Trying out a new restaurant is always a risk. But you can minimize the chances of a disastrous
meal by avoiding a few key dishes. Famous chefs like Gordon Ramsay, Anthony Bourdain
, and other culinary professionals from across the globe have strict rules they live by to
avoid a bad restaurant experience. Maybe a particular dish is unlikely to be
fresh, or it's notoriously overpriced or not even what it claims to be.
If you're unsure about a restaurant's quality,
it's best to steer clear of the following menu items. Cheap "Kobe" beef Kobe beef is the best of the best, so if a
Kobe beef dish sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Real Kobe beef doesn't come cheap, and is
only sold at a small number of restaurants in the U.S. So if you're in a restaurant offering Kobe
for a surprisingly low price, be skeptical.
Felix Tai , executive chef of Pounders restaurant
in Oahu, says you're likely not getting the real deal. "You're probably getting Wagyu beef, since
all Kobe beef is Wagyu, but not all Wagyu is Kobe beef. The labeling is used very loosely in the United
States." Chicken This might come as a surprise, since it's
such a common and beloved protein. But chefs tend to avoid ordering chicken when
dining out.
One executive chef from West Hollywood told
Reader's Digest, "I will order almost anything when I go out but never chicken, because
it tends to be overcooked at most restaurants." In a Food Network survey, chefs across the
country agreed, noting that chicken is also typically "the most overpriced and least interesting"
item on the menu. The bread basket The complimentary bread typically looks better
than it really is but it might also be a health hazard. It's hard to resist: you arrive at the restaurant
starving, and suddenly that incredible-looking basket of bread makes its way to your table. Unfortunately, it may have just been on your
neighbor's table.
According to that same Food Network's chef
survey, it's not uncommon for uneaten bread to make its way to multiple tables, in fact. And that's why chefs avoid it. Debra Ginsberg, author of Waiting: The True
Confessions of a Waitress, echoed this revelation on Inside Edition "Bread tends to circulate from table to table." "Are you saying that sometimes, when the bread
comes, this bread may have been at another table?" "It might have." Eggs Benedict Who doesn't love a leisurely brunch with friends? It's a meal beloved by many. But a lot of chefs reportedly despise making
it.
So unless you're at a trusted spot that specializes
in it, the quality of your meal may reflect that. Anthony Bourdain, in his 2000 book Kitchen
Confidential, says that cooks, quote, "hate brunch," especially on Sundays: "Brunch menus are an open invitation to the
cost-conscious chef, a dumping ground for the odd bits left over from Friday and Saturday
nights." "One of the tragedies of my life is that I'm
really good at it, so, y'know, after I screw up this TV career, I know there's always a
brunch job waiting for me. Maybe that's why I hate it so much." Bourdain says that the brunch classic Eggs
Benedict, in particular, with its generous coating of hollandaise sauce, is to be avoided:
"Bacteria love hollandaise. And nobody I know has ever made hollandaise
to order." Fish on Mondays Ordering fish in a restaurant is always a
gamble.
If it's freshly caught, it's heavenly. Frozen? Not so much. It's important to know where your fish comes
from and when it was caught. In Kitchen Confidential, Bourdain wrote that
in many parts of the country, unless you're in a restaurant that specializes in fresh
fish, it's best not to order it on a Monday.
Many fish markets are closed over the weekend,
so if fish is on the menu on Monday night, there's a good chance it was purchased on
Friday. But Bourdain has since walked back that recommendation
a bit, clarifying for Tech Insider that restaurant standards and customer attitudes regarding
fish quality have changed tremendously since the year 2000. But he says at low-end local restaurants and,
quote, "fake Irish pubs," it's still a solid tip. The specials When dining at a new restaurant, always take
a look at the specials.
If there are too many to count, it's best
to avoid them entirely. Gordon Ramsay told the Daily Mail, "Specials
are there to disappear throughout the evening. When they list ten specials, that's not special." Ramsay says it's also best to avoid any dishes
labeled "famous" or "the best," calling this tactic a "suspicious boast" that is in no
way a guarantee of quality. "Wow.
'Denver's Best Pizza'? That is a bold statement." "Oh my God. Dripping in grease." Yikes. Thanks for watching! Click the Mashed icon to subscribe to our
YouTube channel. Plus check out all this cool stuff we know
you'll love, too!.
- I hope you're having an amazing day. It's Mark Wiens. I'm in Mexico City. And Mexico Cit is one of
the, I mean without a doubt, it's one of the capitals of
food in the entire world.
I have an incredibly special
day to share with you today. I'm about to meet up with Lalo who is from La Ruta de la Garnacha. He makes videos. He's a passionate food lover, and he's an expert on Mexican street food.
And right now, he's gonna take me and you on the ultimate best
tacos tour of Mexico City. So get ready to eat the
best tacos in Mexico City. Okay, say hello to Lalo. - Yeah! (Upbeat music) - [Mark] Where are we going to first? - We are going to eat, this is a taco, taco, the best
taco guide in Mexico City.
So we are going to eat tacos de canasta. - [Mark] Oh, tacos de canasta. - It's for the morning. - [Mark] In the basket, right? - [Lalo] Yeah, in the basket.
- [Lalo] It's easy to get,
and it's very delicious. (Upbeat music) - Are tacos de canasta
normally eaten in the morning? - [Lalo] In the morning. - Or all throughout the whole day? - No, no, no, only in the morning. It's more like seven to three p.M.
- Ah, okay. There must be a couple
thousand tacos which are just stacked up into that basket,
and they are steamed in there. And what's amazing about
these tacos de canasta is that they remain warm throughout the entire time
that they're selling there because all of them kinda
hold their heat together. They're stuffed within that
basket, so packed so tightly.
And then what's also awesome is they've got a blanket
to keep them warm. Oh, this will keep you
warm in the morning too. (Man speaks in foreign language) (Lalo speaks in foreign language) (man speaks in foreign language) (Lalo speaks in foreign language) (man speaks in foreign language) (Lalo speaks in foreign language) - [Lalo] Gracias, muchas gracias. What's up, man? (Lalo speaks in foreign language) - We're moving over here
to the salsa station, and they have a couple
of different salsas.
This particular salsa right
here, it includes chicharron. Oh, man. How could they think of
anything better than that? (Lalo laughs) So we're gonna start with the
chicharron taco de canasta, and we added salsa de chicharron onto it. So it's chicharron on top of chicharron.
It's fried pork skin on
top of fried pork skin. That is all you could ask for. Oh. Oh, wow.
Oh, that's insane. - [Lalo] So flavorful. - [Mark] Yeah. It's so soft.
It's just absorbed all of
the flavor from the sauce. - Yeah, it's so flavorful. That chicarron, it's amazing.
- So good. Mm-hmm.
- It's really big one, really big taco. You know, for me, I think that the taco, it's the most delicious
thing in the world. Why? Because tortilla for the
Mexican, it's our plate. So we eat our plate.
Taco, it's everything. You put it on everything. Sweet, so sweet. - Very sweet.
Oh, really good. The next taco is the mole verde. You can see the green mole in there. You can see there's some meat, and then you can see potatoes in here too.
So it's actually quite hearty. Mmm, oh. Oh, that's good too. - [Lalo] Good chicken.
- So good. You can taste the, maybe
the green chilies in there. Then you can taste the potato
which is kind of creamy, and then also the shreds of
chicken throughout there. I think it would be even
better with some salsa.
Awesome. Man, that salsa with the chicharron in it, that's a game changer. - Yeah, we need to close the video. That's it.
- [Mark] That's it, man. - [Lalo] We end it. We end it and say the salsa is the best. - The tacos are amazing.
But with that salsa,
chicharron, it's unbelievable. (Upbeat music) - The salsa chicharron, it's heaven. - It's superb. Now that I've tried all three of them, which one is your favorite? - Chicharron.
- Yeah, for sure. - Way chicharron. - Without a doubt, that chicharron taco with the chicharron salsa is the best. Wow.
- The name is Tacos Joven,
Taco de canasta Joven. - [Man] Muchas gracias. - Muchas gracias. Hasta la huego.
Muchas gracias. I couldn't think of a
better way in the world to start the day. - Yeah. (Laughs) - That taco de chicharron,
that will change your life.
(Lalo laughs) With that salsa de chicharron, oh, man. (Upbeat music) - Okay, this is the place. This was a really small place. But now, it's almost a corner.
