Surinamese INDIAN STREET FOOD - Catfish Roe Chutney & Vada | Traveling to Stone Island, Suriname

And here we have the catfish roe. It's like spicy and buttery. This is India right here. Hey, good afternoon everyone. This is David Hoffman from David's Bin here in Albina, Suriname, South America. This town is right on the border with French Guiana, right across the river. And today what we're doing is we're going to eat some traditional like Surinamian food. This is something that everybody eats here. We got some fish, we have some pork, we have some chicken and some rice. And after this we're going to drive two hours straight back to Palo Marivo, the capital. And then make a left and go straight down to the biggest lake in the country. And it's called the Browns Mountain. What's the name of the lake? Professor van Blommelsteenmeer. Okay. That's the lake name. We're going to have lunch, two hours and then another hour and a half. And we're finally going to be there. And we're going to a hotel like right on the lake, right? It is so hot right now. I am baking in the sun. You got to stay inside the air conditioning as many times as you can throughout the day. Because if not, you cook. You melt here. Oh, here we go. Bar freedom. And here we have our feast. Check this out. We got some pork tail. We have some chicken. We have smoked fish right here. Rice. We have some of the chilies. Peas. And this is pita de melon. So it's like a veg. Wow, wow, wow. This looks amazing. And so this place is mainly takeout. You know, most people don't come here and eat. So takeout. I'm just going to eat because what else do I have to do? Smoked fish. No bones, right? I hope. I had to change positions because over there we had way too much light coming in. And yeah, I mean I'm eating the smoked catfish. This is actually even better because it's mixed. Onion, something else. It's almost like minced fish in a way. Because they smoked it, then they shredded it up. The fish is going to be the best thing here. And now what I suggest is mixing the catfish, the rice, maybe a little pepper. That's really hot. Now we're going for the veg. Whoa, whoa. It's a very strong veg. Yeah, it basically feels like eggplant. But at the same time, the taste is not anywhere near eggplant. Good to mix it in with some rice. Right there, just grab it. Then you get some of the catfish. Mix it together like that. So this restaurant is like a tiny restaurant. There's like two seats outside, a seat inside. Everything's sort of falling apart. But it's like super authentic, you know? This village is a tiny place. And everybody's coming in here, getting takeout. They're not eating it here like I am. So there's no air conditioning. I'm just literally getting the wind from the river. And that's it. Now we're going to jump into the pork. Pork tail. Right there. Basically just looks like super fatty right there. Some meat and some of the peas. That's it. I knew there was going to be a lot of bones with pork tail. So much flavor here. That tastes like a dish I've had in Africa. With the peas and the rice. With bones, pork. The peas are amazing. I've eaten a lot of good peas in my life in Southern America. These are phenomenal. The last thing we have here is the chicken, right? With soy sauce. With soy sauce? Yeah, soup. Soup sauce. This tastes almost Chinese. Chinese? Nice sweet sauce. Lots of tiny bones. It's got to rip it apart. I love using my hands. I learned how to use my hands in India. Now I'm all about it. All day hands. That's it. Get some of the chilies right there. Mix them all together. Oh wow. Spicy. Super spicy. I think the catfish is the best thing. Catfish mixed with the green peas. I would eat more. But the issue is I'm literally melting here. Amazing. Yes, okay. Awesome. It's a good food. That was like some real, real authentic food from the area. Oh, so good. I think the smoked catfish for sure is my favorite. You gotta open it like that. Perfect, dude. Thank you. So smoked catfish is the best. Chicken and pork, good. But not my favorites. And yeah, I mean overall, good meal. Now we're gonna hit the road. Got two hours to Panamaribo. Make a left, another two hours to go. All right, let's see what we see on the road, all right? So that's what we love about traveling, right? Is the adventure. Because when you travel, it's not just like go to a city, explore and go home. No, it's about hitting the road and really seeing what the country is about. My friend, two hours. Let's do it. Yes. And maybe we can see more foods, street foods, like sausages. Yes, we have more time now. This is the Cotica River. It's the smallest and the deepest river of Suriname. We've been on the road for like almost an hour and a half already. We still have