I'm in Nikoa Costa Rica Where people often live to over 100 years old and today we are going to see how they live and especially what they eat. Hey everyone hope you're having an amazing day! It's Marw! I'm in Nikoa Costa R in Central America and this is one of only five places in the entire world that is a Blue Zone where people live much healthier and much longer lives. She's lifting the axe higher than I could. If you could just drink this all your life, that's something fantastic.

I'm willing to drink egg coffee every day. It tastes, it's delicious. So today the plan is we're going to go to a couple of homes and Villages where we are going to uncover some of the secrets of long life, especially when it comes to the diet and the local food we're going to cook. We're going to eat.

It's going to be an incredible day of learning and there's definitely going to be some secrets and surprises along the way. All right! Mike So we are at Fonda Chota and we are so lucky that they're going to cook for us today. The first dish that we're going to do today is a traditional gaja Pinto I Know that you already tried the Kinto and San Jose so I'm very intrigued to see what you think about the process and the this will be a more like traditional version and correct. I Would say that every area in the country have their own way to do it.

Okay, so I will let you decide. We're stepping into the outdoor kitchen first and we're going to be hanging out first with Uh Mrs Maria Victor She's 85 years old and she looks extremely strong. Who? whoa, she's 85 years old and axing the wood. I Think she's she's lifting it.

She's lifting the axe higher than I could. Oh man, that swing And she's been doing it all her life. That was incredible. Yes, yes, this is yeah.

Longevity. Did we uncover our first? our first secret already? Yeah, Is it. Is that the secret right there? there? It is. Lard.

Real. Can you bring the light? Yes. Aros So we're making the first dish: rice and beans, which is one of the the greatest of all. Costa Rican Foods An omnipresent dish and I think we've uncovered the first secret of long life.

lard, melted pig fat, but unprocessed, natural. She's adding in all the ingredients onions, lard, onions, cilantro, some red peppers, and then the rice and beans go in. She's been using the same recipe since she was six. Okay and recipe I Think this is one of the recipes that I that I will be able to remember because this is only corn.

That's it. Just corn. no corn and a little bit of water. That's it.

That's 80 years of experience making tortillas. So she grinds that corn in same recipe. just water and corn and the corn has been just, uh, cured or or softened using water and some of the Ashes to bring out the nutrients and make it dig digestible. Oh that's amazing.

Okay and with just just with hands she's looking for that tortilla is incredible. So thick and just you could see the texture of it. Uh, she makes it again with immense experience in the air. uh by hand clapping it out, flattening it out into a perfect circle.

and that's really thick, big, hearty, full of complex carbohydrates. Oh so that tortilla with the corn and her favorite thing is just this tortilla with the with the cheese on top. Going to try it. Oh okay, I'm going to eat it her way.

She takes a little piece of the tortilla and then gets some of the cheese. Oh oh so natural tasting Theor: it's so hearty, so thick and corny. and like the I mean you taste the natural land in that tortilla. The cheese is just really has a crumbly texture, has just the perfect saltiness to compliment the the corn.

That's superb, Simple and tasty. I Think there's also some wisdom in just watching how she eats. We tend to just scarf down food like typically I would roll that up and I just take like three bites and devour it. But the way she's slowly eating it little bite by bite and enjoying enjoying it, that's beyond the food that we can learn from her.

So good! This is so traditional, especially for Christmas So they usually always eat fruit in the morning. they say if you eat fruits at night, uh it'll ferment in your stomach. It can ruin your digestion, not let you sleep well. So always fruits in the morning.

That's some wisdom right there. Yep. Fresh, local, colorful, vibrant, and this one is the hot which can be eaten from every stage from Ripe and sweet to green and sour and crispy M it's almost milky. Wow that mango is sweet peepas.

Yeah so they're like kind of the smaller ones. Okay Jason yes. can you ask her what she thinks about coffee or has she been drinking coffee all her life? Wow See oh there you go. Black coffee everyday all your life.

