Food & Drink

Sonora is regarded in Mexico as the land of good meat. Carne Asada, beef grilled over an open flame, is more ritual here than recipe. Friends and family gather around the grill on weekends. A bottle of Bacanora is often within reach, but never the center of attention.

Alongside it come the tortillas de harina, thin wheat-flour flatbreads. They are far more common in Sonora than the corn tortilla of southern Mexico. The reason lies in the river valleys of the region, where wheat has been grown since Spanish colonial times. People wrap meat, beans, or cheese inside and eat them warm off the griddle.

Machaca is dried beef, preserved with salt. It's shredded finely and fried in a pan with egg, onions, and chile. Originally, this was a method of storing meat for weeks without refrigeration. Today, people eat Machaca con Huevo for breakfast or wrapped in a tortilla as a burrito.

To finish, there are often coyotas, flat, sweet pastry disks filled with brown sugar. They originally come from the area around Hermosillo and are now sold throughout the state. They serve as the sweet counterpart to a hearty day at the grill.

Because Bacanora was banned for so long, people used to drink it rather secretly, in small gatherings. It was usually drunk only after the actual meal. Today it sits openly on the table alongside Carne Asada and Machaca. But the custom remains: first comes the hearty meal, and the Bacanora follows afterward, at leisure.