Exploring INCREDIBLE FOOD In COSTA RICA Vlog! - vegan

So much trouble with stethoscope. It's the night before and I'm getting out my bag. It's funny, since I went travelling four, five, six years ago, I've not been able to use suitcases. And now all I use is this handy, reliable backpack. So I always have a bag on my back instead of rolling around something. I am in Costa Rica. I got here yesterday. I didn't vlog too much of it because I was shattered. I had 11 hours of play and then I had to go through baggage. Then I had to get my taxi. Then I sat in loads of traffic. And then I got to the hotel, which is amazing. Insert room tour. This is night one in Costa Rica. This is my gaff and this is my cute little baño. My cute bathroom. Who do I think I am? This is my cute bathroom. This is my cute room. This is where I'll be staying for one night only. One night only. Then I went to a restaurant and I had some of the most incredible vegan food that I've ever had at a restaurant. What I really, really, really loved about it is my favourite way to eat vegan food is using real plants and vegetables. Basically, just not kind of all the burgers and stuff. And what I had was this epic, epic, delicious meal made with plant-based foods. I'm going to share that with you guys because it was so, so delicious. Today, today, today, today is the morning I am jet-lagged. I've been up since three in the morning because I think that's like the afternoon back home and I can't sleep into the afternoon. I mean, I could as a teenager, but not anymore. So today we're going to the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica where we're going to have a lot of Caribbean, Costa Rican vegan food, which I'm so, so excited about. I've also been told that there's a vegan version of ceviche made using plantain. I'm on the hunt for it. I will find that before I leave and I'm going to share it with you guys. And then I'm probably going to want to make it when I get home because I'm sure it's just going to blow my mind. Oh, I didn't even tell you. Basically, yeah, I'm in Costa Rica for four days, four days in Costa Rica only. I wish it was longer, but I'm here for work. So I'm working on a vegan project, kind of like a tour guide of vegan food in Costa Rica to see what's going on in the vegan scene here. I'm so excited to be doing this and getting to be able to try all the amazing food in Costa Rica. I will share that with you guys when I've finished it. But I'm just going to vlog my experience here, share it with you guys, share the food. Everything I get to see in four days, four days in Costa Rica. So, let's go. Lovely, so nice. So many tropical fruits, so many vegetables, plantain, plantain, plantain. They call it ice cream bean. It's kind of a gloppy. This is our childhood, basically. This man's childhood, my childhood, this lady's childhood, right? This is sapote, which is really good. Oh, yes. A little scotch bonnet in there. These are absolutely delicious. Like, one of the nicest fruits. So much tropical stuff. Plantain, plantain, plantain. This is a picadillo, a green bean picadillo with fresh homemade tortillas. It's like a vegetable stew, really delicious. And then we had an empanada made out of beans. And the beans are prepared with a little bit of the scotch bonnet pepper. So, it's really simple, but at the same time, full of flavor. And this is Costa Rican food, anyway. Funny times are getting itched on the ear. We've been in the car for three hours. We're now at the Caribbean coast. We're going to go straight out, get some sea. Took some pictures, changed my outfit. We're doing reds. Yes, we are. And we end up in Punta, Punta, Punta? Punta something. And that's where we're staying for the night. Let's pray I don't get car sick. Car sick? Anything, anything. Please, please, please. The edible country I was talking about before, it's basically this, where we're surrounded. We have nonis here, which is a fruit from the Caribbean. This is medicinal stuff. We use a lot of medicinal stuff in Costa Rican culture. A small taste of this edible country. You just get anywhere in this beautiful country, and you'll find something to eat. Our boat is here. The boat is tiny. It's Latin. We're going to pack up and risk it all. Weather is good. Weather is beautiful. I thought it was going to be raining, so this is terrible. Great. We're on land. We're now in this really cool place. And it's beautiful. It's like a mini squash. Oh, wow. Cacao. We're going to taste it for sure later. Sour cherry. Yeah, take one. It's like peppery. For me, this is really interesting. There's some fresh ackee when it's poisonous. So these are vanilla. So this is my room. It's peaceful. It's hot. It's humid. It's out here in Mother Nature. Me and my... So this is my night. There's no torch or flash. It's just black. What you see is exactly what I'm sleeping in, and all the noises you can hear is what I'm sleeping in. Good night. It's five in the morning. I kind of can't wait to get out of this room. I got so lost trying to find my room back last night. Even the lady who tried to help me, we both got lost. Because it's a maze. It's so cool, though. I've had a rough night, lads. I had the waves all night. It rained. It was stormy. And there were so many animals. So I look tired. I feel tired. But look what I get to wake up to. Like, come on. Well, damn. Just minding my own business. Walking to a horse. I was so obsessed with this. Wing beans? Wing beans, yeah. And basically you eat everything, right? You eat the