EATING OUR WAY AROUND PARADISE | Cook Islands Food Tour | Where to eat in Rarotonga

0:00 we are in the Cook Islands on the beautiful island of Rarotonga and this series is all about great food on the island we're starting off with burgers today we're at Vili's Burger Joint everyone says these guys do epic burgers going to grab a bunch of food and then probably head to the beach I'm Thomas and I'm Sheena and we're Chasing a Plate we hope you're hungry let's eat first stop today is a burger joint attached to a petrol station it's pretty cool they've got the music pumping it's a cool little burger joint they got some seating area as well but it's right here with a petrol station on the main road like most things in Rarotonga this is the main road around the island so you just pull in grab a burger we're at Vili's Burger Joint let's get into it

0:51 Vili's has what you call a real vibe going on the music is truly pumping like I said before but for us that's a big problem cause we get copyright struck by putting things like that on YouTube so we're going to grab the food and head down the road somewhere uh just along this main road find a little beach spot and just just camp up by the beach have a little uh burger burger drink fries picnic can't bloody wait Burgers chips and a tropical smoothie we've parked up on the beautiful lagoon whoa it's like a a million awesome crabs here oh that's so cool there's billions of them oh wow okay this is super cool

1:37 what are they? ohh crabs crabs there's a million crabs anyway burger time so cool one major rule here is when you're parking up your car you never park under a palm tree cause if you park under the palm trees a uh a coconut could could head south bonk straight on your roof or your windscreen and then your uh insurance excess is done for which is two grand for us so we don't want to we do not want a coconut on our car it's hard to beat burgers by the beautiful tropical seaside right by the lagoon and we got speaking of tropical we got a tropical uh shake loaded with papaya apparently papaya yeah I'm really tasting that so what what else

2:23 uh papaya pineapple um a little bit of mango yeah all of the good stuff it's all coming through that's super refreshing delicious let's get into these burgers I went for the Muri Burger it's got a beef patty bacon pineapple and lettuce and a ton of sauce and cheese and it looks good brioche bun ohhh yeah oh yeah that is a great burger really soft brioche bun the sauce is just ultra tasty

3:14 really tangy like the sauce of a big burger at a really well-known burger chain great patty I am loving the tropical Vibe with the pineapple ring as well that is really good and then look at this like what a spot for a picnic lunch oh yeah and it's the double cheeseburger for me so two beef patties all that sauce cheese like Sheena's had and pickles so a very simple classic cheeseburger actually what stood out before I eat it was the price very affordable this was $10.50 and it's big it's pretty heavy it's it's big solid Burger

4:01 oh my god oh yum okay I'm with Sheena on the fact that it's channeling a a place we all know with a big M as a logo but so much better obviously it's not hard so much better than that oh that's yum the beef's very well cooked very well seasoned that brioche bun gives it a good little kick of sweetness and then good chunky pickles and that sauce and cheese combo yum going down a blimmin treat with some fries like Sheena said this location and again this is the main road this gives you an idea of how chilled out it is here how quiet it

4:47 is cause basically no cars are driving past and this is it this is the main road to get around the island so chilled out here comes a dog seems the seems the island dogs are quite keen on our on the burgers too gidday mate sorry bro it's all mine it's so good yum delicious being an island nation fresh fish is super easy to come by we've come to the Pacific fish and chip shop for a feed of fish and chips we hear they do really good ones it's not even open yet it's 5p.m. that they fling open the doors and people are already grabbing picnic tables let's go and find one the second Sheena said that the doors just swung open we're going to get in there first in

5:35 I bet you didn't expect people to be like waiting we got three pieces of parrot fish some Island fries which is something that we don't get back in New Zealand they said it was breadfruit maniota and taro I believe I'm excited this is a very good looking pile of of golden deep fried goodness Zadie wants in straight away I really appreciate the old school wrapped in news print style and I really like how everything's just together so the we ordered Island fries and potato fries and they all just dump them together and they're all mixed up look nice and heavily well salted yum

