The Weekend Cochinita

Yucatan’s cochinita pibil --pork steamed in a pit in the ground--is a weekend special at La Flor de Yucatan. The bakery-deli’s cochinita is wrapped in banana leaves and baked in an oven, not the ground. It’s very tender, not spicy, and nice to serve in tacos or tortas or on its own with beans and rice. Orders come with typical Yucatecan condiments--pink pickled onions and a fresh habanero chile. If you like the meat, you can buy the marinade, a paste imported from Yucatan and distributed by La Flor de Yucatan.

Cochinita pibil, $5 a pound (Saturdays and Sundays only, except by special order); meat marinade, 7 ounces for $2.25 at La Flor de Yucatan, 1800 S. Hoover St., Los Angeles. (213) 748-6090.