03x01 - Episode 1

[bunniefuu]

♪ lively drum music playing ♪

[people singing]

PADMA LAKSHMI:
Welcome to America.

Well... sort of.

Puerto Rico--

an exuberant mix
of indigenous Taíno culture,

West African influence,
Spanish colonialism,

and for the last 120 years,
American guardianship.

It's a U.S. territory,

which means Puerto Ricans are
American citizens, not immigrants,

like many on the mainland
might assume.

But is being a territory actually
benefiting Puerto Rico's people?

The answer may lie
in their beloved dish, pasteles.

Pasteles are a Puerto Rican specialty

made of starchy vegetables,
stuffed with juicy pork,

encased in a banana leaf.

I've been told some
Puerto Ricans like to top it

with an American staple--

ketchup.

I will definitely eat
my pasteles with ketchup.

PADMA:
To many on the island,

the American addition is
a necessary component.

To others? An affront.

- No ketchup whatsoever. I'm sorry.
- Supposed to be without ketchup.

You gotta eat that sh*t raw.

PADMA:
Wait, are we just talking
about pasteles here?

I'm in the middle
of a hot debate on the ground.

Is Puerto Rico better off
with or without the States?

In other words, ketchup or no ketchup?

[crowd cheers]

I came to America when I was four.

I'm an immigrant and I'm not alone.

I've spent my life writing about food
and tasting the world.

Now, I wanna explore who we are
through the food we eat.

My game is strong.

What exactly is American food?

And what makes us American?

[camera clicks]
I'm Padma Lakshmi.

Come with me as we Taste the Nation.

♪

MARÍA GRUBB: I mean, look at that view.
PADMA: That looks so beautiful.

Look at that.
[María laughs]

We're in La Perla,
a neighborhood in Old San Juan.

My tour guide for today
is Chef María Grubb,

a James Beard nominee
who's cut her chops

at top-class restaurants
in New York, Spain, and France

before returning to her beloved roots
in her birthplace, San Juan.

Ooh.
SERVER: Enjoy.

- PADMA: Wow.
- Oh, that smells great.

PADMA:
That's the infamous mofongo, right?

We're at La Garita Yaz,
a local hidden gem,

for some mofongo

and fried fish.

So, what is mofongo?

MARÍA: Mofongo?

The word is African.

So, it's mashed plantains.

Traditionally, we like a little garlic.

Yum.

And what is the crunchy stuff in it?

Chicharrón.

PADMA: Oh! It's all about texture.

Mmm, it's so savory and salty,
but it's a little bit sweet.

Oh, my God... It's delicious.

It's good.

But this is not something
your mom is gonna make at home.

So, what is the quintessential dish

of... Puerto Rican cuisine?

I feel like we don't talk
enough about pasteles.

- Pasteles. Okay, tell me why.
- Um.

It's the ultimate metaphor
of what Puerto Rico is,

which is the mix of races
that we have going on.

So, you're eating this plantain
that's wrapped in the, in this leaf

that came from Africa.

And then there's some
root vegetables that were indigenous.

They belong to Puerto Rico.
PADMA: Yeah.

Nobody brought that sh*t.
That sh*t was here.

Yeah.

MARÍA:
And then you add the, the meat,

which is pork that came with Spain.

So I have to ask you,
some people have told me,

"Oh, I love pasteles... with ketchup."

[laughs] And that's United States.

No, no, no.

PADMA: How did Puerto Rico
become, what some call,

"the world's oldest colony"?

Well, in 1898, after
the Spanish-American w*r,

the Treaty of Paris was signed,

formally turning over Puerto Rico
to the United States.

Soon after, their political status
fell into the hands of U.S. Congress.

Although Puerto Ricans
are American citizens,

those living on the island
can't vote for president,

and their congressional reps
don't have voting power.

For over a century,
Puerto Rico hasn't had sovereignty

with politics and, more recently,
with agriculture and food.

Can you make pasteles
with everything from here?

[chuckles] I mean, we're not there yet.

We're so dependent on what comes in.

