Dominica BUSH FOOD in the RAINFOREST! Indian River Jungle Adventure!

Good morning from beautiful, sunny Dominica, West Indies. Today, I'm very, very excited because I'm taking you up this beautiful river, the Indian River. Once we go to the very end, we're gonna meet up with some people. They're gonna make me some roasted breadfruit. We're also gonna have some salted cod. And you know what? The only way to get in here is to buy a sight pass, right? So you have to go to the gas station right across the street, buy a sight pass, private tour. It costs like $5 for the day. And you know what? Follow me. Here. This way? Come on, Nate. Gotta hurry up. So we have to go through this entrance, right? This is like the national park or the park services. So you go here with your pass, give it to the ranger. From there, you can jump on a boat. I'm excited. Oh, a little bit of a sore throat, but I'm good. Right here, it says, welcome to the Indian River. Bienvenido, bienvenu, welcomen. Hello, sir. How you doing? Perfect. And right here is our guide. So it's gonna be like a 30 to 45 minute ride up. I'm sorry, what's your name, sir? Eric. All right, Eric. Woo. Gotta be careful here. Look at that boat. This one? Just a thank you. Right here, let's do this. Awesome. You good? How you doing, man? I'm good, I'm good. I'm ready here with Eric. Yeah, Eric. What's up, Eric? We're in the Indian River. Indian River. Yeah, in Jamaica, we have like 365 rivers. Cherry blossoms. So what is this one called, wild hibiscus? Wild, wild hibiscus. Wild hibiscus. Beautiful. Love the flowers. The male and female? That's the female. So if you guys don't know what brackish water is, that's a mix of salt water and fresh water. That's where you'll see like crocodiles and gators, also turtles, like in Florida, right? In everywhere the Everglades is, you'll see some, you know, the mix, right? And so here he's saying we're gonna see some barracudas. There's probably some sharks that come up the river as well. Beautiful, but no turtles, no. Oh, okay, okay. They won't survive. One time. Got it. Won't survive in the river. So right now it's crab hunting season, as you can see. Huge crabs coming out of this little swampy area, right? These are the mangroves, right? Well, not really mangroves. Big, big trees here, though. Look at the, hey, big crabs? Yeah, they're humongous. What's the species called? Kobo. So that's the species of crab here. Massive crab, super white. This guy says catch it and curry it right now. I mean, we're trying, we're trying. So what is this, Nate? It's a male hibiscus. It's a different size, right? The male hibiscus is a bigger flower? The male's bigger? Yeah. It's really cool right now. Not as hot as it was earlier, right? It's perfect weather. Amazing, so as we go up, it gets more fresher and fresher, right? The air quality just gets even better and better. Yesterday, we were up in the, what is it called, sanitarium? Syndicate. Syndicate, syndicate up there. Man, the temperature, incredible. It was like 10 degrees less. So no animals, though. No animals here. There's some animals. Just crabs right there? Just crabs right there. How's the female? You say you didn't find out the flower? It's a lot smaller. Mm-hmm. Not the red in it, either. No. So is the female hibiscus. Very nice. So what is that right there? This is called wild sugarcane. Wild sugarcane. And this, you can't eat them. There's no juice. These are used by the Indians for making local handcrafts. Hats, baskets, fish traps. But scientific name for this plant is called rozo. And rozo is the capital of Dominica, the capital. That's why you find it named the capital rozo from this plant. Oh, wow. That's amazing. Yeah, man, that's why we find it named rozo. Yeah, we just see crabs, nonstop crabs here. Everywhere you look, there's a crab. The island of crabs. Beautiful. You can see this part of the river has these beautiful trees. What are the name of the trees again? Bloodwood. Bloodwood trees. Bloodwood. Or boa mang. Boa mang. Boa means a tree. And mang means a swamp. Boa mang. So tree of a swamp. So it's not mangroves. Gua is a tree. Gua. It's a woody. What a gorgeous tree, man. Look at the roots. How