Hey everyone it's Mark Wiens I'm in Santa Ana in Guatemala Today we have the honor to see the entire process cooking a dish that's called kakik. It's a beautiful morning and we're actually in Santa Ana Guatemala which is just outside of Antigua Guatemala This place is stunningly beautiful. We are surrounded by volcanoes and it's Lush it's green. People are friendly.

You have the incredible Spanish Baroque Architecture It's a UNESCO world heritage site but the plan for today is that we are meeting up with Rebecca she's a chef, she's a Guatemalan food expert and we're making a dish it's called which is one of the most significant Foods in all of Guatemala Hmm it's so clean, so fresh and we're gonna see the entire process all the way from a live turkey to how they roast how they toast all the different spices and grind them to put them into this dish. So everyone say hello to Rebecca Hi very nice to meet you Rebecca Can you just tell us what you do? Yeah well I'm gonna Guatemalan crook Okay today we are going to be with a local family that will it Teach us how to make a cake is a sacred salmonella dish from the Chimayan ethnics and Odelia's family he's her husband has learned to make an original cake recipe so we're gonna make it everything from scratch. Buenos Dias! Yeah, is it a dish that would be eaten only occasionally on ceremonial days or is it originally or special? Okay, because it has been since 2007 and emblematical dish so you can find it in every restaurant in okay in the Departments of Altober Apas is something that you will find in all restaurants and houses because it's like a iconic dish. It is originally a very sacred dish because you'll see that it's red.

so red represents blood. Okay and rituals. Okay, that's what we're going to to see how they make it. Thank you! Well something very important about this recipe is that um, we use a very specific pepper that is called Cabonero or Cabanero Pepper which is a dried pepper that they use.

It has blueberries. exactly flavor. Is that this one? Yeah, this one and once it's grinded it comes this kind of powder. Ah okay and a very minor romantic herb that they use that it's endemic from here.

It's Samat. It's Mayan endemic herb. it comes from here from Guatemala So if you smell it, it's like smelling cilantro. Okay, oh yeah.

okay, very nice. Yes so this three ingredients are a must. Plus the uh, the meat that is. And so here's the star of the show.

and we've got an all outdoor kitchen cooking and Ceramics over fire. The turkey is on its way, but Auntie was just explaining that she's been making this dish for 20 or 25 years, but cooking for over 60 years. That hot water will definitely help with removing all of the feathers and preparing the turkey. That's why it's very easy to take off the feathers.

Oh okay, okay. they're like very tiny pairs. very hard to take out. So the final step for taking out all the produces to a little bit on the Fire Quick singe over the fire.

quick wash. but you could just tell her immense experience and just how fast how quickly she prepares that turkey. they're still chopping up the turkey and putting it into bite-sized pieces. Rebecca Was just explaining that this is a I mean it's a Mayan origin dish but it's also been influenced by some of the Spanish yes because originally my own food was A protein that they they mainly use was wild animals or fish seashells or something like that.

Okay, they were almost pescetarian but once a Spain came they brought all that were pork, beef, chicken, the domestic turkey and they started to bring it is some of the most common ingredients that is onion, garlic and cilantro and a lot of other aromatic herbs. and spay nerds like to cook a lot with a lot of pork fat. Oh okay. okay so this dish it's a mixture of Mayan and Spanish.

Right now it is influenced by the two cultures. Some of the techniques that we're going to see right now are 100 Mayan. Some of the ingredients are of mine but the other ones that I already said is from Spain So that kind of makes between two cultures. We call it a mestizo Cuisine or mestizo.

Okay so now they're really getting started on the main part of the recipe and the turkey goes into boiling water over fire in a giant ceramic pot. Cilantro is so that's like the place to give you a Roma and flavor to like a cake. It has cilantro yeah, it's a type of mint okay and the green part of the onions. Oh okay.

