$100 Colombian Street Food Challenge!!

In this video, I'll attempt to spend $100 on street food here in Colombia. Colombia is right here in the north of South America. Right now, we're in the city of Bogotá, what many call the food capital of Colombia. We are officially entering some new culinary territory here in Colombia, freaking pineapple sauce with egg and mashed potatoes. And Bogotá has some of the wildest street food you'll find on this continent. Here, we have cow intestines and cow lungs mixed with potatoes. The only question is whether it's affordable or not. Whoa, I don't know who's getting that many big-ass ants. But that's a big-ass portion of ants. I've got $100 in my pocket. Let's go find out. We have come to our first location right behind me where they have a fantastic deal running right here. Take a look at that. Only $5,000 for a hot dog. What? But hold on. That might not be the real price. I believe that dollar sign means pesos. Turns out it's not $5,000. It's $1.60. cents. But what is the food exactly? It is a hot dog, but not just a hot dog. Inside, instead of a typical American wiener, they have chorizo. Chorizo is a highly seasoned sausage. Let's go take a look. This stall has kind of an open kitchen concept. Right here is our cooker, and here are some of the ingredients I wanted to tell you about. First of all, long, oddly colored, super shiny wieners. You guys remember that meme where people were trying to figure out if it was hot dogs or girls' legs? It's like that. These wieners have been soaked with sunscreen. Disturbing. Right here, I'm told this is kind of like a potato chip it's crunchy lettuce onion tomato but let's take a look at that flat top right now she is crushing some onions but on top she also has two different kinds of meat you can get a hamburguesa or the hot dog that's what we're going for hola un chorizo hot dog por favor santa rosana santa rosana i ran out of spanish step one she grabs a chorizo she puts it on the flat top to heat it up. Right now she's also making two burgers for these guys. Hi. Their burgers get a little bit of ketchup and a little bit of mustard. Why am I narrating other people's food? Back to my food. She reaches inside this bag and pulls out a big hot dog bun. That joins the flat top along with the chorizo. She cuts it down the middle like old school subway style. She places the chorizo inside. Here we have potato chip strips that go on top. Then she puts on some Mayonnaise she goes to the sauce bin more sauce this time mustard She grabs a little bit of ketchup that goes on too She puts on a pink sauce the pink sauce is a combination of mayonnaise and ketchup then a hard cheese gets grated on top She grabs a little home for the hot dog. She scoops it up effortlessly, and she hands it over I feel like I've burned enough calories and narrating that hot dog to compensate for what I'm about to eat Let's give it a shot Location one food one el hot dog. Oh, let's talk about it first of all It's got this on top, a cheese that's been freshly grated onto the hot dog. Such a gourmet experience for only $1.60. Mmm, the cheese, not bad. It's kind of a processed white cheese. It has a little hint of mozzarella flavor. I like it. But let's talk about what's beneath the cheese. The great sauce-ening of 2026. I said put on everything. Ketchup, mustard, mayo, sure. But then, diabolically, she put on a combination of ketchup and mayo. But why? Let's give it a shot. Here we go. Let's go. That first bite reminded me of my childhood poverty. When I was a kid and I was poor, I'd get a piece of white Wonder Bread. I'd put on top stuff like ketchup, mustard, and potato chips, and, like, that's it. And then I would eat that, and that's what that first bite tasted like. Pure poverty. But now, I'm going for that big sausage, baby. It tastes... Okay, this is an interesting benchmark for the day. Everything today will either be better than this or worse than this, because this is kind of right down the middle. The chorizo itself, delicious, especially with all the toppings. The problem is the bread is very dry, and there's, like, so much of it. and you try to collapse it a little bit by squeezing it, but it doesn't solve anything, even with all that sauce. Though, you can't be that picky for $1.60. On to our next food. We have stumbled upon our second food right here, something that is on the move. If you want this, you have to flag her down and ask for that right there. It's already prepared. It's in the cup. This is rice and milk. Pare por favor. Uno arroz con leche, por favor. My