Original subtitles

Paul Hollywood is off on another culinary voyage of discovery...

My God!

...to a country that is as yet a mystery to him — Mexico.

That does not look like any clam I've ever seen.

Mm!

Cheers!

I've never been to Mexico but I love Mexican food.

Well, at least, I think I do.

It's hugely popular in the UK,

but I've got a feeling that real Mexican food isn't going to be

what I might expect.

Do you know what this tastes like? Sea water.

THEY CHUCKLE

I know there'll be chillies.

HE SPLUTTERS

I can't feel my tongue!

I know there'll be tortillas.

They're the best tacos I've ever had. Yeah?

And I know there'll be tequila.

Taxi for Hollywood! THEY CHUCKLE

But that's pretty much where my knowledge ends.

I think I'm gonna need help.

Paul's about to discover a very surprising country.

What a way to get around.

I know you're happy. But your face doesn't know you're happy.

THEY CHUCKLE

I've just bought these trainers yesterday.

I'm leaving half me rubber on the agave.

This is making me very nervous.

THEY YELL

He'll eat some very surprising food.

You've still got some of the meat, the guts.

Yeah, don't say that, please.

Being Paul, he'll obviously be sniffing out every bread,

pastry and cake he can find.

That's delicious! It is.

You should open up a shop in Cornwall.

And of course there will be a mariachi band.

Si, senor! APPLAUSE

Paul's spending his first week in this country's huge capital,

Ciudad De Mexico, or Mexico City.

This massive, sprawling megalopolis

is an absolutely food-obsessed city,

with more than half a million restaurants, street stalls,

pop ups and hawkers.

Great for a food show. But as Paul's a Mexico City virgin,

he's found himself a guide for his first day here.

An a is, hello. Hi!

An a is Martinez is a celebrated Mexican foodie

who, fortunately, knows the city very well.

Thank you for meeting me and helping me with all this.

What's your job in Mexico City? I mean, what do you do?

I basically search for the best tacos and street food for a living.

Is that your job? Yeah, that's it. Like, basically that's my job.

So you've got to be my guide, then, and introduce me to the best tacos

that Mexico City's got to offer. Yeah. Yeah, let's do it.

So, off we strolled across the city...

...working up an appetite.

And where do we end up for lunch?

A car garage?!

Seriously, in the morning

this place is full of oily men in overalls, mending cars.

But at lunchtime, the front of the garage transforms

into El Vilsito Taqueria,

where An a is thinks they sell the best tacos in Mexico City.

So what is this? What meat? It's pork —

everything is pork. That's all pork?

I love... Park's my favourite but I've never,

ever seen a pork like that before. It's just stacked,

sort of like pieces of meat that have been marinated

and a mix of spices and chillies —

not the spicy ones but the flavourful ones.

Why is there a pineapple on the top?

Er, you don't want it cooked.

You want it fresh and you're gonna see how they do it.

They, like, flick it and they catch it with a taco.

If you're thinking that looks suspiciously like

a doner-kebab rotisserie, you'd be right.

Lebanese immigrants brought them to Mexico

100 years ago and actually devised the pork tacos al pastor,

which are now just about the most popular street food in Mexico.

Corn tortilla — just smaller, as you can see —

and the meat, the pineapple, and then the salsa,

which is really important.

Everyone has their own recipe for their salsa.

They look amazing. Yeah.

They look incredible. Right.

Tacos are an obsession in Mexico.

In just one year, this nation consumes over four billion tacos.

Four billion!

Do you wanna start with the lime?

Yes, please, a little lime.

Always a tiny bit of salt. It brings all the flavours out. OK.

And then the salsa that you choose.

That's the hottest one. This is the hottest one? Yeah.

This is... That's fire.

|S it?

That's quite hot. Is it? I told you that was the hottest one.

Is it tasty, though? Oh, yeah. Cos you know, like, we...

It's delicious, I mean... As long as it's tasty.

That taco was VERY spicy.

Ooh, it's getting hot.

But it was very, very delicious

and very different to any Mexican food I've ever had in the UK.

But then An a is explained to me

that a lot of Mexican food we get in the UK

isn't really Mexican.

It's an Americanised version known as Tex-Mex.

I've seen it with cheese on in the past —

now, is that traditional or not?

It's not traditional.

Monterey jack, cheddar cheese and everything — that's mostly Tex-Mex.

