- It's hella greasy.
I don't know if you can see this.
I could just use this to brush my edges.
(upbeat music)
- Hi, my name is Johanna Gutierrez.
I'm from la Republica Dominicana.
I am Afro-Latina.
(speaking in Spanish)
- Hi, my name is Skyler Pierce
from La Jolla, California
and my family is West African and Iberian.
- My name is Sarah and my parents are from Peru.
(upbeat music)
- Empanadas in the Dominican Republic, DR,
is more like an hor d'oeuvres.
It's very flakey.
The classic filling is beef and raisins.
My empanada is the best
because the sazon that I put in there.
And I put the soul, the energy and the love.
- Typical.
- Oh. Kinda smells pumpkinny.
- I feel like she probably over cooked it a little bit.
- The filling is kinda low.
Not too much filling in it, I think.
But it smells really good.
- It's not oily and for it to be fried
I got to say, like, oh well.
There it is, but not a lot.
There's something crunchy in here.
And I don't know what it is.
- Its on the sweet side. It kind of tastes like chili.
- The flavor is good.
Its not like its over seasoned.
I see that there's onions in it.
- Um, there's some tomatoes in here.
I want to say there's olives?
Which is kind of different.
- Some Peruvians, depending who makes it,
they do put raisins in it.
I didn't put it this time,
but my mom does occasionally.
- Um, I think they weren't right on the filling.
I think the crispiness, could be a little bit more crispy.
Cause it's a little soggy on, like the, on the inside.
- To me, if you can really nail down
the mixture of the saltiness, the sweetness,
you have your onions, just all of that,
and be able to pull it off and it tastes good,
I think she did a good job.
- Overall, I think its, its pretty good.
Even though its on the sweeter side, its acceptable.
- Its not dry, its flavorful, its moist,
I know a lot of people don't like that word.
- Overall, like, the spices are really, really good,
but I wouldn't make it as sweet.
- I've never tried any other empanada
that had raisins in it,
so I'm a little thrown off.
Some Peruvians, depending who makes it,
they do put raisins in it.
- This kind of tastes a little bit Peruvian.
- I mean, I know she can't be Dominican.
I feel like Dominicans don't put raisins.
Puerto Ricans don't put raisins.
Colombians don't put raisins.
So it has to be Panamanian.
(buzzer sounds)
- On a scale from one to ten
I would rate this a 6.5,
mostly because I'm not a really big fan of the sweetness.
But everything else blended really well,
the spices blended really well,
and the flavor was there.
- I'm gonna give this a seven.
What makes Peruvian cuisine so special
is that you have so many different cultures mixed in.
You have Afro-Creole cuisine,
you have Asian inspired cuisine.
I'm gonna win because Peruvian empanadas a different.
Just the mixture of the olives and the eggs
with the ground beef and just the spices all combined,
gives it a special touch.
- This one's pretty fancy.
- Okay. Looks very pretty.
Typical South American empanada.
- The meat is, I don't wanna be mean,
but its a little bit dry for me.
- Taste kind of like a Dominican empanada.
- There's more meat than anything in the empanada.
- It has the raisins
and there's some cheese in there, I think.
- I don't see any, like, vegetables
besides pepper, maybe some garlic.
- It tastes like beef stew, minus the sauce.
- It just looks like a meat patty, I think.
- Way, so that was not cheese.
That was eggs and olives.
- Wait, this is egg in here?
I've never had egg in an empanada ever in my life. What?
- I've never had eggs in an empanada before.
- Eggs in empanada is not a thing.
I don't know where that came from,
but, I'm sorry, its not it.
- I will give this an eight because it is very tasty,
similar sazon to a Dominican empanada.
A little bit salty, on the saltier side, so.
That's why I have to give it an eight.
- On a scale of one to ten,
I would rate this, maybe, a 4.5?
Only because the meat was a little bit dry
and the egg just completely threw me off.
Basically my empanada is very important to me and my family.
The first bite of my empanada is just heaven.
It'll blow you away, honestly.
Just with the spices and the love that was put into it.
So, yeah.
- Is everyone here Peruvian? Hold up.
- Oh. This is pretty.
- So Peruvians eat empanadas with, what they call, aji.
So, the fact that I see green sauce,
I'm like, hmm, okay.
- Oh. Smells like, there might be some fish in there.
- Oh, this is definitely not Peruvian.
Its not bad, I just feel like the dairy,
like the cheese mixed in with everything else
doesn't, like, go.
And then, there's like a sauce in there,
that, just all combined and you dip it with the green sauce.
It's like, what's happening?
- This is very, very good.
I would dip my empanadas in this salsa.
- It doesn't taste like an empanada to me.
I would say its, kinda, like a meat pie
or a chicken pie or, what is it?
- Chicken? Maybe pork?
- Where did they go right?
- I will give this, also, an eight,
because it does tastes good,
but I feel like it needs the sauce.
An empanada, at least where I come from,
you don't have any sauce, cause it should
just be, like, great on its own.
- I give it a five, because I'm just
not chilling with the flavors.
I think if she took out the cheese,
then I think it would be different.
It's not bad, but I do think mine's better.
- Oh my god! Of course.
Like, I knew it. I knew it.
Nothing but the best from DR. Woo hoo.