The Town That Cooks in a Volcano

A potato for the pot: www.patreon.com/rareearth

Iam 50% Azorean, lived there for half my life, my wife's family during summer had a dinner costume we made the stew at home, drive from pdl to Furnas, left the stew cooking went to the beach and, coming back we would eat the "cozido" and enjoy it because of the special taste...

“Smells like a basset hound crawled under a quilt after eating egg salad.” You win the internet today for your most outstanding description of a foul odor.

"It's even more authentic if you're not even from there." Is such a skillful one sentence summary of it all!

"I may not be a monkey spa biologist, but..." If I had a nickel for every time I've heard someone say that, I'd have a nickel.

I cooked eggs in a volcanic pool in Iceland using a fishing rod and a sock. They were adequate but I treasure the memory.

What an interesting way to look at the concept of authenticity. "Doesn't exist until observed, but once observed it's changed forever." To paraphrase.

Even if it's just about the authenticity of a stew from a place I've never heard of, let alone never visit - Evan gets main monitor, full attention, every video. Thank you for sharing!

This reminds me of the time I had a lovo (earth oven) in Fiji and I asked my friend “how often do you cook lovo?” And he said “as little as possible. It takes too long. We only do them for very special occasions” and I can see why yet, at the resort we were staying at they cooked a lovo every Tuesday because A) people like to witness it and B) it sells well in the local restaurant.

I don’t know about the stew, but this is definitely one of the most authentic channels on YouTube. Every time I watch I know I’m in for a profound treat.

Really liked the comparison of authenticity to particle physics, a great episode

Captain Disillusion, and Rare Earth drop new videos on in the same day. My weekend is complete.

I've never seen the entire concept of tourism explained that nicely before. wow.

"It's only 150,000 people. It's nothing - it's a large town." Exactly how I feel about my home province of PEI. Because hot damn is there nothing here. No room for niches of any sort, and not enough of a population (or at least not a discerning enough population) to actually allow for excellence in cooking, or art, or anything. We've got good potatoes, apparently pretty solid golf courses, world-class seafood, one internationally-recognized ice-creamery, pretty beaches that are way too cold (and often jellyfish-infested) to comfortably swim in, and one globally-known author who wrote one incredibly famous book that I find truly, deeply, terribly dull (if competently prosed). That's it. Everything else tends to be meh at best (including the restaurants that cook said seafood). Also we have tourists. So many tourists. I feel bad for their choices. PEI sucks. You should come some time!

"You can't get this anywhere else on earth"... well, maybe not those exact flavours, but as a kid growing up in Rotorua, New Zealand I remember occasions when we cooked in a geothermal pool. Your videos are always a great snippet of somewhere I'd love to see though - keep up the good work!

An Indian friend once told me that the 'Indian Takeaway' type food was like eating high-class celebratory wedding food. It seems that this is a similar case

Growing up, whenever my parents had to build a big fire to clear brush off the land, we would bake potatoes in the fire (after it had cooled sufficiently to allow for successful baking). They usually were OK, sometimes not very good at all, rarely exceptional, but my parents always were pleased to have done it the way they imagined that their grandparents would have cooked routinely. The furnas stew seems to be similar (independent of the tourists) it’s cool to make it that way, to prove that you can that you aren’t dependent on modern conveniences like electric convection ovens or whatnot.

No joke, I've had a very similar burning question, albeit not about the Azores. In New Zealand, the native Maori cook in hot springs and fumaroles in regions where they're available. However it always seems to be European foods (corn, beef, etc) just cooked in the authentic style for tourists. Is it truly authentic food if its really just non traditional stuff cooked in a traditional style? I really don't know. I similarly didn't bother with it, considering its mostly just a tourist gimmick, but wish I did in retrospect. At least in that case it seems at least somewhat practical, and was used historically, albeit with traditional crops and whatever could be foraged.

I've sailed by, but never had the opportunity to jump ship and experience the Azores. But I did live in Japan for over 2 years and had fallen in love with their native cuisine. Especially the sweet potatoes and chestnuts that were cooked buried in volcanic heated sand. Absolutely superb~👍

A true student of human nature. Thanks for yet another enlightening and thought-provoking journey