurants all over Monterrey.
- So I'm gonna put this in a cooler so you can take it.
- And he's kindly giving me a leg joint,
one of the tastiest parts of the deer.
We're gonna make some tamales, so I'm really excited about it.
- Let me help you carry this. - Oh, yeah.
You--no, you don't help me.
You carry it. [both laugh]
So many Mexican recipes can be traced to the arrival
of the Spanish in the 1500s,
but tamales go back thousands of years.
- Doña Lupita's café, in the backyard of her home
right next to Highway 85,
is famed for her legendary tamales.
She's been feeding hungry truck drivers
and bikers for over 20 years.
And it's a family business.
- Hola, Cindy!
Hola. - Mucho gusto. Louisa.
- Louisa. Cindy, Louisa.
- Our sound guy's having a really great time today.
- Oh.
So good.
- To tenderize the venison,
Doña Lupita poaches the leg for eight hours
with just salt and garlic.
That's a lot of garlic.
- Thankfully, she's already got some on the stove.
That's how you know it came out right.
It's juicy.
It looks so soft.
Uh-huh.
- To deepen the flavor, we add sauce and spice,
ready to pan fry.
- Tamales aren't tamales
without the all-important corn dough.
- Oh, it mixes really easy.
To make the casing, we spread the dough onto corn husks.
- I make tamales at home,
but I cannot compete with these pros.
You guys go so fast. Oh, my gosh.
- It's almost like rolling a cigarette.
- Oh, I always make a pyramid.
♪ ♪
[static crackles] - Come and get it.
Come and eat.
Our hardworking crew has earned their lunch.
Oh, my God.
Deer chorizo.
- Okay.
Eggs with deer, deer sausage, deer meat.
It's venison served five ways.
Frankie, I'm gonna give you a little bit of everything.
You guys need a tamale.
Our British sound recordist, Nathan, has taken a break
so he can try his first ever tamale.
This is huge.
You have to take the leaf off.
She's gonna drop this on my head.
- Ay, Dios...
[laughter]
- Nathan ate the leaf.
He's not supposed to eat the leaf.
[laughter]
- Ow!
- I'm gonna eat the tamale.
Wow.
Mmm.
Wow.
- So delicious.
- Delicioso. - Delicioso.
- Mm-hmm.
- It's so juicy and flavorful.
And unlike the pork tamales I'm used to,
Doña Lupita's venison version
has that wonderfully rich, earthy taste
that only comes from top-quality game.
[all cheering]
- Muchas gracias. - Muchas gracias.
Wow.
No wonder that after thousands of years,
these pre-Hispanic dumplings are still adored.
I approve. [laughs]
[upbeat acoustic guitar music]
♪ ♪
- [speaking Spanish]
- Much of Nuevo León may be dry and barren,
but southeast of Monterrey lies a fertile oasis.
The Pilón River irrigates the fields of Montemorelos,
home to some of the finest orange orchards in Mexico.
- Ana Rodriguez runs
one of the most successful bakery chains in Monterrey,
and she uses the fruit from here
to make one of her favorite Nuevo León desserts.
Hola. Cómo estás?
- Bienvenidas.Welcome.
- Arturo Salazar is the fourth generation
of his family to work these fields.
And now, he's helped by his son, Fede.
This is mandarin?
- These are mandarin, yeah.
- So you can grow mandarin here?
- We have mandarins. We have oranges.
All kind of citruses.
These one in particular are the ortanique orange.
It has a lot of oil in it,
so immediately when you open it,
it's like an explosion of-- - Fragrant.
- Yeah, it's very fragrant.
- Oh, my gosh, look at this. This is so good.
[light music]
♪ ♪
How do I know when it's ready to pick?
- Okay. So we have to turn it over.
No, I would just run and grab them off the tree.
I don't know why I always think citrus is natural to Mexico.
- No, the first conquistadors, they come from Spain.
They were the ones that introduced citruses to Mexico.
- But it was a former orchard manager from California
who kickstarted the orange industry
in Montemorelos in the 1880s.
Arriving to oversee the construction
of a new railroad,
he saw the fertile valley of the Pilón River
as perfect orange-growing country.
- So this region was the one that actually started
producing oranges en masse
and having oranges as kind of a business
other than just in your backyard.
- So the train made it possible for trade.
- Sí. - Okay, I think we're ready.
[both speaking Spanish]
- This is so fun.
I'm just gonna keep picking on my way out.
Ana grew up near these incredible orange orchards.
[both speaking Spanish]
And she's taking me back to the kitchen,
where her mom Marta helped her launch her business.
[laughing] Oh, smells so good.
- Although they include the zest of the orange,
the main ingredient is the thick white pith.
- Okay.
The pith gives the dessert its sour punch,
but the juice doesn't go to waste.
So you put orange juice in the--
- More sugar.
Is this a recipe from when you were a child?
- That's the best part of cooking
is spoiling your family and people you love.
Like, I think cooking is a form of love,
and so that's why I love to do it.
- Yes.
- After my Nuevo León meat feast,
the freshness of this bittersweet concoction
is just what I'm craving.
- Oh, my gosh, look at that.
This is so soft.
[speaking Spanish]
I mean, you have to cook it a long time.
Mmm.
It's like candy, but not as sweet,
even though it has all of that--
I wanna drink it up. Just drink it.
