 Arepa and Choclo. We in little Colombia right now, I'm coppin' Colombian football jerseys. Arepa de Colombo. Goleso! This is Colombian Independence Day, so we do it big. No, this is real Queens, not Dairy Queen. All right, it could sell. This is about to be a good episode. What comes to mind when you think about the country of Colombia? It's probably something you saw on TV and let's be honest, it probably was rated R. But what's shown in the media can be very different from the reality of everyday life. Today we're gonna find out about authentic guava hot dogs, soccer, and bandeja pisces with our friend Jay Shells in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to a special South American episode of Fungro's Food Today. We're here out in Jackson Heights, Queens, out here on Northern Boulevard, and we are gonna be trying different types of authentic Colombian cuisine. And of course, we couldn't do it without eight authentic Colombian friends, so we got Jay Shells. What's going on, guys? My name is Jay Shells, first generation Colombian, born and raised in Queens, New York. And I'm gonna show these fine gentlemen some amazing Colombian food. So we are on Northern Boulevard. I see a ton of Colombian businesses. Can we call this little Colombia? We'll call it for today. But there's no official name. No official name, no official name. There are a lot of Colombian flags out here. We're a lot more than a stereotypical narcos. There's more to Colombia than what you see on TV. That's the media! It's the media! Colombia itself as a country is so diverse in itself. I mean, the top part of Colombia is a little bit more Caribbean. You have the more inland area. I mean, it's just so diverse. Even as far as people and food and culture, right? And language. And language. Hey, you guys, we are here to challenge some preconceived notions, both on the cuisine side, the culture side. I'm super excited. Jay, man, I'm excited. Let's eat! Jay Shells, let's go! All right, first off, we are leading off at La Perrada de Chalo. So what is this spot? So this is an appetizer. You know, we have quick foods. It's 24 hours. This is usually where everybody comes like after the clubs, after parties. Okay. It's not real sit and dine. Just grab and go. So is this something that you might eat in Colombia? Nothing here is really your traditional type of plates. This is, like I said, very Americanized and catered to now, you know, the United States. For your traditional plates, La Andeja Paisa, Arepas and Panas, Buñuelos, you can get over at like the restaurant over there. But we're going to get that later. We're going to make over there. Yeah, let's check this out. All right, you guys, we're in La Perrada de Chalo. La Perrada de Chalo. What is the story behind the Hawaiian hot dog? So the Hawaiian hot dog is a mixture of different sauces and condiments all mounted on top of one. You're going to see it when we order it right now. It's actually, I eat it with a fork and a knife. It's real messy. It tastes very, very different than your typical American hot dog. So what we're about to eat is strictly Colombian American late night food. Queens, New York. Queens, New York. Queens, Northern Boulevard food. All right, you guys, while we are waiting for our Colombian Hawaiian hot dogs, where are we at? Because we just got to get something in our stomachs right now. So I brought them over to the panería to get a couple of small stuff like puñuelo, empanadas, arepas, chorizo and maybe some special drinks. Okay, so this is a Colombian bakery, Ceba Ceba, let's check it out. All right, you guys, we are in Ceba Ceba, Colombian bakery my very first time in my entire life. I'm very excited right now. The thing that strikes me is how different it looks from, I'm from the West Coast, most of Latin bakeries that I've been in my life are Mexican. We'll notice a very distinct taste. It can look the same, but like I said, different South American countries in Central America with Mexico. You're going to notice a taste and a difference in how it's cooked, how it's made, how it's served. You know, it definitely gives you a real taste for the culture. What other cuisine, I guess, that other people might be familiar with, would you say Colombian is close to? Is it close to Cuban food? Is it close to Peruvian food? I personally eat Dominican, Puerto Rican food and I eat a lot of Cuban food and they're all very, very different. Arepa and choco. Yeah, that was good. How good is it? Super fluffy. I like this one even more than the Araba. Really? I hope the engine