inside, and you eat the... It's like a bean, right? This is weird. I've never seen this before. Moringa. These are cashew nuts. Yeah, these are cashew nuts. I think there's another tree with much more fruit than this. But these are the cashew nuts. You eat the fruit, and then you dry the upper part of the fruit. And that's the seed that you have with your bowls, or your cereals, or everything. Nice. That's so good. Creamy, man. So creamy. This is actually what releases the DMT. Flowers. You won't see it anywhere else. Will I? And a saw. And now they're just trying to save the corn. Because this morning glory is hard. Just deliciousness. This is the thing. Wow. That's so nice. Time to leave. This is like an episode of Shipwrecked. This sauce is so good. I feel like I'm in the Caribbean. I'm definitely going to make this with a meal on my YouTube channel soon. From jungle to the honeymoon suite. Like, literally. Wow. Geez, I'm totted. How different is this to where I just came from? It's ridiculous. It's like the complete opposite. So this is my room, which is so different from where I just came from. I'm actually on my way out. Hello. Today is my last full day in Costa Rica. So I'm about to go meet with the chef. Then I'm going to go around San Jose. Share some food with you guys. Say goodbye to this place. It's the end of the... It's the end of the road. The sun hasn't come out for me on this trip. So it's up to London to tan me this year. Costa Rica is a beautiful, beautiful place. Oh my goodness. The range of fruit and vegetables are... And the taste, the flavours. Even just the herbs, the leaves. So much flavour comes out of them. So much bursting. It's incredible. I don't know how to summarise. Because I'm a bit hot. I'm a bit flustered. A bit tired. A bit headachy. But I have tried the most incredible fruits and vegetables here. And I've just seen so much. And it just flourishes. It just grows and grows and thrives here. So it's been incredible just to be here. But it's not over yet. I need to charge my camera. I've been going back and forth between my camera and my phone. Because my camera is a bit old. And it's so temperamental. So temperamental. But my phone is fine. Let's go. This has been me the whole trip. Bad lady. Leggo. Ciao. Instead of like a rice paper. She dehydrates her own coconut to make this. Really, really good. Tomato soup. And then we've got these kind of vegan crab cakes. Made from seaweed and heart of palm. This is her restaurant. It's here in Costa Rica in Escazú. I love raw food. Healthy food. I use my fruits, my vegetables. Because Costa Rica is a paradise. Natural. Nutritive. Delicious. Very, very delicious. We're going away from the second world war. Yeah. These chocolates are so, so, so delicious. And organic. This is my favourite. Restaurant. Beautiful. It's so nice. This is... Wow. This is yuca ceviche. Vegan. Sweet potato chips. Green beans. It's absolutely delicious. Fresh salad and citrus broth. Curry and vegetables. Thank you. Purple corn. Garlic. Saltine garlic. I want every day. Introduce yourself. Hey guys. How are you? My name is José. I'm the chef. I'm the owner of Al Mercat restaurant in Costa Rica. We do farm to table Costa Rican restaurant. Focusing our farm on all the beautiful produce and diversity we have in this country. And it's a pleasure to have Rachel and everybody from London checking our country. Costa Rica is a great country for food. We are known because of our natural resources but that translates into great food. We have a lot of beautiful produce. More than 250 types of fruits and veggies. Visit us and enjoy Costa Rica. Yes. Thank you, José. See you soon. It is my last night in Costa Rica. I just had the most incredible meal at José's restaurant. And José has been with us. He's been amazing at sharing with me all the fruits and vegetables across Costa Rica. We're actually going to go to his farm tomorrow. And I'll bring you guys with me and we can see what he's been growing. Because he uses all the ingredients in his farm in his restaurant. Because I really want to share how amazing it's been here. And how amazing the people have been. And how people can really eat off the land in a really delicious way. The food. It's so fresh. It's so tasty. It's so delicious. It's incredible. I've been wearing dresses which I don't normally do. Just because for the work I'm doing I'm supposed to be wearing colourful clothes. Anyway. I'm going to go to bed now. And then I hope jet lag does not get me when I get back home. Because I've got so much to do. Anyway, see you guys in La Mañana. They stay like that, small. And they're really acidic so basically we use it here a lot in juices. It's called mandarina criolla, like a creole mandarin. Oh wow. Yeah, look. Wow. A little herb party. Mint. All this apasote. Not the leaves. The leaves are not that great. This is a salad bowl. Soup. The dressing. And fresh juice made here. And then they're going to mix it all together. Thank you guys so much for watching this video. I really hope you guys enjoyed coming around Costa Rica with me. If you did, please give it a thumbs up. The more thumbs up this video gets, the more chance I'll be able to do something like this again. Where I get to take you guys around the world and explore incredible food in different countries. Which I would love, love, love to do. So please give it a thumbs up if you did. And subscribe to my channel because I'm here every week with new videos to share with you guys. So, see you guys next week. Bye.