I have nothing against Tex-Mex. Yeah. It's just not Mexican.

Like, for example, sour cream, we don't have it.

It sounds weird to add cream to our guacamole.

What about the classic chilli con carne? Not Mexican at all.

So that's more Texas than it is Mexican? Really?

Yeah, chimichangas and what you would think of burritos

and even nachos, with, like, this yellow, awful cheese.

I feel cheated now. I know.

Because everyone thinks they're cooking Mexican, but they're not —

it's more Tex-Mex.

Paul's enjoying real Mexican food so much

he wants to stay and have seconds.

PHONE RINGS

That's for you! If it's me mum tell her I'm not here.

SHE SPEAKS SPANISH

So I'm gonna get one, so I can show you how to eat them.

OK. There's a technique.

Oh, OK.

Three fingers one side, thumb on the other, pinkie up.

You're not drinking tea.

No, it's like a useful thing. Like, you want this out of the way.

SHE CHUCKLES Well, you know,

that's an extra little addition, isn't it?

No, you'll see, you'll see. No, wait, wait.

With your head. You tilt your head and you go sideways like this.

If you wanna look like a local, this is it.

What do you think — easier?

No. SHE GIGGLES

It's good, though. That's fantastic.

They, honestly...

They're the best tacos I've ever had. Yeah?

Yeah. That's a really big statement.

I think cos of its clean flavours and it's...

It's all very basic, but together, fantastic.

Well, that's a rather delicious start to Paul's Mexican wanderings

and he's still got a lot to look forward to in his first week...

Leather-clad lady bikers...

Why did you get together?

We like the motorcycles.

Fair enough.

...something I don't want to even look at...

This is special.

...mindless violence...

...and fire hockey. Obviously.

I'm exhausted.

A country he's never been to before, through its food.

I know what you're doing — you're trying to get me fatter, aren't you?

I know you are. You're a feeder.

He's spending his first week

in the country's eponymous capital, Mexico City,

the oldest and biggest capital in the Americas.

That's 700 years old with a population of 21 million.

So far, he's enjoying his quest.

That's fantastic.

They're the best tacos I've ever had. Yeah? Yeah.

Next up, though, Mexican sweets —

and Paul is in for a few surprises.

We'll come back to that lovely face in a bit,

but we can't really talk Mexican sweets

without talking about pinatas.

Wow! Look at everybody in here.

Oh, they're so good.

Really, really artistic.

How do you fill these?

The problem for me is... they're massive.

How much is it gonna cost in sweets to fill that?

A lot, a lot of money.

Pinatas are colourful, sweet-filled creations

that get strung up and attacked

at pretty much any and every festivity in Mexico.

These things are big business here.

And in many towns, pinata making is THE biggest industry.

These particular pinatas are original pinatas.

I say "original" cos they originated in China.

When it came over to Italy, then from Italy, Spain,

Spain over to here,

the church wanted to make it religious

so the seven deadly sins are represented by

the points on it.

But to go from that to the likes of this,

they're just brilliant. I mean, they're just epic, aren't they?

And there's one for every kid in here.

So I was really into dinosaurs when I was a kid.

These are brilliant. Ah, that is wicked.

Look at that! It's got a belly like me.

That's a bit... What are kids doing with that one?

The latest trend here is to create pinatas of celebrities

who Mexicans feel deserve a metaphorical thrashing.

At the forefront of this new movement

is pinata artist Dalton Ramirez.

This particular pinata became very famous.

This is the one that really put you on the map, is that correct?

TRANSLATION:

They're bringing drugs.

They're bringing crime. They're rapists.

Someone else who spectacularly failed

to win Mexican hearts was this pop star.

On stage in Mexico, while furiously twerking,

Miley had her bottom flossed and spanked with a Mexican flag.

Mexicans hold their national flag in great respect

and this performance caused outrage.

There was actually a Mexican federal investigation of the incident,

but no charges were brought against Miley.

And it seems she has maintained

an uncharacteristically dignified silence

about the whole affair ever since.

Dalton's also made pinatas of unpopular footballers,

disliked politicians,

the Mexican version of Chris Whitty and the coronavirus itself.

Dalton's even made a pair of special pinatas just for Paul.

Yes, it's his Bake Off buddies Noel and Matt.

Well, it's supposed to be.