This kind of like a like a medicine recipe. Yeah, kind of like medicinal. Additional yeah, they say that whenever you have like fog brain that's how they call them English Brain F Brain Brain fog. Brain fog brain F brain fog.

or here they call like you know have a headache. Yeah they call the brain instead of that. So they used to mix a Yol into the coffe a chicken yolk. yeah yeah.

chicken yolk. butol it must be the first. like the first strip. you know, like the first liquid that come out of the the BR So I'm asking her if she can make one for me and she said good because you know I feel kind of dumb lately kid.

I Will you not see? Yes! Oh you barely even taste the yolk. It's just so clean. so pure. Actually, you wouldn't even know there's yolk in here.

Um, that's really good. Nice strong black coffee with that egg yolk. Oh yeah, it's really good. Feel smart.

Got to try it. I Do I Already feel the the brain fog lifting? We're ready for the day. Yeah yeah, you can even tell that there is a A Yol you would not even know you would not even know there's a Yol 14 kids. She has 14 kids so this is this is the remed for everything.

Fertility Hangover fog. It's everything. Could egg coffee? Oh I think I need more? Could egg coffee be the answer to fertility, long life and brain fog hangovers? That's all you need? Yeah. Egg coffee.

Hey I'm I'm willing to drink egg coffee every day. It tastes, It's delicious. H The local avocado. Yeah, those are local.

Thank you. Now we're sitting down for breakfast and this is a full breakfast spread. Look at the size of that avocado. Oh this is an amazing breakfast.

Dig into that goop. Pinto Oh yeah oh that's incredible. Immediately you taste the smokiness and the the pork lard. That richness coating every grain of rice.

she sauteed first the onions and the beans, the beans mhm and some of those red just a little bit of red peppers. that like really brings out the aromatics as well. Look at the size of this avocado and this is the local avocado here. Mhm.

Massive. a foot long avocado. I'm going to grab a slice, put that on. That's how the avocado is just perfect.

The skin. Look at that. That's how you know it's perfect. The skin just comes off.

bite it up, feel it. Yeah and it. It just comes off so clean from the skin. Yeah it's like butter straight butter.

but it has such a sweetness to it too. It's really sweet. Yeah. M Usually we put a little just a little bit okay and you will see how that little tiny piece of salt changes everything right? Definitely definitely even enhances the the flavor.

The quality, what salt does best brings out the flavor even more so normally you can when I grow up. Yeah, usually you just get a little bit of sour cream sour cream and mix it in. you just mix it. Oh nice.

That's how I grew up doing it. You know? No not all the part because you know you don't want to make a big mess. but usually always remember you need to have a piece of tortilla. Okay actually we can chair this.

Okay these are huge tortillas. thank you So sour cream and this would be fresh as well from the yeah from the cows that they raise here. Mix in like that and you will see how the flavor of the gapin changes. You feel the difference, how the sourness just like give this new element to pinto and it's really creamy.

like almost fluffy creamy. Yeah nothing better. like an extra 100 calories right per bite but completely but natural. It's natural.

Yeah it's it's good. It's fresh calories. Yeah so the reason why our traditional breakfast was is so heavy right compared to other breakfast in the world. you know like prob you have had many breakfasts around the world.

the reason is because we we were farmers you know so we need as much energy you know we could get in the morning so we can like last you know the whole the whole energy for the whole day, the whole day and this is the traditional way how they used to pack it so they used to just put the you know they Pinto the pinto and anything else and then all the rest of the ingredients that they used to wrap in banana Lea in the Banana Leaf awesome giving it also some fragrance as well. Yeah the gindo is also served with some salichon, a local type of sausage and also a a fried ripe plantin mhm. oh that's tasty. And then moving on to the The Ripe planon.

