馃攳
Selling Colombian Food Out Of A Bedroom Window In Brooklyn - YouTube
Channel: unknown
[1]
-So this is boronia.
[2]
It's a traditional preparation
of Colombia.
[5]
This one is really special.
[7]
So we are
in my bedroom right now
[8]
slash front of the house.
[10]
This is my bed,
[11]
and this is the window
[13]
where I run my operations.
[15]
鈾櫔
[17]
Food is beautiful.
[18]
Food is cultural.
[19]
Food is political.
[20]
Food tells you the story
about a territory.
[23]
Everybody knows Colombia
as the country
[25]
where cocaine came from,
from the "Narcos."
[29]
Guess what?
[31]
That's not the only what it is.
[32]
This is who I am.
I am a Colombian woman.
[34]
And I want to be teach you
about my country with the food.
[36]
And then after you,
there is always a party.
[38]
鈾櫔
[48]
My food tastes like tradition.
[50]
I cook like a grandma,
to tell you the truth.
[77]
[ Speaking Spanish ]
[78]
I'm sorry for the wait.
-That's okay.
[80]
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
[85]
Before COVID, I was doing, like,
dinners in my living room,
[89]
seating 16 people,
[91]
making different dishes
from Colombia.
[94]
When the pandemic started,
it was like,
[96]
"I cannot keep doing this
like this way.
[97]
So that's how I decided
to open up the window
[101]
and to ask people to take food
for takeout,
[103]
especially because in New York,
[105]
we're doing
the social distancing thing.
[107]
The first week,
it was 25 people.
[109]
The week after,
it was 40 people.
[112]
And today we have over like
80, 90 people coming here,
[116]
you know, to pick up food.
[134]
What makes it this food
really, really, really special
[137]
is the fact
that I don't take shortcuts.
[139]
Everything is made from scratch.
[141]
We're doing exactly the same way
[143]
that woman back in Colombia,
would make them.
[145]
We made pasteles de cerdo,
we make hayacas.
[149]
We make arepas, patacones,
bollos, enyucados, everything.
[155]
You name it, we have it.
[157]
And if I don't know,
I'll figure it out.
[159]
[ Laughs ]
[161]
We just don't sell food.
[162]
We also educate people
[164]
about the culinary traditions
from Colombia.
[166]
From where I'm from,
woman usually cooks.
[169]
It's something that's connected
with the fact to be a woman.
[172]
鈾櫔
[176]
[ Speaking Spanish ]
[183]
I try to go to Colombia
every two months
[185]
to research and to spend
some time with my family.
[188]
When I started
with this project,
[190]
it was like this driving force
[192]
to take me to go to every
single part of the territory.
[194]
I've been to the Amazon.
I've been to the Pacific side.
[197]
I've been to the Indian side.
I've been to the rainforest.
[201]
For me, the most important thing
is to understand
[204]
what makes Colombian food
so special
[206]
and what makes it,
at the same time,
[208]
so different from each part
to the other.
[224]
The woman that have mentored me,
[226]
they always will bring the best
of every situation
[229]
that they face.
[231]
and that's what I'm doing.
[232]
鈾櫔
[247]
So what you see right here
is called tucupi.
[249]
Tucupi is the product
of the fermentation
[253]
of the poisonous yucca,
[254]
and then you let it ferment,
[256]
and then you cook it
for over 16 hours.
[258]
This thing over here
is pure umami.
[261]
It is like soy sauce
on steroids.
[265]
It is delicious.
[267]
鈾櫔
[294]
-[ Laughs ]
[296]
-This specific tucupi
[297]
was was made
by abuelita Aurelia.
[301]
Unfortunately, she passed
of COVID one month ago.
[304]
So people here is going to be
tasting a little bit of her.
[307]
She's gone already.
[310]
We're going to put it
in the tamales with the beans.
[318]
So this one is
grilled sweet plantain,
[321]
smoked eggplant, and sofrito,
[322]
which is a preparation
in Colombia
[323]
that is called boronia.
[325]
One of the things
that I realized
[327]
is when you are here
in the States,
[328]
people always think
that Colombian food
[330]
is just the same
three ingredients
[331]
or the same three dishes.
[333]
I really, really want
to make sure
[335]
that the food that I make,
[337]
you put it in your mouth,
and it tastes like home.
[340]
It's a food of nostalgia.
[358]
That's my cat.
[362]
Today we are prepping
that tamales.
[364]
Right now,
I'm cutting all the vegetables
[367]
necessary to make
the pastel.
[369]
This is a recipe that involves
a lot of different
[372]
vegetable roots,
[373]
like carrots, like potatoes,
red pepper, cilantro, rice.
[378]
When you see the pastel,
[379]
the rice cooks
inside of the leaf.
[382]
What I'm doing
is I'm adding some corn flour
[386]
that I color with achiote seeds.
[389]
This recipe was told to me
[391]
by a community of women
close to where I live.
[394]
Vitamins, vitamins, vitamins,
[396]
vitamins, vitamins,
vitamins, vitamins, vitamins.
[398]
everything a hundred percent
natural.
[400]
First of all,
I grab, like, a spoon of this.