it extends everywhere. I mean, it's a beautiful place for animals to thrive, right? Fish in the bottom, crabs in the top, create little homes, right? Yeah, when it rains, it becomes really murky, right? Oh yeah? You see the bottom here? Oh man. It's okay. So that's wild ginger, the red one? So after around 30 minutes, we made it here to where we're gonna make the breadfruit, right? So you have a nice little dock. We're gonna get up. And they're cooking over there. You can see the smoke. Follow me. Maybe I should grab this. So bring it all the way in, right? So where do you go up to? Over here? Right here? Sorry, sorry. Mongo. You made it. No, we made it. We made it. Time stands still at the Bush Bar. This is the Bush Bar. Morning, welcome. Morning, how you doing? I'm good, how are you? Very good, very good. David, pleasure. Alicia. Nice to meet you. All right. Oh, this is great. Thank you. A bar right here in the bush. Yes. This is amazing. Ginger bush rum. My God, before breakfast. So what do we have here? This is our local ginger bush rum with locally grown ginger and our local rum, which we call cast rum. And here we go. Bush rum. Ginger bush rum. Oh yeah, you need a chaser. Yes. You need water ASAP. It's good. Oh, it's good? All right. I love it. All natural, right? All natural. Woo. That'll wake you up. Feel like I'm in Albania right now, drinking raki. Okay, so breadfruit. Breadfruit time. Let's go. All right, let's go, my man. Breadfruit, right there in your hand. How are you? Good? Come on, we were talking. I'll put this fire for you. Oh, you put it on there for me already. How long will it roast for? Roughly 15 minutes. Yeah. Okay, so we're gonna let that breadfruit roast for about 15, 20 minutes. We're now gonna go in the kitchen and make some salt fish, right? Yes. Salt fish. Let's go. Okay, so before we see all the cut fish, we let it boil for like about 15 minutes. But it has been boiling for quite a while, so I'm gonna remove it on the stove. Okay. Drain out the warm, the hot water, and shred it out. Oh, so you're gonna put cold water in it? Yes. Basically shock it, huh? Oh, yes. Like shred it out, put it all around the bones. So while the cut fish is cooling down, we are gonna put our spices on fire so we could do our cocoa tea. Basically has lemongrass, spice, and our bay leaf, and also our nutmeg. So we're gonna grate this in there. Gives it a nice aroma. Our cocoa tea. Now, our cocoa sticks, they are locally made. Cocoa? Cocoa, yes. So cacao, like chocolate? Yes, chocolate. Oh, wow, chocolate sticks. So what's the dish we're making called? Cocoa tea. Cocoa tea? Yes. And you use cacao sticks? Cacao sticks. Wow. So we call it cacao, not cocoa, but cacao tea. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I'm saying cacao, but cacao is Spanish. It's cocoa. Yes, so you let that boil until the sticks are melted. Got it. Now, when it's melted, we mix our milk, coconut milk, and we have our cocoa tea. So here we have some onion. So we chop up our onions. Be very careful, you don't cut your finger. Nope, you don't wanna cut your finger. Oh, no. This is the hard part for me, the cooking. Really? Yeah, I don't cook, I don't cook. Oh. No, I just like to eat. I enjoy cooking. I'm sure, I'm sure. I enjoy watching, and I like the taste of food after watching the whole process, because it's something different, you know? Like, when it hits your table and you never saw the ingredients, you don't really feel the same. I guess, I don't know, it's a feeling like I saw you make it with love, so it actually tastes better, you know? Yes, that is true, that is so true. So here we got some garlic. Starving, that breadfruit. Ah, very soon, very soon. We're gonna do the Indian River haircut in Dominica. Oh, wow, really? Yeah, right now we're gonna do, I'm gonna shave my head with a razor and trim this beard. Okay. Yeah. See all the bones? Mm-hmm. There we go. Add some oil. Yes. Nice oil. What type of oil is this? This is Cleo soybean oil. Yeah, everybody uses different oil, right? Yeah. For health purposes, I use olive oil. Olive oil, yeah, yeah. Or avocado oil. No, olive oil, nothing like it. No. Nothing compares, but sunflower oil, I