Really good breakfast Hy Nourishing nutritious. Yeah one of the reasons why you will find s like I told you earlier. Uhhuh it's because it's affordable is like the cheapest Very cheap Mar Victor Was tell is that even her own relatives that live outside the Nikoya area. Yeah they come to Nikoya to collect the water for drinking here and they they just use the local water for like showering like you know like doing dishes.

but if when it is for cooking or eating they come here and bring it. And because all the water comes from the mountains you know for mountains. Natural Springs From the Mountain Natural Springs Yes filtered through calcium and full minerals and nutrients. Yeah the local water is part of the magic.

No. I'll finish this Okay water. One of the most essential parts of life. daily life.

Something that you need for survival. Something that you consume daily also has some answers to longevity. And that's I mean it's proven that the water here is fortified with calcium because of the natural uh Mountains and the the calcium mine that's in this area deposits of calcium and other minerals and so we're going to do a little taste test of the water. They also mentioned that the water here is naturally sweeter if you taste it.

So we have some local Nikoya water and then we have some completely. uh just purified bottled water from a supermarket chain. We're going to taste the it's almost flavorless. Now let's try the the Nikoya water.

Oh yes always Nioa water that winds hands down. It has a it does have a sweetness, actually has a sweetness. It has a complexity to it. Really good.

Yeah that's if you could just drink this all your life. That's something fantastic. Really good. This is another dish that we're going to be eating.

correct for lunch. Yes, so it's a hen, right? Gina it's a gagina. It's a hen, Correct! So this is another very very traditional cost. Rican sauce.

So a lot of what? Like yeah, like 100% of the Costa Rican Kitens. You're going to find this sauce okay and uh, a lot of people people use it on the ginto. but I noticed that this morning that they they didn't use it for the ginto and this is something that we really want you to try. So this is something I couldn't come to Costa Rica without without knowing about.

If you're into food Sala Lisano I Just oh that just like is a full mouth pleasure. It's sour, it's salty, a little bit spicy, kind of has that f mented complexity to it. um little B bit of wiser kind of a flavor to it. What is it though? It's almost fruity and fermented, but it's salty.

and yeah, actually I'm going to let Chef to explain so much flavor. Where did she useo everything used in everything? yeah very much everything actually for for aino but here probably. you know the pork fat is so flavorful use it but yeah, but that pretty much for everything. And the chicken dish is called G AR and a few of the seasonings that she said were in here um, were onions, kulantro and sweet red I Think the sweet red peppers.

Um, and that's been stewed down for over 4 and a half hours. so she just going to try that. The broth kind of stewed down from that chicken. The chicken oil in there.

Oh, it's thick and Rich Oh, it's such a intense flavor of chicken. the oil, the onions, the aromatics. I Think all that fat has just been released from the chicken, the skin into that rich gravy. So she wanted some more.

uh, quantro for the recipe. So just straight up here, they're growing it. It's local. it's indigenous here.

it. even as she's picking it, you could just smell that Aroma coming out of it. that freshness that's going to go directly into the pot. Everything again, emphasizing the fact that all the ingredients are local and fresh.

Very good. Oh, it's sweet. M Oh so sweet. Almost does have a very similar flavor to cilantro.

but it's Kantro that's incredible. All right. So she said it needs to cook for a while longer. This is the corn they added in.

the fresh kantro. Oh hot. Oh M Oh, it's delicious. The chicken broth, the corn, the the sweet peppers in there.

the freshness of that quantro right off the right out of the ground. Oh, it's really good. Really hearty, simple, but a Harmony of those flavors Al Together, slow cooked, stewed down. we're going to sit down now to try the traditional tamales and Masa but one of the interesting things is there's rice inside of it as well as pork as well as you could see the the oils coming out the juices of the Banana Leaf the the lard and okay oh you can see how juicy how juicy it is Mo oh it's really taking on the flavor of the Banana Leaf It's really juicy and moist so one of the ways you can eat it is with some of the Lano okay okay I'll try it now with a Sao oh it's like a full.

