- [Curly] Spotted first Dominican flag
hanging in the window.
- [Kat] Are we gonna be cheesy and put Merengue?
- Should I be cheesy and put Merengue?
(Kat laughing) (Merengue music)
What's up guys, it's Curly.
As you know, I'm from L.A., an L.A. native,
born and raised in Hollywood.
I'm with my girl Katherine over here.
(bell dings)
- Hi. - A Brooklyn native.
And she's about to take me to some spots in New York
with some Latino food that I should check out.
We have our guest star back here,
(bell dings) Alan on sound.
I'm leaving it up to Katherine to decide where we go eat.
If in fact you don't like what we're eating,
blame this one.
- That's rude.
- Our first stop was in Washington Heights,
at Elsa's La Reina Del Chicharron.
(banging)
- [Kat] Curly, how you feelin'?
(bell dings)
- I'm excited, I'm super excited.
The restaurant actually has
so many delicious dishes to choose from, but I was like,
it says Chicharron in the title,
so we might as well just try Chicharron while we're here.
If Elsa's the queen of Chicharron,
then what am I doing here except trying her Chicharron?
That sounds really dirty actually, huh?
It smells so good already.
- You better put that lime on it.
Mm, you see that
salsa right there? - My mouth is watering, yes.
- Oh!
- Oh my god, it was so delicious.
It was so delicious, in fact, that I forgot to talk.
(low brass instruments play)
Over the Chicharron and the Yuca
they actually give you pickled onions,
and then they give you limes to drizzle over it.
(belts a high note)
It was so good!
It was just the right amount of crispiness and fatness.
Katherine just literally spoke to me the entire time
and I literally said nothing back, I just kept eating.
- [Kat] How you feelin'?
- Mm-hmm.
- [Kat] Okay.
- Oh wait, I said like two things.
Oh look, two pieces, perfect.
No wait, that was trash, I said nothing.
- That skin, that Chicharron skin is like a pork rind,
I can taste the heart attack.
Overall, I think this place is so dope,
definitely come, (talks in a foreign language).
- (talks in a foreign language)
- Thank you for bringing me here.
- Thank you for bringing me here!
Off to the next spot? - Yes!
In the Heights, we're here.
(upbeat drumming music)
(speaking in a foreign language)
On our way to the next spot, we got a little distracted.
- A piragua cart!
- [Curly] Aw, yes!
In L.A. we do have raspados,
but New Yorkers talk so highly of Piragua,
or (speaking in a foreign language),
that I knew that I just had to try 'em.
- [Kat] What do you think?
- Oh that's good.
(speaking in a foreign language)
- Tastes like summer time.
- [Curly] So there we are walking down
the streets of Washington Heights, and this angel just
calls my name from this balcony.
This is really --
- [Woman] Hi, Curly!
- What up!
Oh shit, how are you?
- [Woman] Good, thank you.
How are you?
- And I look up, and it's this girl
that I've never met before.
We're in your neighborhood, though.
- [Woman] Yes, we're in the Heights.
- Where should I go?
- Okay, you should go to this restaurant
called Floridita, it's on Broadway.
- She suggested that we check out
a Cuban spot called Floridita.
Now I've had Cuban food before in L.A., but I thought,
who am I to deny my sweet, angel, gazelle,
princess, love, music baby Amanda?
Dope, thank you so much.
Thank you for being my fairy godmother today.
Thank you.
- Thank you, my Cinderella.
- So off we went.
We made it, we're here, Floridita.
This is where Amanda told us to come.
Let's see the Cubans in New York do it.
I didn't have the legal documentation
to film inside of the restaurant,
so here is a beautiful cartoon of Katherine and myself
ordering yuca rellenas.
(Elevator music plays)
- Okay so this is Yuca Rellena.
(speaks in foreign language)
So it's deliciousness basically.
- Let's try it. Let's do it.
Oh wow!
(speaks in foreign language)
- Oh damn, that's good!