like it, it's just for cooking. Oh. Oh, that's amazing, love it. Salt, cod fish with the garlic, nice crunchy onion, some oil, perfect. I mean, I would eat this alone, but obviously this is gonna be paired with the breadfruit, right? Yes, and the avocado and the fried onion as well. Oh, wow, the avocado, it's gonna be nice and creamy, super tropical, though. Yeah, yes. I love avocado, avocado, but it's super, super fatty. Yeah, it's healthy. It's one of those fattier. It's a healthy fat, though. Yeah, it's healthy. Yeah. Well, I mean, if you're having avocado every day. It's not healthy. I don't know, I have a mango every day and then I gain weight, I feel it. Really? A mango, yeah, yeah, because the mangoes are also very, very super sugary, you know, so that's the thing. But this is amazing, look at this, guys. It smells so good. It's almost done. Just wanna get the onions a little. Crispier? Crispier. This looks so good. Tastes good. Oh, I'm sure it tastes good. Do you have any pepper? No. So we're gonna add our coconut milk. Some people use flour or arrowroot powder to thicken their cocoa, but unlike me, I love custard, so I use custard to thicken it. As a custard, it gives it a smooth taste. And now we add our condensed, well, not condensed milk, but our liquid milk. Oh, it's not condensed milk? No. Smells amazing. Wow, it's gonna be nice. So we're gonna do a fried dumpling now. We're gonna add our oil so that it can get hot. Put in our dumplings. Put in as much oil as you can, as possible, so it could fry the dumpling both in and outside. So it's like a nice layer. Layer, exactly. Yeah, lots of oil is needed for this. Making these beautiful dumplings, which are basically like bakes, right? Bakes, yes. Bakes? Bakes. They're bakes. Bakes. Okay, you're just gonna pop it up. Smells great. Smell it, huh? The cucumber? Mm-hmm. I love this. Slice it very thin. Super thin, huh? Yeah. Oh, you're cutting it like that? Yeah, yeah, I've seen that before. It's a quicker way to just get through it. Yeah. I don't know how else to explain it. Thin first, I think. Slice it down. There we go. Me too. Who doesn't love avocado? I know. I know, right? Come on, come on. Who doesn't? And these, because they're so ripe, they're like nice and creamy. It's so good. That's why avocado toast has become so big in the States now. Avocado toast? Yeah, avocado toast, big thing. And you add some eggs, you add maybe some salt fish, whatever, you know? Oh, okay. I've never had this before. No? No. So you just make it into a circle. It is bakes. Yes. Those are nice, small bakes. Not too big? Not too big. Just about full. I love bakes like this. So, so tasty. I mean, nice and crispy on the outside, a little oily inside, doughy. You just stuff it. Open it up, stuff it. Yeah, you could stuff it with the cut fish as well. You could stuff it with cheese, tuna, whatever it is that you want to. A sandwich. Yes, a fried sandwich. Let's go, the breadfruit's ready. Let's get into this fire. There it is. It's almost there. Almost there? There already. One of the best thing also you do, you take like a juice cocoa. Mm-hmm. You have to taste. It goes straight in the heart. That's meaning. Done. Cook, yeah. Scrape it, you know? Mm-hmm. Done? So this last two, you put it. For me? Yes. So we just finished making four of the bakes right off the fryer, and now we're grabbing the dough, right? Then we roll it out a little bit, right? That's right. Just come on, make that perfect, and then you slip it down like that. Perfect. Enough? Woo! Another one? Some flour here. That's good. So it's slow. It takes like 10 minutes. It's not too fast. Because you don't want the outside to cook and the inside is not cooked. Mm-hmm. That's it, we wait. That's it. And he waits. These are my bakes. These are David's bakes. Wow, the breadfruit. Breadfruit tastes like bread that has been made through a fruit. Basically. And it's filling. It's really filling. Yes, it is. And with this, you could do like breadfruit chips. There are different dishes you could do with this breadfruit. Maybe some butter on top. Pies, you could do, what do you call it, chips. So you could use the dough for a few different