It's a full meal inside of a a tamale. rice, Carrots that add some acidity, some sweetness and that like well-rounded flavor to it. Oh good. M So this is the the classic Costa Rican chalera.

There's some cucumbers, carrots. there's also some of the the chilies in here. oh and even cauliflower like a mix of vegetables as we're eating the tamale. Another thing common from this region is it's the purple corn.

It's been fermented and it's very traditional in ancient beverage from this region as well. Oh yes oh it has a hint of carbonation to it, a nice sourness sweetness, it's thick. It's kind of like a full porridge beverage all at the same time, but it was so much delicious. Yeah you start to feel it tingle on your tongue because of that carbonation.

Really good, really good. I'll try in the the Tamal again with the with the Chala. Oh yeah, CH is excellent. Nice acidity vinegar.

really refreshing. Now we're starting to bring into the the local Nikoa diet. We're seeing the fermentation which is also a part of the diet. the probiotics, the all the bacteria, the gut bacteria that's also part of the diet here.

Yeah yeah, I think we been eating non-stop since 700 a.m. Now the full meal is here with the the gyen, the hen that's been stewed down, rice, more beans, more tortillas, a salad with tomato and a full egg. And then as Samantha and Jason were mentioning, this is like the full complete Costa Rican meal. Yeah so this is kind of like what we will call it Casa which means married in Spanish So you always have rice, beans, a protein which can change it can be chicken, fish Beef Pork um usually maybe fried plantain, a fried egg or boiled egg Toria and that's your classic.

Costa Rican Lunch and dinner that you'll find across the country, exact across the country. Serve like this all on one plate. Yep, thank you very much. Yes okay I can't wait to try it.

That chicken. Yeah! Oh and another thing they mentioned is that they they cooked 13 hens that's correct in that pot that were um prepared this morning. Yes yep really fresh and natural tasting Mhm. And the the stew.

she cooked it down with onions, some sweet peppers kantro and I think some oh the essential. what is it called Lano the Lano the essential salsa Lano which gives it that that sour Harmony of flavor I think as with everything that we've we had in Costa Rica and today it's a hearty meal. It's a lot of energy to do a lot of work. although yep we've just been sitting and eating all day.

we going to eat more later and we're eating more. But would you typically mix the rice and beans or I like to mix R and beans however you like however you like it y but I usually like to put the beans on the top. Rice and beans mix in with the chicken and mixing with the tomatoes too. Tomatoes give it a nice nice tartness.

how do you like it? Very good, very good. His name is Yayo He's a local artist. He's A. he's a famous local artist preserving the traditional music of Nikoya so he's going to be singing for us and playing for us as we're eating.

Very special. Another aspect of life here is community, spending time with each other, smiling, laughing, enjoying life along with the food. That's another part that keeps people living long, adding to the years the the happiness. The Joy The community time together and listening to music.

We're moving on to another dish called picadillo and this is uh made with a green papaya and then there's some potatoes. There's some minced chicken, some herbs in there also served with a tortilla. Oh yeah, this dish looks really good. You can also see the onions in there, cilantro or kulantro in there and some of the the sweet peppers as well.

Oh that's delicious. Yes when the the papaya is green it feels almost like more like a a melon. Um it's not sweet, takes on the savoriness of that and just good soft melts in your mouth. delicious.

Oh that's a really tasty dish. and again along with the fresh corn and I love the texture of it so that completes our time at Fonda Chota and just an Incredible family and Hospitality learning about the Costa Rican culture in Nikoya. but from here we're going on to the next Village and we have more to eat and more to learn about this. Blue Zone a project that the local especially the local women have put together cuz they wanted to do something with the community.

Little bit of Tourism cook show the culture but also be able to make a living and preserve this area. uh in particular. Also this is a small restaurant that they've made in the middle of the lagoons or the the wetlands in the middle of the wet land. exactly.