And one of the things that I love so much is after the turkey goes in, then she starts adding in the ingredients but not chopped at all. just whole raw, fresh ingredients that's going to provide so much flavor into that broth into that soup, right? but then on the other side of the kitchen or on the the next burner on the next fire. then they're just roasting some of the ingredients. so tomatoes are on there first exactly working.

That's the dried pepper. uh that it's called Chile It's very common to see it in our stews. It gives a very reddish color to the stews, a little bit of flavor and the other one that they use it is the raisin pepper. Oh okay, once you open it has to raisin.

Aroma. Oh and yeah, when you roast them, you can smell that Aroma coming out of them as well. Everything gets fire roasted charred to bring out that flavor the full Aroma potential. The great things about Central America and here in Guatemala is that the chilies.

Some of them are spicy, but others of them are also used for the aroma for the depth of flavor. Chilies have such a complexity, even fruitiness. and so that one I mean it even smells kind of reasony. So the variety of chilies are all going to go into the recipe.

Cayenne pepper. So these ones are spicy. Yeah okay and she really takes care to roast everything with precision and also checking it to make sure those chilies are like crispy charred bringing out the flavor, the skin, the seeds. and then these are the little the little Peppers that are the spicy ones that are essential in this recipe.

Yes Oh I Love it. Oh I could bathe in the The Sweet Smoke of Chili's roasting. Oh that smells incredible. Unbelievable and all of these are gonna go into the Kaki Oh even the cilantro cilantro you in the cilantro gets the fire treatment.

Oh man, that charred cilantro is incredible. just wilts chars gives it a totally different unique fragrance to it. Turkey broth now goes into the roasted chard ingredients. Oh so that will kind of like soften all of the ingredients too.

Okay okay most important part of it gingerification Our ancestors the grinding stone might have more than 3 000 years old in using passed down from generation to generation. Yes, okay like for a chef a very appreciate utensil is knife or mine culture. and Guatemalan culturistic Rhino Stone Foreign like. Not only not only does it taste improve because of the the slow grinding, but even the the memories and the memories, it has the just the significance of it.

Yes, okay, you can just see all of those juices coming out of the Tomato the seeds being flattened, all that crunchy, crispy uh chilizer than just being ground into a pulp. And yet it's not because it's a grinding stone. it's not too fine, it still has a little bit of texture to it and just it is unbelievably aromatic. The Smoky toasty chilies, tomatoes, onions, coriander.

wow that smells incredible. That is a heavenly Aroma oh oh you want to bathe in that. it's so good smelling. Wow okay so achiote and that will give it a really red color right? So now the so much will go in and already you can start to see the turkey has started to release that fat oil that into the broth that gets all together.

and then she adds the samit which I believe is similar to culantro or Shadow Benny but it's native indigenous Mayan ingredient so that needs to boil simmer for 30 minutes or so, maybe longer. But in the meantime you eat with tamales and so we're gonna see now some of the preparation for that as this continues to boil. Okay so here's the pork lard. This is the pork lard that goes in and salt goes in foreign to give a little bit of softness and flavor.

okay but that came at a later point in time. The pork lard. Okay, so before it wasn't there wasn't pork lard added. No, no, it was just.

uh. the process of cooking the corn with uh, a limestone. Oh okay, and that that's the next stimulization. Yes, okay, and it's one of the most and that makes the that makes the corn more digestible and more digestible.

It gives more calcium, more protein, and it's uh, it preserves more the corn. Okay technique, right? Yes, actually you can see the first corn tamales in uh Guatemalan pyramid that it's El Mirador. So the Mayan twins and were giving us an offering the tamales and that's the first evidence archaeological evidence of the use of this food. Okay, platano.

Okay, so let's get mixed in, then made into little balls and then flattened okay and then it goes into a Banana Leaf And so those tamales go in a bed of plantain leaves with water on the bottom so they're gonna kind of boil and kind of steam all at the same time. Yeah, you can see that the color is really deep red. Oh so that's coming along nicely. The Aromas Unbelievable.