See that. - We're gonna eat carnitas. This is another meat palace. This is a huge production here.
They have all sorts of
meats grilling over here, but Lalo is taking me over here. The main reason you have to
come here is for the carnitas. - This is the place. - It's just like falling apart
in that glass cabinet there, and they're just pulling it off.
They're chopping it up. Oh, man. Oh, man. - You can order whatever you
want, the part of the pork.
- [Mark] Okay. - If you want-- (Mark mumbles) All of the pork are in carnitas, so you can order whatever you want. (Speaks in foreign language) (cook speaks in foreign language) (Lalo speaks in foreign language) Look at that. - Oh, they're huge.
As they pull the meat out
of that tub of carnitas, the whole thing shakes
because it's so soft. - Yeah. - It wiggles. And then you see them
chopping up the meat, so they chop up the meat really fine.
Then they stop and they
put it in tortillas. They're double tortillas. - Double tortillas. - And then they add on
the, wow, they add on the cilantro and onions.
- Cilantro and onion.
And Mark, this is your gift from Mexico. - There's a little indented
hole on this plate. We're gonna show you
what's that for very soon. Gracias.
(Waiter speaks in foreign language) I got two different types of carnitas. One is a mix of meat and
fat, and then the other one-- - [Lalo] Costilla. - [Mark] Costilla. - [Lalo] Yeah.
- It's a whole rib. And you can see, in this taco, there's a whole bone in there. And look at that meat! Oh, that just looks fall apart tender. Oh, that is unbelievable.
It's gonna just slide off
the bone without a doubt. That style, man. That taco style, man. We've got our tacos.
We've added the salsa. And now, this is the most
genius plate you'll ever see. And it inserts just perfectly. - [Lalo] On Coke.
- [Mark] Lalo, you're a genius. So you have hands free. We can be filming, we can be eating tacos, and we can hold our drinks--
- I'm drinking. - [Mark] All at the same time.
- And answer the phone. Hey, hi, mom. I'm eating tacos. (Both laugh) - I'm gonna squeeze on the
lime just to get that extra citrus component which is a must in tacos.
And I'm gonna go for this one first. This is the carnita with a mix of skin. You can see the chunks of skin down there. Wow, that's a lot of meat
stuck into a tortilla.
Oh. Unbelievable. - [Lalo] The skin is soft. - [Mark] It si.
- [Lalo] Yeah. - [Mark] It just sorta like melts. - Yeah. - It melts.
- The salsa, it's a little spicy. (Upbeat music) - One of the things that's
amazing about this taco is it requires very, very little chewing. Chew twice and you can swallow
it because it's so soft. And it's just all, it's melting together with
that meat, with that skin.
The onions in there give it a crunch. You've got the refreshing cilantro. And then that salsa, and
then that squeeze of lime, it just all comes together. (Upbeat music) I have never had a taco
or seen a taco like this with a bone, an entire bone
rib in the taco before.
So you can see, okay, so there's onions and there's cilantro, and then it's the whole bone
of pork in here, the whole rib. It's inside of the taco. So Lalo told me that you
can either take out the bone right now or you can just start eating it and just work your way around the bone. I think I'm just gonna work
my way around the bone.
So you can pick up this entire thing. I mean the tortillas are jus
there to hold it all together. - [Lalo] Tortilla is so soft. I think that rib or
costilla, they have a lot of, a little more flavor because of them.
(Upbeat music) - That's absolutely incredible. You can see the bone in there, so you just kinda work
your way around the bone. That was like eating a taco drumstick. Those carnitas were
absolutely spectacular.
That one with the rib was a total new taco experience for me. That's literally like a taco drumstick. It was amazing. (Upbeat music) Okay, we picked up Ying and Mica.
They were sleeping before. They missed all the breakfast tacos but now, they're coming with us. (Lalo chuckles) Where are we off to next? - We are going to El Pescadito. It's a fish taco.
This is called El Pescadito. They are from Hermosillo Sonora. This is kind of restaurant I
know, but this is fish tacos. So I think that everything of the sea, we need to give due respect.
So this is kind, you
know, it looks like fancy, but it's cheap, and it's great. And they make you the
tacos in front of you. (Cook speaks in foreign language) - Muchas gracias. Wow, oh, man.
Things are really starting
to heat up on this taco tour. I think I'm gonna have
to take off my jacket. (Lalo laughs) - [Lalo] And the belt. - I'm gonna loosen the belt, man.
And we're gonna go season them
with the salsas over there. I'm just gonna load them up
and they'll be ready to eat. I can't wait. (Upbeat music) This is our third taco stop of the day.
And still, I've never been
so excited in my entire life to eat tacos, man.
(Lalo laughs) Oh, man, these are beautiful. - [Lalo] And so much different. - [Mark] The colors. - [Lalo] You know.
- [Mark] Yes. - [Lalo] Yeah. - Yeah, totally different. What I love about these
tacos is that they stuff either cheese, we've got one
with cheese and one with fish.
It's marlin? - Yeah, marlin. - Marlin fish. They stuff it into a jalapeno,
and then they batter it, and then they deep fry it
so you get it all crispy. And then after that,
they assemble the taco.
So they grab the tortillas. They chop up the jalapenos with the cheese or with the marlin. They chop it up. They stuff it into the taco.
Then they add on, he adds on some of the
fried shrimp after that. And then you can top it with
all of your onions and salsas. This thing is just
exploding with ingredients. It's just bulging.
They're massive. These are huge. - Huge tacos. - Okay, alright.
This is gonna be a big bite. Oh, wow. - You hit it. I tell you.
(Laughs) - Wow. That's almost like impossibly delicious. That's almost ridiculous how good that is. The fish is so soft and tender and moist.
Then you get those deep fried shrimp which have a little bounce
to them, that bouncy texture. But they're covered and deep fried too, so they're crunchy as well. And then you get all those onions, the refreshing pickled onions. You've got the salsas in
there, the squeeze of lime.
Oh, that's, that is, it's unbelievable. It will blow your taste buds. And not to mention it's
just absolutely huge. That's just a mouth explosion.
There's so many ingredients in this taco. I don't even know how
it's being held together. It's just barely, barely holding on, holding together with that tortilla. But the fillings are just
oozing out, just exploding.
You've got the salsa splatter all over. (Lalo chuckles) (upbeat music) So one taco down, one to go. But these tacos are seriously monstrous. A normal size taco would maybe
be like a third this size.
But actually, come to
think of it, pretty much all the tacos we've eaten
today have been monsters. - I'm ready. - Yeah, this is a taco workout. (Both laugh) We are on a taco marathon today,
and we've only just begun.
- Yeah. Actually, yes. - Actually, yes. (Both laugh) - This is only three kinds.
- Yeah, we've only-- - We're going to go to-- - I don't even know. I don't even know how many
we're going to. (Laughs) But if you can see below here,
you can just see all of that melted cheese in there,
oh, melted fried cheese. Cheers.
- Cheers. (Upbeat music) - [Mark] This is really good. It's rich. It's kinda salty.
You can taste how it really
mixed well with the jalapeno. - [Lalo] The jalapeno is not as spicy. It's not as spicy. - Oh, oh, I got a shrimp in that bite.
Okay, final bite. I got a little cheese down left there and also a half a shrimp. Absolutely insane tacos. So the cheese and the marlin, for me, the clear winner was the marlin.
But both of them, they're
absolutely stunning. But when you come here, you cannot miss. It's the chile relleno de
marlin with the camarones, with the shrimp, with everything. The works.
- The cheese.
- With cheese. That's all you want in a taco. That's the life changer right there. - The name is taco tote.
(Upbeat music) - [Mark] We're on our
way to the next place. - It's called Tacos
Charly, the best suadero in all Mexico City for me, for my opinion. - That was about a 30-minute drive or so. So that gave us a little
bit of time to rest.
This is the next place. It's a jacuzzi. It's a jacuzzi of bubbling suadero. And Lalo was telling me that's from the front part of the cow.
- [Lalo] Yeah, cow. - And it's boiling in fat from the cow, and it's just bubbling away, slow cooking to ultra tenderness. - In this taqueria, I love the suadero. That's, for me, the best tacos.
- That suadero specifically. Okay. They also have pastor here, al pastor, but we'll be going to
another place for al pastor. So we came here specifically
to eat the jacuzzi (mumbles).
