Page 49 - Eric Ripert News Today

>> anthony: so, where does chocolate come from? >> eric: um -- >> anthony: the bean. okay. heres where chocolate comes from. the trees produce pods. you split open the pods and take out the beans. the buyer sun dries the beans, then roasts them. after roasting, the beans are extracted from their shells and ground up, producing chocolate liquor. mix this concentrate with milk, sugar, cocoa butter, and you get what we call commercial chocolate. now, our chocolate bar sells for a nosebleed price th...

Thatll -- thatll shoot through an engine block. actually, i dont really know, but im assuming. [ thunder claps ] at this time of year, theres also the rain and mud, which can mean flooded streets and streams that cut right across the roads. and theres this, the river. in the best of circumstances, a fairly adventurous way to get your vehicles across, a long line across a fast-moving current, the ferry propelled only by the flow of water. but today, the river is too high and the current too fast....

Wow. i mean, this is like the real stuff. >> eric: i think so. >> anthony: wow. >> eric: right, i mean, its the real deal, yeah. >> anthony: gold necklaces. >> eric: thats gold, yes. >> anthony: you see why the spanish just freaked out when they came here, turned into like, maniacal greed heads. but history does not have to be boring. it can be sexy. i dont know whether you knew this, but i am an aficionado of early erotica of pre-columbian and post-columbian eras, you know, like pottery of peop...

>> anthony: takes in flavor from the leaf, too. >> pedro: and here we have, uh, paiche. its the second biggest freshwater fish in the world. underneath, you have a puree of aguaje that is a palm fruit, and the sauce is a reduction of fermented wild mandioca yucca. >> eric: fermented. >> pedro: yeah, this is, how you say, toxic or, uh -- >> anthony: or poisonous, yeah. >> pedro: poisonous. >> anthony: yeah. >> pedro: yeah, so they let it ferment and it becomes -- uh, you can eat it. >> anthony: t...

In brazil and here, we use the -- as a fruit. >> anthony: mm. >> pedro: we make this, uh, scallops with, uh, wild almond. >> eric: the almond is very, very soft, like the flavor of it. it compliments really well. >> pedro: and this one is freshwater shrimp dashi made of taro root and a freshwater shrimp. >> anthony: mm. a whole different flavor spectrum, right? all new. its almost like you need a new section of your tongue. >> eric: it must be so exciting because they are basically an amazing ga...

Cilantro, uh, but its long leaves and its -- >> anthony: uh-huh. >> eric: -- much more powerful in flavor. >> anthony: it would be wrong to not point out that peru, along with brazil, is at the forefront of a movement celebrating the incredible and unique larder of ingredients from the andes and the amazon. flavors you find no place else on earth. there seems to be a lot of interest in the last decade in the amazon because its an amazing -- >> pedro: and youre right. >> anthony: -- spectrum of e...

Eric and i are heading to the maranon canyon, eight hours by car from chiclayo, well into the andean highlands. ♪ on the way, we stop for lunch and to meet up with this guy. >> eric: uh, you want a sopa de gallina? >> anthony: gallina, si. >> eric: sopa de -- >> chris: si. >> eric: tres sopas de gallina, por favor. >> anthony: chris curtin, master chocolatier, and our business partner in this knuckleheaded adventure. >> anthony: one of lifes great joys, eating at a peruvian market. >> eric: i ...

>> anthony: ooh, theres some animal on animal action. thats pretty awesome. >> eric: uh, yeah, no, no, this is interesting. um. yeah. im happy we made it, uh, here, tony. that was, uh, an enlightened moment. ♪ >> anthony: something about steamy, triple-x, pre-columbian erotica always makes me hungry. luckily, at night, lima comes alive with the smell and the familiar enticing sound of sizzling meat. its time for delicious, screamingly hot, garlicky, spicy, flavor-jacked street meats. and as an...

Uh, animal skulls. >> eric: whoa. >> anthony: thats tempting. haircut? >> eric: uh, no, im good. >> anthony: ooh, wow. >> eric: ah, cacao. >> anthony: those are the raw beans. >> saleswoman: uh-huh. >> eric: and that one is the toasted one. >> anthony: toasted? >> eric: and then she, she -- >> anthony: grinds it? >> eric: and then she puts it in a mold. gracias. >> saleswoman: muy bien, gracias. >> anthony: oh, bitter. >> eric: not sweet at all, huh? >> anthony: no. >> eric: they dont put sugar ...

Youre not loving that, are you? >> eric: no. >> anthony: imagine you took a lot of acid and then you ate that whole bowl of ants, and then you go home and you experience violent diarrhea. and, like, youre tripping and its like, 4:00 in the morning, and you turn around and you look at the toilet and like, all these ant heads floating around in there. itd be cool. >> eric: yeah, it would be super cool, tony. i cant wait. [ anthony laughs ] >> anthony: so now that weve confirmed what we already kne...