accent makes the locals want to laugh. Boom. Step one, she goes in here. We have the milk already mixed with the rice. That goes into the cup. Then over here, it looks like she's applying cheese on top. Finally, she hits it with a little bit of raisin. Wow, it's hot, and there's nothing better than a little bit of plastic, especially thin plastic and hot, hot heat. All right, folks, our second food right here, coming in at $1.60. It looks interesting. It smells amazing. It smells like vanilla, milk, sugar. It's creamy. They call it rice pudding. This food is made slowly by cooking rice in milk with sugar until it becomes thick and creamy. That milk ain't no ordinary milk. That ain't 2%, and it's certainly not oat milk. Ugh. The Colombian versions often include condensed milk, evaporated milk, raisins, and shredded coconut? Is that? No. No, it's not. That is shredded cheese. That's the exact same type of cheese we just had on our hot dog. Wow, it hits you with intense sweetness. It's creamy. The cheese, I don't know, the cheese gets a little bit lost in the background with all those bright flavors. And then the raisin just adds a little bit of texture. I'm in love. This is seriously good. And a good omen for things to come. Let's keep moving. Stumbled upon another very fascinating street food, hormigas culonas. Let's give that a little bit of a flip. Boom. Big-ass ants. That's what we're here for. These are already pre-prepared and pre-packaged. Ew, is that really an ant? What the ****? So when it comes to the ants, you can get the spicy flavor or the natural. I'm going all natural today. Beyond that, the price. These, though small, are very expensive. What you see right here, it's coming in at $16.70. That is a big-ass amount of money. My gosh, they're big, they're heavy, and oh, now I see. Guys, take a look at that. That's one ant. Insane. Cheers. It's delicious. It is delicious. You took the word right out of my mouth. So it's fried. That helps a lot. Very crunchy. Also, did I mention there's a llama in the background? Do you think llamas like ants? Huh? I love bizarre foods. I like finding these types of strange things when I visit a new country. But she can't be doing as well as the chorizo hot dog lady. That's all I'm saying. This seems like a tough business. See? Right now we're in a part of the city known as Seventh Street. This is a huge walking street that runs several blocks throughout the city. the city and along the way you'll find a ton of shops some historical sites and food like this this is a really popular one here in Colombia because these folks love fruit I'm not gonna be trying this one but let me show you something else now when it comes to marketing this is what I'm talking about right here sex sells they have a lady who definitely did not agree to be on this poster but let's talk about the food this here is another one that you'll find all over the street it's essentially flan but locally they call it quesillos made from dairy it is a delicious food and a lot of people know what it is already our Our next food right here, we are having corn, but this is not just any corn. This is Colombian corn. First of all, this is the corn on the cob right here. She's cooking it over charcoal, and then she's going to put something special on top. Take a look at this. There's a website called OnlyFans where you can get one of these, and that is perfect for heating up your charcoal and making it extra hot to grill your corn. Keep it in mind next time you're looking for a fan. Oh, oh, mazorca con queso, por favor. First, the corn gets hit with butter and salt. Then it's absolutely doused in shredded queso. So, finally, back into the husk for one more cheese shower. Boom! Corn! This, a little bit, this reminds me of Mexican elotes. I do like that she serves it in a husk. She puts it back into its home. Better than I expected. The salt is bringing so much flavor, and it's making the cheese even more cheesy, even more flavorful. Beyond that, this type of corn, it's big, it's starchy, it's like a little bit rubbery in the end. Pretty good. But from here, I'm looking for something much more substantial and something that feels more Colombian. Let's keep moving. In our effort to find more street food here in Bogota, we have come to a sketchier part of town I'm told in this area if somebody gives you an impromptu hug, they're actually stealing stuff from your pockets. Sad. Got bumped into me. But you know what makes me happy? Our next food right behind us. A Colombian food known as Little Cheese Fingers. Let's go take a