- The suadero. (Upbeat music) - The ultimate move that he pulls off is he takes the tortillas,
he dips just a little bit into the bubbling fat so the
flavor coats the tortilla. And then he adds on just some
onions and some cilantro. And then there's a big bucket of salsa which he just adds on
a little bit of salsa.
And Lalo has told me that they
do have salsas over there, but he says the meat is so good here so we're just gonna eat it as
is, as they give it to you, as the chef hands it to you. These are like two or three
biter tacos as opposed to the gigantic tacos that we've
been having so far today. - This is the original
way to close a taco. You put it one way, the other
way, forming like a belt, and you put it three fingers.
That's how don't spread all the meat. Keep this little finger up
because that made you class. - [Mark] Taco holding
skills from an expert. You kinda wrap it like this, and then you hold your fingers like that.
- [Lalo] Exactly, and the little finger. - [Mark] The little pinky goes out. - [Lalo] That's it. - [Mark] That way, the meat
is encased into the tortilla.
Your fingers remain clean. - [Lalo] Exactly, and give you class. - We're ready. Cheers.
- Cheers. Wow. Oh, that meat. - [Lalo] Ah, but the sauce.
- Yeah, the whole
combination of everything. But that meat, you can
like taste how oily, but that oil is pure flavor. - [Lalo] Exactly. That's the fat.
- [Mark] You taste the cow. - [Lalo] Yeah, you taste the cow. (Laughs) - That is awesome. Just taco after taco of pure joy.
- [Lalo] But you know, it's different. - [Mark] Totally different. - [Lalo] Every single taco,
they have a different flavor. They have a different recipe.
Everything is (mumbles). - No two tacos have been
even close to the same that we've tried today. Another one. - Another.
(Upbeat music) - That is meat heaven. Oh, man. Stunning. (Upbeat music) This place is not that busy
now, but Lalo is saying that in a few hours, they would be packed.
You can see the entire tub is just full of meat bubbling away. That's all gonna sell out by today. And you know why it's gonna sell out, because it is outstanding. I'm outside now and
it's looking kinda dark.
It looks like it's about to rain. Oh, I just felt a drop. (Lalo speaks in foreign language) - Now it's tacos de tripa. - That's good.
That's coming up next. (Upbeat music) It started downpouring on the drive to the next taco
restaurant, but we made it. This place is famous for tripa. There are just poofs of steam just wafting through this entire restaurant
and along the sidewalk and throughout the street here.
And you can smell the organ meats. So they specialize, okay,
Lalo has been (mumbles). I mean again, they have all
sorts of different tacos here, but the taco to eat here is
tripa which is the intestines. And they have another massive vat just full of the wrinkly, curly intestines just slow simmering away
in their juices again.
Yes, you know I love it. The meat steam bath at this
restaurant is just insane. Wow. These guys are absolute taco wizards.
They chop up that meat and
they chop up that intestine so fast, and they rip it
up, chopping on the board. He gets the tortillas in his hands. He just covers it and like
scoops it up with the tortilla. The most magical part is when they sizzle it on the hotplate, and they bring it up
and it's just sizzling.
- I like your way to say he's a wizard. - [Mark] Absolute beauties. You can just see how
crunchy everything is too. Cheers.
- Cheers. Taco de tripa. Crunchy on top, but soft in the middle. - [Mark] That is on another level.
- Yeah, yeah. - It's crunchy. It's soft. - At the same time.
(Chuckles) (Lalo speaks in foreign language) - Yeah. The beauty of tripa is
how it's crunchy and gooey and soft and tender, all
textures in your mouth at once. Oh. Muchas gracias.
Gracias. Muchas gracias. Those are one of those foods that it really is not the
most pleasing to look at. They're kinda ugly, to be honest with you, those wiggly, curly
intestines just sizzling.
But when they prepare it that way, the flavor that comes out
of them and the textures, the diversity of textures,
oh, it'll blow your mind. Okay, we still have more tacos to eat. (Upbeat music) We've just pulled up to another taco. This is a street food stall.
Oh, this is the lengua spot. - Exactly. This is one of my best
favorite tacos in Mexico because this is a real street food. If you came here, you can
order whatever you want and it's going to be
one of the best tacos.
I love it. I really love it. This is called Los Juanes
because sir is Juan, and another is Juan, so
all of them are Juan. (Lalo speaks in foreign language) Gracias.
- Again, they have a mix
of different tacos here, but we went with tacos de cabeza which is from the head meat, and then tacos de lengua
which is the tongue. - Yeah, a big one. - I have to tell you something. When I was in university
and I would eat tacos a lot, in Arizona, both of these two tacos, especially lengua, was one of my top taco.
So it's one of my favorite tacos of all. Okay, we're starting with the
head tacos, tacos de cabeza. These are just like,
they're like cone shaped. They're just sprouting.
- It's so soft. - Just taco after taco
of extreme deliciousness. - For me, I need to say that I need more head tacos to pull me. I don't know why, but it's like okay, I need more and then more and then more.
- You know, I mean head
tacos are one of those tacos that a baby could eat
because they're so soft. - [Lalo] It's really huge. - [Mark] A beautiful thing. - [Lalo] Yeah.
- It's a whole slice of tongue. They give you a tongue steak in this taco. - Yeah, yeah, exactly. - It's just bulging with tongue.
- It's a lot of tongue. - Yeah. Oh, okay. - I think that this is the best part of (mumbles) tacos, head tacos.
- Yeah. - This is the best. - Yeah, yup, okay. Oh, yeah, we have to toast this one.
Oh, yeah. That is just ultra
tender, ultra flavorful. Dude, you still kept your fingers. Lalo is an extreme expert.
Look at those clean fingers. - [Lalo] Look at that. - [Mark] Look at that pinky. Look at my, there's like 25
different salsas on my fingers.
(Lalo laughs) I think some more taco practice. - And the class. (Upbeat music) Thank you very much, Mexico. Thank you very much.
- Gracias. Muchas gracias. Something that I love about them is that it's just a
really small production. There's just five guys
that are cooking tacos.
It's not a commercialized-- - [Lalo] It's like a family. - [Mark] It is, yeah. - And the customers are like
family too, just relatives. - And even as we were just
sitting here or standing here in the street watching the customers come, you see people come
from all walks of life.
I mean they're just coming from like their condos right up here. They walk down. People come in their
pajamas, come to get tacos. There's no hate here.
It's whatever you wanna
do, you come to eat tacos. They serve you tacos. They're honest. They're so friendly.
This is an awesome spot. This is the type of place
that I love to see succeed. - Exactly. - Yeah, they're good guys, such good guys.
- And the funny thing is that they are just front of the gym. - Of the gym. I will save the gym for tomorrow. - [Lalo] It is ultimate tacos tour.
- [Mark] Yeah, how are you feeling? - [Lalo] I'm fine, I'm fine. - I'm feeling amazing. - But the next place,
it's the star of that. Tacos al pastor is one of the best tacos all around the world.
Because the really-- - The grand finale. - The grand finale, exactly. - [Mark] This has been
a mission impossible, but we are gonna complete the mission. - [Lalo] Of course.
- [Mark] We're not giving up. We're putting in the taco fight today. (Lalo laughs) (upbeat music) - This is El Vilsito. The history about this
place that I like it, in the morning, it's a mechanic shop.
- [Mark] That's awesome, that's awesome. - But at night, they open a taqueria. So that's amazing. I love the pastor here and the salsa roja.
It's so spicy and
really, really (mumbles). - One thing to know about al pastor is that it's on the vertical spit. Al pastor is the heavyweight
of tacos in Mexico City. It's the number one taco, right? - For me, it's the number one for Mexico.
- It's everywhere. It's everywhere. It's so popular. But what's interesting about al pastor, the method of cooking was brought over by Lebanese immigrants, right? - Exactly, exactly.
- So it's, I'm getting water dripping on me. (Laughs) - It's raining now. (Upbeat music) - My favorite part of him making it is when at the final end,
he reaches up to the top, there's a whole pineapple. He slices off a little piece of pineapple directly into his handheld tortilla.
This guy is the absolute al pastor master. He just flies on that knife. He's been shaving the
meat and making tacos for over 18 years. So 18 years to perfect his
skill, and he does it flawlessly.
We are ordering something
that Lalo has just told me is gonna blow my mind. It's called a gringa. And what they do is they
take a flour tortilla, they put cheese on it, and
they actually flip it over so that the cheese kinda
caramelizes on the hot griddle. Once that browns and
once that's caramelized, they take that tortilla,
he puts it in his hand, and he shaves off the al
pastor on top of the cheese, into the tortilla, a bunch, and then it's like triple the size.