doesn't kill me for this, but we make the best empanadas. You guys are foodies, give me your honest opinion. I know empanadas is a big thing amongst the Latin American countries because everybody got their own. We make the best empanadas. This is the amuana. That's the pan de yucca. It's like a mochi. It's like a cheese mochi. Yes, yes. That might be my favorite. The amuana? Yeah, there's a cheese here, right? Yeah, you guys, seba seba, Colombian bakery, I determined that my favorite was the amuana. Amuana? Yeah. There's buñuelo, you just stick it in your hand almost like a baseball and you just... Did you try the empanada? You said you like the medical one, so that's... All right, do you stand by seba seba that they're going to deliver a good... 100%! This is a good empanada, not just like a run of the mill... I fell in the ring. So usually I like the fluffier fried ones that are flour, but this one being corn and it has a thin, very crispy, hard corn crust. That one was really good. This was good. All right, guys, yo, that was a great warm-up at seba seba. I'm ready to go get the hot dogs. All right, you guys, while we are crossing the street and we're going to check out some Colombian soccer jerseys, I'm drinking the lula. Hugo lulo. I'm Hugo the lula. Hey, you guys, we are in La Perada, Chowdog. La Perada de Chowdog. I will say this, at every Colombian restaurant that I've been to and maybe I didn't go to the most authentic ones, they usually do have, at least, the Americanized Colombian hot dog. So maybe this is like having kind of like your orange chicken or general sauce at your Chinese spot. A lot of authentic Chinese restaurants will still serve those dishes just because it's what everybody knows. Oh, they're popular, right? Traditional American hot dog. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hawaiian hot dog. You see this? You can see the cheese on top. You see the crush chips. You don't even know where to begin. You can see the mayo. Oh man, I can only take one bite, guys, because I know we got a lot of food to go. You know, one thing I really liked about that hot dog, it was really smooth, creamy and had the sweetness because of that guava jam or whatever it is. That was like spicy, sweet, creamy on a hot dog with some cheese. That was good. All right. Hugo with the egg, man. So how was this different? How are you doing it, brother? Didn't you chill out? How was this different? It has the egg? It doesn't have the guava sauce. No guava sauce. Okay, so the guava sauce, that's what makes it really different because that is super un-westered. Like Americans would not put guava on a hot dog. I don't know. I think I might like that one better. Really? Bro, there was still got a little guava underneath the egg. Yeah, there was still some guava. Yo, hey, you guys, just get both of you come here. All right, J, our next spot on this Colombian food crawl. We're about to get dessert. I brought them over to the Palacio de los Cholados, a little bit of sweet after everything they just ate was a little salty, fried, mixture of a lot of everything. This is going to be the little cherry on top. I've never had a cholado before, so I'm super excited. You said that these are heavy, right? Yes, they are. They're extremely heavy. It's a mixture of fruits and condensed milk. Let's check it out. El Palacio. J, paint me a picture, man. We got the cholado. Summer in Queens growing up. This is refreshing. This is after the park, after the pool, after being a fleshing metal part for a couple of hours. So instead of the Dairy Queen, that doesn't exist. Right, that doesn't exist, man. You come here. You get one of these. No, this is real Queens, not Dairy Queen. All right, so I can see a lot of condensed milk. I see a lot of strawberries. David, go ahead and grab. Is there like a cherry? There's like a slushy portion to this down at the bottom. Yes, it's iced. Oh, iced, all right. Crushed ice. Cholado. I'm a big fan of condensed milk. You know growing up, Hong Kong also consume a lot of condensed milk. Do they really? Yeah. No shade, but the cholados might also give you diabetes. Yes, I do recommend once a month, not a daily thing. Oh, he's going in. He's going in for brain freeze. Man, that's really good. It's so guilty. It's exactly what you think it is. Condensed milk, strawberries, slushy. For a hot day like this. Oh, man. Shout out to the cholada. I don't know if I can finish the rest though. All right, you guys, we are in little Columbia for today and I'm seeing groups of Colombians walk by and they