things, right? Yes, yes, yes. Awesome. I love it when it's fried, though. You love it when it's fried? Yeah. Wow, looks super, super tasty. It's almost like chocolate milk. Yes. Okay. Okay, so all done. All done? Yeah, so now it's time to eat. Yes! Okay, guys, so we're gonna go eat right here, right here on this beautiful table. Love this Bush restaurant. Just incredible. So it's a nice, like huge hut, right? Got the bar. You have three round tables. All the stools are made of wood. Look at this, bro. Incredible. And then we have this massive table here. This is where we're gonna eat. We're gonna eat some food. We're gonna have a drink. We're gonna relax. He's like, I charged it on camera, guys. Come on. So here we go with the food, right? So roasted breadfruit, love it. It's super filling. It's like a carb, right? Mm-hmm. So tasty. Here we have the saltfish, avocado. All right, so here we go. So Alicia, how do we start with this beautiful meal? Okay, first, I'm gonna put in the saltfish. Okay. Look at that, super tasty saltfish. So this is like the dish of Portugal. If you guys never been to Portugal, codfish is king in Portugal. For real? Yeah, yeah, they're all about that. Sorry, about the bacalao. Oh, wow. Yeah. And then your roast breadfruit. Roast breadfruit. I'll probably get one of these, right? Yes. No, I'll get two of these. Right here. That's good, maybe a little bit of cucumbers. Nice salad, right? Yeah. Fresh salad, that's good. And then a bake. And the bake, how hot is that bake? Not so bad, not so bad. Tell me. Okay, so how do I do it? Just open it up like this? If you want to, you can just eat it just like that. Eat it just like this? Yes. Mm-hmm. Mm. Fried dough, so it reminds me of elephant ears at the fair. You know, we have something in the United States where every city has their own, like, youth fair, like a carnival or whatever, and there you have fried dough, but they usually mix it with some, like, sugar syrup or something, right? Oh, almost like pancake. Almost like a pancake, yeah, but I mean, super fried, right? So do I stuff it? Yes, you can. It's okay, right? This is what I was waiting for. Literally stuff this. Oh! Whoa! There's a lot of water. No problem at all, no problem. Very good. No, it's okay. I was waiting all day for this. Mm-hmm. It's so fresh. Not too salty. Mm. With the bake. Mm-hmm. Nice and fluffy inside. Crispy outside. Mm. Crunchy as well with the onion. I love this. Thank you. And if you want, we add some of this, right? Avocado. Like that. And your cucumber as well. Mm. Well, that's good. Yeah, I mean, it's nature, right? It is. That's why we have so many flies. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. It's always like this. I guess the flies are hungry as well. Mm-hmm. Nothing like a bacon soft fish. You guys love it, right? Yes. Like every day. Yes, you can. Almost every day? Yes, almost. Not almost every day, every day. Because if you go to a local restaurant, there's always fried bakes on the menu. Yeah, it's like street food, right? Yeah, yes. Basically, we had it for breakfast. We've had it a few times along the road, right? Yes. You can have it for breakfast, you can have it for lunch, you can have it for dinner. Basically comfort food. Ha ha ha ha ha. No, it is. We haven't tried the breadfruit with the cut fish. Breadfish and cut fish together? Yeah. Okay, so I'll try that. Mm-hmm. Ha ha ha ha. It's a good combo. Love the breadfruit. Very dense. Mm-hmm. Still a little smoky. Mm-hmm. Mm. But, you know, I think this one, I really like the baked boar and the, what's it called, the breadfruit. And the breadfruit? I don't know. I'm enjoying this one. And what about your cut fish? Mm-hmm. Don't forget. This is chocolate tea. Mm-hmm. Ha ha ha ha. This is unreal, guys. Unreal. Mm. Wow. And we still have this whole plate? Ha ha ha ha ha. Oh, wow. It's like pure. Mm? Pure cocoa. So it's like very grainy cocoa. Yes. Right? That's what we use to make our local chocolate. Mm. So it also has ginger. We do have our chocolate factory here. Yep. Here? Well, not here, but in Dominica. In Dominica. I was going to say, I was like, where's the chocolate? Ha ha ha ha. Come on. Mm. Mixed together. I love the pairing. Mm. I see you don't even need your pepper sauce. Where's the pepper sauce? Ha ha ha ha. Where's my pepper sauce at? Sorry, I was hungry. Mm-hmm. No, I love this combination. And like I said before, the best avocados of my life have been here. Just, they're all super, super sweet and creamy. They fall apart. Yes, they're all organic. Mm. Yeah. We don't, we hardly use any chemical. No pesticides. On our farms, so, yeah. I mean, some people do, right? But most people. Yeah, some people do, but most people don't. They're going to sustainable farming. Yes, yes. That's right. Wow. Congratulations. This is phenomenal. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Super simple. Everything is from the area, right? Yeah. Yeah? Yeah. All natural? All natural. God, guys. I can go forever with this. No, it's nice. All natural. It's really enjoyable. I would eat it just like this, maybe make it into a bowl, but I'm super happy with my meal right now. Thank you. Thank you so much. You're welcome. But yeah. You're so welcome. But we're missing that, missing that Dominican pepper. Mm. Dominican pepper. Oh, it's so good. And when you're done, you can sit down for our spice rum. Mm. Spice rum? Yes. What are we doing? You wanna do the spice rum? I'll do whatever you say. Let me get that for you. You're literally controlling what we're doing today. Ha ha ha. Mm-hmm. Our spice rum. Spice rum. Locally brewed, local spice. So more bush rum, right? Yes. You and me? Sure. Spice rum, guys. Mm. That's medicine. That is pure medicine. Oh, it's intense. Oh. These all have like a back kick, right? At the very end, it's like, David, what are you doing to us? How is it, good? Yeah, it's really good. It's a thicker breadfruit, the last one. But this is better. Mm-hmm. Charlotte tea, right? When in doubt. And we had no sugar in it. I just don't want sugar. That's what it is. Mm. So what are we gonna try this with? Like a little bit of this with this? Like that, right? Mm-hmm. Breadfruit? Oh yeah, yeah, it's perfect. Soft fish? Amazing food, right? It's the perfect lunch, bro. Our breakfast-y lunch. It's like a brunch right now. It's okay. Well, the other ones were just like roadside bars. They've probably been sitting out all day. Mm-hmm. Under the heater. Definitely different, making it fresh. Anytime it sits out in that little window. Oh yeah, yeah, in there all day. All day. Huge thanks to my friend over here, Alicia, for setting up this incredible meal. It was so good, delicious. Now our time here is done. We're gonna make our way out to the beginning of the river, but we're gonna go hiking. So we're gonna see what else we find. Maybe some animals, maybe some plant life. You know? Of course, right? Well, thank you so much. Appreciate it. You're welcome. Thanks for having me. Thank you. It's been a pleasure. Guys, hit up the Indian River, right here. The Bush Restaurant, right? The Bush Bar? Bush Bar. Yes. All right. Yeah, so now we're making our way through this beautiful trail, all the way back to the beginning of the river. As you can see, lots of beautiful flowers, right? There's the wild hibiscus, right? Over here we have another one. Forgot the name of this one. The red one, right? Pink. Not red, pink. And that's it. We made it to the end of the Indian River tour. We started off at the beginning, got on the boat, went with our guide, Eric. He showed us a little bit of the plant life, the flora and fauna. Saw a bunch of different crabs. We saw fish. Then we made our way into the Bush Bar. In the Bush Bar, we saw them roasting some breadfruit. We made saltfish, which is basically cod, mixed with some onion, some garlic, and then we had some bakes. Fantastic experience. Thank you to Alicia. Thank you to the whole team there. It was incredible. I'm super full. I'm ready to explore more of this beautiful island. But for now, guys, I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, please give me a thumbs up. Leave me a comment below and let me know. Have you ever tried breadfruit, saltfish? Do you like codfish? All right, guys, I hope you love the video. Thumbs up, comment below, subscribe to my channel, and we'll see you in the next one. Peace.