We are currently in Puerto Rico! Yes, we flew overnight from JFK. Left around
midnight, we got here about 5:00 a.m. Puerto Rico time there, now we're ahead.
And we took a long nap/real sleep and we are ready to explore the city.
It is an annual tradition of ours. It is Jumi's birthdaycation. Fourth straight
year we've gone somewhere for her birthday, which is coming up tomorrow.
So today we're gonna explore Old San Juan. We're gonna look for some street
art, graffiti. Gonna eat a lot of course, I mean you know us by now. We're walking
to the nearby beach from where we are staying. So we gotta get a little of
this coastline action. It is 84 degrees here and at home it is 35 and snowing. So
we left at the right time. So right now it is perfect weather it's not hot it's
breezy right here by the coast. You smell that ocean breeze. Yeah we are here
So we got a look at the beach. Checked out the beach, it's very wavy
right now it's nice. Can see the palm trees, feel and smell that ocean breeze.
It's gonna be a little bit of a homecoming for me because I visited back in
2011 with a close family friend, George, shout out if you're watching, and we explored
it because he's got family here he spent a lot of time over the years. But, we are
ready to go explore Old San Juan. We're ready to eat, we are starving.
Haven't eaten since last night so it'll be cool to go back and explore those
old streets again with Jumi.
Now where's our Uber?
We are inside this old-school bakery in Puerto Rico to get first bite of
breakfast. This place has been here since 1902. La Bombonera
is the place. Well apparently they renovated the inside but it's still
kind of like they still have old-school vibes.
We're getting mallorcas, a famous pastry. Sweet pastry soft with
powdered sugar. I had it a long time ago when I came here in 2011, so let's check it out.
We got our pastries.
Mallorca. And we're trying to eat it outside
Mallorca - very fluffy light feeling. Mallorca is named after the island in
Spain Mallorca. Apparently that's where it came from
We wanted to start off with the classic. See how it is. A little oily on the bottom.
Reminds me a little bit of a croissant but lighter, not as buttery, fluffy and that
powder sugar. Very nice. Definitely gonna have more of these today. And we might
even try it - we've seen it with egg ham and cheese
inside. That salty sweet combo. I think we're gonna have to try that we love
that salty sweet. We're gonna get that today too
It is beautiful. I can never get tired of these old colorful buildings. They are
absolutely stunning. There's light blue, purple, light green, orange, yellow. It's
unbelievable. It's actually the first place where I visited that had this kind
of architecture - the colonial Spanish architecture. And since then, together we
have been to Casco Viejo in Panama City, which looks similar with the
architecture and Cartagena in Colombia and even Mazatlan in Mexico.
I'm starving
It looks like an old school
diner. Yeah that's why I wanted to check it out.
Higado encebollado
Y mofongo relleno de camarones.
We are at a diner
Yeah, it's a breakfast lunch counter. They only sell breakfast and lunch here. They close up I believe at 4:30.
Cafe Manolin Old San Juan.
It's a lot of locals who come here. Breakfast menu. Lunch menu.
Our first lunch of the day
Guanabana juice. This is the fresh orange juice. I haven't had this since 7 almost 8 years ago. Cheers!
We got mofongo, plantains and we got more plantains because, why not? And Iove em too.
All that garlic on top. A couple sauces here. Supposed to be a
chimichurri sauce and hot sauce. Gonna try the hot sauce first
Smells vinegary
Mm it's creamy that creamy heat.
Some lime on that mofongo.
Now, cut it open.
And there's more shrimp inside of it. See a lot of garlic on top and the chopped
peppers. Let's take a bite
So garlicky, so soft, tender, juicy. Has that flavor from the shrimp embedded all
the way into it. So, let's take a look at one of those shrimp inside, shall we?
Mofongo sometimes can be dry, but this is so moist so soft. Cuts apart so easily. It's delicious.
That liver, the onions look so good.
That was so good I'm kind of stuffed. Yeah I'm pretty full too.
We feasted in there and now we're gonna go walk it off a little bit and we're gonna
go probably eat a little bit more after that. I thought we're gonna get
mallorca. Yeah, let me see the timing. I think
that one closes at 3. They close at 3. This place close at 4:30. 4:30.
Next spot is another spot for Mallorca. So we just can't enough. We might get it
stuffed with ham and cheese this time. Salty sweet. They close at three, that's
why we're rushing after we just ate a big meal
I'm gonna go of course with the most complicated one, the most ingredients.
Jamon, queso y huevo. You got to get egg on this. There's no way you don't. Ham and the cheese, why not?
Now we got our mallorca. I can already see through the paper.