Paul's task, as this is a food show,

is to get to the sweeties packed inside them, using a big stick.

That's if he's actually prepared to hit his friends, of course.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, seems he is.

Is it me or is he enjoying this a bit too much?

Once Paul has dismembered his friends,

he and Dalton gather up Noel and Matt's sugary innards

so they can finally taste the Mexican sweets.

This one? What's this?

Mm, yummy!

Um, yeah.

Salsa?!

No. No bueno! Oh! No bueno.

THEY CHUCKLE

Yummy.

Sugar?

Yeah, it's not what I was thinking of as sweets.

It's a little bit hot. A little bit.

Wow! It's like sucking on a lemon.

Can't wait. It's gonna be brilliant.

Oh, yeah. Chilli.

Ugh!

I can't taste the watermelon in that.

It seems to be chilli's quite...

Quite a common thing, then, in the sweets?

So you dip it in?

Yeah, I love it. It's chilli powder. HE SPLUTTERS

Takes your breath away, doesn't it?

Oh, wow!

They were SHOCKING.

But I can see why Mexicans develop a taste

for spicy food and hot chillies.

Being an unsophisticated Brit, though,

I'd take a sherbet Dip Dab any day.

After drinking a few gallons of milk

and popping his loo roll in the freezer,

Paul's on the road again,

heading across Mexico City to visit a market

without which the megalopolis wouldn't function...or indeed eat.

This is the massive Central De Abasto,

at the heart of the city's most densely populated neighbourhood,

lztapalapa.

It's the biggest wholesale and distribution food market

in the world.

This market is massive. I cannot believe how big it is.

It's literally like a warren. It goes off in every direction

for miles.

Over 800 acres.

It's got its own postcode, for goodness' sake,

its own police force.

A police force of thousands specifically for the market.

It supplies Mexico City with 80% of its produce.

That's with a population of over 21 million people.

It is staggering.

The market employs 90,000 people,

shipping food in, sorting it,

selling it and shipping it out again.

And none of them are sitting around having a tequila break.

Mexicans are officially recognised as

the hardest-working nation on Earth —

a fact that's very evident in the Central De Abasto.

The hardest working people here are the diableros.

They get 50p a pop to transport goods around the market

and you do not want to get in their way. The diableros stop for no-one.

Are they plantains? I've got no idea.

Mexico is the world's number-one exporter of tropical fruit.

So, of course, Paul's going to find

a few things here he's never seen before.

What is this?

Que es esto?

Oh, it is mamey.

What the... What is that?

What is this? Guanabana.

It's so unusual and so rare that even our interpreter...

Look, she's trying to find out what it's called in English.

And as this is a food show, Paul's going to

want to describe what those things taste like.

It's really odd. It's beautiful.

It's like a mango.

That is delicious. It's like chocolate.

It's more sour than a mango.

It feels like it's doing you good.

Potato? A cooked potato maybe?

It's... It is mango-like but it's crossed with something else

I can't quite identify.

It's really odd when you've never had anything like this before.

It's incredible.

Just for the record, that's a soursop,

indigenous to Central America and the Caribbean.

That's a mamey, native to Mexico and technically a berry.

That's just...a big jackfruit.

And that one's a black sapote that goes by the common name

"chocolate pudding fruit".

Of course we all recognise this one, the most important fruit in Mexico.

Avocados? Avocado, si.

Just baskets and baskets of avocados.

Paul's new mate is Manuel Romero Bello,

one of the market's biggest avocado traders.

TRANSLATION:

Si.

Mexico is by far and away

the world's biggest producer of avocados.

And they earn the country billions in exports every year.

Unsurprising, then, that the fruit is now known as green gold.

I love avocados. I eat them every single day.

So when Manuel said there was a special one to taste upstairs...

PAUL CHUCKLES

...| was straight in the lift.

Oh, the whole thing? Mm-hm.

The creole avocado is native to Mexico...

Mm-hm. Wow!

...and extremely rare.

Oh, that's delicious!

Oh! Oh, wow.

That was the best avocado I've ever tasted.

And the whole market was a fascinating place.

But that day did feel a little bit weird.

The authorities insisted we had an armed police escort at all times.

And we were told in no uncertain terms to stay together

and not wander off.

And do you know one of the main reasons we had the armed guard?

We think it was the avocados.

REPORTER: The avocado boom in Mexico has pulled parts of the country

out of poverty in just ten years.