Eighty percent of the food
in Puerto Rico is imported.

Eighty. Are you serious?

Yeah.

PADMA:
Even though Puerto Rico
can grow food year-round,

what's apparent when shopping,

is that most grocery stores
are stocked with products

shipped in from places like Costa Rica,
neighboring Dominican Republic,

and most of all
from the so-called motherland, the U.S.

For the average Puerto Rican,
fresh, local produce is very hard to find

and it shouldn't be.

So, right now it's the food revolution
where a lot of people are just like,

"We can't sit here waiting
for somebody else to feed us."

So there's this little
network of, like, farmers.

That is the ray of sunshine right now.

- That's great.
- Yeah, yeah.

So what if I go on a search
for all the ingredients for pasteles

and find everything, or mostly everything.

You have to teach me how
to make pasteles then.

- That's a deal. [laughs] Let's do it.
- All right. Let's do it.

♪

Finding all locally sourced ingredients
for pasteles isn't going to be easy.

So I'm enlisting the help
of Crystal Diaz.

- Hello. Hello.
- Hi. Hey, Crystal.

A local entrepreneur
who's in with all the farmers.

Thank you so much for taking me.

CRYSTAL DIAZ: Let's hit the road.
PADMA: All right.

She's agreed to take me
on a cross-island road trip

to hunt down these ingredients.

Okay, so I have a list...

- Okay.
- ...of all the things we need

- for the pasteles.
- Nice.

We have pork, ají dulce, recao, garlic,

Cubanelle peppers, oregano, naranja agria,

green bananas, yautía,
one kabocha pumpkin,

and some annatto seeds.

Nice.

We're gonna do our best
to find them fresh.

So, do you see those
two towers over there?

Yes, in the distance I do.

We were an agricultural economy.

PADMA: Mm-hm.
CRYSTAL: But it was only mono crops:

sugar cane and coffee in the mountains.

PADMA:
But all that changed in the 1950s

with Puerto Rico's first
elected governor, Luis Muñoz Marín.

He enacted a series of policies
called "Operation Bootstrap."

Backed by the United States,

it created tax exemptions
for American companies

if they relocated
their manufacturing to the island.

PADMA:
The economy boomed.

Thousands of laborers left the brutal
conditions of the sugar cane fields

for better-paying factory jobs.

Schools and roads were built.

A middle class was born

along with a belief that Puerto Rico
needed the United States to thrive.

But industrialization
came at a steep cost.

CRYSTAL:
Well, this is the, the sad part.

Telling the people, "Agriculture is bad."

"You need to move to the city.
This is the future."

You know, people
remember the agriculture

as something equals
to poverty, to suffering--

- To abuse.
- Exactly.

And it doesn't have to be like that.

PADMA: These policies
strangled local agriculture,

but there's an exciting
movement to restore the land.

And I want to meet the people
on the ground doing it.

All right, so tell me
where we're going first.

- The first farm is El Josco Bravo...
- Okay.

CRYSTAL:
...led by Ian Pagán Roig.

And he has this dream
of Puerto Rico having food sovereignty

by growing many little
agroecológico farms in the island.

So, along with his farm,
he also have a school.

PADMA: That's where you went?
CRYSTAL: Yes!

So we come here for 12 weeks
to learn how to grow our own food,

and why it's important
to keep the soil healthy.

PADMA: It's so lush and green.
CRYSTAL: You're gonna love it.

Ian is really, really great... and single.

[both laughing]

- Woo-hoo!
- Glad I wore my sports bra.

Welcome to Puerto Rico.
[both laughing]

♪

[indistinct chatter]

- This is my friend, Padma.
- I'm Padma. Nice to meet you.

- Your farm is beautiful.
- Gracias, gracias.

PADMA:
So we're on a quest

to find all of the ingredients
of pasteles here on the island.

So, today I need ají dulces

and what else can you give me?

Banana leaves.

- Okay, I'll take banana leaves.
- For wrap-- For wrapping the pasteles.

