Belizean Street Food in Placencia, Belize!! 🇧🇿

We just arrived in Southern Belize and we're exploring the city of Plasencia with the famous Dr. Laura. We're going to explore its incredible street food, see its beaches, walk the smallest main street in the whole world and much more. Let's go. Today we're joining Taste Belize. Dr. Lira is going to take us on a tour of this beautiful place. Doctor, how are you? I'm great. How are you doing? Good, good. So tell me, what do you guys do here at Taste Belize? Well, our mission is to make Belize a culinary destination and we've been working on that for over 10 years now. So what we do, we do specialty food tours, we dive into the culture of Belize through the different foods that each culture provides. And then we sell all Belizean products here at our shop. So that's our main thing, is to really bring the visitor into the heart and soul of what Belize is about. All our different cultures, our delicious food. And through that, we're trying to bring tourism and agriculture and our fisheries all together and kind of uplift Belize economically. And bring more visitors here to enjoy what we have. Let's try something. Let's try something. Yeah, definitely. I'm all over the place, but we already talked about this. I always die outside. And they have this delicious turmeric sour soaked beef. You know here in Plasencia, it's hot. Is it like this year-round? It gets hotter in May. May is the hottest month of the year. They cool me down. That looks great. Plasencia is a unique village. It was actually the first community in southern Belize to get electricity and it was because of fisheries. So this is historically a fishing community. All the villages on Plasencia Peninsula, which is 14 miles long, it's all about fishing historically. And so this village at one point had the second largest fishing cooperative in the entire country. And they were exporting lobster, conch, and fillet fish frozen right to Miami. And that was being distributed to companies like Red Lobster in the United States. After a five minute walk, we're at Carmen's. We're going to try corn foods, which are things made from corn masa. The same dough they use to make corn tortillas. So this is what we call a cool spot in Belize, which means it's fast food. But they always have a space with some shade where you can sit down and eat. A lot of this food is to go right out the door. People text or call, then they just swing by and pick it up. It's already ready. But for us, we're going to get to sit down and eat here since we're not in any hurry. ¿Qué tal? ¿Cómo estás? Hola. Bien, bien. ¿Y usted? Listo. Tengo hambre. Demasiado. So, garnachas and some salbutes. That's right. What we call corn foods in Belize. Anything made with corn masa is a corn food. So, we're going to be starting with those. Okay, the garnachas, we usually fry it and we keep it for the day for our customers. You know, when they come, we just get ready because we're always busy. So, this is the tortillas for the garnachas. I'm going to show you how to fry it and then we are going to serve it. Prepare everything on top and then serve it here. This is the garnachas. We wait until the garnachas are crispy because it has to be like a corn shell for the garnachas. Ready. Getting ready. Remove it from the oil. So, you stack them on top of each other? Yeah, just with a coat in there. Retired couples, romantic couples, and then like millennial type people. Like 25 to 40 years. You know, it's another puri, bro. It's another puri. I know, I know. That's the difference. It's the corn tortilla. Corn flour. Let's do the whole thing, yeah. It reminds me of a puri, of an Indian puri, but this is corn flour that they do by hand, right? So, that's the difference. This is the shredded chicken. Let's do it. And then we put cabbage on top and then the salsa pico de gallo. And then it's a choice for you if you want the habanero salsa. This is the habanero salsa? Yeah, that's the habanero. Beware of that. Beware, huh? Oh my gosh, it's popping. I'm going to get some for myself. Okay. I'm going to sprinkle some in one or two? Do one. Do one? Do one. Anybody else wants? Yes. Dos, dos, dos. Okay, so these two are peppers. This is called the garnachas. This brings beans, refried beans on top. These are the ones that we just fried just now. Garnachas, the crispy corn shell. Cabbage. The same cabbage that we just put on the same salsa pico de gallo. This is the garnachas. If you want some of the hot