But the prosperity there turns deadly

as money-hungry cartels take hold of the market.

With massive profits to be made,

the drug cartels now want a piece of the avocado action.

The city of Uruapan in Michoacan State has long been known as

the avocado capital of the world.

Sadly, it's now also known

as one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

Things are now so bad that earlier this year the USA,

the world's biggest market for avocados,

briefly blocked all imports of the fruit from Mexico.

Avocado exports are the latest victim

of the drug-cartel turf battles

and extortion of growers in the Western state of Michoacan.

Avocado farmers have had to create their own vigilante groups

to protect themselves from the cartels.

In Mexico, being an avocado farmer

is now just about as dangerous as being in a drug gang.

How shocking and how sad is that?

The next morning, Paul is up early

and feeling a strong desire for something doughy.

He's off for a baking lesson

at a celebrated bakery called Panaderia Rosetta

in the neighbourhood of Cuauhtemoc,

the historic and cultural centre of the city.

I've been told that I needed to see something called pan Dulce,

I'd never heard of pan Dulce

and it was exciting to think I might be about

to discover something new.

Pan Dulce is Mexico's favourite type of bread.

But to begin with, our star baker thinks he's seen it all before.

When you look around, this wouldn't be out of place in Paris, London,

Rome, anywhere.

This style of, erm, bakery in city centres like this,

all over the world, are almost identical — could be anywhere.

Pan Dulce does translate as "sweet bread".

So, I was a bit worried that I'd come all this way

to see an almond croissant,

a pain au chocolate, a pain au raisin.

Luckily, the bakery's owner, Elena Reygadas,

is on hand to put Paul right.

I wanted to show you the most famous pan Dulce of Mexico.

OK. Which is the concha.

OK, the shell? The shell. OK.

Which I think it's beautiful as an object itself. Mm.

Elena is one of Mexico's most celebrated

multi-award winning chefs.

So it would even include a laminated dough like a Danish pastry?

In pan Dulce, no. Oh, OK. Like, Mexican...

So, a non-laminated dough but a sweet, enriched dough? Exactly.

And that's when I got really interested.

Mexican pan Dulce WAS new to me.

What makes it special — it's the cover, like the crust.

So what is this? Is this a dough?

This is really like a sugar crust.

Having prepped vanilla and chocolate versions of the sugar crust,

they then roll out the dough.

It's a much less rich dough than I thought,

sort of halfway between a bread bun and a brioche.

Really light and I've not seen one before.

We cover with this crust.

Ah, OK.

Some e99-

You kind of dress them.

THEY CH UCKLE It's interesting.

And then this is what you do. Like, you kind of...

...just mark it. Yes, beautiful.

Ah, OK. You got it.

After this, we prove them for 45 minutes.

Yeah, and then what temperature...?

We bake them 160, 180 the most.

Yeah. 20 minutes. OK.

And usually we have this with hot chocolate.

These look amazing. So these are the finished breads.

I love the pattern that it forms with the cutter.

I think that's beautiful. I just think it looks de...

Yeah, it does, it's like a work of art, isn't it?

And they're actually really light.

They're very light.

Fantastic. SHE CH UCKLES

They... It feels lovely.

So, OK, how do we do this?

So, er, hot chocolate.

You either have a bite

and then the hot chocolate or you can really dip it in.

That's delicious. It is.

It's a great carrier for the chocolate. Mm-hm.

And because it's not a very, very sweet chocolate... Mm-hm.

The sweetness comes from this, not from that, which is unusual.

It is absolutely delicious. What a great invention.

And it's not so heavy.

No, it's not. No. It is very, very light.

I'm gonna have to make some of these when I go home.

Gracias, much as gracias. My pleasure, I give you...

I brought a little present for you.

So, you take that to London. HE CHUCKLES

I am definitely gonna make some when I get...

I'll photograph and I'll send it to you. Yes, please do.

Oh, much as gracias. I'm gonna play with this. Yes, you can play.

Thank you very much indeed. I'm made up with that. Great.

I guess I can finish this now before the crew devour it.

SHE CHUCKLES

Paul Hollywood is in Mexico,

discovering this country that he's never been to before

through its food.

And right now, he's having a smashing time in Mexico City...

...even if he's taking a while to adjust to the altitude.