look. This right here is the final product But this is how the product starts when he gets it from dairy's food factory supply. He takes that out and he puts it in Here this is where the magic happens that is the oil wow these have been frying for a very long time So he has ham and cheese, but he also has what's in the fryer right now cheese with guava gotta Give it a shot, uno por favor, boom he starts with a napkin after a few minutes He takes them out of the oil and puts them in the drip tray And that is how you make Bogota's little cheese fingers alright guys can I confess something? I had to choose between cold cheese or hot guava and cheese So I went with the hot one not sure if I'm looking forward to it though a dessert cheese stick essentially they call this little cheese fingers but that is a big cheese thumb oh yes nice and doughy and cheesy oh and then hollow and then no cheese ball heartbreaking the cheese is nearly indiscernible so now i understand the name little cheese fingers let's give it a shot it's hard to go wrong with fried dough and here's the best part he was frying these for like 10 minutes they really got the oil treatment i like it with the caveat of it is not what i expected i was expecting like american style cheese pull just cheese stretching from the bread can we recreate that with ai instead here's what it's more like delicious fried bread with a little bit of like cream cheese and some jelly that's it is it better than that hot dog we started with it is on to our next food right here we found a street side store that's selling a lot of food and all of it is fried let's go take a look first of all here we have empanadas i've never seen the empanada that looks this crispy plus it's like radioactive orange over on this side we have other fried pastries this right here costilla barbecue which is basically costilla filled with barbecue what's costilla then there's this one right here take a look and guess for yourself is it a fried baseball in fact it is not this is mashed potato that has been fried we're going to get that and i'm going to show you what's inside una papa por favor boom he grabs it he hands it over the texture. It's soft. That is mashed potato. On the outside, they put a little bit of batter. They fried it, but deep at its core, it is full of minced beef, but that's not even the best part. Here, it's all about the sauces. Come take a look at this selection. Right here, we have some picante sauce. From there, ketchup. This, you would think it's mustard, but no, that is pineapple sauce. Beyond that, we have garlic and then a cilantro mayonnaise. I'm going to go with nothing to begin with because I want to rip this open and see what's on the inside. Oh, it's a lot of mashed potato and of an egg? This is quite a surprise. There is what looks to be chicken on the inside, plus a whole freaking chicken egg. All of it's surrounded by this warm, steamy mashed potato. I want to just get a taste of that. Maybe it doesn't even need sauce, but it couldn't hurt. The flavor is fine. It's very salty, a little bit sour. It's just full of seasoning, but all of them taste a little bit unusual. It's not your typical mashed potato. It's reminding me a lot more of what you'd find inside of like an Indian samosa. Oh, mi amigo. Look at this guy. He is also eating the papa take a look at his style right here he puts a bunch of sauce on top he takes a big bite and then what sauce my sauce this is kind of an interactive eating experience not only do you get to interact with other people but you put a little sauce you take a bite more sauce more bites this guy he is mixing ketchup with cilantro mayo i'm gonna do that same combination just to make this man proud here we go a little bit of ketchup a little bit of room temperature cilantro mayo you like to get more sauce i tell you that combination mind-blowing that was delicious and I never would have thought of it on my own. That cilantro has a nice punch. It's really fresh. Super delicious. But then they have this pineapple. Now we are officially entering some new culinary territory here in Colombia. You know what? It is a very thick, sweet pineapple sauce. It doesn't really blend well with the super savory mashed potato. But you know what does? Ketchup and cilantro mayo. Si. You want more? Here, I got you. Si. And you get me. Gracias. Sauce friends. Okay, he left for good this time. I'm so bad at making new friends. Some say the most dangerous part of traveling to Colombia is the armed gang members. I say it's our next food. Ceviche. Raw fish. I have a history