[404]
Then I'm gonna place
[407]
a really nice piece
of beautiful pig.
[410]
The ladies don't use the meat.
[412]
This is the secret ingredient.
[414]
This is a rub made from
pig feet.
[417]
The real seasonings go here.
[419]
Allspice, cumin, ginger.
[422]
And all these flavor
will be distributed
[425]
all over inside the leaf,
[427]
on the vegetables,
and on the rice.
[429]
You know, when we talk
about technique,
[431]
we talk about French technique,
Japanese technique.
[433]
But to make up a pastel
is something really,
[435]
really challenging.
[437]
You have the technique
of cooking
[439]
something inside a leaf
that is pretty indigenous.
[441]
You have the rice
[442]
and the pork that was brought
by the Spaniards.
[445]
You have all the --
like, a new adaptation
[448]
to that tradition
with a lot of people
[450]
that immigrated
from Syria and Lebanon.
[452]
It is beautiful how food
can tell you
[454]
about the strategies
of our ancestors.
[457]
and can tell you so much
about a territory.
[459]
At the end of the day,
it's an adaptation
[460]
of so many different things,
[462]
and you can learn that
just with food.
[464]
So now we're going to cook
these guys for three hours.
[468]
One hour to the timer,
[470]
and then the ones
that are on the top,
[472]
we're going to bring
into the bottom.
[474]
I was born and raised
in Barranquilla, Colombia.
[477]
When I was 21 years old,
[479]
I decided that I want
to be my own person,
[481]
and that's how I moved
to Chicago, Illinois.
[484]
I went to law school,
[485]
though I never finished
[487]
'cause at some point
I thought that
[490]
"okay, maybe I study a career
that doesn't fulfill me."
[495]
But then what was my older
option, you know,
[496]
to find a husband to marry,
you know, to have kids?
[500]
Because we came from a society
that a woman is successful
[503]
as soon as she can
accomplish that stuff --
[505]
to find a good husband,
to have the kids.
[507]
And I I didn't like that idea.
[510]
My dad, before he died,
he was begging me,
[512]
"why you don't get a diploma?"
[514]
I said,
"because I'm not a lawyer.
[515]
I don't want to be a lawyer.
I'm a cook."
[517]
Then I decide to go
to culinary school.
[519]
After that,
I have the opportunity
[522]
to work at Cosme,
as a year.
[525]
I was 28 years old.
[526]
I was working, like,
the long hours,
[528]
like working
the six days a week,
[530]
and I decided to start
my own project.
[532]
So that's how
La TropiKitchen started.
[534]
When you're an immigrant,
you don't belong anywhere.
[537]
So I start making
the traditional preparations
[540]
because that was my way
to cope with being homesick.
[543]
I had the opportunity to learn
from so many beautiful women.
[547]
-[ Speaking Spanish ]
-Mm-hmm.
[549]
鈾櫔
[578]
Even though like I'm operating
from my house,
[581]
you know,
I'm trying to run the operation
[582]
like it was in a restaurant.
[588]
[ Laughs ]
[592]
I have friends helping me.
[593]
I have my husband helping me.
[595]
Pablo, he's 6'4".
[596]
The poor thing is 6'4".
[598]
And he's all the time
complaining that
[599]
he doesn't fit anywhere.
[600]
So, yeah.
-That's true.
[602]
Oh, my God, I love you.
[604]
I'm cooking from my backyard,
using my kitchen,
[606]
opening my whole house
to the people.
[608]
-So we're steaming
los pasteles right now
[611]
so that they're warm
and ready for service.
[613]
They'll be ready in
about an hour and a half.
[615]
Stephanie, I met her honestly,
like two weeks ago.
[618]
More than just the food,
it was more like her aura,
[620]
her vibe
was what really drew me in.
[622]
You know, she reminds me
a lot of mis tias
[625]
and my grandma.
[626]
You know, she's young,
[627]
but an old soul, really.
[628]
She wants to stay connected
to the culture,
[631]
which is very important,
especially to me.
[638]
Okay.
[639]
So we have 10 minutes to go.
[641]
Are we ready.
-Almost.
[644]
鈾櫔
[648]
Hola!
[654]
鈾櫔
[660]
鈾櫔
[678]
Cindy and Wendy to go,
Pablo.
[680]
-This is my favorite.
-[ Laughs ]
[688]
-In New York,
[690]
there is the second biggest
community of Colombians
[693]
outside of Colombia.
[695]
And it is important to have
those spaces of interaction
[698]
where you can find people
from your same culture
[701]
and you have to say narrative.
[702]
I mean, you'll find people
[704]
that are they will bring
their instruments
[705]
and they will play their music.
[707]
So it becomes a place
where people can relate,
[709]
that people get together.
[711]
And community is really,
really important.
[717]
-Next time, pay for the sauce.
[719]
Because guess what?
[720]
[ Speaking Spanish ]
[730]
鈾櫔
[784]
Food always
will bring people together,
[787]
especially hungry people.
[788]
[ Laughs ]
[789]
鈾櫔
[796]
鈾櫔
[804]
鈾櫔
Most Recent Videos:
You can go back to the homepage right here: Homepage