Happily. All right, great.
CRYSTAL: Mm-hm.

- So where is the ají?
- The ajís are over there.

PADMA:
Wow! They look so beautiful.

- Mm.
- It, it has a very strong flavor.

- Strong, but not spicy.
- Yeah.

PADMA:
You wouldn't want me as your farmer.

I'd be eating your produce all day.

Look how beautiful that is.
Isn't that pretty?

- IAN PAGÁN ROIG: How much we need?
- I think that's enough.

- You do? Okay.
- Yes. [laughs]

We do need snacks for the road.
CRYSTAL: No, no, no.

PADMA: I think you're
underestimating how much I eat.

How did you start?
How did you start with the idea of,

you know, "I want to farm, yes,
but then I also want to teach,"

because those are two different things.

I think, at first, recognizing
the huge problem that we have

in Puerto Rico.

- PADMA: Mm-hm.
- There are economic powers also.

They don't want us to produce more

because if we grow more,
we are going to buy less.

PADMA: How is it that one
of the most fertile regions in the world

isn't providing for its people?

Thanks to an American law, the Jones Act,

most goods entering Puerto Rico
must make a pit stop in Florida

and arrive on American-made,
owned, and operated ships.

The result? Grocery prices
in Puerto Rico are 25% higher

than on the mainland.

And, making matters worse,

products leaving Puerto Rico
are also bound by the Jones Act,

inflating prices of their exports,

making them simply too expensive

to compete with those
from other countries.

So, what's left?

High prices
and little investment in agriculture.

It's absurd.

Farmers like Ian know this

and are taking matters
into their own hands.

The moment that you are harvesting,
it's a very powerful, eh, moment,

especially for Puerto Ricans,

because there's a lot
of myths that, as a country,

that we are too small
to do important things.

- Sí.
- On our own.

- All right, so what is this for?
- Yeah, these are

the extended hands of the jíbaro.

Jíbaro is the Puerto Rican peasant.

- Okay. Jíbaro.
- Jíbaro.

So I am a jíbaro.
I'm proud to say that I am a jíbaro.

- Maybe you can... cut this one.
- Cut that one?

Yeah. Of course.
PADMA: I promise not to k*ll you.

[Crystal laughs]

- Perfect!
- All right. Oops, sorry.

[Crystal/Ian laughing]

Thank you so much.

I wish you were always my grocer.
[Crystal/Ian laughing]

PADMA:
We've checked off two ingredients,

but we've still got
a hell of a long shopping list.

♪ Bailando by Sr Ortegon
& Pana Black playing ♪

PADMA:
We're heading to the mountainous town

of Cayey for our next ingredient.

But what's a road trip
without some juicy road snacks?

PADMA: No, but I'd love to.

This is Ruta del Lechón,

aka Puerto Rico's famous pork highway

in the barrio of Guavate.

Oh, look at this.

Clearly, Puerto Ricans love their pork.

And even though it's
a staple of the daily diet,

only four percent of pork
consumed on the island is local.

Yum!
CRYSTAL: So, this is lechón asado.

- [bleep] damn. This so delicious.
- [laughs] This is all good.

Little soldiers of flavor...

- Mm.
- ...marching in your mouth,

crunching and tapping
their little shoes on your palate.

[laughing]

To get pork for our pasteles,

Crystal is taking me
to her favorite local butcher.

CRYSTAL: This is where I buy my meat.
PADMA: Ooh.

We need six pounds of pernil, bone in.

Yes.
BUTCHER: Okay.

Coming right up.
PADMA: Thank you.

We'll need a ton of herbs and spices
to add layers of flavor to our pasteles.

Hi. Hola.

Show me your magical garden.

We hit the jackpot at Finca La Yuca.

PERSON: Culantro.
PADMA: Culantro!

An oasis of a hundred types
of plants in just one acre.

Mm.

We find culantro, oregano,
bitter or sour orange, garlic,

and last but not least, annatto seeds,

one of my favorite spices
found in various Latin cuisines.

- I've never seen annatto on a tree.
- It's amazing.