with ceviche here in South America. I went to Peru. I ate sidewalk ceviche, much like what they have here. The result? Armageddon-level diarrhea. I lost weight. But let me tell you something. I love losing weight. Because for me, it's an opportunity to gain weight. Let's get some ceviche. I am here with my new amigo, Ronald. He is about to mix some crazy ingredients together and make a ceviche cocktail like I have never had before Let's get to it. Step one from the fridge He pulls out a basket full of shrimp and tosses them into a cup then a mysterious bowl packed with all kinds of seafood Some of it raw. Next this is finely minced onion Then he puts all of it in the bowl from here a little bit of salt a lot of bit of salt a tremendous amount Of salt and then another white substance. We are in Colombia You never know, though I might be feeling a bit more alert after this ceviche. Next up, lime juice. From here, he has these unique bottles. This one is filled with vinegar and garlic. That is potent. It's like pure garlic juice. Then this one is filled with celery and bell peppers, also vinegar. Now it's time for mayonnaise. That's how I'm going to sound later tonight. The ketchup goes in next. Then he gets his spoon and he goes to work. It is time to fill it back up. And that is how you make Colombia's most dangerous street food. I've never seen a ceviche like it. What it looks like to me is a mayonnaise and ketchup sundae. Step one, unsheathe the crackers, classic saltine style. This ceviche, wow, it's like a sludge. It's exactly like the pink ooze from the movie Ghostbusters. It's disconcerting, but perhaps I'll change my mind after taking a bite, cheers. There's a lot of ketchup going on. That is 90% sauce, 9% seafood, and 1% mystery bacteria. Here's what I like, it is cold. It's amazing that he put in so many ingredients because at the end of the day, All you taste is the overwhelming flavor of ketchup and mayonnaise. Boom, shrimp, there's a little bit of raw fish on top, some octopus, some squid, and plenty of pink sludge. Can I be honest? It's not very good. This is a country that loves condiments. Everywhere you go, you will find sauces, especially ketchup and mayonnaise, and they're not afraid to mix them together, but here, this is too much. I was hoping to eat this all to give it the chance to destroy my digestive system, but in the end, I can't do it. If you've got the hottest food spot in town, you can be located anywhere, but if you are selling cow intestines, Well, you gotta do what these ladies do. You gotta move around constantly to find customers, and that's exactly what's happening here. Here, we have cow intestines and cow lungs. Huh? Mixed with potato. Basically, anything that's inside the cow, that's an organ, it's right there. Let's give it a shot. Una. This, please. It all starts with a styrofoam platter. She takes some meat, some potatoes, some intestines. She puts it all together. She takes a toothpick and puts even more potato, and that is complete. But we also have a sauce station. Come with me over here. Or wait, maybe they can move. Convenient. And here we are at the sauce station. Actually, here. Right here, we have Nescafe Tradicion. Café. Cají. Oh, hold on. She's saying there's something else inside. Why, that is not coffee at all. So that is the spicy sauce that they're putting on this meat over here. I'm going to put some of this Nescafe Picante Salsa right on top of my organ meats. Ladies, muchas gracias. This right here costs about $2.3. It is rather confusing. I'm told there's intestines. That would be this, that part, that part right there, and that too. Then I'm told there are lungs. Is that a lung? It might be liver. It might be lungs. Let's give it a shot. Oh, that's liver. As far as livers go, a bit dry and chalky. The flavoring is okay. That is a tough restaurant to run on wheels because they have to keep cooking the food. It's steaming, but if nobody's buying, the condition of the food is getting worse and worse until someone actually does. And that someone was me. The liver, intense, not my favorite. But then there's this right here. That looks like a piece of the trachea. Or perhaps that is the lung. Yeah, okay. A little bit of the windpipe is in there too. That's what's crazy. The lung is very spongy and soft. It absorbs all the flavors. Can I be honest? It's not very good. And I hate to say that because I want to come here. I want the street food here to be amazing. But so far we've had a couple of misses in a row. The ceviche and now this. Let's see what our next food