And right behind you is one of is a national park actually. so that's P National Park It's one of the most important national parks in Costa Rica so lot of nature. They combine it with the culture so you can experience the best of Guan Casta here by yourself. This is the boat for the 100 kilos.

Club So oh man it's really beautiful. calm water, a really red color from the the soil. I mean this is a very traditional H snack who we call a snack. So pretty much what they do is they take the corn and then they just okay.

the day before they just peel it. you know they have like a little layer, then they just wash it and then they just let it dry and after that the next day they mix it uh with a little bit of water. It has to be hard for the Rosas cheese, egg and the vegetable oil. right off the boat surrounded by the Lagoon and there's I mean a beautiful shelter.

you feel the breeze coming off of the the grass, the mountains, the Lagoon and they're immediately getting started cooking on some of the traditional I mean to explore more of the food of this region of nikoya and so that's combination of corn with cheese with oil that she's just kneading and just forming into these little little circular shapes. So what we're learning is that corn is a huge part of the local diet and all the varieties and colors of corn but purple corn especially with its condensed antioxidants with the purple flavor and so they've already prepared some kind of Beverages and puddings with the purple corn. this one is called at and it is where the corn is kind of mashed, soaked then mashed and hardens into kind of a jelly texture. Oh yeah it's like the texture of pudding.

Oh with like a milk skin, almost a Milky skin on it has a sourness, a sweetness I think it is sweetened. Wow it's really good. It almost tastes like terot. Actually when it's like this tastes like tarot.

It has this creaminess this Rich floral flavor to it, a beautiful sourness. All right it's okay. Okay so sometimes they add milk to it like a make it another type of a dish. Oh that adds a well.

You can taste the naturalness of that milk. Yes fresh good both ways. This one is the pul. It's a cold purple corn beverage and if the corn is just processed a little bit different kind of has a smokiness to it but then it's it's lighter.

It again has a little bit of a sourness and a sweetness to it. Okay and then the next one we have is similar to the one we drank already at the last meal. but it's a can be fermented lesser or more. but it's kind of a thick purple corn kind of almost a drinking porridge.

M Oh and I think they added Ginger You can immediately taste the ginger in there. That's what's different about this one. It's not as sour, it's mostly sweet but really nice ginger in there. Another dish that they're making is the Aros de and so again Rice Corn or rice maze.

but it's not rice at all. They process the corn so that the they like remove the skins of each kernel of corn. then they let the the actual meat of the Corn kind of in a coarse grind and let that uh, they simmer that down with spices with uh onions and with kulantro chicken and then it turns into almost a again like a thick porridge of corn and all those seasonings. uh which is another very common Dish and also to be eaten with tortillas.

Oh it's good that is thick and sticky. and Hardy and I think what we've learned today is corn is King is like corn plus corn and corn and you're even drinking corn Corn is it's the king of foods in this in Nikoya. Oh it's so good though. everything is just melted down stewed down.

It's so hearty. So again the complex carbohydrates. Oh she brought me the Chila oh that smells really good. Onions Pepper Oh yes onions.

Peppers Oh is that is that a pepper? Yeah man, yes, how's your name? Okay wow yes Oh is it sour cream? So that's the Masa sour cream sugar. Almost everything has a base of corn and so that's even another cake kind of made into a batter. Corn and sour cream and lots of sugar goes in. should bake for about half an hour in the oven everything is going in wo it's a full oven.

They make everything in huge amounts in Ncoa this is thick and dense and again Corn based it's like a cornbread cake. Oh it's really good really. Dent Again, corn is King in Nia and almost like has like a Penta kind of flavor and texture to it. This one would be incredible with coffee.

This is made with the yellow corn and Rosas and these are the little like cheese. yellow corn. Little actually like little Rings right out of the oven. Oh it's cheesy.

It's really dry and crumbly and full of that same nutritious.