6:21 we got three pieces of parrot fish battered white fish very flaky and uh delicate normal fries potato fries and also Island fries I know you're loving this parrot fish Zadie is loving parrot fish Island fries are pretty cool, vegetables which are really prevalent on the island breadfruit taro which is a root vegetable and maniota which is cassava root these different kind of chunky Island fries so neat I ripped into this parrot fish the batter honestly on that fish is superior it is so golden and crispy

7:08 mmmm tastes superior too super super crispy that fish is very delicate flaky sweet oh that is great it's awesome out of the island fries breadfruit really interests me I don't know if I've ever actually eaten breadfruit before uh it's one we've seen all around the island and we'll be honest we weren't sure what it was the first few days um we were trying to figure it out and we've since figured it out and now we've been able to order it and look at that nice big chunky fry oh man yum oh that's good crunchy outside but a very sticky center it looks like pineapple yeah it looks like a piece of pineapple cause it's been deep fried

7:55 it's sort of gone obviously gone yellow from the oil oh it's really good super sticky inside a bit of sweetness oh wow this is good let's go with um cassava now dang these fish and chips are epically well cooked again that's super crispy on the outside but nice and gooey sticky almost on the inside yum have you had the island fries? not yet I'm so keen to get in really good they're really good that was wildly good perfectly cooked super delicious super juicy fish just a great meal and

8:46 super interesting having the island fries and I can see why the crowds keep pouring on in all righty home to bed but well not home to bed but home for now we'll pick this one up tomorrow it is the next morning and we've made our way to LBV for breakfast they've got some very interesting breakfasts here and they also have a uh uh a bit of a specialty something you'll find all over the island actually but something that they're very well known for oh yeah I'm excited let's eat breakfast time kia orana how are you? Can we grab the delicious ika rosti

9:34 um we'll grab a donut please an island donut they have a beautiful outdoor area here it's a massive garden so we're going to kick back and just enjoy our food out here look at that look at the chickens oh it's gorgeous the thing they're very well known for is their Island donut and that's what Sheena's got there but we also couldn't resist this this custard and jam filled donut but this here is the classic island donut which is a pretty massive doughnut it's covered in cinnamon sugar so we're going to sit out here oh we've got more coming as well we're going to sit out here and enjoy our food let's get into these donuts we also ordered an ika rosti which I ate the other day and I knew that we had to share it with you because it was absolutely delicious this giant Cook Island donut covered in cinnamon sugar and couldn't resist this custard donut with

10:28 berry coulis let's get into this first oh it's soft and pillowy mmm that is a great donut it is pillowy soft light as air our ika rosti is coming kia orana thank you oh that looks so good meitaki thank you this is what I wanted to share with you this ika rosti but let's just get back to this donut it is epic really pillowy and soft and a great hit of cinnamon sugar it's light as air this ika rosti is eggs benedict but with a Cook Island twist because you've got this huge slab of fresh yellow fin tuna

11:19 look at that there it's sitting on top of rukau which is a delicious concoction of young taro leaves coconut cream and onion it's really rich and of my favourite local foods and then on top of um on the bottom is the rosti but it's made of island root vegetables so taro kumara uh things like cassava that is such a winner of a dish Chef Sonny the man who created this dish just came over and had a chat to us the island rosti is made up of taro breadfruit kūmara sweet potato cassava and it is so crispy and creamy

12:12 then you've got that extra creamy hit of that rukau which is so delicious it is made up of young taro leaves coconut cream and onions so they caramelise in that mixture and the fresh fish the eggs oh it is just a winner of a breakfast this custard donut does not disappoint for custard versus donut ratios it is chockas with custard and we got berry coulis over the top we decided the only fair way to go about this was just whack it in half so we get half each oh dang mmm

13:01 just as fluffy as the island donut and chockers with custard that is not half bad yum oh what a good way to start the day it's been a cool video we are making a bunch of videos while we're on the island so hit that subscribe button drop a comment down below hit that like button thank you so much for watching this one please check out the other videos we've made we've got more to come here made in Rarotonga looking forward to finishing this up thank you so much for watching we'll see you on the next one