sauce again. Yes, at least one. You too? Two, two. Garnachas. So I've had something similar in Latin America like tostadas, you know? Tostadas. Tostadas, yeah. Very, very similar. Tostadas is a difference that this is like vegetarian. But the tostadas bring chicken. The same shredded chicken. The same procedure. Chicken on top and then the cabbage, the salsa pico de gallo and cheese. But this is like vegetarian tostadas. If you want it with chicken. You can have it. We'll go vegetarian today. I could do two of the tostadas. No, no. It's good. Garnachas. You kind of fold it in half like a soft taco thing. Garnachas is always with beans. Yeah. And it is actually pronounced garnachas. Garnachas. Salgutes. Got it. So how do we start? Let's start with the garnachas. These are really nice and crunchy. And this is such a classic snack in Belize. It's like to an afternoon. You want a little something. This is what you're going to get kids after school. You know, just a quick little fast food. Planero and the pico de gallo. So me and her are spicy addicts. So here we go. I love how thin it is. It's so easy to eat. It's like a mountain of cheese. What kind of flavors are you tasting in there, David? I'm tasting spice. I'm tasting nice beans. Mmm. The corn is nice and crispy. I've had a bunch of these in my life. My mother used to cook a lot of stuff like this. It's very similar, right? Everything is corn. So we have these like tostadas. We also throw some chicken on top of it. So that's not the way they do it here. Because this is veggie, right? Yeah. But if you add some chicken, it's all good too. The spice level is perfect with the habanero. Very, very hot though. With the heat outside and this. I'm ready for the next one. These are my favorite. And Carmen is famous for these. And hold it carefully because it will drip juice all over the damn place. Oh, so easily. Mm-hmm. Look how soft it is inside. Oh, so fresh. It does remind me of some of the dishes I've had in India. Mm-hmm. Very similar. They use a lot of oil in India. Right, yeah. A lot of oil. This is a burrito. Burrito. We put the refried beans on the bottom. And then this is beef that we are going to do. Same thing like stewed beef? Yeah, the stewed beef. This is the lettuce. And pico de gallo again. Pico de gallo. Now we shred the cheese. You have that? This is a burrito. We wrap it. And some... The hot sauce that's always there in the Belizean food. There you go. And we are going to wrap it. This is the burrito. It's massive. Okay, so where are we going next? We're going to Omar's Kitchen. This is a famous Belizean Creole style. So we're going to get some Creole style seafood. Seafood in Asensia. Omar's Creole Grub is in its second generation as a family restaurant. So the son Omar now owns the restaurant. The parents named it after their baby boy when they started it. He was just an infant and now he's running the place. So we're going to meet him. Omar, this is David. Welcome, welcome. Thanks for coming. We do seafood here. We do. I'm ready, I'm ready. Lionfish tacos. Lionfish tacos? Lionfish tacos. That's really great because lionfish is an invasive species. So this is one way to kind of try to combat them taking over our reef. Is to eat them. And so that's what they're doing right here. They're helping to support sustainable fisheries. Next for these shrimp. Oh yeah, for these like jungles? These ones come down from the south. Down in... My district. And I'm just putting these in some dry blend here that we have. Then we're just going to basically dump these in the garlic and butter sauce. It says garlic butter sauce. Add some cilantro. Oh, you're too much. Does anybody want to feel the weight of these things? Look at this monster. How do we do it? So the thing is with these, right? When the lobster season is close, it's hard to get these. Because they only get these when the guys go diving for lobster. And these live in the same up in the coral heads like the lobster. So once the season is out, it's almost impossible to get crab. Even though crab doesn't have a season. At the end of the night, we're sweeping up a bunch of toast. Woo, hit me. Okay, so I'm going to demonstrate the first one. And then I'll let you go at it, okay? One clean crab. This part is important. I don't know why. You should get it. And then also do this part here. And open that up a bit so there's some seasoning in there. This is something I've never seen anywhere else in the world. They'll open the crab