brings. Here's a food you'll find all over the streets of Bogota that I want to show you real quick. It is chicharron and chorizo. I had these elements already yesterday with one of Colombia's national dishes, bandeja paisa. So I'm not going to get it again, but I want to show you how it works. We have oil. This is where he's frying all these meats. And basically everything here is fried. The final platter, it looks like this. A huge long chorizo. And then here, the chicharron underneath, potatoes. And then a little bit of an arepa as well. It's rich, it's super heavy, and it's one of the favorite street foods in this city. Gracias. Right here, we have found something special, quite literally. Take a look at this name. Arroz Chino Especial. It means special Chinese rice. In this case, fried rice. Let's go meet our Chinese food expert. His name is Rufo Rufo, hola. Right now he's gonna make a Colombian Chinese fried rice from scratch. Let's take a look. Step one He hits a flat top with a little bit of white rice Then he hits it with a load of soy sauce. To all my Chinese friends in the comments How close is he to the authentic actual recipe? Let me know. He hits it with a little bit of chili salt, a lot of chili salt. Next we hit it with some scallions Oh, and here we have some ham and some sausage, too. All of this meat is just hanging out, not in a refrigerator, just in random plastic bags. Chicken just went on the pile. Here, another type of meat. This time, pork dyed bright, bright red. Now he scrapes that all together. You know, the only thing he's missing so far is a big, fiery wok. Otherwise, it's almost exactly the same as any Chinese recipe that I know. So he's asking me if I want salsa or soy sauce. Let's go salsa. He hits it with plenty of salsa, enough to kill a yak. And soy sauce, too. Rufo, muchas gracias. All right folks, welcome to Rufo's special fried rice and no one can do it like Rufo. Usually fried rice it's like that wok action helps contribute to some of the color, Rufo just douses it with soy sauce, he adds some mysterious meats, it's like very very unnaturally bright pork and then the salsa though also a mysterious color, it's like cough syrup. Here we got a little bit of chicken, hot dog, rice. Let's give it a shot, you know what, it's okay all of this meat i think he just got it from the market this morning and he just put it in that top shelf There's not a fridge up there. It's just bags full of meat. Wild. All this meat is so full of preservatives and salt that it's probably fine. The texture of the rice, it's okay. It's salty. I've got to be overbearingly salty. It's not. It's just like a cheap, simple fried rice. This is about $10,000 in local currency, which is a great deal. But here's the thing. I'm trying to spend over $100 on street food here in Colombia, and it's not easy. So we're going to have to make up for it with quantity. Let's keep going. We have wandered inside because I cannot leave Colombia without trying this next food. It's called Salchipapa. It is a Colombian Latin American fast-food dish. It includes french fries, sausages, and so much more Let's go see how it's made. Boom! We are in the kitchen right now with Gladys Hi! Una Salchipapa. Gladys puts an insane number of hot dogs into the deep fryer Then she takes her big bag of frozen french fries and that goes directly into the oil. Right now She's making a serious amount of Salchipapa. I think enough for six people six ah there we go she grabs some french fries and puts it into a bowl meanwhile she reaches for some sausages and even more sausages meanwhile she adds cheese on top the cheese looks incredible and that is how you make colombian salchipapa with gladys salchipapa it is an iconic colombian fast food but there has to be more to this dish than just french fries sausage and cheese let's find out more salchipapa equals salchicha plus papa literally sausages and potatoes. Huge in Colombia, especially as cheap street food and late night drunk food. It's usually loaded with ketchup, mayo, mustard, and pink sauce. Right here, we have ketchup, and then we have the legendary pink sauce. This cheese is looking processed as heck. Look at the way it tears. Looks like I left it on the dashboard of my vehicle. Delicious. I like the sausage. It's super salty. It's crispy. It's juicy. Let's dig deeper. French fries, cheese, sausage, all of it together salty crunchy this is delectable fast food right here i'm gonna drizzle on a bit of pink sauce it's all about those perfect ratios i want some sausage fries plenty of pink i love it the