about 35 minutes to go. We're making a quick stop and then getting some bananas. Good? Banana. Thank you. Looks so good. Hoping it's still really hungry. I didn't eat enough. Oh, it's amazing. Sweet banana. Yeah, it's very sweet. These are actually way sweeter than the ones I get in Miami. Those are the Chiquita ones. Guys, I'm a little groggy. I took like a half hour nap. This is the Comovena River. Yeah, so it's one of the main rivers that we have to cross on this road. We took this road yesterday. We stopped along the way a few times. This time, we're just going, making our way all the way down to the Browns Mountain. We're going to probably stop at the Paramarigu. We have about still like with now like 30 minutes, 25 minutes to go. It's looking right. So, okay, we'll be there soon. And then we're going to the Browns Mountain. And hopefully, we get some more food. I'm really hoping for some street food. I'm still really hungry. I haven't eaten that much. And anything else we see a long way. The only problem in this country is that you don't see any places for craft markets, unfortunately. So, we're passing through Tamarejo. And Tamarejo is the town we came through yesterday, which is the Javanese town. This is where we ate lunch. So, this is the Javanese community from Indonesia. 95% of this community is made up of Javanese people. So, there's a lot of warung, which are Indonesian restaurants. A lot of them, we ate at Warung Leni. And it was phenomenal. I mean, the best thing in the world is their peanut spicy sauce. It's sweet. It's sour. And it's spicy. Oh, so good. And yeah, I mean, we still have about like 15 minutes to go before we get to Paramaribo. And then we make a left and we go 90 minutes south. Where's the food, my man? Where's the food? The food? Yeah, I need some food. Something. I need something. I need coconut food or a craft market. Show me something. We made it here right outside of Paramaribo. And it's still raining a little bit. And we're stopping here at this Rotonde roadie shop. And we're hoping there's some roadies. Some street food. Looks like there's something here. Okay, so this roadie shop does not have roadies. But it does have other Indian foods. Here we have the vada. I love vada. And here we have like three different types of chutneys, right? This one's more like tapas roll. Tapas roll. Then here we have shrimp. And this one is a chutney, right? Oh, spicy. So spicy. Let's try the shrimp. Look at this. Lots of little shrimp. It's amazing. This is India right here. The catfish roll is stellar. So basically these are all chutneys. These have just been mixed with other things. So there we have the shrimp, right? Lots of yummy little shrimp. Here we have the main chutney right here. And here we have the catfish roll. It's like spicy and buttery. I love a small shrimp. So crunchy. Shrimpy. Spicy. Spices. Super oily. But the catfish roll, this might be one of the best chutneys of all time. Super spicy. Lots of different herbs in there. But then those balls, those, you know, the caviar, the roll just pop in your mouth. Hey, this is amazing. And then here we have the vada. It's basically like a potato fritter. This one's made out of cassava, right? Or no. So this vada is basically just made out of flour. But I'm gonna mix the vada with some of the roll. This is really unreal. Unreal. This is so good. How much did it cost? I love it. A little more of the vada. Put it with the roll right here. Oh, it's a great combination, right? Look how good this is. You know, that catfish roll was so unexpected. I love it so much that I just had to get a round two of this roll. Man, catfish roll chutney, India. You've made a star here in Suriname. Look at this. It's so good. It's spicy. It's, you know, fishy because obviously it's the roll. Wow. This is so bomb. I have to tell you, this is my favorite chutney of all time. Wow. Oh. This place should win a Michelin star for that. I'm serious. It's the best chutney ever. Spicy. Oh, the sea, man. And just like it bursts in your mouth. You know, it's like little gelatin balls. Boom, boom, boom. So we're gonna get some sausages here? Sausage. I don't want chicken feet. Sausage. I'll try sausage. Okay. Yeah, yeah, that's good. And this is what type of food? Indo? Mixed. Okay. I'm down for it. Okay, that's a tall beef. All right, wow. So right next door to the roti shop, as you saw, we have this guy with sausages. He has so many different sausages. And what we're gonna do is we're gonna go with a few of them. We're gonna go with a chicken sausage, a beef sausage, a blood sausage that has been packed with bread. So instead of rice, it's bread. So it's called morcia. Wow. And then this is a piece of the beef. I don't think I'm gonna