actually all look super different from each other. Colombians come in all shape and sizes. I believe it or not, I do Asian a lot. Okay, I can see you have Filipino for sure. I get that. Yeah, but you're Colombian and Asian mixed. I'm like, no, I'm Colombian, 100%. All right, well, where are we in front of right now? Because we've been having a lot of snacks and baked drinks, appetizers, dessert. But we haven't had like traditional restaurant meals yet. We're going in for the main course right now. We're going in for... That is the national dish of Colombia, correct? Fish, yes. I heard it's because everybody's got to get up and work hard. So it's designed to give you a lot of protein and energy. It's definitely a car blow. You're going to get a lot of energy. It's definitely a big plate for one person. But keep in mind, it is for one person. We'll probably be splitting it up and getting some other stuff as well. So let's check it out. Let's hold those. And he's celebrating Independence Day today, right? Oh, right. You guys are waiting for the Independence of Colombia, right? Oh, is that... You didn't know that? So today is the Colombian Independence Day. Yeah, July 20th. Perfect. All right, forgive my ignorance. Independence from who? Oh, baby, you got me stumped there. You threw me under the bus there. I saw it, and you threw me back there. This is agar panela. This is a childhood memory. You know, every Colombian household has this. Is this a brown sugar? Brown sugar, but the flavor is just sugar cane. There's no other flavor other than sugar cane. It's like an iced tea. If you want to call that, go for it. And this is the guava one. Yes, in milk. I've never had anything like that before. Guava. I don't know what fruit that's from. That is very refreshing. I like this. It's a little tangy, sweet, slightly has like some tamarind flavoring to it. Your average household iced tea. Yo, this guava milkshake is pretty good. You like it? Aren't you guys, round one has arrived here and lost all those. This is a very traditional Colombian restaurant. If you have one in your city that is authentic, it's probably serving this. Bandeja paisa, also known as Bandeja Montañera, sopita, and una picada. All right, so this is the national dish of Colombia. Yes, this is a very typical Colombian dish. And you just told me that different places have a different name for this, correct? Yeah, they call it Bandeja Montañera, Bandeja típica, or Bandeja paisa. So this is designed to give you energy in the morning to go and do some hard labor. Wait, and this is meant for one person? This is a one person. What kind of labor are they doing? Bandeja paisa. We in Colombia, guys. I gotta get that chicharrona, it's delicious. I feel like the flavors are keeping it so simple, but so good. This is a great bite right here. I have it, if I have rice, I have the medoras, I have the chicharrona. How's about this mixed flavor? This is just a mixture of meat. We have carnazada, chicharrona, yucca, we also have chorizo, which is a sausage. Carnazada, the plantains. You mentioned earlier, right? The difference in the spices. Not as spicy, but just as flavorful. Yeah. Andrew's playing this more though. He's putting together the bites. We are calling it the mixologist. Yeah, yeah, he's putting it together right. You guys, here I got beef, got some carrots. It looks like maybe some cucumbers or not. No, cilantro. Cilantro, okay, I'm excited to try this. I'm a big soup guy. This almost reminds me of the Vietnamese bone call. So it's like this really thick kind of beef curry stew, and that's from the Vietnamese, obviously with some French influence, but this just is like that thick beef stew that just, it works in every culture, man. Even on a hot day, it's good. Yo, I don't even get that 100 degrees, right? Somebody's got to be drinking that soup. If you liked it, if you said you're a soup guy. I'm a soup guy. How do you guys feel about the fried egg on top? Oh, the fried egg was crucial. The fried egg was crucial, man. The reason I asked that is because a lot of people get thrown off like. A lot of my friends in California who have never tried Colombian food always get a little uneasy or questionable, like what's up with the fried egg? And I'm glad you said that because without it, it just doesn't give you the same flavor, it doesn't give the same impact, right? It doesn't deliver that taste. Can I tell you something though? Actually, the most underrated item of this whole meal. I say the beans. Really? The beans are delicious. These are some of the best