claws and add seasoning. They did the same thing with stone crabs the other day too. And they also put it on the grill, right? This time we're going to put it in a traditional Creole sauce. In a Creole sauce? Even better. Ready? You got to work for your food. That's perfect. You got to be like it. It was funny. And these two? Hard. Here we go, put some seasoning in that shell. So you got to open it up a little bit. When you come here to eat, all the time you hear the pounding. It's like a construction site. Everything's better with coconut. Of course. A little bit of soy sauce. You notice this sauce is red, right? There's absolutely no tomato in there whatsoever. This is the secret. This is called ricotto or achiote. This is a Mayan base ingredient. There's two main plant ingredients in there called, there's corn and there's annatto. And with that, they create like a blend of this paste that you see here. Yeah, it almost looks like a tomato paste, but it's not. You want to give it a smell? Yeah. It's nice and smoky. That's interesting. That smells great. And that's the base for the whole Creole sauce. Oh, wow. I choked this. I was getting a little bit. I don't know. It's mild. It's not even like overpowering. I want to see what it tastes like with the crab. Oh my gosh. It's a beautiful crab. This crab is two days old. Never frozen. Here we go. First dish ready. I have the tacos. I'll tell you how excited I am. They're good. So you're telling me to put some of this hot sauce? I am. So Marie Sharpe, she founded Marie Sharpe's Hot Sauce in 1981. And basically, she was making habanero sauce out of her home kitchen. Now, she's exporting to 20 different countries. She has been inducted into the World Hot Sauce Hall of Fame. She is probably the most successful food entrepreneur in Belize. And she's a mentor and leader for other entrepreneurs in the field. And especially women in business. Wow. And this is the hot sauce of Belize. The one you have to try everywhere. That's right. It's like our ketchup. You're going to find it on tables all around the country. We love this stuff. Habanero ketchup. That's right. That's what we do. Oh, they're hot. Do you mix this? Yeah, you can give that a little stir. Okay. Habanero is our favorite pepper in Belize. And we like to dash it into almost everything. Okay. You got to dip. Get that pepper. It's like my Chinese, the pepper. This is a different kind of fritter, right? I like how the batter is. Nice and crunchy, fried. The inside is very, very soft. I'm getting the hot sauce. It did say comatose heat level. Man, heat level. Look at that. It's like 5X's. I mean, it's not so bad. But once I feel a sweat. It's the best bar food. In Belize, we call this a poka. Conk ceviche. Conk fritters. This is what you eat while you're drinking a cold one. We do the same in Miami. Put a sweat bar. Exactly. Conk fritters. Can't go wrong with conk. Yeah. We're, you know, Miami next to the Bahamas. Conk is king. I'm going to have some more, guys. Alright, this is my favorite conk ever. I guess today we're eating a lot. This is like what? What? You are eating a lot in San Pedro? No, we eat a lot in San Pedro. We eat too much in San Pedro. You're just going to eat a lot all over. We like to feed people here. We're going to touch. Crunchy food. You want some of this too? It's good stuff. Give me some of the sausage. Some of the sausage there. It's so light. It's good fish. You know, I wouldn't even notice what this is. You didn't tell me it was that. Lionfish is really light, you know. It's not an oily fish. It's kind of light and flaky. It probably would be more popular if it wasn't so hard to clean because you have to be very careful not to cut yourself on one of the venomous spines on the lionfish. Nice thing. Those are some gorgeous primes, man. Let's do it. You've got a fork if you want to. But you can just get your hands in there. Let's do it like this, guys. When I eat shrimp, I eat it always like this. So I grab the tail. And then you start breaking off the whole shell. Pull the head off. I usually go in. There's always some juices in there, right? That's where all the flavors hide in, right? That's why they cook it like this. It's a massive prime. A lot of meat. So here we have a massive prime. How do I do this? I think you just got to go in here and pull, right? Like that. This is where we see whether you did a good job cracking these claws earlier. Did I do a good job? I guess we're going to find out. Not really. Look, it's