I flew to Colombia to cook this meal. 

Very cool episode. Glad you shared your experience. Love seeing the food tourism! Arepas are made using masarepa, a precooked cornmeal. For those that aren't familiar, arepas are kind of like making cornbread using cooked polenta that's been dried and ground back into cornmeal. Filled arepas are definitely a thing in Colombia, especially de Huevo. There are 2 main ways of cooking them, both of them involve using a biscuit shaped dough, either on a griddle or pan, or deep frying. You can get P.A.N. or Goya masarepa flour here in the US, but many of the special varieties are very hard to find.

Love how you removed the air fryer and coffee maker to make a clean background for us... (its on the floor to the left in. a few shots) jaja.

I would love more about supermarket visits in different countries. What are the staples (like the arepas and cheese here) that are unique ish to there. Is the supermarket setup differently than us markets, etc.

Would love to see more travel series! Maybe you can go to Switzerland next, they have a rich cuisine that’s definitely underrated. Raclette is my favorite dish to get when traveling there.

Ur website is amazing and so helpful

I can only imagine the conversation you had when the TSA pulled out your container of salt

Here in Raleigh all the Arepa places have them stuffed /shrug they're amazing!!

Ají is used like chili in South America. It's used to refer to the pepper and the condiment (relish). You have many different types, although Medellin probably doesn't have many spicy ones.

You should go to Dominican Republic and try their food btw.

You should definitely do a video with JKLA, he knows a lot about Columbian cuisine.

Let him Cook!

4:24 Ethan, I don't think you should travel back to US from Colombia with a container filled with white powder-like substance

algo

Good job my nigga

Are you both getting married soon? Congratulations, Columbian women are beautiful!

53 seconds, no views. Ethan fell off.

No need to travel anymore Ethan. The third world is coming to us!

Hey Ethan, born and raised in Medellín I wanted to add a couple of things. I appreciate that you're trying to be respectful, but honestly our food is just bad. We don't have the same degree of culinary traditions as México or Perú, and most dishes are simple stews with what was cheap an available. You'd probably find better food along the Caribbean coast, in cities like Cartagena or Barranquilla, where the seafood is fantastic. In terms of Arepas there's a lot of regional variation. The most common one in Medellín is the really flat, white corn arepa known as Arepa Paisa or Arepa Blanca. It's basically used as bread, just putting whatever you want on top of it. Further south there's Arepa Valluna which are the yellow, filled ones you ate and arepa boyacense, where they mix cheese into the flour, among a million other varieties. The one thing you didn't mention is baked goods, specifically Pan de Bono, Pan de Queso and Almojábana. If you're still in Medellín I urge you to try them. No baked good in the world compares to a fresh, warm Almojábana. Glad you enjoyed the city, and I absolutely love the format of you going to different cities and trying out food. Funny that mine happened to be the first one!

Super cool format and the fact you started on my home town is great, thanks for showing the cool part of tourism in Medellin. My wife is convinced the white corn arepa would have mixed better with the chicken, but your twist was new for us and we can try.

If you want to try the best Colombian food (besides what you already mentioned) try tamales, lechona, palito de queso, pastel de yuca, ayaca, chorizo santarosano, chicharrón, guanabanazo, lulada, maracuyada, and lots more

I love how you kept travel vlog section in bay and didn't wander through supermarket for two half hour episodes, pointing to obvious things. Nice format of video

The fruit in Medellin are amazing. Came down with nasty stomach bug while there though

ethan: "this channel is to show you how people cook in real life, none of the fancy stuff" also ethan: "I flew to Colombia to cook this meal."

This format was great. Would love to see this video style more but of course enjoying yourself on your travels is more important in life than work. But I’ll watch the videos!

OMG I'M SUCH A BIG FAN OF YOU, WELCOME TO MY CITY!!!!!!! Let me know if you're still here and want to go to some cool restaurants!

I love fish, I would love to see a series of coastal cities and their local varieties of fish specialties

Great episode. The arepas I have had were from a Venezuelan restaurant called Juana's in State College PA . They were split and filled and delicious.

Any chance you could film your shopping in other countries? I know that could be awkward so maybe just film with something small and voiceover for the video

I know this is not the objective of his platform, but I can't help saying that he is my dream husband. Te amo Ethan.

I love this format! Definitely find a balance to make sure travel is still fun and interesting for you rather than so work-centric, but if you threw in these types of videos into your travel, that would be cool! My wife and I love to find a food tour for each city we visit, which is such a cool way to highlight local cuisine and learn a bit about the city. This might be a fun way to find some local highlights to share here.

