- That's delicious. I could eat 20 of these.
- Good old ketchup.
I mean, what'd I say?
You could put it on cardboard and it would taste good,
so there's no way this one's tasting bad.
♪ (French accordion music) ♪
- (FBE) Today, we're gonna have you try
some Puerto Rican dishes. - Yes! I love food.
- It's a U.S. territory, right?
That's about as far as my knowledge goes.
- Yes, I'm from Puerto Rico!
Amarillitos, mofongo, and then frappes--
the little fruit drinks are my favorite.
- (FBE) So these dishes may not have all necessarily originated
in Puerto Rico, but are commonly eaten
in Puerto Rican cuisine and the meals you're trying today
have been prepared at a local Puerto Rican restaurant
here in Los Angelas. - Oh, wow.
I'm excited but I'm on the scared side
of what you might put in front of me.
- I'm expecting meats and rice.
I don't know. I'm very uneducated with this kind of stuff.
- I think it's much better than American dishes.
American dishes don't really have much variety
and the Puerto Rico dishes are completely--
there's no word to describe it.
It's just so good.
- (FBE) Here is your first dish.
- That looks really good.
It looks like a potsticker.
- I'm trying to imagine what might be in it
and I'm thinking meat and veggies, and it smells really good.
- Ooh! Okay.
That's delicious. I could eat 20 of these.
- I'm just gonna go for it.
(crunching)
That is so good.
I like the flaky outside.
The meat that's inside is really tasty.
- It's plain, but it's really good.
- I'm getting warm and then spicy, but not spicy enough that I'm dying.
- (FBE) So this is called pastelillos.
This is a meat filled pastry that is very popular in Puerto Rico
and throughout Latin America.
They're also called empanadas. - Empanadas!
Okay, that would make sense.
- (FBE) Although the pastelillos in Puerto Rico
usually have a thinner and more crisp shell.
- I like that part.
The shell's my favorite part.
This crunchiness, so good.
- (FBE) Here's your next dish. - Okay.
We got some sort of fry?
- It looks like dried up carrots.
- It looks like a plant that you'd see--
I'm just gonna say yucca because I think people eat that.
- Oh, you can take garlic. Is it a garlic sauce?
(crunching)
- It's too hard.
(crunching)
- They look like french fries. I want them to be french fries.
But they're clearly Puerto Rican fries.
- It's a little plain, even with the garlic.
It added a little scent to it.
I'd rather have some nice crisp french fries.
- (FBE) This is yuca frita, which translates to fried yucca.
It's a dish made from the root of the cassava,
or yucca plant.
Usually, the root is cut into two or three inch chunks
and deep fried in vegetable oil. - Nice.
It's a little tough to chew,
but especially with the garlic, it adds a lot of flavor.
- (FBE) Here's the next one.
- I have no idea what this is.
- The Korean in me is getting a little excited
because we have these things called potato onion pancakes,
and this looks exactly like it.
- It smells like... is it catfish?
- Here goes nothin'.
Mmm, that's really good.
Kind of chewy... (crunching)
Mmm! Crispy at the end.
(crunching)
- It reminds me of fish and chips,
but condensed fish and chips, where it's a really thin filet,
and then only a little bit of fried batter on it.
- (FBE) So this is called bacalaíto, which are codfish fritters.
- Fish. That's what it was.
- Not liking fish, I think it's much, much better
than I would ever think or expect it to be.
- (FBE) Puerto Ricans will actually commonly eat this dish
as a street food. - I can definitely see that.
It's very greasy. Just like a nice little snack.
- I'd probably take this over a hot dog or a hamburger,
which is what you see as street food in America today.
I would gladly have one of these.
- (FBE) Here's your next one. - Oh!
Some rice.
- I don't know what these are, maybe lentils.
- My grandma makes this.
It is rice with beans, a classic in Latin American countries.
I gotta get some of these, whatever these are.
It's not spicy at all, but I think the intent
was to be a little bit spicy, with some sort of peas in it.
- That is really good rice.
It has a lot of flavor in it.
You can taste salt and spices in it.
- Let me try these little guys.
This tastes like beans.
It's got a ton of flavors coming at you, you know.
It's giving a left and it's giving you a right.
It's nice.
- (FBE) This is arroz con gandules.
It is yellow rice mixed with pigeon peas.
- Oh, pigeon peas?
- I hate peas, but these don't taste like peas at all.
- (FBE) Its one of the signature rice dishes
of Puerto Rican cuisine and is mainly served
at Christmas Eve dinner, along with pasteles.
- Okay, yeah, it's good rice.
I can totally see myself eating this with a whole hearty meal
and being very satisfied with it.
- (FBE) Here's your last dish.
- Oh, it looks like a brownie.
- Good old ketchup.
I mean, what'd I say?
You can put it on cardboard and it would taste good,
so there's no way this one's tasting bad.
- It looks like a sweet potato thing because it's orange,
but that looks like some type of meat.
(crunching)
- Mmm!
You're kind of expecting it to be crunchy
because it looks so crunchy, but it's soft on the inside
and super duper sweet.
- It tastes like beef, maybe, or chi--
From looking at it, it looks like chicken
or possibly crawfish.
- (FBE) This is alcapurrias de jueyes.
While it can be made many ways, this one is a crab filled
cassava fritter made with green bananas and taro leaves.
- Okay, yeah, it's packed with flavor.
- You look inside and there's just so much going on,
but it's so good.
- (FBE) This is also considered the fried version of pasteles.
Some Puerto Ricans would say that Christmas without this dish
is like Thanksgiving without turkey.
- Oh, yeah, that's true.
I remember having Christmas with this there.
- One thing I'm always excited for on the holidays
is the great food, so if I go to Puerto Rico
around Christmas, boom, you got great food.
- (FBE) So which one of these Puerto Rican dishes
would you recommend people eat?
- The second-- the second one?
The yuca frita.
- Pastelillos?
- I'd have to go with bacalaitos. It was absolutely delicious.
- Alcapurria, the lash dish I tried.
It's super good.
There's a lot of stuff going on.
- Alcapurria and then pastel-- or empanada thing.
Those were so good.
It feels like home.
- I liked the pastel-- past-- "pastelejos" or empanadas.
The thing about living here is that we get to experience
a lot of other cultures and I love experiencing
the cultures through food.
- Thanks for watching us try Puerto Rican dishes
on the React channel.
- What meals should we try next?
Let us know in the comments.
- See you later, guys.
- What's up, guys?
Alyssa here, a producer from the React channel.
Go ahead and hit subscribe.
We have a ton of episodes coming out soon,
featuring more countries.