24 HOUR Puerto Rican STREET FOOD Tour in San Juan Puerto Rico

Hey guys, hope everyone is doing great. Hopefully you had a safe and happy holiday season. It's Mike Chen here in San Juan where more specifically I'm in this area known as Pinones and this is a stretch of beach where locals and tourists go for some of the best street food here in Puerto Rico. Let's go check it out. So all along the beach you're gonna find these colorful little kiosks and these are called chinchurros and all these places are gonna have a variety of street food, mostly fried. First thing, see this thing that pretty much covers my whole head even though I have a big head? It's called a bacalaito. It's arguably one of the most famous street food here in Puerto Rico. This thing is fried. First of all everything is pretty much fried in lard and this thing is a thin pancake made of mixture of cod and flour. Look how thin this thing is. I'll tell you right now, it smells amazing. Oh that's good. Oh that's so good. I never had fish like this before. It's just like a cross between a fish cracker and a thin fish pancake. Look at the inside. A little bit of herbs and then just that nice beautiful white flesh of the fish. Kind of reminds me of fish cakes. The texture is perfect though. You got your crunch, you got a chewy fish pancake in the middle. This is one of those foods I just want to stuff in my mouth as quickly as possible and as I'm talking about, as I'm biting, I feel my mouth water in between bites. I'm like trying to control it so I don't spray you guys. It's that delicious. I think with a little hot sauce, it's gonna be even better. This next street food item is another favorite. It's called a, and I'm gonna butcher this, acapulia. It's usually fried green plantain stuffed with either ground beef or blue crab and this one has ground beef inside. Oh this is just, wow. First of all, the outside is light as a snowflake. The crunch is incredibly subtle. I mean just the lightest little crisp. Inside you get that great chewy plantain. It tastes like really light fried mashed potato. It's just the most amazing outer shell. I think this is the meat that's stuffed here. Oh, oh this is good. This might be my new obsession. This one in particular, the meat is a little charred. Ain't never gonna complain about that. Chilies inside as well to give it a little heat. Number one thing though, 100% the texture. Oh my goodness, this is good. Yeah, I need a bunch more of these like right now. Seriously, let's go. Found another one that has shrimp and lingosteen I think. I decided to get some stuff from, from this kiosk. There's so many people coming here. They sell everything from tacos to arepas. Here's what I got. I got some more acapulia because I love this stuff now. Oh, this feels way different than the one I got before. This is really hefty and super hot. Oh, I can see why people are waiting for this one. This thing is stuffed full of yums. Oh my god. This one is the octopus. Big old chunks of octopus. Some peppers in here as well. Outside crunch is so light and thin. The plantain, mushy and delicious. Oh, that octopus is tender. Also, got some hot sauce. Oh, it's so good. This is so good. I don't know which one this is. Oh, crab. Oh, this is the most tender of crab meat. Plantain on the outside. Again, crunchy. Inside, it's almost like a grits-like texture. Again, so happy. Got the hot sauce. Tastes so much better with the hot sauce. Oh, my only regret. They ran out of piononos right before, like right before my order came through. I hear most people are here waiting for that. Where's the shrimp at? This place is amazing. I'm gonna head back down the beach. Saw some barbecue just been driving around. Wanted to try another bar calado. Look at this. This one's way bigger than the first one I got. I see some herbs in here. Looks like parsley. I think some chilies in here as well. And the size of this, this is big enough to block out the sun. Oh, this one in particular is amazingly flavorful. Oh, the fish flavor is just enhanced with this. Again, super crispy on the outside, chewy in the middle. Here's some hot sauce. Wow. I highly recommend this place I just found. I'm thinking of trying to locate some hot sauce, but I should have bought it because there's people selling bottles of hot sauce along the road. For drinks, they make sure to put a little Puerto Rican flag on here. Gotta represent. Nothing better than fresh chilled coconut juice. Also, you gotta get a couple empanadas. I got a lobster one and an octopus one. Oh yeah. I tried three places today. This is the best one. Look how stuffed this empanada is with lobster. It's just crammed full of juicy, delicious, big chunks of lobster. Oh, it's so good. Wow. Also, octopus one too. Big old chunks of octopus meat stuffed into this flaky, light shell of an empanada. It's seasoned so well and it is delicious. I'm so glad I found this place. Finally, it's here. Pinchos. Smells so good. Oh, look at this. Sauce covering the two buns. Giant chunks of chicken. Smelling of smoke and char and sauce. This is a hefty skewer too. If you're in Puerto Rico, you gotta come get one of these. First of all, that chicken is just perfectly, beautifully, I mean just gorgeous char on the outside. The sauce is a little sweet. Very, very smoky. Oh, that tenderness is ridiculous. Any more tender than that, it won't even stay on the stick. With this hot sauce, they gave me just the most amazing compliment. The sweet, savory flavor of the skewers. Yeah, that'll make your beach day better. I mean, it's already gonna be great. I mean, just look at this, but it'll be better once you have one of these. Oh, look at this hot sauce. It's good. There we go. I heard when you come here, you gotta get some coconut candy. After the first bite, I have two wishes. I wish immediately for a second bite, which I'll take right now, and I wish for a cup of tea. Oh, this is so sweet. I mean, don't get me wrong, this is incredible. You gotta try this when you come here. This is absolutely delicious. It's buttery, it's nutty, it's chewy. It's so amazingly flavorful and so, so sweet. Wow. Yeah, I need to get some water, some tea right away, and just finish that off. That was delicious, though. Let's go find a place where we can try out this hot sauce. I'm here at the art district at this little food court area called La 23. Bunch of different food vendors here. It's got this food from a place called Panera Ria. This is supposed to be awesome. This is a pulled pork sandwich called the Revolution, and