Looks like it's been griddled. Look at how flaky
The layers. There's the cheese, the ham and then the Mallorca. Look at all that
powdered sugar it's caked on top. Yeah that bottom looks almost like a French toast.
The way they grill that bottom, it's all together. That's why you know we just had
a Mallorca, but we wanna get another Mallorca because we want to see how it tastes
with the savory and how it tastes after they cook and griddle it a little
bit, so let's check it out
Mmm to me it's like a blend of a croissant and a zeppole. The zeppole because of the
powdered sugar more but saltier and buttery because of the griddling on the
bottom. I wish we could have got it with the egg. We were supposed to, they forgot.
It's okay we weren't gonna go back to have them make another one it's all good. lt's
so good, I love that savory sweet salty. That mallorca was so good - savory
sweet. That made us want to get more tomorrow. We'll go to a different spot
and want to get it with egg this time, hopefully. But, all was well
At least we get to try what's it like with no egg. Try how it tastes with
just ham and cheese. It's very - that powdered sugar really just makes
it. It's still light you know it's fluffy, it's a very unique. It's a
PR classic. I just remember having this about eight years ago and may have been
from that spot actually.
It's so pretty, isn't it?
Rain is pouring and it's time to find shelter.
If it's gonna rain, it is actually the best place for us to get caught up in some rain because it is
beautiful we had some shade very relaxed for the middle of the day. We're heading to
Castillo San Felipe El Morro. It's right there
We are almost at the top here of El Morro and this is right behind us is the
tower. It dates back to the 1500s, it's the oldest part of the fort. The rest of it dates
back to the 1700s. They say it looks pretty similar now to then. We're
wondering if we can go up. We think yes. We'll find out, let's go.
That was the fort. Now we're leaving the fort. Gonna head back into the Old San
Juan. And we're gonna have some pina coladas,
based on a recommendation from my man George who I traveled here with almost eight years ago.
We're here and they're supposed to have the best pina colada in town.
Apparently, this is where the Pina Colada was born. My family friend George told us to
come, that we had to get a Pina Colada here, so that's we're gonna do.
It looks so empty.
We have our pina coladas and they smell (rummy) strong.
Originally, this was not the place that we wanted to eat. They were closed. But thankfully, we have this as a
backup and it's all seafood pretty much. So we're excited, we didn't really have
much. Had a little seafood earlier with the mofongo and the shrimp, but now we're gonna
get whole fish, octopus, other seafood we have not had today. So, this looks like your average
empanada, but it's not. The filling is the first time we ever had this filling. It's dorado - mahi mahi.
Smells good. Have a few sauces here. Avocado hot sauce, lemon hot sauce, tamarind (tamarindo) - tamarind hot sauce and mayo ketchup
Take a bite by itself with no sauce, always gotta do that first. A lot of fish in here.
Now, gonna try some sauce. That avocado sauce.
Tamarindo.
It's even better with the sauce. (Which one do you like better?) It's either the avocado or the tamarindo. Gonna try the avocado again. The avocado.
We have the pulpo. Always hard for us to not get octopus when it's on the menu, so that's what we did. So this comes with olive
oil. I believe there's kalamata olive infused Mayo, reduced balsamic, topped with
cilantro, Jumi's favorite. I'll take all her cilantro and more, thank you very
much.
Mmm so tender.
Slightly crispy outside, but soft. Sauces work very well together, too. Very good.
So we have whole fried red snapper. A pound-and-a-half, it's the one she showed
it to us earlier how fresh it is. Decided for that and we got tostones. These
aren't plantain tostones. They were breadfruit. Smashed breadfruit
It's seasonal. We messed up and didn't get it before at Manolin, but the guy next to
us said you gotta try them. So glad we're able to fix our mistake and get them here.
So fresh, well seasoned on the outside doesn't even need anything on it, but will try some with the sauce.
Let's take the breadfruit tostones.
More interesting. Crispier texture very neutral kind of flavor.
You saw that whole fish before, right? That's all we got left. As many of you will know, the head of
the fish quite possibly the best part. Let's just get down and dirty with this thing.
Our waitress is really nice, she seems really awesome, really cool. And first
Medalla Light of the trip. Haven't had this in almost 8 years, also last trip. Last trip
I had a lot of these. Nice to have it back - cheers! With my passion fruit mango frozen.
Great to be back in Puerto Rico.
That is it for today. Yeah, we hope you enjoyed.
Thank you for watching, we had a great first day here in Puerto Rico - San Juan.
And stay tuned, we have some more coming from La Isla del Encanto. If this
is your first time watching our videos, please subscribe and hit the bells. You
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one to comment, right? Yes. And like. Thanks for watching. Good night thanks for
watching. Peace.
I don't even wanna break it.
Ohhh here she comes
Oh, by far