You see, Mexico City is 7,000 feet above sea level,

which makes it the eighth—highest capital on Earth.

It used to be the seventh-highest,

but the whole city is sinking by half a metre a year

as the lake bed it's built on continues to dry up.

Come on, Paul. PAUL CHUCKLES

Today, Paul has joined Felipe Reyes for a tour of the San Juan Market.

How long have you worked here?

15.

15 years, 20 years?

Yeah, it's... OK.

Located in the city's historic centre,

San Juan is known for its high-quality gourmet foods

and supplies a lot of the capital's top restaurants.

Mice. Yeah, mice. Yeah,

I've not seen colours like that before.

That's a big piece of crackling there.

Patanegra'? Patanegra.

Oh, it's my favourite. Fantastic.

But a little while ago, this place almost closed.

Mexico is very susceptible to earthquakes

because it's in a so-called subduction zone, where one slab of

the Earth's crust is slowly sliding under another.

The friction between the slabs is released

in the form of earthquakes. And in the past year alone,

the country has been hit by over 16,000.

On average, that's one every half an hour.

Mexico City is particularly vulnerable —

the effects of big earthquakes here are amplified

due to the soft soil of the lake bed it's built upon.

In the early hours of the 19th of September 1985,

one of the most intense earthquakes ever recorded hit Mexico City.

Thousands lost their lives as over 400 buildings collapsed.

As a result, a lot of residents felt shopping at indoor markets

like San Juan was an unnecessary risk and business dried up.

To lure customers back inside the hall,

this market branched out and started selling more unusual meat.

Looking over here, you have a tiger.

Aha. You eat the tiger?

Yes, and it's very strong.

Yeah. So, it's...

I have a problem with that. It's not good.

Say no, no, r10, "0-

In fact, other exotic meats available here include crocodile,

skunk, iguana, armadillo,

and even lion burgers.

Lion burgers?

That shouldn't be happening.

Um...

Selling endangered big cats in burgers?

That is not good.

But none of it appeared to be on display.

So maybe it's just marketing hype these days.

I do hope so.

What's definitely on display everywhere in the market

is a massive array of edible insects and invertebrates.

Wow! See...

SARCASTICALLY: Yummy!

Now, I know insects are supposed to be the food of the future

and Mexico is well ahead of the curve already on that,

but the stuff on sale there was insane.

We're talking big scorpions, cockroaches,

huge maggots the size of your finger and tarantulas — to eat.

Chapolina is crickets. Crickets.

Aha, crickets. And this is ant.

Ant? Aha, ant.

Crocante. How do you say crocante?

Yeah, crunchy. Aha, crunchy.

I love the fact you have... Cheese!

...fresh cheese and then you have... mm. No, it's...

Yeah, it's sort of going from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Si, yeah. It's crazy.

THEY CHUCKLE

Felipe now runs a cafe next door where, if the fancy takes you,

you can try some of the more unusual foodstuffs on sale at the market.

First up, scorpion.

Yeah, well, that's not hiding its identity, is it?

This is not dangerous.

TRANSLATION:

The sting?

Got, got... Aha, this... Cut and.

Snap that off? You don't want this? Si, yes, aha.

And then you wrap this guy up in his little avocado bed.

Aha, OK.

Oh. No, it's... Ah.

Mm, that's crunchy.

Mm, crunchy, it's like chicken.

Yeah.

THEY CHUCKLE

The guacamole's nice. Don't really get any flavour from the scorpion.

It's not strong, it's soft and the crunchy, it's a...

It's a texture rather than a flavour. Yes. Si.

OK, it's nice that it was wrapped up in a blanket

so I didn't have to see it. Si, si.

I'm just curious whether you're gonna bring me

wagyu steak or something. Ah, ooh!

THEY CHUCKLE

Not wagyu, Paul.

This is special.

Baked tarantula.

Gracias.

Right. Tarantula?

Tarantula. Aha.

How do they cook this?

In the oven. And there you have it?

Yes.

Delicious, yeah.

But in the... In the...tarantula...

So it's toxic as well?

SARCASTICALLY: Mm!

One, one...

One leg.

Crunch, aha.

There is no flavour.

Flavour of the crickets or...? Well, yeah, it probably does taste like...

I've never had a cricket, so...

Eating the legs was enough for me, but Filipe wasn't wasting a thing.

That's very Mexican.

Is it nice? Yeah, mm—hm.