So far the best bandeja paisa I had was in the shopping center in Oviedo - Hatoviejo. Really good! Hope you can recreate it but healthy version. Another good spot where I ate was Mama Medallo and belisario in Provenza.

Hi, I'm Colombian. The arepas rellenas are typical from Venezuela. I feel that we usually eat arepas for breakfast or snacks. Normally not for lunch or dinner. I like what you cooked but I've never seen something like that 😂. Gives me some Mexican vibes.

Come to Thailand in January… 👏🏻😃👍🏻

Hi Ethan. Are you still in Medellin? I live in Medellin and I really like the videos and the deep dives you make about specific ingredients.

I have to keep reminding myself it’s a work trip for you - of course you take your tools with you

Awesome episode. I love seeing cuisines from around the world! It's a way to connect with a culture even if you can't afford to travel there yourself.

love this format! very interesting to watch, keep it up!

You do an awesome job. I really enjoy watching you cook

Love the format! Was great being able to watch you cook with local ingredients and learn a bit about Medellin at the same time

Appreciate it! Enjoy your vay kay/visit.

I need to see a view out the window to believe that’s not just the other side of Ethan’s kitchen in Texas

Coriander gives you three herbs in one if you get the whole thing

Love the episode! When you go to a country how do you know what dishes / food to try?

Coriander gives you three herbs in one if you get the whole thing

spread the arepa gospel🙏🙏 referrring to 2:45, venezuelan areapas are indeed filled. i'll give you a cheat code that my dad discovered to making arepas that puff up like pita bread so they're easy to fill: 1. make arepa dough - about 1:1 water to masa arepa by volume (i like the harina pan blanco) + some salt, some oil, and a little sugar if you feel lke it 2. form into patties. i separate them into ~125g portions and make into patties 3. place on a flat top skillet and grill to form a crust. if you have carbon steel use a little oil, but our family uses a nonstick teflon skillet with no oil and we prefer it drier that way 4. place arepas into 180F oven after they form a crust, just rest them on the grates so they dont fall through. contiune cooking the rest of the arepas 5. once all the arepas are made, turn the oven up to 425F, as they reach that temperature they begin to puff up like pitas 6. take them out onto a towel lined basket to keep them warm. take care because they are filled with megahot steam something exclusive to our family is, instead of slightly opening the arepa and filling it, we split in half and use each half like a taco. i encourage you to try! with the above technique you can make as many arepas as you can fit in your oven. microwaving arepas the day after they will never be as good as fresh, but they're not so bad, and id crush them at any time

Que chimba! I've been planning a vacation to Colombia for a long time. It's an extremely misunderstood country here in the USA, and it's great to see people representing it well. 🙏

Arepas look pretty similar to pancakes

Was that raw corn straight off the cob?

Would love to see this be a series!

As a Colombian I can tell you that even though arepas are a massive part of our gastronomy, in Medellin and in the interior in general they’re much bigger than in other parts of the country. I’m from the coast and yeah we eat arepas sometimes, especially arepas rellenas which are a very popular street food here and very recently they’ve mixed them with THE biggest street food item here which are the chuzos desgranados. That being said, fritos like empanadas or other variations of arepas like arepa de huevo and arepa dulce which is made with anise are much bigger than the typical arepa paisa, or arepa de choclo or just your regular arepa con queso

I didn’t go to Medellin but I dated a Colombian girl for two years and visited all over and I have to say it was the worst most bland food I’ve ever had and I’m British. Was I just in the wrong places? Maybe I just didn’t like the ingredients, their corn tastes like candle wax to me. Ironically they had the best McDonald’s I’ve ever had so that’s something, even better than South Africa’s McDonald’s. Other than the food one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited and the people are so lovely.

Awesome

Arepa de choclo, not arepa choclo. Also, quesito is not eaten all around Colombia, it is very regional. Even more, we don't eat arepas at every meal, I would say most people don't even eat them in a daily basis. Just because in some city, some poeple do it, doesn't mean we all do it. I don't know where are you getting your information, but it would be good if you check your sources. Generalizing is kind of insulting.

There is milk in a bag all over the place here in Minnesota. I was super confused when I moved here from Georgia.

What are the safety precautions you took there? Medellin is the home of one of the biggest cartels in the world.....

Hate it when videos force you to watch to get any kind of idea of what they are about…

Kitchen hygiene police here… I’m very careful with raw chicken. At least use some white vinegar to clean that board after the raw chicken. Otherwise, thanks for the travel log.

rough watch - background music might be a necessary add-on