PADMA:
Inside these spiky, hairy pods

are seeds that give dishes
a bright marigold hue,

along with a slight nutty aroma.

That's beautiful.
I'mma use that for blush later.

[woman laughing]
This is so fantastic!

For Cubanelle peppers and kabocha squash,

we go to Crystal's trusted placero, Jesus.

Bravo.
[Crystal laughing]

Thank you so much.
JESUS ANDUJAR: Thank you.

BUTCHER: Okay. Thank you. Okay.
PADMA: Thank you.

So I have one
very important question for you.

- All right.
- Ketchup or no ketchup on your pasteles?

Oh, my God.

- Is there even a question?
- Well,

traditionally... with ketchup.

Real-- Traditionally? Wow.
[Butcher/Crystal laughing]

After a long day of harvesting,
I've worked up quite an appetite.

I'm stopping by Cocina al Fondo,
a farm-to-table restaurant

from one of the most
dynamic chefs on the island.

- Hi.
- Hola.

PADMA: Natalia Vallejo.

PADMA:
For her, Puerto Rico's culinary future

can be found in its past.

Her takes on traditional recipes

pay homage to ancestral flavors
by using ingredients native to the island.

I'm excited to try this crab.

On the menu today,

a stew made from blue land crabs

called jueyes

that are a vital part of coastal cuisine.

The biggest part of the stew

- is a sofrito, right?
- A sofrito.

It is, literally, the mother sauce of

- Puerto Rican cooking, right?
- Sí.

PADMA: You can't have
Puerto Rican food without sofrito.

PADMA: Yum.

- This extra for me.
- Okay.

[both laughing]

PADMA: All right.

Already tastes great.

What's next?

PADMA: These root vegetables
were a staple of the Taíno,

the original people of Borikén,
the island we now call Puerto Rico.

PADMA: These starchy tubers
were one of the few crops

that survived after Hurricane Maria,

a category-five storm
that devastated the island in 2017.

Fuel shortages, damaged roads and ports,

and no electricity for months

created a food shortage
and crisis like never before.

It was this catastrophe that awoke many,

questioning anew whether this relationship
between the U.S. and its territory

was actually working.

People have no food, no drinking water,

no medical supplies.

I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico,

but you've thrown our budget
a little outta whack.

PADMA: Or even fair.

It also uncovered the urgent need
for food independence.

For many, going back
to these resilient roots,

quite literally, is key
to achieving food sovereignty.

What do you see as, um,
the role of chefs in Puerto Rico?

PADMA:
It's time to try our caldo de jueyes,

our crab stew.

I can't wait to eat this.

The final touch?

Some coconut rice to soak up
all that gorgeous sofrito in our broth.

Is that the perfect bite?

Mm.

That's so good.

It's delicious.

Oh, my God.

It's very spicy, but not too hot.

I love all the herbs,

all the different viandas are great.

And it showcases the sofrito.

So beautiful.

PADMA: Indeed.
It is the perfect taste of Puerto Rico.

♪

It's time for a nightcap.

Everyone guides me to Teta's,

a hipster take on the typically humble
country roadside bar or chinchorro,

helmed by mixologist Karla Z.

PADMA: She's also named the bar
after local mountain peaks

that take the shape of,
well, some beloved lady parts.

PADMA: At Teta's,
Karla takes usual favorites

like tostones, a savory, crispy snack,

and adds other
local specialties like gandules,

usually only found with rice,

to highlight the bounty
and new possibilities

of these traditional foods.

[muffled] Oh, my God.

- Oh.
- Sounds crunchy.

It's so good.

Aside from the incredible food and drinks,

I'm here to meet iLe,

Grammy-winning singer
and former member of the band Calle 13.

[kisses]
Nice to see you.

She's never shied away
from getting political.

And in 2019,
she was on the front lines

of the historic demonstration

that culminated in the ousting
of then Governor Rosselló.

And her music has struck a chord

for a generation of Puerto Ricans
questioning the status of the island.