just stuck. I can crack it like this. That's why we have more. You've got a cracker right there. You can get in. Because you really need to. I need to. That's the only thing with crabs. Not so easy to eat. A lot of meat. This is achiote. Pure achiote or what's called a natto. So if you go to southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, food from all those regions and Belize, this is everywhere. Because it is an indigenous spice. So it actually grows on a shrub. The Latin name for this shrub is pizza oregano. And the little tiny seeds, they're covered with this bright orange paste. This bright orange paste is actually used in processed food. So if you ever buy cheddar cheese that's orange, this is what makes it orange. When you buy like margarine, if you buy margarine, which I'm sure you don't, it's what makes it yellow. It's a natural food coloring, but it also has its own flavor. And so this has been used for thousands of years across Central America and Southern Mexico as a flavoring, as a seasoning. So when you come to Belize, here we're making a dish, this Creole style crab. It has the indigenous anado that's associated with Maya culture. It also has coconut oil in here that you can taste. And that's associated with the Afro descent aspect of Creole culture. So this is bringing the Caribbean and Central America together in one dish. Where are we going, which way? We're going this way. We're going to head down and check out a couple more spots, see about some food, see about some drinks. More food and drinks. Brutal Wakenings. Let's go. Sorry, I just like flew up here. Coffee. Give me some good coffee. But we're doing seaweed. Smells good. Seaweed. Nate, we need something to wake up, right? Cold brew. It's the best brew. It's good. So what we use for our seaweed shakes is seaweed, the coconut milk, vanilla, sweetened milk. And then our base is whole milk. And that's basically with a little dash of nutmeg. And we do freshly grated nutmeg. We add them in these little containers for easy use. And then that's basically the process. And now I'll take you through the process. So we're going to add our seaweed into a container. And this is our hot water. We're just going to add enough water to submerge the seaweed entirely. So we're doing it on a smaller scale right now, but usually we use a larger container, a lot more hot water, and of course a hefty dose of seaweed. And a little goes a long way with seaweed because once it's hydrated, it expands. So the first thing we do is add a scoop of our coconut milk. One scoop. We add some gold in there. The seaweed. Just one scoop. A little bit of vanilla. A little bit of sweetened milk. And then what we do is add a little bit of our grated nutmeg. That's what it's supposed to look like. And then just one scoop. That's great. Smells amazing. Making sure it's quality. And then we add seaweed. And then we're going to add our edible cups. It should have that thick, rich consistency. It's super thick, huh? It's almost like ice cream. It does look like ice cream. It's a seaweed ice cream. And it's a different type of seaweed, right? It's not this green seaweed. It's more brownish. This smells great. Oh, this is like a shake, man. Super thick paper straws for this. Wow, it's like sea ice cream. It's so thick, though. I love the whipped cream, too. I'm a big seaweed guy. This is unique. I've never had something like this in my life. First time. People think it's not going to taste good, and then they're pleasantly surprised. Also the vanilla in there, too. Vanilla. That would taste more like you have a salty seaweed taste inside ice cream. That's like the best way to put it together, right? The seaweed is what gives it its consistency. That thick, creamy, rich. Yes, that's what it does. Without the seaweed, it would be a lot smoother, I would say. As opposed to that thick, creamy. It gives you a brain freeze, though. This is like straight up ice cream. This is slushy, really. It's like a slushy that hasn't fallen apart too fast. But if you leave it out, it will melt, right? For sure. But it takes a little while longer to melt as opposed to your regular milkshake. Because, again, of the seaweed. That's awesome. You've got to try it. So this is the seaweed jelly. Rehydrated. The rehydrated seaweed. Not my favorite. No way. So you definitely need it in your milkshake? Yeah. It's a little bitter. Yeah, no. Thank you so much. Thank you for the seaweed. The coffee is great as well. Definitely