Amazing Food - ALIEN SPIKY BALL!! You Won’t Believe How They EAT This!!

look at the size of this one that is huge hey everyone hope you're having an amazing day it's mark wiens i'm in the southern thailand province of nakhon si tamara in pakpanang and today we have the special opportunity this is the nepa palm tree and we have this special opportunity we're going to harvest some of the fruit that comes in this amazing spiky ball wow it's extremely unique and we're going to eat it they're going to cook a curry i believe from the fruit from the young fruit which is going to be incredible to see and to taste and then i think they also might make a snack which is made with the fruit but then also wrapped in the leaves so that's the plan for today i'm very excited to learn more about the fruit from the nipah palm tree so we met up with uncle he just arrived and he immediately sprang into action started like going straight for the the big patch of nepa palm trees and you can sense his like passion and his expertise uh and this is a young cluster this is going to be the one to uh any anytime game can make up yeah okay this is for the ah this is for the the curry the young the young one the young fruit oh the neighborhood [Music] extremely strong and very feels like you could i mean you can do a lot of things it's very important for uh they're gonna roast the snack in the leaves but also i think you can do a lot of things a lot of crafts with them you can weave with them you can do all sorts of things with the leaves roofing materials he measured out the the size of the grill so that they're gonna roast for the snack but you just feel these are amazing they can feel how durable they could be the whole roofing here is all made from the leaves of the of the nipa palm tree how cool how cool is this wow that's pretty heavy that could you can swing with this thing that is amazing it's just a huge cluster and it is kind of sharp too even the pieces uh but just the way it grows that's incredible and this is just a young one very small like half the size of one of the older ones another unique and amazing fruit this is a whole community center so some of the elders and some of the aunties from the community have come to help out have come to hang out too and uncle is he is so energetic he's just doing things at a rapid pace they offer a whole educational platform here where they teach the community and even groups come here to learn about the nipah palm tree and the uses of it another thing to note about the nepa palm tree is that it grows kind of in a wetland uh in similar areas as mangroves and so this area is known for mangroves it's kind of a wetland area [Music] for them he was just explaining to us about the process of mostly harvesting what's also important from this tree is the the sugar the sap but you have to hit the fruit with this big mallet and that's going to increase the flow of the sap which can then be made into sugar which thing can be made into vinegar which is also important in the food in this region very educational very very much a learning experience for me [Applause] [Music] okay [Music] [Music] but the process is just very similar to other tapping of palm trees uh from coconut trees to especially famous is the palmyra palm where they do a similar process to get the sap and then boil it down into either a sugar or a syrup or sometimes vinegar or an alcohol from that that sap that juice that comes out of the palm [Music] [Applause] fruits and vegetables and plants and trees they're just it's just never ending possibilities of learning around the world and never ceases to amaze me just the variety the diversity the possibilities of so many different things and this is yet again another example of something that's truly amazing and magnificent and unbelievably useful in so many ways that is huge [Music] again [Laughter] oh now that is a cool coconut scraper to get out and grate out all that fresh meat and he just made swift work of that coconut just cleaned it out perfectly oh man that's a skill that almost everyone has in this area this is actually for the khanom jak which is the the snack it's a very famous snack in thailand shredded two coconuts uh sticky rice flour what else went in uh two eggs and then um like literally almost a whole bottle of the syrup of the sugar from the palm goes in and as you she mixes that up with her hand it becomes a batter it just holds together it starts to get sticky from all of that sugar from that and they said it's 100 pure nipple palm sugar um that batter gets filled into the palm fronds and then wrapped up into a little packet and that's going to be grilled over fire [Music] laughs [Music] i've eaten jack the snack before it's available all over thailand uh but i've never seen the harvesting i've never seen the process wow okay [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] and the little fruits are like in pieces but the actual fruit would be inside of that little piece but this is too young to even have developed and i think it's kind of like a jelly-ish type of fruit it's too young to have developed the fruit so what she's doing is she's taking the pieces she slices up off the bottom of that or the top or the bottom which is really young and that is i think that's the edible part i think that's the part that's going in the curry it almost looks like a yeah like a bamboo shoot the husk almost and you can immediately smell that aroma coming out of the leaves uh similar to grilling banana leaf and that just like fresh roasted green aroma comes out of it uh you can also really smell the sugar starting to like heat