beans I've ever had. I mean, look at the flavor. I could see the flavor in those beans, man. How it's yellow. It has like that, I don't even know what type of powder is in it, but it's got all this fat and oil. So you asked me earlier, right? The difference between the Puerto Rican Dominican and Colombian, right? The beans, you notice, you said you have Cuban food, right? You notice they use black beans. We use red kidney beans. Mexicans use refried beans. Mmm. All right. Details and differences in beans. All right, you guys, we just finished our traditional restaurant meal at Los Toldos. We are starting to wrap it up, but we still got one portion left, right, Jay? Where are we going? We're going to La Repa Radio 37. So this is not actually the only like little Columbia Street, right? No, no, not at all. This is definitely one of my favorites, one of my childhood memories as far as hanging out, eating, culture, everything. So we're headed to another street. We're going to talk about culture, media representation, stereotypes all over some traditional Colombian and non-traditional arepas. If you go further down that way, right, you're going to hit more India. If you go further down that way, you'll hit way more Dominican when you get junction. Honestly, Queens is like a gigantic international terminal for like Delta. It's a color of Benetton's commercial. Dude, it really is a united colors of Benetton commercial. We just walked four blocks. Only four blocks, and the country different it is for you guys. Every time I come to Queens, man, it blows my mind. We were on Northern Verlava, now we're on 37th. What's different? Immediately, I'm noticing a lot more different South American countries. Yes. More Mexican restaurants, more commercial. We're also two blocks away from the Seventh Train. Anyone who's ever ridden the Seventh Train knows how diverse the Seventh Train takes. Famous for diversity. 100%, you know that you're taking the Seventh. You have to take the Seventh Train. First of all, it's a free tour guide from Shea Stadium, right? You know what? All the way to Manhattan. Everybody that is super racist in America should be forced to take the Seventh Train. Like I said, holy, that is the best way to put it. Let's solve racism with the Seventh Train. With the Seventh Train, that's it. I love that quote. I love that quote. I actually love that. It's a great analogy. So we're going to check out the Arepa Lady, which is Colombian, but I'm seeing Uruguay spots, Peruvian spots, Italian spots, this spot, that spot, Mexican spots, Mexican spots. All right, so we're on our way to the Arepa Lady, but David, you're going to make a stop. You're going to go to Poyol's Alabrasa. So what is- I've heard this is the Colombian answer to Peruvian chicken. Yes, you had mentioned earlier, Peruvian chicken is something you specifically like, right? I got to put you on the spot, Jake. Peruvian chicken. You taking this over P-O-P-O? Yes, 100%. I will. I stick with it. I stick with it. But to defend myself, I normally go to the one on 84th and Peruzzi. Peruzzi, well, for those who are not native to Queens. Okay. I was totally caught off guard by how lively this street was. There's a Colombian cafe right behind us. I'm glad you saw that. What is this, Cafe de Colombia? Yes, actually. Why don't you guys pop in here and get something? I'll meet you guys at the Arepa Lady. I'm going to iPhone, guys. This is the Arepa Spa. It is something homemade. The owner, she was, I've been selling Arepas for more than like 30 years on the street. She came from Colombia a very long time, but her kids are very young age. Some of her sons, they actually took over the business, but they wanted to make it, you know, something more, something for families because it's more like a family thing, but they're really good and they've made a really good name for themselves. They've been in a lot of places. All right, you guys, we are at round five, Cinco, Final Stage, Ultimate Boss. You guys, we're at Arepa Lady, where it's the kids, they sort of like took what their mom was doing that was so popular, right? And they wanted to sort of like, what? Modernize it? Modernize it, make it more pop culture-y. More accessible to just what? The New York generation, right? Yes. So here we have a mixture. So these are from the Arepa Lady. And then we also have the Coyo Alabrasa, and then we have some more different style of bakery items. Andrew, Andrew, just say what you said off camera. All right, listen, man. Say what you said off camera. What did you say off camera? I