come over here and get a cold brew. Try the seaweed. That's right, Big Titty Rum Bar. Big Titty Rum Bar. Have a good one. Thank you so much, take care. That's it? I love this place. Frankie. Hi, how are you doing? So, Frankie, what do you guys do here in terms of drinks? First, we make rum. We make rum. And we sell rum here. We do classic cocktails. Rum cocktails, mostly. And we do some of our own signature cocktails. Mostly concocted with Big Titty rum. Get ready, get ready. You have to move your hand fast, fast, fast. Then people are ruining my shot. You want T.S. Billings, right? Yes, I want T.S. Billings. Well, that's a nice little rainbow you have going on there, Frankie. It's a rainbow. It's about happy hour time. I think we're starting at the right point. So you sell these bottles as well, right? You sell? And they sell. I'm sure they do. Frankie does a rum class that we offer through our website. Oh yeah? That's great. And it's not just about his rum, it's about rum across the world. And the history of rum, the origins of rum. The master class of rum right here. So we have four different rums. We have spiced, extra dark, habanero, so it's spicy. And then we have the liqueur, right? I'm going to try the spiced first. I personally like the spiced rums. You can feel the taste. So much flavor. Next up we have extra dark rum. Oof. Hang on. It's almost like a rum stout. Like a dark, thicker rum. So this is habanero, so it's spicy. It's a habanero infused rum. It's not macho hot. It's good. It's nice. It's not too spicy. Thank you. Alright, this is going to be my favorite, I'm sure. I like balance. I like style. That's great. Mmm. What's in here? It's four Belize spices. The mouthfeel is from the seaweed that you just tasted or saw concocted at Brut Awakenings. It's got carrageenan in it, which is a natural vegetable gelatin. So that's mouthfeel. It also has creme fraiche. Those are the heavy body agents in it. It's got Belize rum, Belize chocolate, Belize coffee, Belize vanilla. It also has a touch of crud. It's hot. Mmm. Oh, wow. You know what it smells like? It's like Nutella. Okay. Sorry. I smelled it and I was like, wow, this is the nut, what is it, nut liquor? Nut liquor, yeah. Everyone loves a little nut liquor. I mean, it's amazing. So for the nut liquor and the fat pea, it's $40 a bottle. And for the other rums, these one liters, right? These are $30 US dollars. Frankie. David. Thank you so much. And thank you, David and Nathan, for visiting Big Titty Rum Bar. No, we love it. Thank you. It was amazing. Thank you so much. Appreciate you. Thank you as well. Have some good drinks. Okay. Bruh, one more spot. I feel good. You doing good? Is it raining? Woo, it smells great. How you guys doing? You guys good? This is what it's about. Yeah, yeah. The point. That's why we call the tip of the peninsula the point. The point. Yeah. Better Belize, he said. Thanks, guys. Thank you so much. All the way. This is the main street in Plasencia. This street. This used to be the main street. Used to be, used to be. So, back in the 1980s and prior, this sidewalk was about half as wide as it is now. There was no back road, what we now call Main Street, didn't exist. And all the hotels, all the restaurants, they were right on here. And then right over here to the left, we have the beach. Over here we have a few different houses, some Airbnbs as well, right? Yeah. These are local people's homes, the original founding members of this village living here. And in front of that is a hotel. And the next place we're going to is down here. Yeah, we're going to Barefoot Bar, one of the most famous bars in all of Southern America. So, welcome to the Tipsy Strip. We're getting drunk in here. Look at this. This is bars. No, there's only a couple in there. A whole bunch of shops, art galleries. No, it's amazing. It's the Tipsy Strip. What do you think? Barefoot Bar. The center. La Cencia's unofficial community center right here. Wow. It's an amazing place. Bro, you're the star. You're the star. That is cool. It's been the horseshoe game, so that's a heavy competition going on right now. This is the most beautiful beach on the peninsula. It's actually right in the dam village. Oh, wow. What do we got? Bitters? That's right. Belizean bitters. You guys enjoy. Thank you. This is a shot. You might need your water. We call it the Jägermeister of Belize. But you've had bitters. Bitter is better than Jägermeister. Yes. Welcome to Belize. Oh, that's nice. Ice cold. They