mayonnaise is creamy the ketchup offers some sweetness pair that with some salty sausages and some crispy french fries and you got a hit i gotta say it so far this is probably the best food we've had today but we have one more food for our grand finale a food i'm told will not disappoint. We have come to our final location. Here they're serving an iconic food of northern South America. I'm talking about arepas. But what is an arepa? Arepas are thick round corn cakes made from ground cornmeal. It doesn't sound that great but trust me it is. First a big scoop of thick and chunky arepa batter hits the flat top. Oh my god look at that. From there ham and cheese get melty on the side. He's telling us the steps but I have no idea what he's saying. Meanwhile it's time to turn the arepa. Yes, he pulls it off the perfect flip. That was a close one. That almost fell completely apart, but it didn't. And what's interesting is on the outside now, it looks like a pancake. The arepa gets a second flip and it's covered with margarine. Now, here comes our star. Oh my lord, that is a giant piece of cheese. Finally, the ham and cheese are placed on that massive cheese slab, then enclosed within the arepa. And that is how Henry makes arepas here in colombia right here we have our final food of the day and the food i was most looking forward to for a couple of reasons first of all cheese not just a little bit of cheese not just processed cheese but this thick ass cheese that is some hefty cheese and can i be honest the processed cheese with the ham didn't need it actually i might even just take it out oh it's too late it's buried inside okay you know what i will accept it perhaps i won't even notice it let's learn more about the arepa they are one of the most iconic foods in colombia and venezuela both countries strongly claim the arepa but right now colombia has slightly better pr than venezuela you can see arepas of all different kinds when you're here this one is yellow it's been made with a sweet corn batter so it's going to be different from like those white arepas we had in our last video so this is arepa con queso cheese mixed into or stuffed inside the arepa and that is the best kind of arepa oh it's a thick hot pancake let's go for it oh man that batter it's unlike anything I've ever had before it's both gritty and soft and steamy at the same time beyond that the batter is extremely sweet that combined with The cheese is very nice. I'm gonna try just some of that cheese alone now I asked what kind of cheese this was and it translated into soft white artisanal cheese my favorite kind Beyond being artisanal the cheese is also super salty which pairs well with that sweet arepa pancake Let's try a bit of a cheese pull and see what happens here. See this cheese. Oh, no I did not intend to do that. I must put it back. Oh oh ultimate cheese pull the ham is coming for a tag team here we have the cheese but we also have a little bit of jamon on top in order to truly eat like a local a little bit of garlic sauce and we'll toss it back i'm gonna tell you i'm a big fan of henry so that is the arepa and in a moment i'm going to tell you how much i spent on food today but first i want to back up and talk about street food here in colombia in general for me today i gotta say it was kind of hit or miss some foods were pretty good and some foods were a bit of a disaster now of course i just went to random spots on random streets. I know local Colombians, they've got their guy, and I think that's the secret. Have your guy. Don't just go to a random guy making Chinese Cambodian fried rice. Go to your Cambodian Chinese fried rice guy. Cambodian? I'm in Colombia. I also think we were in some sketchy neighborhoods to end with, so everything being made here is being made with kind of cheaper prices and cheaper ingredients, and that did come through in the end flavor profile. But that said, I did have a few that stood out that I liked. Salchipapa, not bad. Big fan. Also, the arepa i didn't need the ham or the extra cheese but the arepa on its own very nice and a very delicious signature food of Colombia but let's talk about price today my goal is to spend over 100 on street food did i hit my target i did not but we got kind of close i ate 11 foods and in the end i only spent around 50 about half my goal so i told you my favorites but what about you guys which of the foods from this video do you wish you could try let me know downstairs in the comments down below otherwise that is it for this one thank you so much for watching i'll Until next time, peace. Bye.