But before we dive into the issues,
I have to ask her an important question.

So, I-I heard this rumor

that some people
eat pasteles... with ketchup.

- Oh, no.
- Ketchup or no ketchup?

Um, no ketchup.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Maybe some people here--

How many people like ketchup
on their pasteles? Anybody?

- Why?! Why?! Nooo!
- How many? Let's see. One, two, three.

Wow.

Ahh! No! No!

I can't believe this many people
like ketchup on their pasteles.

That's like colonialism on a plate.
Literally. For me, at least. [laughs]

- Because you want independence.
- Exactly. [laughs]

I do believe in independence, eh,

but it's because I believe
mostly in, in my country.

We have been grown to believe
that resistance or revolution

is something that is bad, you know?

Puerto Rico, in the '50s,
weren't allowed to wave their flag.

- Like, the U--
- Really?

The United States didn't let us.

We also have two national anthems--

Wow. I didn't know that.

The original anthem
was written by a women poet.

Eh, they thought that
her anthem was too revolutionary.

Eh, and they did this other anthem

that is-- just talks
about Christopher Columbus,

- and, and that is our anthem...
- Ay.

- Oh no. Really?!
- ...nowadays.

Ours is too revolutionary?

Like, every anthem is supposed

- to be revolutionary.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just--

- Yeah.
- Why does ours have to be so submissive?

PADMA: In 2019, about 150 years
after the lyrics were written,

iLe sang the anthem
to a crowd of demonstrators.

PADMA: The lyrics about rising up
and fighting for freedom

resonate with a growing
number of Puerto Ricans.

What do you hope
for Puerto Rico in the next 10 years?

I hope that Puerto Rico
becomes independent

and I, in my heart,
I feel like it... it could happen.

I think that we are believing
much more in ourselves

than we did, eh, like, maybe a year ago.

Why do we have to settle with,

with so little?
PADMA: Less.

- And I-I think--
- Why can't you demand

- more representation, more resources?
- Exactly.

We can, we should, and we have to.

PADMA:
So what do Puerto Ricans want:

to become the 51st state,

an independent nation,

or to keep the status quo?

[crowd cheering]

♪

WOMAN:
I would love to see a country

that I've been born and raised in

be independent.

I think we should, like,
have a try at independence,

but at the same time,

people get benefits
from the United States,

and I guess that's why
a lot of people are grateful.

PADMA: Since the beginning
of the U.S.-Puerto Rico relationship,

the status of the island
has been debated by its people.

And it's complicated.

PADMA: Some want statehood
to achieve true equality

with the citizens on the mainland.

PADMA: Others see independence
as the only way forward.

I would love it to be independent.

I think that with independence,

people can start working with our land.

We are so rich in ground vegetables.

We could, like, grow here
and, like, be sustainable with that.

PADMA:
Crystal and I are back on the road

hunting down the last ingredients
we need for pasteles.

We're down to two things
left on María's list.

CRYSTAL: You will love this farm
that we are gonna visit.

They are a couple with two kids.

PADMA:
Crystal is taking me to Pueblo Nuevo,

where her friends, Dilora and Javier,

grow an abundance
of vegetables and fruits,

including our yautía and green bananas.

CRYSTAL: It's a paradise for me.
It's like the perfect life. [laughs]

- PADMA: Yeah.
- You will see why.

PADMA: And to get there,
we have to go deep, deep into the woods.

Here we go.
Ooh, this is like a rollercoaster.

- Ready? [laughs]
- Yay. Woo!

All right, go ahead.
I'll just hold my t*ts.

[both laughing]

[indistinct chatter]
Hello?

Cómo te llamas?

- Ayme.
- Ayme. Hola, Ayme.

- Hi.
- Hi. How are you?

- Nice to meet you. Hi, Javier.
- Nice to meet you.

- Hi. Good to meet you.
- Dilora. Good to meet you.

Thank you for having us.
DILORA GONZÁLEZ: I'm so glad you're here.

- So beautiful.
- This is a beautiful family

in a beautiful farm.