Unbelievable. It's still crunchy.

So, has this become very popular now in Mexico City?

Tourists.

Tourists come for it here?

And just to be clear,

the tarantulas on sale at San Juan are common species,

which are now farmed across Mexico and Latin America.

Although they're usually then sold as pets.

Well, much as gracias. Thank you, Filipe.

You're welcome.

After a couple of tequilas to wash away the memory of scorpions,

and a good night's sleep,

our hero's back in the saddle — literally.

Today he's getting a guided tour

of Mexico City's more unusual fast-food offerings.

He's teamed up with MC Orquideas

or the Orchids Motorcycle Club, an all-female biker gang.

Is it only women allowed? Yes.

And me. You.

Riding alongside him is Betty, who speaks the best English,

so has been nominated to take the lead with the gang's British guest.

Why did you get together?

Why? Because, er, we like the motorcycles.

Fair enough.

THEY CHUCKLE

Where are we going? are we going for breakfast? Si.

Some breakfast. OK.

I'm starving.

You've got to be kidding me.

5,000 miles on a plane to explore the food of

a far-off land and they take me to Maccy D's.

We're going here for breakfast?

Er, yes. I do that at home...occasionally.

Apparently, Paul's new friends want to show him what you get

when foreigners try to do Mexican.

BETTY SPEAKS SPANISH

I've got no idea what they've ordered.

Who's got the food?

This is the molletes for you.

What's this? Molletes.

Who wants molletes?

Molletes. So what is it?

Yes, molletes. Yeah, I know,

you keep on saying that. But what is it?

A bread with cheese. Bread with cheese.

And tomato, chilli, with onion.

Ah, OK.

And, of course, you can add a sachet of jalapeño chilli sauce.

The jalapeño is a hot sauce. Mm-hm. You think it's spicy or is it OK?

No, it's OK.

Hang on.

I feel the heat rising.

The jalapeño sauce. Really?!

THEY EXCLAIM AND LAUGH

Has anyone got any milk?

Molletes IS a popular Mexican breakfast snack,

but is Ronald's version a proper slice of Mexico?

In a scale from one to ten... Yeah.

...this is three Mexican, er, fast food.

Ah, so it's not real Mexican food. No. It's...

It's McDonald's version of Mexican food? Yes.

It's quite tasty, it's a bit bland, er,

but the jalapeño I quite like.

Yes, I see you. THEY LAUGH

So, having sampled a foreign attempt at Mexican food...

You are really handsome.

I'm just an old man now.

...next up the Orquideas want Paul to taste a Mexican take

on another nation's most famous cuisine.

You like sushi? I like sushi, yeah. Where? Yes. Come with me. OK.

Sushi is of course a healthy, low—fat dish,

but at a hugely popular Mexican fast-food chain called Sushi ltto,

they do it a bit differently.

There's a lot of food here. Yes. We are hungry.

THEY CHEER

Here we go. There's some food.

Sushi, a Mexican sushi.

And Mexican sushi perhaps goes a little way to explaining

why seven out of every ten Mexicans are now overweight

and a third of the nation is obese.

Has it been in a fryer? Cos that looks fried to me.

Yes, it's fried. But that's not sushi — sushi's raw fish.

Yes, it's sushi, because... Hang on, that's chicken.

THEY CHUCKLE How is that sushi?

That's fried. Yes.

Oh, man!

That's not sushi but that tastes amazing. Yes.

It's really good. I've never had anything like it.

Let's try this one, then. What's in this yellow...?

Manchego. Manche... What, cheese?

Cheese, manchego and inside chilli.

It's a... A little hot.

Sorry. SHE CH UCKLES

It's chilli.

Yeah. I'd say, yeah.

BLEEP mouth's on fire.

This is really weird, isn't it? Fried sushi.

So you're cooking the fish —

although it's not fish, it's chicken.

And then you've got mango section. Mango.

And a manchego cheese. Manchego.

Although I love them. Are you enjoying it?

Good? Bueno? Bueno?

BETTY SPEAKS SPANISH I love it, I think it's great.

OK, so deep-fried sushi is maybe a little odd.

Slightly overcrowded taxi on your right.

Almost as odd as bumping into a convoy of 200 VW camper vans

in the middle of Mexico City. HORNS TOOT

Totally surrounded by Volkswagen campers.

I've never seen so many.