That's so good!
So while I'm enjoying my yuca rellena, I hear this voice,
and it belongs to my boy, Frank Nibbs.
I didn't even know (is cut off)
- [Frank] (saying a foreign language
version of Curly's name)
- Oh shit!
- (speaks foreign language)
- He's part of a podcast that's absolutely hilarious
called "Latinos Out Loud!", just don't listen
to it at the gym or the subways or anything
because then you'll just be that random ass person
that's cracking up by themselves.
- (speaks foreign language)
- [Curly] This is crazy!
- Yo!
- What the fuck. I'm having a yuca rellena.
You guys, none of this was planned at all!
Me seeing Amanda in the balcony, me seeing Frank,
like its really what seems to be the magic of New York.
The Cuban food was really good, it was delicious,
it was soft and gooey, but crispy.
If Amanda suggested Floridita and then my boy Frank was
walking out with bags of food, I feel like the food
is just super good.
- (speaking foreign language)
- Damn! - Woo!
- That sound mad good though.
- Uh huh!
- Enjoy ya self! - Thank you so much!
- Good seeing you! - It was so good to see you!
- Alright, take care. - Nice to meet you!
- Off to the next restaurant!
- We are walking to 101st and Broadway
from 84th and Amsterdam.
- That's like 20 streets.
- Blocks.
- Oh, 20 blocks?
(laughs)
- And then like a half!
But you're in New York, you walk!
- I've never walked 20 blocks in my entire life.
This better be worth it.
- So when we first started, it was strictly Chinese Cuban.
You have the rice and the beans,
fried plantains.
And then since our founder has a Peruvian background,
when we opened up this store,
we integrated Peruvian chicken in here.
1988, we had bought the first Peruvian chicken
place in the city.
So now, we've become Chino Latino Peruvian.
- [Curly] Where should we start?
- French fries -- - Wow.
- ... black bisque.
- My favorite dish there was the llomo saltado.
If you've never had llomo saltado, please go out right now,
tonight, when you're finished watching this
and go and have it.
Like my mouth is watering thinking about it.
- [Maya] We should get that today.
- We should get that today!
- [Waiter] This is the nutcracker.
- Oh my god. - Thank you!
- This restaurant is also widely credited
for creating The Nutcracker.
- Nutcracker was invented back in the early '90's.
You know, we were trying to drink something
out of what we used to call like a Red Devil Deluxe.
We used better liquor than the cheap bar liquor
for the Red Devil, and we integrated Bacardi 151,
Amaretto Disaronno, and Southern Comfort in our drink.
- Good luck Katherine, I'll see you tomorrow.
(laughs)
- He says this has liquor, liquor, liquor,
I don't know what they were, and 151.
- Uh huh.
- Which is basically Devil Juice.
Its not just regular Bacardi, its you will fight
somebody in the street Bacardi.
- This that you'll forget your name type of Bacardi.
(speaking a foreign language)
- That's delicious!
- Can I smell it?
- Yeah! It smells like, probably like it tastes, its good!
- Oh my god!
- Yes, yes! That like --
(recoils at smell)
- It tastes good but its just real.
- New York really is a melting pot of so many
different cultures and traditions
and people from across the globe
and it's so beautiful and so interesting
to see it on a table, kinda represented in different plates
and different spices and different flavors.
Flor De Mayo was amazing.
Alright Katherine, so we hit up a bunch of
spaces in New York today, it was absolutely
amazing, it was so magical.
I mean, this is your home, this is where you live.
- [Kat] This is my home.
- And I'm so happy, I admit that I was a little
intimidated by the city and this was a great way to end it.
Lot of love, a lot of good food, some walking.
- Some random strangers who are now friends.
- Who are now friends.
I'm so happy that I experienced New York
with an actual New Yorker.
I know that we barely scratched the surface
of the city, but I'll be back, it's gonna be tons of fun!
Where should I go visit next?
(latin music)