Um, she said the flavor is ready but still needs another 30 minutes to boil, simmer to bring the ingredients together and especially to tenderize that turkey. So Odelia brought some of Guatemalan dishes also for you to try. These are tamales. This one is spicy, the other one is plain and this is a very special dish that it's called revolcado.

It's made with all the organs of the pork. Okay so it's one of the bizarre dishes that Guatemala has. And here's a Guatemalan beverage. It's a fermented drink called chicha made with the dried fruits.

Okay so they usually make it's homemade drink and it might have between five a week or maybe 15 days of fermentation. Okay so we have a few snacks. These are the snacks. We're gonna try them as the the ink is still boiling.

Oh Gracias! Okay, this is a special mixture of peppers. This is a very common sauce to join with all the stews. So this is a stew with all the organs of the the pork. Oh oh it's so good that you don't even need to chew.

it just totally melts in your mouth. Foreign. Those are the tenderest pig organs you'll ever have. They're just literally just jiggly soft melt in your mouth and it has this kind of like a kind of like a salty, maybe a tomatoey like stew sauce gravy.

Oh it's so good. Definitely with a little bit of chili that would be even better. So I'll add a little bit of this seasoning in here. Hmm.

Got extra acidity from the lime juice, the crunch of the onions and the cilantro. A little bit of chili in there, all that rounds it out that like contrasts the richness of it. Oh this is delicious. This is like so warm and comforting and again just completely dissolves on your tongue.

All that sauce is incredible. These little peppers. oh excellent. So these are the tamale and just look at this.

This is one of the most beautiful tamales you'll ever see. The Masa just you can see the the moistness, the oiliness. One of them is a little bit spicy they said and the other is not spicy but I'm not totally sure which one. um that is the moistest like fluffiest tamale you'll ever have.

It's so juicy and just fluffy. Wow, that's our tamale on another level. the quality, the flavor, the freshness, even the the aroma of the Banana Leaf which has been embedded steamed into that Masa compared to other. okay now we're getting to the meat inside of that.

Maybe some pork and some olives in there as well. Yeah, without a doubt some of the greatest tamales there's that fluffiness is incredible. And then we also have a beverage which is called chicha here and this is made from a variety of dried fruits and fermented. Oh okay I took a big gulp of that.

That is sour. Almost Yeah vinegary. Oh it is really good. Just don't take a huge gulp of it because it has that acidity.

The acidity has already formed the vinegiriness, so complex, so beautifully sour and that like natural sweetness from the fruits. Oh it's really really good. So the the weight for the kak is ready. You could tell by how it kind of comes off the bone the turkey has been boiled until it's tenderized.

Okay, okay Rebecca Can you just tell us again what means it's in the Mayan Which kak means red and it means spicy or hot. Okay, so this is how the subscription is. very spicy. It's got to be red in color.

Red. It's got to be spicy. All of those Chiles And this is just absolutely just an honor to be here to see the traditional way that it's made. Okay so what is the what's the the strategy? Okay so first you take okay so we grab one of the one tamales.

yes and the way that I like to do it is to put it inside the Khaki Okay Aussie Drop the whole thing into your yes huh? Drop the whole thing in and take a piece of the tamale. Oh, it's so like light and refreshing and brothy aromatic from the turkey and all of those you really taste the toasty smokiness of all of those ingredients, the tomatoes, the Chiles but it's also not overpowering and it's kind of like a Harmony of everything. Yes, oh that's like it's almost medicinal nourishing. Yes, yes yes.

and if you wanted a more spicy it families usually put some combinero powders. Okay, so these are these are the small little the small little chilies that they roasted that are in the recipe as well and we have some of that powder which you can also add to make it spicier. I Can't wait to bite into this drumstick, absorb all of the broth. The freshest turkey.

Um, it's so clean, so fresh. The texture is incredible, the skin is just kind of like perfectly. kind of like rubbery. and then the meat on the inside is soft, tender, really flavorful.

Yeah, look at that meat. Oh okay. and then I'll re-submerge Oh yes. and I think another thing is there's so much work that goes into this dish.

