- And so it begins.
(upbeat music)
Today we're putting down a challenge
- Brand new
- For some picky picky eaters.
Sardines is up today.
- Chopping down
- I think that sardines is an acquired taste.
They are briny little suckers and
they will give you a one two punch.
- Full of flavor.
- And Fishiness
- What do you call a fish with no eyes?
Fsh.
- Just fsh
I hear you have a certain non proclivity for sardines.
- Canned fish, it just doesn't sound right to me.
- I feel like there's this odor emanating from this
can of this gross little things.
- I don't like the little can they come in.
- Okay
- Everyone got beef or fish with this can
- They just look so much like fish
- Have you ever had it fresh? - Um, no
- I have tried sardines one time
- Where are the bones? Like?
- Somewhere in there
- They're teeny tiny
- The brains and the guts
- I don't like any sort of sea food
- So you do not like the taste of seafood?
Blech. No.
- Zero
- Lets talk about what do you like?
- My favorite type of food is Mexican food
because it's like spicy and cheese put together.
- So you like complex flavors
- I love like really savory like
mac and cheese like these full flavors.
- Italian food, Mexican food.
- Do you like spicy?
- I can handle some spice.
- Un poquito
- I do not do spice. Now you wanna see me fall the hell out?
(laughter)
- We're not going to yuck anyone else's yum
and some people do think sardines are yummy.
- We may not change everybody's minds but we will try
- We might change hers.
- We got this, Lauren.
- Okay, we'll be back.
- I don't want to be here.
(laughter)
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- So today I'm taking a traditional spin on sardines
which is..it's often done as like sardine toast,
but I'm gonna do sardine tostada.
Because I'm bringing in that plant-based Caribbean-feel
and variation because you know,
I always have to take it to my Latin side.
I'm gonna be doing a crispy tortilla shell,
then I'm going to take these cuties
and I'm gonna saute them
and make a red-style bolognese, so a red sauce.
So it's going to be my salsa roja,
and then I'm going to layer that with some avocado
with some onion, with some cilantro
and with some shredded Cotjia.
So that's flavor on flavor on flavor on flavor.
- Everyone's so afraid of eating this, right?
But, what they don't know is that you can
get the fresh stuff hiding right here.
So right now I'm preparing, uh, just some garlic
and shallots for when I sear my sardines.
I'm gonna score 'em up real nice,
get 'em real crispy, add a little soy.
What that's gonna do is bring out the saltiness,
the umami of the sardine itself
because it's very very good fresh.
(upbeat music)
- I'm from the Bronx and I've grown up with these cans,
I've been eating these, they were also the star
of many of my collegiate struggle meals.
So if you know how to mess with flavors,
What am I talking about? Your flavor-me tricks:
salty, sweet, sour, tangy, umami.
Then you can just do a variation that pulls out
the flavors that you want from them.
- So right now I have some Sushi rice that I just made,
seasoning it with some Shoyu soy sauce.
I'm gonna show you some flavors.
Right now I'm reducing some soy sauce mirin,
garlic, shallot, tomatoes in the same oil
that I was frying the sardines in.
So what that's gonna do is amplify the amount
of sardine taste in ya mouth.
(upbeat music)
- The girl here got one, two, three, four
cans of sardines-ya don't like it,
I'm gonna put it... all the holes.
- So we are facing fears head on.
Here you have sardine rice bowl with sardine mayo.
- I always say people eat through their eyes,
so you gotta also make it look visually appealing.
Sardine tostadas, tostadas a la sard, bitches.
- Toast-ta-da!
- [All] Wow!
- Tostada!
- I'm scared
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- I like it.
- It's light!
- I don't taste any, like, fishy flavor.
- I'm really, really impressed.
I don't take the sardines at all.
- Don't be shy. Don't be afraid.
- Oh!
- It looks like a fish. It still has the eye.
- Champion.
- Go ahead.
- (laughter)
- I like the flavor. It has a good taste to it.
- This shit is good.
- (laughter)
- Is this the only fish in it?
- No.
- Like there's fish within everything else too?
- Yes ma'am. - Okay. Then I like it.
- So, out of the two dishes
I'm gonna have to go with, I'm gonna go with Ross's dish.
I'm gonna go with dish number two
because I just wasn't expecting that,
and then how everything came together.
Bomb as (bleep).
- If I had to choose one of the two dishes
I'm definitely gonna go with Yadi's tostada.
I just couldn't tell that there were sardines in it at all,
so I think that is a win in my book.
- They were both great.
But I think I have to go with dish number two.
Just the fact that the sardine
was just right there in my face, it was a little scary
but I wanted to dig in, I wanted to eat it.
- (applause)
- Our goal here was to make you guys eat sardines
and we did that.
- The real winner is sardines,
because Ross took it to another level,
we played with lot's of flavors.
You guys are all now leaving,
dare we say "sardine experimenters",
or open to trying it?
- Yes, definitely.
- We made some changes guys.
Sardine all 2019.
(upbeat music)