(Dramatic music) And that is a gringa. Gracias. It's the grand finale. This thing is taco perfection.
- This is a gringa. Why? Because the tortilla, it's made by flour. And then they put a cheese, and then they put meat of the al pastor, pineapples, cilantro,
and onion, and that's it. That's beauty.
- [Mark] That is, yeah. I mean I've just been impressed
all day with the different tacos that we've been eating,
but this, oh, man, it's like-- - [Lalo] Mona Lisa. - [Mark] It's another level. This is another level.
- [Lalo] Like the Mona Lisa. - He has so much skill. It is time. You can already tell it's just gonna be a messy just overflowing taco.
Look at the size of that. There's so much meat in there. Oh, wow. - It really was a nice day.
- An amazing day. - An amazing day. - Wow. - [Lalo] Tacos al pastor is amazing.
The pineapple is so sweet. It combines and mix with the meat. - The meat has a little bit
of sourness from that vinegar. You taste the cheese on the
bottom of that tortilla.
- [Lalo] It's completely
different with a corn tortilla. - [Mark] Yeah. - [Lalo] Completely different, gringa. - That is absolutely as good as it looks.
- Mark, do you want a really spicy salsa? - Yeah, I'd love it. - Great. - Yeah, for sure. - [Lalo] This is chile (mumbles).
It's only for the people that... That's it, really. - [Mark] Okay. - [Lalo] Really? - [Mark] Is it gonna be spicy? - Watch this, watch this.
- I'm up for it, man. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's awesome. That is spicy.
It's awesome. - It is so spicy. - [Mark] We have come to the
end of this ultimate best tacos in Mexico City, Mexican food tour. This is the last bite.
Salud. - [Lalo] Salud. (Dramatic music) - We don't need to say anything else. That's it.
- Yeah, what can I say? It's like.
- We have come to the end of this ultimate best tacos tour of Mexico City. A taco is just one of the greatest foods in the entire world, without a doubt. You cannot argue that. It's like a gift to humankind.
Tacos are insanely amazing, and we ate so many different
types of tacos today. I can't even, the tacos that we ate for this morning seems like it was yesterday. (Lalo laughs) We ate so many different types of tacos. - We loved the chicharron,
with chicharron.
But now, these. - Oh, man. Oh, yeah. You can't decide.
You can't decide. It depends on what mood you're in what taco would be the best for that time. They were all absolutely incredible. So I have to say a huge thank you to Lalo.
- No, no, no, thank you. It's an honor and a pleasure-- - It was an honor, man. It was an honor. You gotta check out Lalo.
He is La Ruta de la Garnacha on YouTube. He makes awesome videos. He loves to eat. And he's just such an
awesome, awesome guy, man.
- Thank you very much, man. - So thank you very much, yeah. - And garnacha means street food. - Oh, awesome.
- Yeah, it's kind of the
street food in Mexico City, so that's why I take that name. - The route to the street food. - The route of the street food. - Cool.
- Yeah, it is.
- So yeah, he is the man for
street food in Mexico City. And thank you all for watching the video. Please remember to give it a thumbs up. Leave a comment below, subscribe.
I'm gonna be publishing lots
more food and travel videos. Thanks again for watching. Goodbye from Mexico City..
- Hope you're having an amazing day. It's Mark Wiens, I'm in
Jerusalem and today I'm gonna take you on the ultimate
food tour of Jerusalem. I'm gonna meet up with
my friend David who is The Hungry Tourist. He's an amazing food lover
and we're also gonna meet up with one of his friends
whose name is Rafram, and he knows Jerusalem especially
the food like the back of his hand so we're gonna
take you on the ultimate Jerusalem food tour.
(Exotic music) - My name is Rafram Hadad, I
was born in Tunisia but I grew up here in Jerusalem and I
know about food, about culture. - And David, The Hungry Tourist. - Just travel for food
and people, because food without people is nothing. (Uplifting music) - Okay so actually we're
on the outside of the old city right now and we're
stopping to eat our first meal in Jerusalem.
(Police sirens) (speaking foreign language) (foreign language) - So what's the name of this place? - Acramawi. - Acramawi. - Yeah, the origin of this
place is from a village called Vincarin which was a
Christian village outskirts of Jerusalem and (inaudible)
because they were deported and the family moved
to Habon area and they opened this place. - We're starting off this
Jerusalem food tour with some legendary hummus,
oh and I cannot wait to dig into this.
He whipped up that hummus and
then he put it in the bowl and he added some chickpeas on
top, he added some olive oil. First bite of the hummus. Oh it looks amazing, you can
see how like whipped that texture, look at that texture. How fluffy it looks.
Oh that's a sizeable first bite. Oh wow. Hummus is a relatively
simple ingredient dish, but where you really notice
the difference is, are the different textures and
the different ratios of the ingredients. That is one of the fluffiest,
it's not like silky smooth you can actually feel the
texture of the chickpeas in there, and then even
though you see a pool of olive oil it doesn't feel oily at all.
That hummus is absolutely awesome. Mm, and that pepper is
wonderful, it's oh yeah. That heat starts to build,
that kind of heat that sort of goes up your nose a little bit. I love it it's wonderful.
This guy has to be the
best hummus I've ever had. - This is actually one of
the best in the world, yeah. - Okay I'm going in for an onion next. And onions are the perfect scoop.
You can get a lot of hummus
in a wedge of onion like this. The onion is very mild,
a little bit sweet. And just load it with that hearty hummus. Basically anything that
you dip in that hummus will be amazing.
They have a separate bowl full
of like a sour chili sauce to add to your hummus as well. That chili is spicy though. That hummus was absolutely insane. The texture I've never
tasted hummus so fluffy in my entire life and you know
it was fluffy because how he whipped that up, that
was just insanely good.
Almond will be great. We're stopping next for
a quick almond beverage. Look at how foamy, frothy this is. Mmm, oh yeah that's very
almondy and quite sweet it has that kind of like
almond jelly taste to it.
That's refreshing. We're moving on now to a
deli shop that has cheese and all sorts of interesting things. (Upbeat music) We're at this very small shop
in Jerusalem now and they are known for having some
of the best products. (Foreign language) Wow.
- So fresh, huh? - Oh it's so
- [David] Crispy! - It has like a fuzzy outside
edge, more kind of juicy than a regular cucumber. - [David] Yeah it's amazing. - Wow it's great. It's so good, yeah.
- [David] Very rare to find. - You want to eating,
you eating the outside. - Oh it has a little shell. - [Shopkeeper] Taste this.
- [Mark] Well thank you very
much, grab one of these. So you take off the little outside shell. Oh it's almost like a soybean. A little bit drier.
Mmm, so this is like a snack. - [Shopkeeper] Yeah. - The owner at that shop
is so nice, we just spent 15 minutes just like sampling
all of his fresh ingredients and then he gave me a little
bag of zatar, which is a thyme blend with sesame
seeds in it to take home, so that's really kind of him. What an amazing fresh
produce shop that is.
And right down the street
is the next restaurant that we're coming to. Oh! (Foreign language) - [Rafram] The bread here is very very different from Jerusalem. - [Mark] Okay. - [Rafram] Very thin, very
thin, they are the only people in the area that's using
this bread, this thin bread which is actually, you eat
it and you don't feel hunger, you know, you don't feel heavy.
It's very consistent with paper. And it's amazing bread,
they make it on the saj you know, like upside down
pan, and it's amazing, one of the best tastes. I will take a bite because I need to. (Laughing) - [Mark] There's some
cucumbers in here, some tomato some onions and then he
added in some sauces.
This looks incredibly good. I'm gonna grab over there
where the meat is the thickest. Oh that's incredible. Oh the tahini in there.
You can taste that nuttiness. And the beef almost has
like a salted almost like a jerky taste to it. The bread is almost
tortilla, this is almost like a burrito. Absolutely amazing.
What I really liked
about it was that bread. It really was like a tortilla. It wasn't like the thick
bread so it was kinda light and yeah it doesn't make
you too like, bloated. That meat inside was delicious
and then the combination of those cucumbers, oh.
Food is amazing and
people are so nice here. We are now walking to the
old city of Jerusalem. (Exotic music) Wow, this is absolutely incredible. The ancientness, the
history here it's amazing.