make their own blend here. Artisanal bitters makers will make blends for different places. Barefoot Bar gets their own custom blend made for this bar for recreational drinking. So it's much less bitter than a medicinal blend. But of course you're not going to drink that as a shot at a bar because it's so strong. You just take like a little half shot in the morning at home. Drink some water. That's a health tonic. Good for the back. Boosts your stamina. Boosts your sexual performance. And boosts your immune system. So this is our COVID killer. We use this as preventative medicine. The COVID killer. So how many of these are we trying right now? That's it. Unless you want to try more. Okay, okay. I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. Looks like I could go crazy here. Thank you. We got fried breadfruit. My favorite. Breadfruit, bro. This is one of my favorite things on planet Earth. It's called breadfruit. I had it in Trinidad, Guyana, Barbados. Non-stop. So how are we having this fried breadfruit? Okay, so in Belize, we love habanero. We use ketchup, but we like to add our own touch. So we're going to make a little spicy ketchup. So ketchup with the Mary Sharks. We put some ketchup down. And then of course, Marie Sharks. Ms. Marie's famous habanero. Which is made in this district, by the way. Only an hour from here. So you got to put that together. And then you kind of give it a little stir. And you got spicy ketchup for your breadfruit. So that's how we proceed. Gotta mix it, guys. I like this. I like mixing spice with sauces. I'm trying, I'm trying. It's okay. Next I get a big piece of breadfruit. Mix it together. Spicy ketchup. And this ketchup isn't, like, industrial. This is just, like, made by... This is Grace brand ketchup. So in the Caribbean, Grace is one of the famous brands. They're out of Jamaica. And so if you get Grace brand ketchup, it's made with cane sugar automatically instead of high fructose corn syrup, which is what ketchup from the United States has in it now. So it's a bit healthier. Perfect for dipping your green fried breadfruit like we have here. They literally start with a whole breadfruit in the kitchen and they break it down. This is hand cut and deep fried fresh for us. This is so good. So for me, I'm not a big potato chip guy. I'd rather have solid chips or yucca than fried yucca. It's good spice. Very sharp. It's good. There's so many flavors, right? And you can get that on Amazon. So your viewers in other corners of the world, Amazon, you can even find this at Walmart, believe it or not. My family farm in Toledo District, we have a lot of breadfruit there. So when it's breadfruit season in the rainy season, like in July, breadfruit are ripe. Avocados are ripe. I make guacamole. I fry some breadfruit. One of the best things in the world. Fried breadfruit and guacamole off the pan. I have to try it. Yeah, we'll come back anytime, man. And right here we have smoked mackerel. All right. So we got to squeeze the lime on, get that acidity in with the richness, the smokiness of that Spanish mackerel. Smoked in Placencia Village, brought to Barefoot Bar, turned into this delicious smoky dip. And, of course, we want some habanero because we love pepper. We love pepper. I love what you guys say here, too. Your accent is great. I love it. Well, I call it code switching. I can go from American to Belizean. Right? So it's smoked mackerel from right here. It's like when I go to California, I go super valuable. I'm like, what's up, bro? What's up, dude? I always do that. Like, I do love it. You want to use an oily fish when you're going to smoke something because if you use, like, snapper, grouper, a white flesh fish, there's not enough fat in there. It gets dried out when you smoke it. So you want that oily, fatty, rich fish flavor when you're smoking a fish. The smoke gets strong, and the fish has to stand up to it. Good stuff, right? Mixed with the heat. So this will help get you through a few bellicans, you know, maybe some rum cocktails. Barefoot is famous for pouring them strong. And so good times and strong drinks. They like to free pour their drinks here. Who dropped this over here? Well, this has been a great tour. I love all the food here. Placencia is a hidden gem. Definitely recommend coming out here. Guys, I hope you enjoyed the video. If you did, thumbs up, comment below. Subscribe to my channel for more awesome travel content, and I will keep eating. This is fantastic. Nice smokiness.