I love TH EM!

But in the oddity Olympics,

the final snack that Betty and the gang have lined up for Paul

is a definite gold-medal contender.

This? Yes.

No! Yes.

This snack is called Dorilocos

and has become rather popular in Mexico in just the last few years.

I'll give you the recipe, so you can try it at home if you're mad.

Take one bag of Doritos and open along the side,

then add carrots, jicama fruit, cucumber...

Are you serious? Yes.

...pickled pig skin...

Looks like an ear.

"Japanese cracker nuts, chamoy sweet-and-sour spicy sauce...

00h. yummy!

...chilli powder, Mexican hot sauce,

lime juice and, of course, gummy snakes.

What?! BETTY LAUGHS

Why the hell would you put gummy bears on a pig's ear?

Gummy snakes, Paul.

Why would you put gummy bears in that?

Gummy snakes.

Why would you put gummy bears on that? I give up.

So, this is called Dorilocos. Dorilocos.

"Dori" I get, cos they're Doritos.

Locos? I think you have to be crazy to eat it. Because you're crazy

if you eat it. I understand now. Dorilocos.

What do you think?

Mm, yummy! Mm!

That's hideous. Yes?

Yeah. That is...

That's remarkable. So people do actually buy this? Oh, yes. Yes.

Oh, leave it out.

When was the last time you were all here buying this?

Do you like it, Prue? No.

Can we have a... I need a camera.

Matt, come here a sec.

So, it's like my other job on the Bake Off, all right?

I'm judging this and I'm going

"OK, I see what you're trying to do."

But obviously I've got a co-judge, she's over here.

She's called Prue!

What?! The Mexican Prue.

It's horrible. It's horrible.

That's it. OK, thanks very much, Prue.

Now, back over to you, Matt and Noel.

I'm so sorry. Thank you.

I just wanted to say thank you for today to all of you.

Erm, I, I feel a... A member of this motorcycle club now.

Can we take a picture with you?

Yeah, of course, yeah. OK? Yeah, course.

ALL: Orquideas!

Thank you. Gracias, whoo.

And that would usually be a great way to end

a week in Mexico City for any celebrity baker.

But our Paul still has a whole day left here

and intends to fit in a quiet boat ride,

a fair bit more food —

oh, and of course, a game of fire hockey.

THEY EXCLAIM

THEY CHEER

It's Paul's last day in Mexico City

and one thing he won't miss is the traffic.

SIRENS WAIL HORNS HONK

I've loved Mexico City. The people and the food

have been utterly amazing,

but the traffic is horrific!

The city really is just one big, slow, endless queue.

No-one gets anywhere fast.

Mexico City ranks number one in North America

for traffic congestion,

with commuters losing 87 hours a year sitting in queues.

There is an upside to a traffic jam in Mexico, though.

Every time you stop at a red light,

you invariably see a street performer,

whether they're clowns,

whether they're juggling machetes, a fire eater,

a stilt walker.

I mean, there's so many things they do.

We even saw a Little Red Riding Hood chasing a wolf, which is ridiculous.

And it's all over Mexico.

And it does entertain you while you're sitting there

for about five, ten minutes, waiting for the lights to change.

Right now, though, Paul is looking for a bit of calm.

Today he's going for a lovely peaceful boat ride

around an area that's been feeding Mexico City for hundreds of years.

His guide is a descendant of the indigenous Azteca tribes

who built this place —

Mexico's most laid back stand-up comedian, Carlos Ballarta.

This is the way Mexico City,

like, the whole of Mexico City looked back, like, 500 years ago.

This is the borough of Xochimilco,

now a World Heritage Site.

MUSIC PLAYS CHEERING

To get to the quiet bits, though,

Paul and Carlos first have to navigate a sea of drunkenness.

Oh, look, they're selling booze.

Jeez, you sell it on the water.

There we were at one of the most historically important places

in Mexico City, surrounded by boatloads of drunks.

It just appears to be the thing to hire a boat

and then bob around getting utterly wasted.

They were singing, shouting, snogging,

being carried ashore unconscious.

Our medic is gonna go and check her out.

Utter mayhem.

After clearing the last of the booze cruisers,

the mayhem fades away and serenity takes its place.

I mean, this is incredible, it's beautiful.

Yeah, it is. It does bring a lot of memories from my childhood.

Yeah. Me and my cousins playing here.