touch this. It looks a little too exotic for me. This looks like a freaking ear. I don't know. It looks like skin, maybe a piece of the ear. I have no idea what that is. Blood sausage. I love it. Oh, wow. It's actually better than any blood sausage I've ever had because it's more like blood bread. Mmm. Oh, it's so good. Any of those bread desserts you ever had, imagine that with blood. And I don't have to have this little wrapper. Oh, wow. Wow. Next up, we have the chicken. Chicken sausage. Oh, nice. He put like a soy, spicy soy sauce. Oh, yeah. And it's sweet. Spicy and sweet. That's the best part about the food here. They love to mix it up like that. You have a super spicy and a sweet next to it. It's like, whoa. Just drown the sausage in this spicy, sweet soy. Oh, yeah. And this is the beef sausage. It's also been like soaking up that spicy soy. Mmm. Look at that. It's like a little sponge. Wow. This is amazing. Beef sausage. Another winner. Dude, it's like so fresh. This is like minced beef but also mixed with a little bit of bread. Mmm. I love that you can just suck it out of here. You don't have to actually eat the sausage completely. You just suck it out, I guess. Mmm. It's really amazing though with the sauce. Wow. Have you tried this? I tried all of them. I haven't tried this one. What is this, an ear? No, not the ear. But inside this one, like the esophagus. It's not like a... It's not bad. The meat's good. I'm just worried about the fat. Mmm. Oh, right here? It's not bad. I think if you dip it in the sauce, it's even better. What scared me about this one is that it's just all fat. It scared me a little bit. It resembles an ear, you know? Just dip the sauce. Mmm. That guy's killing it. That food is outstanding. Like I love this, right? The Indian. I love this like delicious... It's almost like the influence from the Dutch, right? But then you have the people from here that throw all the spices and all the weird stuff into it. That was incredible. Wow, man. Two amazing spots. Amazing. And where is this? It's outside of Paramaribo, right? So we still haven't passed the bridge to get into Paramaribo. We're on the other side. Yeah, so we're on the other side of Suriname River. So we're the eastern side of Suriname River. Wow, my mouth is on fire though. It was spicy. We're now crossing the Suriname River over to Paramaribo. As you can see, it's a huge bridge. It's actually the biggest bridge in the country. All right, so I mean from here, once you pass the middle point, you can see Paramaribo to the right. That's the port of Paramaribo, right? So huge shipping port. Then you have downtown over there. And we're not going to actually go through Paramaribo. We're going to keep going straight and make a left. So as soon as we pass the bridge, there's the flag of Suriname. You make a left and you're going straight south. Here we go. Brown's Mountain. So the old one, they just ripped it apart. Now we're here on a dirt road. I mean luckily right here, it's fine. But the other side sucks. It's like just straight rocks and potholes. And this is a highway. Yeah, this is a highway. This is what connects the whole country right here. The first town we passed through has a mosque on the left and it has a Hindi temple on the right. So that just shows you diversity, right? So we have Indian people from two different states in India. I forgot which exactly what they were, but it's Uttar Pradesh. You know where like Lucknow, Agra, Varanasi is. And then another one. And you have the people from Java, Indonesia. And you also have, you know, some Indians that are Muslims as well. But there you have it. Hindi temple and also a mosque. That's the most amazing part about Suriname is that all these different ethnicities live together. They communicate together. They eat each other's food. It's like seriously such a huge melting pot. We're making our way there. But it just gets slower and slower. I mean, we just got to a point here on the highway where half of the highway is closed because they're paving it. The other half is just straight up potholes and mud. And we're just getting through. Oh my god, this is intense, man. How much more of this? We're almost there, guys. As soon as we passed that crazy road, we got to the highway. It's perfect, but now there's a storm. And what he's telling me is that this is really the entrance of the rainforest. Should get a lot of rain in here. It comes in pockets, but you're going to get it. And yeah, I mean, I'm enjoying it. The breeze that hit us right now when we got to the rain was amazing. Unfortunately, we can't see too much out and we have to slow down because you got to be careful. You can slip, landslide, whatever. Look at all these palm trees. This is