Okay we are in Old Jerusalem now. And greeted by some bread and vegetables. I already love it. (Exotic music) It's so ancient, just look
at this walkway and then you walk through here, you
can smell the aroma of coffee you can smell freshly baked bread.
Oh man this is amazing
and look at this alley and the staircase. It's so incredibly good
that we have Rafram with us today who's guiding us through the ancient city of Jerusalem because
there's so many little hidden passageways and alleys. Look at this place we are
walking down right now. What's your name? - Amir.
- Amir, nice to meet you. Do you also blog? - Yeah. - You do? Oh okay, Mark M-A-R-K Wiens W-I-E-N-S. Bye Amir, see you man.
We just walked down this
flight of stairs through some narrow passageways
and alleys and straight to a kebab restaurant. - He's starting everything for us now. He's lighting the fire. - Oh he's lighting the fire for us? - We are first customers.
- First customers of the day. Wow, it has like a cave,
actually because it's hot outside, this stone in here
you can feel the coolness. Oh is there an AC? (Laughter) (speaking foreign language) - [Rafram] I asked him
if the hummus is good. He asked me to taste it.
- He is about to start
making kebabs and you can see he has a bowl of hummus
which he ground by hand, and yeah they're just opening
up for the day today, so he is making the food
for the first time and lighting up the grill right now. And is this lamb? (Speaking foreign language) - [Rafram] It's a mix of
- [Mark] Lamb and beef? - [Rafram] Lamb and beef, yes. - [Mark] Oh, okay. (Exotic music) And he's been making the
most awesome, handmade kebabs that I've ever seen in my life.
He mixed up that meat
then he chopped it up with a giant sword, he added
all the spices and then he put them onto skewers with
along with onion and tomato. I can't wait till that meat hits the fire. That is gonna be one of the
world's greatest aromas. I can already guarantee.
He's busting out the sword again. - [David] The sword is coming. - [Rafram] Some swords cut our meat before they make a salad. - There's absolutely no
better way to make a salad than with a giant machete.
I'm not gonna say you have to
make salad this way at home, but that is the next level
of chopping up a salad. He just rocks that sword back
and forth, back and forth and literally in just minutes
he's gone from a coarse chopped vegetables to a really
fine mince of tomato and cucumber and all that parsley in there. A lot of spices. (Exotic music) Just straight up sesame.
- (Speaking foreign language) - Taste test. (Laughter) Oh that is the most insane
salad I've ever had in my life. Oh wow, it's so creamy. (Laughter) oh, that's almost undescribable.
You can taste the sesame
seeds, the creaminess the nuttiness, that parsley
comes in really nicely. It's almost foamy. Oh that's amazing, he's a beautiful man. - [Rafram] He is a beautiful man.
- That meat is sizzling
away and every now and then when the little driplet
of oil, of grease falls down into the coals you get
that smoky aroma of the meat. I'm at that kind of like
state of mind where I can hardly wait and the food
anxiety is hitting me strongly right now. (Sizzling meat) The wait is over, the meat
is ready, he dished us out some hummus and then
some of the salad we saw him prepare. He actually bought the
bread across the street from the baker.
That meat just looks insane. Little meatball shapes and
little one biters, you can actually see all of that
parsley within it as well and how it's caramelized, the
meat has caramelized on the edges where it was grilled. Oh, oh that is just wonderous. Oh the meat just collapses in your mouth.
You taste onions in there
and what it really focuses on is that slow grill over the fire. Giving it that wonderful smokey,
greasy like umami flavor. - Oh my god. - That's insane.
Oh wow. Next level. - Try this. - This is the type of restaurant
that you should travel around the world just to eat at.
This is some pickled turnip. - [David] It's Iraqi in origin. - Mm, really juicy. Amazing.
I'm gonna get one more
forkful of that salad. You can just see how thick
and rich that is from the sesame seed paste, the tahini. The vegetables are so
light, and then he's made it into a sauce that's just
wrapped it all together. It's a little bit like pasty,
and nutty and so fragrant.
Okay next I'm gonna try some
of this hummus, and this is like a totally different
looking hummus from the one that we had earlier this morning. And you can see that this
hummus looks a little more smooth than the hummus
that we ate in the morning, just from looking at it. It's all ground by hand. Mmm, whoa.
- [David] It's amazing hummus. - And definitely it's more
thick and a little more sticky than the hummus we had in the
morning, totally different. That salad is award winning. - (Speaking foreign language) - He's from my city.
- That was special, that is
an experience of a lifetime right there. - Nobody but Rafram can find these places. - That is a restaurant where
it really is a privilege to eat at a restaurant like
that and, huge thank you to Rafram for taking us there. (Upbeat music) Next up we walked over to a
place called Zalatimo Sweets.
And this is another ancient,
generations-old sweets shop. But he only makes one thing. - (Speaking foreign language) (foreign language) - [Mark] So it's called Zalatimo Sweets. So he really slaps out the
dough until it's paper thin then he folds it over and
then he adds in some cheese and I think he has another
couple of variations as well, and then he folds it up, he
bakes it, puts on a little bit of olive oil and it's
really amazing to watch him make this art.
(Pastry crunching) His family has been here for
over 200 years making this same dessert, 200 years! And ours should be coming
out of the oven very quickly, but starting with a cup of coffee. Aw yeah, I love that cardamom in there. I love it. We got two different
versions, one with nuts and one with cheese.
And you can just see that
paper thin dough and then he bakes it and then he tops
it with some kind of syrup or honey and then dusts
it in powdered sugar. So it's cheese. Look at that crispy, crispy
dough, oh it's so thin. Wow, the dough is so, so
thin, almost like baklava and crispy but then you have
the contrast of the salty cheese with the sweet honey
topping that crispy dough.
- Listen to it, it's crunchy. - Mm, it's so crispy and the
next one this one is nuts, but I'm like really impressed
how delicate and how subtly contrasting the
flavors are together. It's really really impressively good. If you look on the inside of this one, oh yeah you can see I
think it was mostly crushed up walnuts that he added in here.
(Pastry crunching) Listen to that crunch! That is amazing. I'm not a huge lover of
sweets, but this is perfect. After 200 years, they know
exactly what they're doing. It has that beautiful mix
between crunchy and gooey.
The nut one is good, but
I think the cheese wins. - [David] Cheese wins big time. - Thank you very much that was amazing. That was amazing.
Wow that was just
impressively good, so good. So delicate, so refined, what
another gem in Jerusalem. This entire old city of Jerusalem
is just a maze of alleys and ancient lanes, it's a whole bazaar. You have modern shops
selling all sorts of footwear and clothing and kitchenware
and then there are restaurants mixed within here, you could
just get lost and just explore these alleys if you just
keep your eyes open walking around the old streets of
Jerusalem, you'll just see just incredible things and
just admire the history of the city and if you keep
your nose open, you'll get whiffs of coffee, you'll
smell the zatar, you'll smell the different spices as you're
walking through this alley it's just an overdose of
all things that you can see and smell and hear.
(Exotic music) We are walking back out
towards the Damascus gate and we're gonna now drive
somewhere to eat another lunch. What's up man. - (Foreign language) - How are you? - Fine. - What's your name? - Tem.
- Tem? Nice to meet you. - (Foreign language) - Nice to meet you. - (Foreign language) (exotic music) (speaking foreign language) - We're stopping just to
buy some fruit right at the entrance, right at Damascus
Gate and she gave me a sample before we buy. Mmm, oh that's so juicy
and sweet and sour.
- Mmm. - (Speaking foreign language) - That's delicious too,
it's not too sweet. Kinda a little bit starchy. Getting a kilo of those too.
- Good. - Thank you. We're leaving out of the
Damascus Gate and so Jerusalem is the walled in city, Old
Jerusalem is a walled in city and so the different gates
are named for the roads that went to the different cities. So this gate actually leads
to Nablis in Palestine.
And then also onto Damascus. - We go to Mathneola Market
now, it's like the main market of West Jerusalem. (Upbeat music) - We drove over to West
Jerusalem and we're gonna have lunch at a market over here now. (Street performer music) - (speaking foreign language) You wan to get inside? - [Mark] Is it okay, just for a few shots? Just to get some closeups
on the food here.
- [Chef] This is akima,
potoates, the kebabs, spinach onion and (inaudible). You have meatballs, you
have lungs, this is lungs. You have meatballs, in fresh tomato sauce. - [Mark] Wow.