These are called chinampas.

Chinampas? Chinampas, yeah. It means, er, flower field.

It was created by the Aztecs to have artificial land.

The Aztecs originally built Mexico City on an island

in the middle of a large lake.

As the city grew, they ran out of space

and had to create farmland to grow food.

So they built these artificial islands on the shallow lake bed.

So is this a big loop or is... is there a network of canals?

It's a network of canals. Yeah.

And how long are those canals in total? Do they have an idea?

About 180 km maybe.

Wow! Yeah. That's 115 miles of canal.

It's really big.

To put that in context,

that's just about four times as many canals as Venice.

So it hasn't changed in 500 years? Yeah, this hasn't changed.

This part of the city hasn't changed.

So this is all owned individu... Different families will own

their own plots? Different families will own these

and some of them live here at the same time.

They have their houses here. And they grow things at the same time.

My family used to grow chamomile, I remember that, chamomile.

Have you still got family around this area now?

Yeah. Most of my family still lives here. Wow, that's incredible.

Most of the people that live here, they were,

er, like their parents, their grandparents,

and they go back generations.

It does have a lot of indigenous influence.

There's a lot of people here that still speak,

er, the native language, which is Nahuatl, and, er...

Is that Aztec? Yeah.

So the food that is grown here at the moment —

is it purely for local or is it gonna be feeding Mexico City?

Is this gonna be where they get the products from?

Actually both. Some... Most of the produce,

er, goes to the city centre

and the rest remains in here.

In fact, the produce grown here is of such quality

that it fetches very high prices in the city's top restaurants.

As a result, the locals don't keep much for themselves.

But what they've learned to do is cook with the offcuts.

There was cuata pa pas,

a soup that's been made here for hundreds of years

using leftover, broken or damaged vegetables.

Chilepozonalli uses all of the chilli leftovers —

the seeds, the pith, the stem, nothing is wasted.

It's a very local dish cooked only in this borough of the city.

And a lot of dishes are flavoured with what they call quelite,

stuff that grows as weeds on the chinampas.

All these recipes have been passed down through the generations.

But before Paul can taste any of it, he needs to earn the right

by playing this ancient Aztec form of hockey.

And Paul, the lucky thing, will be trying his hand

at the more spectacular night-time form of the game —

pelota purepecha, or fire hockey.

So it's Paul Hollywood's team of people he's met so far in Mexico

versus the pick of the local fire hockey superstars.

I think what I say now is... game on.

Let's go, team.

The game was invented by the Purepecha tribe

in Western Mexico about 3,500 years ago.

Yeah!

BLEEP ball just flew right by me.

Apparently it represents the battle between day and night —

the ball being the sun

and the players being the movement of the universe.

Fire hockey was dying out,

but as indigenous communities in Mexico

have regained pride in their heritage,

the game has caught on big time.

There's even an official national league now.

LAUGHTER

You're at nearly 8,000 feet,

kicking a fireball round a courtyard.

I'm exhausted. Absolutely exhausted.

Paul's game ends in a surprising victory for the visitors, 6-2,

with the man himself scoring an impressive four goals.

After catching their breath,

the teams come together to extinguish the ball.

THEY BLOW

Or at least they try to.

There we go.

THEY CHEER

With the ball finally out, it's time to eat.

Nice!

I definitely worked up a very healthy appetite

and the food was amazing.

And remember, it was made with the stuff we'd usually throw away.

What is this in here? Veggies.

Oh, it's veggie, and they're cooked inside the corn leaf. Yeah.

It looks lovely.

Things I'm learning quickly about Mexicans are that firstly,

nothing gets wasted. And secondly, they can make fantastic food

out of whatever they happen to have at hand.

We were eating the stems, the leaves, the pith, the rind.

But it was all delicious.

Carlos, An a is, I just want to say a huge thank you

for bringing me here today. I mean, you feel like a little bit

of part of history in Mexico just playing the game.

I've thoroughly enjoyed myself.

It's a spectacular way of ending my first week in Mexico.

I've had the best time EVER.

Much as gracias, everybody. Salud!

ALL: Salud!

I need more beer.

Next time, Paul hits the Carreterra

and sets off across the rest of Mexico.

What an incredible place.

Absolutely incredible.

Not a bad view, is it?

Mm!

I never thought I'd be eating wasp larvae.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media