nice. This is so different. It looks so different from the other side. Okay, we are in district Rokopondo. And district Rokopondo is rich. Like they have gold, yes? And the tropical rainforest. And we go to Pronsvech and the resort Stone Island. All right, so it is actually 6.10 right now. We should be there around 6.30, 6.45. We're gonna get there really late, but I mean, it's been a long day. We didn't even leave like Galavi until like 11. And then we had to run a mission around there in Albina and we finally took off. But you know, the thing is that it would have taken us two hours and 90 minutes more if we wouldn't have stopped that once. But we did a bunch of stops and that's why it's taking forever. But it's okay. I mean, you know, that's what the day is about. We weren't going to do that much anyways when we got there because all we're going to do when we get there is probably just relax, probably have some dinner, drink a beer and chill. But you know, I'm really loving the way this place looks. It looks very different. The trees are a lot higher, a lot greener out here, super green. It was telling me this highway is only nine years old. Before that, it was another dirt road and took like five or six hours to get down there. And if it rained, even worse. Wow. So there's a sloth right here. Oh my God. Let's see it, let's see it, let's see it, let's see it. First time seeing a sloth in the wild. Check out this three-finger sloth. Three fingers. Whoa, he's beautiful. Okay, so we decided we're going to help the sloth. We're going to move him because he was falling asleep right here. And he was saying that some people pass by, they'll literally grab him and take him to eat him. So we're going to move him over here so he goes into the tree. Do I put him up there? Just right here? Yes. And by the way, never touch a sloth, leave him alone unless you see him in that situation where he literally just fell asleep on us and he might not wake up for like an hour or two. So it's better just to move him and then he'll keep going up into the tree and then he'll be safe from harm. By the way, sloths are this slow. Now we have to make our way down there finally. I mean, this is the problem is that we keep stopping and stopping and stopping. That's the fun part about a road trip. Can't stop, won't stop. We did it. The bridge. That's just like one scientist didn't make it left. Not on the bridge. The bridge is falling apart. Now we are at the Brunswick and we got the Kassandra road now to Stone Island. Well, we finally made it. We've been on the road for six hours roughly. No, we really started like almost two. Yeah, so it's been like three and a half, four hours. And my boy just told me is that the main road was just like this road a decade ago. Only one decade ago. That's how fast the transportation system has changed here. Imagine people in this area, it would take them six hours to get up north. Now, two hours. What a difference. We're entering the resort now. And as you can see, the lake is right there. Wow, what a lake. Huge lake. And this is actually a man-made lake back in like 1964, the government made a dam and the river that went through here eventually just filled up and everybody who was living in this area had to move. And that's how the lake was created. Only two months it took, right? To fill up. Wow. Check out this lake. Whoa, all the trees. So the reason all those trees are there is like I told you before, this is a man-made lake. This was a forest. And then out of nowhere, the lake rose. Look at that, look at that. Oh my God, that's amazing. Stony Island. So this is a guest house out here. And yeah, guys, I mean, we had such an incredible day. I mean, it's been a long one for sure. It's taken us roughly around six hours to get here. We started in Albina. We had some food there, not my favorite. That was okay. That wasn't so great. And next, we made our way all the way back to the capital and we tried some delicious, delicious chutney. Indian chutney with catfish roe, catfish eggs chutney and also the prawn chutney. Oh, they're so good. The water was delicious too. And then right next door to that place, there was a place that had sausages. Tried like three different sausages. Tried a piece of the beef. I mean, very exotic food, right? Super exotic. But yeah, guys, I mean, that's the difference here is that it's so mixed in terms of ethnicities. What an incredible journey today with Janitors from Albina all the way down here to the lake. The biggest lake in Suriname. If you love this video, please give me a thumbs up. Leave me a comment below. Subscribe to my channel for more awesome travel content. I'll see you in the next travel food adventure in Suriname. Suriname, here we go.