- Thank you, thank you.
- It's paradise.

Are you gonna show me where is the yautía?

[Javier speaking Spanish]

CRYSTAL: Let's do it.

PADMA:
This farm belonged to Javier's grandfather

and was abandoned 40 years ago
at the height of Operation Bootstrap

when farmers left
in search of industrial work.

But together, with Dilora
and his two helpers,

he's bringing the farm back to life.

It's incredible.

I kinda feel like
I'm visiting Adam and Eve

in their own private Eden.

PADMA:
And those are yautía leaves?

JAVIER ANDRADES:
Those are yautía.

Yautía prefers growing
wild in the borders.

Wait, this a purple variety.
ALL: Let's do it.

PADMA:
Yautía is most similar to taro root.

It has a nutty, earthy flavor
that's worth digging for.

Ooh, it's slimy.
[all laughing]

DILORA: Beautiful.
PADMA: Wow.

JAVIER: So, that's the seed,
and yautía is the mother,

and we cut it up.

And then we eat
what we call the kids, "lo hijos."

- PADMA: Okay.
- The babies.

[child speaking Spanish]
PADMA: Gracias, mi amor. Look at this.

Smells of the Earth.

It's pretty cool.

So you didn't grow up in the forest,
or in a farm or anything.

How did you decide
to change your lives completely?

Well, both of us studied sociology.
We were always talking about food.

It's not coming to Puerto Rico.
We only produce 10, 15%.

And as sociologists,
we don't wanna talk that much.

- We want action.
- You wanna do.

We wanna do something.

So, we got here.

In that moment,
we didn't know anything about farming.

Anything at all.
We just came here and started working.

And this was a forest.

- JAVIER: And this was a forest.
- There was nothing.

JAVIER: We think now, in retrospect,
it was a crazy decision.

But this is one of the realest
and tangible things that we can do

to transform our society.

DILORA: It's freedom.
JAVIER: It's freedom. It's real freedom.

Lolita.

DILORA: This is Lolita.
PADMA: Hi, Lolita.

DILORA: She's in heat.

Easy, girl.

I'll be back to hang with you.
[Lolita moos]

Okay, I'm sorry. I can't help you there.

[all laughing]
I know.

[moos]
Poor cow.

Look at that banana tree.

JAVIER: Here, there's, like,


So, the purple bananas,
there're baby bananas.

PADMA: So beautiful.

PADMA: These are so beautiful.

So, I have to ask you,

how do we accelerate
what you guys are doing?

How do we make
that ripple effect go faster?

We have so many resources
that we can use in our favor,

but we have to control them.

We can't have other people
making those decisions for us.

We want people from outside
to give us an opportunity.

The Congress
and United States has to let us be.

[child speaking Spanish]
PADMA: Thank you, thank you.

And this generation
really has the answer.

We're opening the way,
and we're not gonna get there.

They're gonna get there.

We know that that's the future.

PADMA: Meeting this idyllic family
and others along the way,

I feel hope.

The seeds of something new
have taken root.

We're almost ready
to taste all the flavors

that come from this rich, bountiful land.

♪

PADMA:
Our shopping list is complete.

PADMA: And I can't wait
to declare a victory with María.

- We got everything.
- Good job.

PADMA: María and her mother,

the master pasteles maker Bárbara,

will be teaching me to make
the much-anticipated pasteles

with all the ingredients we've gathered.

It doesn't get more
farm-to-table than this.

All right. We'll call you
when dinner's ready.

- I'm ready to eat. [laughs]
- All right, thank you.

We're gonna start with all this, like,
beautiful vegetables that you brought.

And then, the real fun part
is we're gonna grate that.

- Oh, that's a lotta elbow grease.
- We're gonna--

That's the old school.
That's the Taíno way.

That's, like, how they
used to do everything.

Great! Let's get started.
MARÍA: Yeah?

PADMA: First up, the masa,
our dough made from green bananas,

yautía, and kabocha squash.

MARÍA: And this is why
it's such an-- a labor of love

'cause this takes time.
PADMA: Yes.