saw J Balvin eat these in a video with munchies. Split it with me. Take half. Amazing. Game over. All right, so I have to eat these because J ate them. Chicharon a la quipe. Stay with me. Chicharon a la quipe. Real quick, I'm gonna go into the Coyo Alabrasa. You know, sort of like, we have a Columbia take on a Lotus here, we got a Columbia take on Peruvian chicken. I'm going in there. The Peruvian one is gonna be a little bit more like herbaceous, I think, a little bit more saltiness on the outside. But I will say this green sauce wins. I like this one. So a lot of my friends love the green sauce, especially in California, when I've introduced it to them. This is like creamy oil right here. Not as spicy. Because you lived in San Diego for a while because you were in the military, right? Yeah, I still live in San Diego. So you have a lot of experience being like a Colombian ambassador to a lot of people who have never been exposed to it. Okay, and one of the jobs of being a Colombian ambassador is to tackle Colombian stereotypes. Yes. Real quick, man. Unless the elephant in the room in terms of cultural stereotypes, is Columbia at all like Narcos? No, not at all. Not in modern day. Where does it come from? There's so much stuff in Narcos about Pablo Escobar, and that's sort of like what is top of mind, right, when people think of Columbia. Unfortunately, yes. It really sidetracks so much other cool things that Columbia has. Like I said, I mentioned earlier, race car drivers, famous painters, famous musicians, artists. There's so much more to Columbia than anything having to do with Narcos. It is true that obviously in America, as international it is, we are just kind of subject to the larger media narratives, right? Hollywood, right? I'm pretty sure, you know, being Asian, same things follow. People used to always ask me if I know kung fu. Now people ask me if I'm with the CCP. So that's the best thing about being Colombian and also being Colombian in Queens. You have your diversity of friends and what we do and what we represent, right? We have people like Jay Balvin and Maluma and Shakita who are musicians, right, and influencers in the fashion world and the creative world. Then you have race car drivers. F1 race car drivers, right? So it's a huge buffet style of people. So as far as the whole Narcos narrative, no, I couldn't tell you anything about that. I don't even know. So let's go through some stereotypes. Colombians really love to drink coffee all the time. Yes. Also, that's one of our number one exports. The women are all beautiful. 100% proof is in the pudding, right? You just gotta look at the pictures. All Colombians are party animals. Yes. Okay. Jay, you gotta have some of this. I gotta get this shrimp burger, bro. Colombian shrimp burger. No, no, it's delicious. It has a red sauce in there, just like that sauce. Potato chips already in the burger as well. No, one thing I love about Colombian food is the use of that guava jam. All right, you guys, we're looking at arepa queso and a arepa... Poncharizo. Chocolate. Wow, this arepa is very thick, very dense. This is really good. I love the mixture of the sweetness, man. You said your mom has this for breakfast every day. Every morning, mine is a chorizo. My mom starts her day off. Unfortunately, as he says, there's a coffee. My mom will not start her day without a coffee. Monday, the day doesn't exist. We'll have to restart it and there's no coffee. So, is that a pretty like steered typical breakfast or typical breakfast where it's like arepa and coffee? The very last thing we are having today, Andrew, bust out the elotes and this arepa de choclo. Corn arepa right here. A different format than the other one. Made differently, right? Yes. Arepa de choclo. Yo, this is very good. What's that, bro? This is crazy. This one is... You got it sweet, huh? This one is crazy. That is a little sweeter on this one. Yo, sorry to anybody else out there, but the Colombian chicharron is the best one I've ever had. Okay. I don't know exactly how you guys make it differently, but every chicharron that I've had today, which I've had like four different ones, has been on point. I can tell you the secret. It's Colombian. Last but not least, they have a different word for this. What do they call this? Masorca. He said it had like a chipotle sauce. I'm assuming this is going to have like a spice kick to it. This is the very last thing that we're having on this crazy Colombian food. Jay, you got to try this one. Jay, you got to go because this is the Colombian version. I