Though it is made from the same plant as tequila (the magical maguey), pulque is not distilled.

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Walls and ceiling are covered with psychedelic pre-Hispanic imagery: maguey plants, Aztec gods and goddesses, plumed serpents and skull racks.

BBC: The return of Mexico��s national nectar

But for El Maguey's bleary patrons, pancita promises more than a hearty kick.

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The road ran northwest through fertile bottomland: sorghum, maguey, melons, mangoes, lemons.

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We put in pasilla chilis, tomatillos, garlic cloves, and three dried maguey worms the sort of worms that grow on agaves, the plants from which mescal is produced.

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Walk into El Maguey y La Tuna, a Mexican restaurant on Manhattan's Lower East Side, on a weekend afternoon, and chances are you'll find tables full of red-eyed 20- and 30-somethings face-first in bowls of a fiery-hot soup called pancita.

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