She's not kidding.

They know how to make me work for my food.

This is very labor intensive,
but it's so worth it.

MARÍA:
I'm gonna get that oil going.

PADMA:
Next up, the annatto or achiote oil,

an essential component
of many Puerto Rican dishes.

You see, she's already bossin' me.

She's like, "Give me more."

[Padma laughs]
Aye, Mommy.

You see, she's the boss.

[Padma/María laughing]

Ooh!

Oh, like, 300 dozens?

PADMA:
Wow, because it is a lot of work to shred.

- There's a machine
to do this, by the way.
- Oh, okay.

Well, why didn't you say that
in the first place?

I wanted to give you
the Taíno experience.

Feeling super immersed here.

Wow.

Look how beautiful the annatto seeds look.

It smells so nutty.
MARÍA: It's fun.

All right, mama.
I don't wanna put too much.

That looks so beautiful.
Look at the--

MARÍA: That's fantastic.

PADMA: On to the filling.

The glistening pork seasoned
with oregano, bitter orange,

and a ton of herbaceous culantro.

This looks so good.
MARÍA: You got it?

Mm!

It's so juicy, and savory,
and salty, and tender and umami.

MARÍA:
It's just in its own juices, you know?

Am I doin' a good job? Sí?

PADMA:
And I can smell those leaves.

It's finally time to build our pasteles.

Okay, here's why I embarrass myself.

I want you to watch me.
Make sure I'm doing this okay.

Is this enough?

MARÍA:
She said you put too much dough in there.

PADMA: I'm sorry.
[María chuckles]

Okay, and then she just, kind of,

mounds it on top, right?
MARÍA: Yeah. Y-You're covering.

[all laughing]
PADMA: Are you laughing at me?

She's judging you.
PADMA: You're judging, quietly judging.

MARÍA:
No, no. She's kinda loud about it.

[all laughing]
PADMA: Serves me right.

Bárbara is a tough one to impress,

but this is how recipes are passed down

from generation to generation,

preserving the culinary roots
and flavors of the island.

- [María/Bárbara laughing]
- Don't quit my day job? I got you.

Was she like this when you were young?

MARÍA: My whole life. [laughs]

PADMA:
But she taught you how to cook, right?

MARÍA: 100%.

PADMA:
Our pasteles are steamed and ready to eat.

MARÍA: Yay!
PADMA: Wow!

MARÍA:
Here's the fruit of your hunting labor.

- CRYSTAL: Yes!
- This is amazing!

Oh, my God.

It looks delicious.

It wouldn't be a Puerto Rican feast
without arroz con gandules.

And, you guessed it, pork.

PADMA: Oh, my God.
CRYSTAL: Wow!

[crunches]

MARÍA: Whoa!

Dirt off my shoulders
for the cuerito. [laughs]

PADMA: After our long road trip
crossing the whole island,

it's time to enjoy the fruit of our hunt.

Let's see how these pasteles came out.

So, this is the moment of controversy.

PADMA: Why?

The colonial ingredient. [laughs]

PADMA:
Ah, yes. Ketchup or no ketchup?

That's it.

PADMA:
I'll take my first bite without.

That's fantastic.

It's amazing.

MARÍA: Thank you.
PADMA: And so well-seasoned.

Mm!
[laughing]

- A creamy, moist, soft.
- Yeah, pastele.

PADMA: And it's so good. Mm.

I don't think this needs ketchup.

[all laughing]
It's true.

I wanna say thank you
to Crystal for showing me

how beautiful and bountiful
this land can be.

And then, to have this meal.

Gracias por todo,
for teaching me how to make pasteles.

I-I know I suck.

PADMA:
Cheers. Thank you so much.

The people of this island
have shown me that they're capable

of providing for themselves
with or without the U.S.

But they need the power to make
their own decisions and policies

based on what's best for them.

And although my voyage has come to an end,

theirs is having a new beginning.

May it bring bounty,
nourishment... and freedom.

[applause]

♪

Delicious.