it's lechon inside the sandwich. Radish, carrots, cilantro, plantain chips sitting on a mound of lechon with crispy skin as well. This is supposed to be a delicious, delicious sandwich. And they also gave me a side of yucca salad. So this is cold yucca salad. This thing is vinegary. It's refreshing. A little bit of heat. This is perfect pairing for some pork. That delicious lechon sandwich. Chase it with a bite of the vinegary yucca. Wow, this is tender. A little bit of spicy mayo on top as well for some creaminess. A little bit of heat. All these ingredients, yucca especially, bounces out the fatty pork that's in the sandwich. Again, that's just melting your mouth tender. Also, I brought a little extra heat with me. We carry this, we carry this in a little brown bag that they gave us. So we got stopped a bunch of times with people thinking that it was a bottle of alcohol. I mean, I guess it was a bottle of alcohol, but now, now it's something better. Oh yeah. Drizzle some of that hot sauce on there. Oh, that just brought the heat. A little piece of garlic fell from the bottle too into the sandwich. You better be ready for the heat to hit you in your mouth and down your throat. Oh, that's just perfect with that pork sandwich. Love the fact that pretty much wherever you go around the city, you can always find a place where you just sit outside in the sun or in the shade and just grab some delicious food. One more thing I want to get here. What are you guys crowding around me for? It's not like I ordered chicken. Look at this. I didn't order chicken. I got steak. Oh, this looks good. Arepa with skirt steak, cheese, some avocado salsa. If you've never had an arepa before, the outside shell is made of corn. Oh, this is good. You can taste the toasted sweetness of the corn. Really nice crunch on the outside. It's skirt steak, it's tender, it's wonderful. This avocado sauce is awesome. Provides a nice acidity to kind of balance out the sweetness of the shell and the savory, juicy steak inside. Also, a ginger lemonade. Spicy and sweet makes the day complete. Well, and this. And I think I need something else. I'll grab it on the way home. Driving through Old San Juan right now. Pretty interesting facts. This is the oldest city in the U.S., founded in 1521. The second oldest city in the Western Hemisphere, and it's on its own island. Also, just so stunningly beautiful here. I mean, look at this place. Came here because there's this local Puerto Rican pizza place that everyone says is amazing, I have to try. Couldn't really find parking, so there's another location for this pizza place. Let's just go to that one. As soon as the pizza came to the table, missed a head of garlic. Look at this. This is the La Pampa skirt steak, Argentinian sausage, with homemade tomato sauce and mozzarella, chimichurri sauce on top as well. That looks like a good slice of pizza. Oh, beautiful crust. Actually, really, really thin. Kind of reminiscent of a New York pizza. This is delicious. I've never had skirt steak on my pizza before. Just like every other skirt steak I had in Puerto Rico. Oh, so tender. Love the chimichurri on the pizza. It's garlicky and fragrant. You want to just dip your crust right into it. This place has a ton of pizza with local toppings on it. There's also premium toppings like smoked salmon mousse, goat cheese mousse, anchovies. I think that's chimichurri. That's definitely gonna make on this pizza. Found an ice cream shop. Got a Dove milkshake. It's pretty much all water now because literally this thing's been outside for about four minutes. That's all it took for me to get from the ice cream shop back to the Airbnb, and this thing is melted. Still good, though. I gotta show you guys something really funny. So this is my Airbnb, and you look outside, so there's a bell tower. There's a little section of this building with a bell on it, but the reflection is a smiley guy with a top hat. Anyway, this was such an amazing trip being able to explore the local culture, eat the food. I wish I had more time to spend in Puerto Rico. Just driving around Old San Juan, wish I had more time to explore that area as well. But everywhere I went, the word colorful pretty much described a lot of the buildings we saw and a lot of the people we encountered. Everyone is just so joyous and friendly. This has been one of my favorite trips in a long, long time, so definitely will be back. But for now, I'm gonna pack, take a nap. My flight's at 2 a.m., so see you for dinner slash breakfast. It's a windy night. A light jacket for New York because end of December, still pretty warm over there. Just got back home. It's about 7 in the morning. Breakfast is pig trotters. Salmon, stir-fried tofu, and celery, eggs, and jalapeno. Cabbage and sesame? Yeah. Very nutritious, she says. Dig in on the pig trotters. I haven't had Asian food in about a week, maybe a week and a half. It's good to be able to come home and eat this. Home cooking is always the best. Especially those eggs and jalapenos. Really simple, but so spicy and good. Of course breakfast not complete without a pig trotter. Like my mom's saying, she's really proud of this rice that she made with beans, red beans, and peanuts. There's lotus in here as well. She's really proud of this. She calls it her combination steamed rice. Very good, very good. It makes you beautiful. My mom's trying to sell the pig trotter to Christine. You don't you don't eat pig trotter, right? Good for your skin. Oh, look how big this has grown. Just took a nap, took a shower. It is New Year's Eve, so gonna stay here and grab some dinner. New Year's meal. This is really good. Made this, my mom made this like eggplant salad. Don't usually talk about eggplant that much, but that's delicious eggplant. Tomatoes are extra good. The only thing that's bought is the liangpi. The most important food item for New Year's though. Gotta eat the dumpling. All right, I'm gonna get back to this. Also the fish, you notice it's standing up, so this way you don't need to flip it. Remember, never flip a fish on New Year's or any time. Just don't flip fish. As it gets more and more like a horror movie, that's when I know I'm almost home. Hi, just got home and someone give me a box of these. So tonight is gonna be pot of hot tea and this. Anyway, great to be back in New York. The cabin is as cozy as ever. And of course, hopefully everybody had a great New Year. And don't forget, one more New Year coming up. And as always, thank you all so much for watching. Until we eat again, see you later.