got to go to the gym right after this. This is the Colombian version of a Mexican dish. Come on. All right, you want my honest feedback? Mexican one's better. Yeah. That's okay. That's okay to say. Mexican one is way better. All right, my personal favorite from Arepa Lady, Arepa de Choclo with the chicharron. I agree with you. Honestly, that was my favorite thing I had today. Was it the fact that it's sweet? So good. I just don't know, I understand. I think it was the combination of the two different types of cheeses, the crema, the chicharron, and the corn thin Arepa. It was just something magical about that. I liked a lot of the stuff we had today. I love the Bandeja pisa. I actually really liked this jersey that I got. Today you're an official Colombian. Yeah. Chino de Colombia. Chino Latino. Chino Latino. All right, you guys. That is it for our crazy Colombian food crawl and culture crawl through Jackson Heights Queens. Allo bien. Allo bien. Oh man, we had so many good things. So much stuff that I had never had before. What do you want people to take away from this video? Colombian culture is way more than what you see in Hollywood, way more than what you see in social media, way more than Jay Balvin. They have artists, painters, musicians, tons of creative different mediums. Also, one of the best foods, right guys? Yeah. It's good, it's good. It definitely was different from what I've been exposed to in the media. And I knew that, but I didn't know it until I went and saw it. And I have to say that I really enjoyed my time on Northern Boulevard in 37A. But you know what, man? That wraps up our video. We do have a real quick chat about Queens in general, man. We just got to have a Queens chat. We're bringing in the other Queens connected. Knocks, rings. What's going on, guys? My boys right here, bro, this is Jackson Heights. Real quick, what are you guys' ethnicities? I'm Dominican and Colombian. I'm from Bangladesh. I'm from Nepal. Hey, man. Right here, bro. If you want to see Jackson Heights as a fan, bro, this is the front. What are you guys doing? You guys have a rap group together? Y'all have a rap group? No, no, no, no. Don't mix things. Today is Eid, it's a big holiday for Muslims, right? My boys about to go to my Bengali boys' house, right? To eat, you know what I'm saying? It's just how it is, bro. It's family. We all eat each other's food. We grow up around each other's culture. That's the beauty of Queens, you know what I'm saying? It's so much overlap. Even growing up here, whether it's Bengali food, Nepalese food, Tibetan food, right? Or you want to walk over to the wood sides, right there, you know what I'm saying? Get the Filipino food. I've never separated the difference between my Asian friend, my African-American friend, my Colombian, Dominican, Puerto Rican. We all just run melting pie. It was just normal. Look at, this is a perfect example. He called it. He said it right here, straight up. This is Queens. Do all Queens dudes dress the same? I mean, I'm just saying. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. He's saying we all dress the same. Yeah, we all fly, right? Yeah, we all fly. We all good looking dudes. All right, you guys, man. I highly recommend if you guys are ever in New York City, make sure you section out a little chunk of time. Come check out Queens, man, especially Jackson Heights. Thank you so much for watching that video, everybody. Big shout out to Jay. Big shout out to Nock. Shout out to these guys right here. This is Queens right here. But this was our Colombian episode, man. Thank you so much for taking us through. I hope it was very helpful and educational to the people out there. Like we said, come out here. Queens has everything. Queens get the money. In the comments down below, let us know what other areas or pockets of neighborhoods that we should check out. And let us know if you have a favorite Colombian dish. And until next time, everybody, we out. Peace. All right, everybody, thanks so much for watching that video. We are back at Jay's store in the LES on Orchard Street headquarters. Tell us something about this store, because it's a pin store. We have a little bit of a power world. 100% a pin accessory fashion brand. There's a pin for everybody on our wall, from nostalgic stuff, to sneakers, to cars, to little fashion pieces, and to memes and jokes. Yeah, it almost, I mean, I would call it, I'm not saying you got to call it that, a street wear pin store. High quality pins and t-shirts here at headquarters, Orchard Street, New York City.