Um, and that's like every step needs to be followed to make sure that the flavor is correct in the just the I think the process of it is really just fascinating. A little bit of this chilin, yeah, is that a lot? Yeah, okay. um oh so good. A little bit more heat, but again, it doesn't overpower it at all.

It's just like you can still feel the harmony of that broth that is, uh, stunning broth. How is it over there? foreign? So I'm just gonna take my time to taste a lot of love and patience made in this recipe. Love and patience. And so delicate? Yeah, so delicate.

Yeah. I mean I just I Just can't believe how clean how delicate how nothing is overpowering. Even like you kind of gotta think about it to like taste the individual ingredients because they're all just in a perfect Blended Harmony Together, it's the most satisfying way to drink that broth just straight from the bowl. Oh oh, that's good ingredients.

Okay I'll try a little more of this. this is onions with the chilies, coriander, cilantro and lime juice. and I think it should be amazing right on top of the turkey as well. kind of giving it some acidity as well.

Um, that's so good as well because you've got that acidity of the lime juice. Um and all at once it started raining. but we've got another dish to try and what is this one? Rebecca This is called chicha. that is the Turk the rooster.

Meats Oh okay. it's made with a tomato sauce, but the special ingredients that they use. the chicha that is the beverage. That's the thing that we drink already that's really sour and vinegary in order to give more flavor.

and Aroma to the sauce. Oh nice. Odilia Was telling that this is the most emblematic dish of the town. Oh okay of Santa Ana here.

Okay, oh let's try that and look at just you can smell that sour Aroma and then also the just that thickness of that sauce might have to. Okay I know I Really want to get some of that sauce oh so soon that has an amazing sweet and sour but not sweet in a sugar kind of way. In a fruity kind of way because of those fermented fruits that provide that just well-rounded fruity sweetness. plus the sourness from the fermentation, the saltiness from the olive zendi that is incredibly tasty.

Really good, really unique. When you finish that one tamale, keep on going for another Kamala and as opposed to the tamales that we had earlier for the snack which was really moist and juicy, these are a lot more dense, a lot more like condensed, a harder texture to them, but that's the way you want it so it doesn't just fall apart so it doesn't dissolve into the broth so they hold their shape. Um, part of the tamale. drink up the broth.

bite of the turkey. okay, um, that was so good. And the more I drink that broth. you could actually really taste the I think it's called the Yerba Buena that minty, that minty herb.

You really actually taste that in the foundation in the in like all of the just been boiled down. that freshness that was just superb. So clean. and I'm just finishing off with my cup of chicha.

This is an incredible beverage and Rebecca was telling me that's mostly made from the fruit, which is kind of like a Green Mango but you could just tell it has that fermented probiotic quality to it. kind of makes you squint, but it's just so good that's gonna help with the digestion. They're setting up for a festival that's going to happen this evening in Santa Ana In the main plaza so you can hear some music starting to play. People are starting to set things up.

but man, learning about Kakik and the importance the cultural significance and seeing it prepared the authentic way using the ingredients and like the time-consuming way, it truly made a difference. That was a spectacular meal, an incredible just showing the incredible depth of knowledge and complexity of Guatemalan Mayan Cuisine and I Want to say a huge thank you to Rebecca and her mother for arranging this and for setting it up and to our family for hosting us and they run a class here which is actually it's like a cultural learning program to preserve Mayan recipes. It's called Mayais and so definitely check them out when you are in Antigua and the adjacent Santa Ana But highly recommended. that was it was so cool! And if you haven't already checked out all the videos in this Guatemalan series, we are traveling around the country of Guatemala eating our way through the country, eating some of the best foods that you're not going to want to miss.

So be sure to check out all the videos in this series and I want to say a big thank you for watching. Please remember to give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it. Leave a comment below I'd Love to hear from you and if you're not already subscribed, make sure you subscribe now for lots more food and travel videos. Thanks again for watching.