- [Chef] Now you have beef sofrito. Mousaka, great dish,
eggplant stuffed in meat. You have the koubleh, you
have the okra, you know okra? - [Mark] Yeah. We're eating our third
plate of hummus today.
There's some tahini. - [David] Fresh salad, they just cut it. And falafel. - These are sort of the
standard starter dishes that we're getting here.
Then after that we'll be
served more the stews and those dishes that they cook down there. Third hummus of the day. Mmm, oh, that one is incredible too. This one is nice and kind
of tastes garlicky to me.
Tomato salad there are
tomatoes in here, there are onions, there's parsley. Oh lots and lots of lemon in
there, that's what makes it. It's so refreshing. Some house pickles, wonderful.
We didn't do any ordering. Since David knows them. - I just told them,
just give us good food. That's all I said, just give us good food.
And let's see what will happen. - Dish of kebab, potato and spinach. Okra, green beans. Azura, rice and lentens.
This is the mousakka. White beans, potato and beef and onion. - They brought us enough food
to cover the entire table. We've got some of their
specialty dishes, it all looks incredibly good, oh I can't
wait to start digging in.
And just those appetizers
the starters, were excellent as well. Azura, oh this is the
name of the restaurant. - [David] A dish
- [Mark] Oh look at how - [David] Turkish in origin. This is gonna be so amazing.
- [Mark] It just slices
with your spoon like butter, it's so tender and then
topped with that minced meat. Oh, man, wow that looks good. Oh wow, oh wow. That eggplant is ridiculously soft.
And then it has a real kind
of like cinnamon sweetness. - [Chef] It's a stuffed eggplant with beef and tomato sauce. - [Mark] Oh look at that
interior. Come take a look at that inside, it looks like
minced meat on the inside.
- [David] Burger inside. - [Mark] It looks like a
burger on the inside with eggplant just surrounding
it and just that soupy tomato sauce drowning it. You need a spoon to eat this. - Yeah just a spoon,
spoon is the best way.
- What I love about that
is that the tomatoes are very tart, they have a
nice sourness to them. And then again you have
that really really tender, creamy eggplant. - [David] Kima. - [Mark] Kima.
Okay this is called Kima. (Crosstalking) Oh potato, forgot about the potato. - [David] Look at the color of the potato. - [Mark] I've gotta
respoon, I have to respoon.
- [David] This potato he's
had on the fire for hours and hours. - [Mark] Caramelized. The entire thing is just
completely soft and the onions melt in your mouth,
the eggplant melts in your mouth, the meat melts in your
mouth and even the potato melts in your mouth. The flavor is a little bit
plain, but it really focuses on the main ingredients.
- [David] Probably only pepper
and salt I would say here. - [Mark] Rice, lentils and onions. - You know what it is,
this is comfort food. (Crosstalking) back to your
childhood, your mother.
We're going now to oxtail,
so again you see it's falling off the bone. It's been sitting on the fire. - [Mark] You can actually
see the bones have just fallen out already. The little oxtail bones.
One my personal favorite
meats is oxtail because every single time you eat oxtail
it just falls off the bone. Oh, it's the red chilis
in there, what a kick. Oh yeah, and that meat is
just ultimately tender. Sofrito and there's meat
in there, there's potatoes.
- [David] Yes, and sofrito,
like it's got like celery, carrots, cooks for a long
time and the meat is added and garlic, potato. - It's really good, it's again,
everything is very tender the meat is tender, the potatoes
just melt in your mouth. - That's another sofrito. - [Server] This is the chicken sofrito.
- Chicken sofrito. - [Server] It's a little bit spicy. - Wow, one more dish,
excellent, oh and you can smell like almost a slight curry powder aroma. Oh side of the drumstick,
you know what it tastes like? - [David] I know how my mom
used to make it and it's gonna be exactly the same.
- Falls apart. - [David] It's so sweet, so
soft, like it (crosstalking) - [Mark] Those potatoes
actually, they're not dry at all. I'm loving all of the food,
but I gotta take another bite of this, this is a masterpiece here. It's like an eggplant
sandwich with just a burger on the inside it's incredibly good and it's so saucy as well.
But probably my absolute
favorite dish of this entire meal is one of their specialties
and I think this is the dish that the name of the restaurant
is actually named after this is the eggplant with
the minced meat on top of it. Oh man, this is an award winner here. The texture of that eggplant
is just unbelievably creamy. Thank you very much.
Walking out of the restaurant
or sort of like, stumbling out of the restaurant,
that was spectacular food. That was a meal where I
actually had to move to the next hole on my belt. If you love to eat, this is
a place you're gonna want to come for sure and have a feast. (Inspirational music) We're just walking through the market now, there's everything you can
imagine at this market.
A lot of fresh produce. And some serious desserts,
look at these piles. These are all Iraqi desserts? - No just this one. - That one over there, okay.
- [Mark] They look
similar to a jelly bean. So the dessert is called zengoula. - Zengoula it's Iraqi
dessert, wait let me do a (inaudible) here. - Like a coiled, deep
fried and then some kind of a syrup on it.
- [David] Exactly. - Alright. Yeah, it is like crispy,
and it sort of juices with a floral tasting syrup, it's
very sweet and very crispy. (Upbeat music) We have just come over to
the wailing wall which is the Western wall of Old Jerusalem.
And this is one of the holiest
sites in the Jewish faith and it leads up to the
temple of the mount. Thank you very much. This is the Western Wall built
by King Harrod the Great. On a spur of the moment
decision in an effort to work off some of the amazing food,
we decided to explore the fascinating Western Wall Tunnel.
While above ground you can see
about 60 meters of the wall, underground you have a chance
to walk along 485 meters of the original wall built
in 19 B.C. By King Harrod. (Exotic music) We're walking through this
narrow passageway, it's pretty long, right next to the wall. (Cheering and yelling) - Do you have a YouTube channel? - I do.
- Groovy! What's your name, what's your name? - Mark Wiens. (Crosstalking) (cheering and yelling) (laughter) This, this is unbelievable,
just ancient, ancient tunnels people walked in these same
lanes in these same tunnels like two and a half thousand years ago. Whoa, this is really really
cool and we're on our way to the aqueduct. That water is extremely clear.
And there is even some fish down there. And there's water
falling from the ceiling. That was incredibly cool
though, that ancient really tight tunnel. After emerging from the
depths of the tunnels, unfortunately the Dome of the
Rock was already closed for the evening, but luckily
from a nearby school, we were able to get an impressive
view of the golden dome.
A sacred site, and a breathtaking view. (Exotic music) Finally, before heading to
dinner, we drove to the top of the Mount of Olives to
see an incredible sunset against the beauty of Old
Jerusalem in the background. We had a nice, relaxing afternoon. We worked off a little
bit of that food from the Jerusalem food tour and
we watched the sunset from the top of Mount Olives, now
we're having one last meal to complete this Jerusalem
food ultimate food tour.
And this is a place that I
think the reservations are really hard to get, so
luckily he knows the chef, again he knows everyone
and we got a reservation, we're gonna have dinner here. - [Chef] Be careful. - [Mark] Alright, thank you very much. - [Chef] This is the grill
station and this is cold station you know like fish,
fresh fish and everything.
(Meat sizzling) - [Mark] The aromas coming out
of this kitchen are insane. Oh I can't wait to see
what they're gonna bring us out for dinner tonight. Yeah. (Cheering) (laughter) - Okay guys, fried seabass
together with a fatuta, which is kind of like an
Arabic vegetable salad with crispy pita bread and lemon.
- [Mark] They just brought
us out the first course and it's served on a block
of wood and all sorts of different little appetizer dishes. Oh and I think that's some
of the ahi sashimi there. Oh, okay. Oh that melts in your mouth.
(Upbeat music) This is burrata which is a type of cheese. (Inaudible) Another signature dish, is a polenta. It's a giant scallop. That blend of spices is amazing in there.
- [David] Very bad. - [Mark] What is that, foie gras? - [David] Yeah. - Oh, rossini with foie gras on top. Oh that just sliced effortlessly.
Oh that is tender, juicy supreme. Oh and ridiculously creamy and rich. - [David] Last bite. - [Man] That's a bite, open
your mouth, come on open your mouth.
(Applause) - Yeah, that is unbelievable. We've come to the end
of this incredible meal and dessert is just insane. I love the hand of the
chef here on the platter. I may as well go for the
hand of the chef right now.
Oh yeah, that's like a cheesecake almost. What's up man. - Yeah, what's up man. - How are you? - Good.