The oranges of Montemorelos
are the jewels in the crown of Nuevo León,
a reminder that even in the harshest terrain,
there are delicious treasures to be found.
[upbeat music]
- They say that every great dish tells a story,
and in the Monterrey neighborhood
of San Pedro Garza Garcia...
Hola. Cómo está?
An imaginative restaurant has made that its mission.
Oh, God, this is so beautiful.
Named Koli, it aims to tell the story of Nuevo León
through its food.
Wow.
- Hi, Eva. Cómo estás? - Hola.
It's the brainchild of the Rivera-Rio family.
Do you three look alike, or are you related?
- No, we're actually brothers. [laughter]
- The three musketeers. both: Yes!
- Patricio is in all the wines and spirits
and everything like that, Daniel is the pastry chef,
and I'm the head chef.
[laughs] - So do you boss them around?
- No, not too much, because--
- Sometimes. both: Sometimes.
- Just when he's angry. - Sometimes we boss each other.
- When he doesn't drink his coffee,
he comes in grumpy. - Oh, okay.
How has the response been with the people of Monterrey
to have this sort of restaurant?
Like, elevated cuisine from Nuevo León.
- Yes, it's meat and carne asada--
- Yes, that's what the people think.
- Everybody has a grill, so why do I need you?
- Totally, totally.
- So it's not just about taste.
- That's right. Yeah.
- Okay, so are you putting me to work now?
[laughter] Okay. What are we making?
- Well, let's do it.
- Okay, let's go to the kitchen.
- Are you guys working? - Yes.
- Okay. All right. Just making sure.
So to understand this recipe, we need to go back in time.
Like, way back
to when a giant meteorite struck the Yucatán Peninsula,
wiping out much of life on Earth,
but triggering the growth of the flora and fauna
of the modern world.
This dish is Rodrigo's tribute
to the meteorite that made Mexico.
Is it, like-- is it beef or deer?
- It's like beef jerky. It's very common right here.
- Dried beef was one of the original survival foods
of Nuevo León, and Rodrigo uses it
as the base for a local stew known as atropellado.
In Mexican stews, more time, more flavor.
- The finished product is this pot of tender,
herb-infused beef.
- Looks like a meatball.
- Yes. Yes.
- 12 grams. - Each one have to be 12 grams.
- Exact? Okay. - Yes, exact.
- Flour tortilla.
- You want bitter.
- Okay.
So why tempura?
- And is this how you normally do it?
- Wow, that's literally tortilla ashes.
- Tortilla ashes.
- Oh, squid ink. Okay.
- So it's going to be a dark tempura.
- Rodrigo coats the meatballs in black tempura batter
and deep fries them in hot oil.
Where did you study?
- You just have such international
influences, though.
It's the food that I really know,
and it's the way I want to be as a chef.
Okay, this is the tempura from tortilla ashes.
Inside is the atropellado.
What I do is just cooking the egg yolk.
That's all. - This is the egg yolk?
- It's the egg.
Like that. - Oh, like this.
Oh, that's beautiful.
- And then all the flowers... - Yes.
- We are going to add it. - Okay.
- It's gonna give you this, like, different kind
of flavors, aromas. - Uh-huh.
- A little bit spicy and acidity too.
Now we're going to put right here.
- Oh, what's this? - This is bones.
Roasted bones.
- Roasted-- bones of what, bones?
What kind-- - Bones from pork.
We put it right here,
and then we're going to smoke it with mesquite.
- Mesquite wood is used in traditional Mexican cooking
to give meat a deep, smoky flavor.
- And we're going to burn a little bit--
- God, it looks like a bong.
- It actually starts like a bong!
[laughs]
- This dish is not just an appetizer.
It's the centerpiece of a nine-course tasting menu
that transforms familiar ingredients
into flights of imagination.
And every dish is a piece of theater.
[gasps]
- We'll start with a brief history of our country.
So everything started 66 million years ago
when this asteroid, called Chicxulub,
hit the tip of Yucatán, now the Gulf of Mexico,
and physically formed our country.
So we can show you this asteroid
that became the atropellado.
- Wow.
A lot of people don't know the asteroid that killed
the dinosaurs was in Mexico.
- And actually in Chicxulub. Enjoy it.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
- Start with your fingers, because it's like
the most unstressful thing.
- And I just bite into it. - Yes, yes.
- One bite? - [laughs]
- [gasps]
Mmm.
Wow.
- That was the punch of the flavor, right?
- The juices exploded in my mouth.
It's a really great texture because it's very soft
in the inside and crispy on the outside.
But that smoked bones, that is beautiful.
- We try to sell the experience, not just food.
- I think at the end of the day, though,
you guys are amazing storytellers.
- Thank you, thank you. Thank you very much.
- Not just of Mexico.
- Well, you really--yeah.
You really see the spirit of regios in the food.
In your food.
- Yes, yes. - You know?
It's, like, resilient and it's creative
and it's innovative and it's diverse.
And you go, "Oh, my gosh, where am I?"
And you go, "Nuevo León.
Estamos en Nuevo León."
- Yes, yes, yes.
- People will be like, "Wow, this is amazing."
But it's really a product of the people.
Of the people's spirit here, I think, in this state.
- Yes, yes. And I appreciate it.
- [speaking Spanish] Salud. Salud.