- Good. Just finished with dinner
in Jerusalem, that is an amazing restaurant the
staff are so friendly and so generous and so, they all
are having a great time as they're cooking. The food is top notch, the
ingredients were extreme quality, it was very loud
and lively kind of restaurant but really really good food. And today has just been an
amazing Jerusalem food tour.
I still can hardly believe
that I was eating in Jerusalem. And everything from the
hummus we had in the morning, all the way to the kebabs,
what else did we eat, oh that giant feast at lunch
to dinner, the food has been fantastic in Jerusalem and
this is no doubt one of the most fascinating cities in
the entire world, one of the most important cities in the entire world. And it was really a privilege,
an honor to have a chance to visit Jerusalem. A big thank you to David
Kalifa, he's The Hungry Tourist, I'll leave his link in
the description box.
Big thank you to David
and also to Ramraf for showing us a couple spots
in Jerusalem and thank you very much for watching this
video, I hope you enjoyed it. Please remember to give it a
thumbs up if you enjoyed it and I'd love to hear from you
in the comments section below and if you're not already
subscribed, click subscribe now for lots more food and travel videos. Goodnight from Jerusalem,
and I'll see you on the next video, thanks again for watching..
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too many estrogen-rich foods. I'm going to talk about the five estrogen-based
foods and products you absolutely want to avoid, and then talk about a food here at
the very end that you'll want to add into your diet to help your body detox the excess
estrogen. So the first food that you want to avoid that
contains way too much estrogen, or what are called xenoestrogens, is soy.
We know soy
products today, especially processed soy, most of it is genetically modified. And consuming
soy, again, a very high estrogen-based food. Whether it be soy milk, soy protein powder,
or just regular soy beans, this is something you want to avoid. Now, soy started being consumed in large amounts
years ago because it was so popular in Okinawa, Japan, but they consumed a different type
of soy.
It wasn't the genetically modified soy that we consume today. It was a type of
soy called natto, which is fermented soy beans. So it was loaded with probiotics, vitamin
K2. It didn't have the same estrogen effects.
The reason why these estrogen foods are an
issue is because they're called xenoestrogens. They increase estrogen in your body, or they
act like estrogen, which again increases your risk of breast cancer and cervical cancer
in women. And for men, major testosterone issues, impotence and other health issues.
So again, soy: number one estrogen-rich food you've got to stay away from. Number two food is too much sugar.
Too many
sugars and carbohydrates can increase estrogen in your body and lower progesterone. So eliminate
the processed sugar. Get rid of grains in large amounts. If you're consuming large grains,
switch over to doing more fruits, vegetables.
Or if you need to do grains, sprouted grains
are a better option. But really balancing out those ratios, lowering your carb intake.
Increasing your intake of healthy fats will also help naturally balance out and decrease
excess estrogen in your body. Now, maybe the biggest offender of excess
estrogen in your diet is consuming conventional meat and dairy products. In fact, I read a
study recently out of Spain, and they found that your average milk today contains 20 different
chemicals and medications, including growth hormones like RBGH, as well as estradiol and
other hormone-based medications.
So again, think about this. You go, your regular
grocery store, pick up a gallon of milk. That milk contains over 20 different medications
and chemicals, which is going to increase your estrogen. This is why in my family practice
in Nashville, I had young girls coming in, hitting their menstrual cycle closer to 9
and 10 years old, rather than 13 and 14, because of all of these extra hormones and steroids
in the milk supply, and the same goes for the meat you eat.
If you are shopping on a budget, and you don't
have a lot of extra money to spend, if you're going to invest in your health anywhere, make
sure it's on your meat. So doing grass-fed organic meat and raw organic dairy products,
because if you're doing those and they're not organic, we know they've got steroids
and estrogen in them. That's going to increase your risk of all the things we talked about,
from cancer to autoimmune disease to other neurological issues. Then last but not least, again, we talked
about getting rid of soy, getting rid of sugar, getting rid of the conventional meat and dairy.
Then the last one here is a product, but stop drinking out of or eating a lot of things
out of plastic containers that contain BPA.
BPA stands for bisphenol-A. It's a compound
in plastics that's known as an estrogen-mimicker or a phyto or a xenoestrogen. So staying away from the plastic bottles,
especially when they're heated. If you leave a plastic bottle of water out in the sun,
actually by about 90 to 100 times of those plastics will leach into the water.
When you're
drinking those, those will get into your system, causing these hormonal-based problems. Another thing along with plastic are teflon
pans. In fact, when you heat up teflon pans, that heat actually increases what are called
PFLAs, which are also estrogen mimickers, by 400 times. So again, heating teflon pans,
doing things out of plastic bottles, another big no-no in things you absolutely want to
avoid if you want to decrease estrogen.
Here's my last tip. Obviously, we want to
get rid of those foods and products. If you want to start detoxing your body of estrogen,
there is a substance found in cruciferous vegetables called indole-3-carbinol. It starts
out as a form of sulfur in your body.
Sulfur has powerful . . . Or sulfurane has powerful
detoxification properties.
So if you can eliminate those foods and start
consuming more cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussel sprouts,
kale, collard greens, these cruciferous vegetables will absolutely help your body detox with
indole-3-carbinole, as well as a few other things you may consider for detox. There's supplementing with milk thistle and
dandelion, two other great things. So cruciferous vegetables, milk thistle are great to support
your body, detoxifying from excess estrogen. Hey, guys.
Get those estrogen-rich foods out
of your diet. Hey, this has been Dr. Axe..
- Hey everyone, I hope
you're having an amazing day. It's Mark Wiens, I'm in Bangkok, Thailand and tonight I am at
Talad Rot Fai Ratchada, which is the night market. It's the train market. This market is known for it's very unique Thai street food, as well as
it's gigantic portions of food.
Tonight we're gonna walk around, we're gonna eat some street food, but I'm mainly here to eat
a dish called Laeng Saeb. And I'm gonna share it all with you in this video, right now. (Uptempo music) Now, you might remember
in the previous video, I came to this market and we ate the most over-sized, gigantic
bowl of lobster tom yum, that you've ever seen. And it was definitely a lot of fun to eat, but the problem is that we
were so full after eating that, that really nothing even
looked good after that.
So, I decided to make a part two. We're back at Talad Rot Fai Ratchada. This is the train,
night market in Bangkok, known for it's unique Thai street food. And I'm here to eat another unique food, it's gonna be another giant bowl, but completely different and we're gonna try it at this market where it's most famous.
The train-night market is especially known for very unique Thai dishes. You'll find a lot of dishes that people kind of experiment with, people come up with,
things are invented here. So, apart from like authentic Thai food, you'll find a lot of unique
creations that you'll only find at this market. Oh, and here we are, this is the spot.
(Music) (speaking in foreign language) And the menu is on a giant cardboard. They have medium, large,
XL, and they have XXL. We're going straight for the XXL. (Swing music) Oh wow, they just pulled out the plate, it's not even a bowl it's a plate that's like the size of a satellite dish.
(Swing music) they're stacking it up,
it looks like a tipi. In a triangular fashion,
into a cone shape, that is just getting more and
more ridicules by the second. (Uptempo music) They literally take pots
and there like buckets, and they mix up the soup broth
with crushed green chilies and just literally anoint
that, just dump it on, just fully coating it in a
layer of chilies and that soup. (Uptempo music) Are you ready for this? - Yes, can eat right now? (Uptempo music) Taste very, very good, but
it's not that it look crazy, but it taste very very good also.
- [Mark] This is one of the
most ridicules plates of food, single plates of food I've
ever seen in my entire life. It's literally a mountain of food. Can you even see the whole thing? Honest, he looked like he was struggling when he carried it to the table. This thing must be heavy, I'm just gonna lift it a little bit.
Oh yeah, wow. That not only weighs a
lot, but it's kind of like it works on your motor skills too, because you have to balance it. You've got liquid in there,
you've got the bones, this is a Mount Everest,
of pork bones and chilies. And the amount of chilies
that they added on here I think it would be uncountable.
There's like thousands
of chilies on this plate. Before I get started
eating, before I taste this, I just wanna tell
quickly about Laeng Saeb, which is this dish. It's actually a very
recent, modern Thai dish, that's only been around for a
couple of years now, I think. Or at least that's only been popular.
What it is, is it's the
pork bones, the pork spines. A lot of the bones that
would just tossed out, which are then boiled into a soup. But, it looks like there might be quite a bit of meat on these bones. But then, it's boiled into a soup, the soup is known to be very
spicy, full of lime juice.
Okay, it's time to start digging in. I just wanna do a glory lap,
revolve around this first, to see where is a good place to start. Oh man, this is. Okay, I think I found the spot.
Right down here where there's
a gigantic pool of chilies. Seems like they should
be giving you a shovel to eat this with rather than a spoon. Okay, I'm gonna go in
just for the broth first. And just look at that.
Yeah, that's just like solid
chilies with a little bit, a little bit of cilantro in there. Mm. Oh yeah, It not only looks ridicules, that is really good broth. The chilies are spicy, but not that spicy.
It might look spicier than it is. Yeah, okay, I can see how
that might build on you, and that might grow into
a flame in your mouth. Mm, but the broth you
can taste it's saltiness, you taste that rich boney broth, and then it's nice and sour as well. I think I'll go in for
this bone right here, where I can just kinda scrap it, scrap it off the spine there.
Oh, yeah, that's guaranteed
to be just fall apart tender. Look, just scrap that off the spine, oh, into the pool below. And what you can kinda do
is mix it with more chilies. Oh, look at that, oh, that's a big bite.
(Uptempo music) Yeah, that pork is nice and tender. Surprisingly, it tastes quite lean. But maybe that's because all
the fat has rendered out, has boiled down. I think the next move to make, would be to grab that whole bone and just.
Oh, look at that. Okay, I'm just gonna
dip that into the soup, rehydrate it a little bit. (Uptempo music) I mean, there's not a tone
of meat on every bone, but there are like 55 bones, and that adds up to quite
a lot of meat, I think. It's kinda easier to just take your bone, and scrap of the meat.
Otherwise, it gets a little messy. Making sure to scrap out
all those little crevices all that meat. Oh, that one just slide
right out of my fingers. (Mark laughs) It's not only really
good and looks ridicules, it actually is a lot of fun to eat too.
I'll grab some of that meat,
I'll put this onto my rice, add some more soup. When you're scrapping
the meat off that bones, it feels like a pork
avalanche, a meat avalanche is happening with the
chilies and the meat. If it were any bigger you
would need to harness up and like climb onto this pile of bone. (Uptempo music) The chili heat does start to build on you.
We've been eating for about 15 minutes I think we're at least a quarter of our way through the bones. We have at least four
or five bones finished. But, Ying's sister joined us now, which we definitely need some
help, some reinforcements. But this is, I mean, it is a lot of meat, but it's kinda like a relaxing dish.
You just kinda nibble on the bones, you kinda eat slowly, take
some bites of those chilies, drink some of that soup. And yes, you continue to eat those chilies the heat does build. It's lovely it's wonderful,
but the chilies are not, I mean for the amount that you eat, the chilies are not that spicy. (Uptempo music) Yeah, at this point I'm
just so far deep in, I'm gonna sit down the utilizes, and just go in gnawing, and
digging out with my fingers.
Juicy bits of, just tenderness. Ying is just pushing those chilies down to my side of the plate. Oh man, that is a
swimming pool of chilies. That's so many chilies, that's insane.
As you keep on eating the top bones start to get a little dry, so
you can kinda rehydrate them, spoon on some chilies and some soup. And you reach a certain
point where you just wanna pick this up and just gnaw on it. We've probably been eating for 45 minutes. We're definitely getting closer.
I'd say we're at the finish point now. You can almost see the
bottom of the plate. There's just no way that I'm gonna be able to finish all those chilies myself though. That's an absurd amount of chilies.
- Try to give you something. - [Mark] You're rehydrating. (Ying laughs) We have reached the finish line. This is the final bone.
There's only a pool of soup and still a ton of chilies down there. But, yeah, I think we
climbed Mount Everest. But, they sort of deceive you at the end. They put all the bones with
the most meat at the bottom.
Look at how much meat that is. Oh man, and it's like,
when you're at this stage, you're just sort of like, oh, you're just sort of like, slowly moving. (Uptempo music) Mission accomplished,
I am drenched in sweat. This place is extremely popular.
I don't think there's any empty tables. (Uptempo music) It's so popular, that
now as we're leaving, there's a waiting line. It's a good thing we got here early. Yeah, I'm definitely very full.
But it's, I mean it looks ginormous because there's so many bones. I mean, if you share that
with a few of people, that's just a good solid meal. But, yeah, it's just impressive
to look at, so many bones. But I just wanna tell you
that Laeng Saeb, what a dish.
The combination of those green chilies, the lime juice in there and then boiled down those pork bones, what a flavor combination,
what a flavor profile. That is way more laeng saeb
than I ever care to eat again in one sitting. But, you should definitely try it. It's an amazing dish.
And you can order all
sorts of different sizes. Whatever size you desire for your meal. We have stopped to eat
some, it's called Monster (speaks in foreign language) Monster (speaks in foreign language) oh, okay, in Thai, okay, it's the instant ice cream, but in Thai that actually
means stir fried ice cream. And that's actually exactly,
precisely, what it is.
(Music) What she does is she takes some milk, she takes some other random ingredients and then she kinda plays around with it. That works it on the cold plate, kinda flattens it out so it gets cold and then scoops it back up. And then the final step
is when she spreads it out into a thin sheet and then
scraps it up from bottom, into swirls. She does some serious decorating though.
She but on some wafers some like candy cane looking wafers. Another Oreo, a bunch of whipped cream, a bunch of chocolate sauce,
a bunch of sprinkles. Did I miss anything. I just wanna kinda taste
that ice cream first and it is mixed.
What did we get Ying? Almond and Oreo, right? - [Ying] Uh-huh. - Almond and Oreo in the ice cream. This has been a very popular
trending type of ice cream because of the way it's
made, for quite a while now. But, this is my first time to try it.
I mean, it is ice cream,
but it's a little thinner. It's not quite as rich. (Uptempo music) I think it's a Wednesday night, but traditionally this market
was more of a weekend market. But now I think it's almost
open every night of the week.
I'm not totally sure. But, it's open through out the week. But coming here in the
week is really nice. It's not nearly as busy.
The last time we came here
when we had the tom yum, that was a Friday night. Ah man, about this time,
at seven or eight p.M, it just starts to get
like ridiculously packed. To the point where you can barely move. And there is so many people.
But now it's really manageable. It's nice on the week days. This snack is called (speaks in foreign language). Which, it translates
directly to crispy butter.
And this is a snack that's
very popular at this market. If you walk through you'll find a number of stalls selling it. But I think the best part about
it is watching them make it. It's pretty impressive.
I think they actually use cement trowels, spread it out onto the hot plate. The let it cook slowly. Then he puts on a bunch of
butter with a paint brush, they add on I think
sweeten condensed milk, and then let it sizzle. It's really like a paper thin sheet, and then when it's done they scrap it up into little like wafers.
In order to make this snack
you definitely need a lot of construction materials,
trowels, paint brushes, they're using it all. Here they are the finished products. These are like little,
little butter wafers. Wow, yeah they're just paper thin.
They're the type of thing
that just completely collapses as you bite down. Mm. Mm. It sort of like, goes down to nothing when it touches with your saliva.
They do have a egg yolk taste to them. (Uptempo music) those go down really easily. And they're the type of thing
that kinda stick to your lips if your lips are kinda dry. (Uptempo music) I saw the coconut shakes and
this is just too tempting.
My mouth is still quite salty
from all of that Laeng Saeb. And yeah, actually I'm pretty full, so I think we might call it here. End with a coconut, end on a good note, with a coconut shake. Oh, that's so naturally sweet.
That's just the sweetness
from the coconut water, from the coconut meat, with ice in it. Oh that hits the spot. So that's gonna do it for this night, street food tour of
Talad Rot Fai Ratchada. The main goal of coming this evening was to eat that Laeng Saeb.
And again, that was the most
gigantic, XXL version of it. But you can order smaller
sizes, more manageable sizes, and it's a great dish to eat. And there's a lot of really
unique, really interesting innovative, Thai street
foods to try at this market. It's really worth checking
out when you're in Bangkok.
So I'm gonna end the video now. Also, make sure you watch part one. The absolutely giganormous
bowl of lobster tom yum. I will link it below, but check that out.
Check out both of the videos and I wanna say big thank
you for watching this video. Please remember to give it a
thumbs up, if you enjoyed it. Leave a comment below,
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