up and sizzle with that coconut the steam is coming out it smells incredible like a caramel aromas being a smoky caramel aroma is erupting out of these snacks [Music] and that's exactly what you want well these are long ones now sometimes they make them like half size these are super sized but you want that crunchiness from the caramelized sugar in there and that texture from the sticky rice oh you can feel it's kind of sticky and it's so fragrant [Music] oh wow there's no other added sugar it's only the pure nupa palm sugar which has more of a much more subtle sweetness so much more natural tasting not a not that sharp pounding sweetness that hits your tongue but it's so subtle caramel it's kind of like a slow sweetness and then the coconut from the fresh shredded coconut you can feel the full texture of the coconut it's so fragrant it gives it that texture that crispness and then all wrapped up in that sticky rice kind of elasticity i've had this before but this is the freshest this is this is the best for sure the sap of the palm tree they're actually calling it honey the honey of the tree but it's actually the sap it's not honey it does almost taste like honey and it's like naturally salty too naturally salty maybe from the brackish brackish water a mix of salt and fresh water that gives it a saltiness that's incredible now to the curry station and first she's gonna just uh flash blanch flash boil the they almost look like like wood chips you need okay fresh coconut milk he has a whole chicken here as well as the the nipa palm tops which is all going to go into the curry and they're going to make a curry a southern thai curry called genghua into the coconut milk goes the curry paste which is the combination you can see turmeric in there but you can really smell and just the vibrancy the potency of black pepper in there and shrimp paste she added in like equal amounts of curry paste and shrimp paste lots of shrimp paste which is going to give it massive umami flavor [Music] okay [Music] okay what a move to finish off the curry she took some more curry paste and some more shrimp paste and then she added in a little pour of the the sap the sugar syrup from the nippa palm tree she added in a kaffir lime leaf some kaffir lime leaves so incredibly fragrant some more coconut milk that is smelling unbelievably good my excitement's at a peak high right now to try this curry [Music] so all of us are coming around getting bowls of rice and just adding some of the curry to our plates of rice and all of us are eating way more than the chicken chicken i'm more interested in the pieces of the fruit put some of this onto my rice maybe a few pieces of chicken to all the heart yes that's awesome everyone is kind of sitting around got a bowl no more talking everybody is happy eating silence this is the moment i've been waiting for this entire day [Music] oh oh wow is just a burst of flavor okay first of all the genghua which is heavy on the black pepper chilies turmeric punch of salty umami from the uh the shrimp paste and then you get to those pieces of the it's kind of similar to very mature kind of tougher bamboo shoots it doesn't have that same snappiness but maybe it's more spongy it kind of like absorbs the coconut milk that flavor it almost tastes like meat actually like it almost has like a meatiness to it oh that's hearty that's what a food what a way to use that young fruit like that this is definitely a guy bond to a local free-range kind of chicken maybe add a little more coconut milk curry to that top of that yes wow it's just stunning unbelievable the way the woodiness of it just absorbs all of that curry that spice that coconut milk and next up often times for southern time well always for a southern type of meal there's something called puk naw which is the vegetables that you get fresh uh raw vegetables that you get with always curry in here they have it in a whole bucket you just grab some oh i recognize this one this one is really good and these are just like the vegetables that you pick in the back of your yard usually organic fresh from your trees whatever seasonal whatever is on hand you just need like some good fresh vegetables to contrast the flavor of the richness and the spice of the curries okay here's the heart there we go the sponginess of the heart the bounciness of it [Music] as i continue eating and thinking about this dish this incredible dish like it looks they do look like wood chips i mean they kind of they are wood chips but literally it almost has the texture and taste of chicken breast it kind of could like you could definitely substitute it as chicken i think it could also be compared maybe to if you've had young jackfruit a young jackfruit curry what a unique delicacy [Music] what a single meal dish wonder just pull out the toothpicks thank you micah oh yeah and by the way look at what they they also made from the young leaves they made some toys for micah what is this one a velvet worm or an eel a velvet worm or an eel a velvet worm and then just unwrap the gift the gift of nipa palm gift [Applause] [Music] it's so good i love the mellow sweetness of it and here's that crunch of the coconut it was really good when it was hot right off the grill but it's even kind of better now that it's cooled because it kind of gets crunchier they're good either way but that's just delicious and a great way to end that spicy curry meal right now it's starting to rain you can order all this stuff online and they'll they'll ship it to you right so they have a little shop community store on the side here where they sell some of their products this is the the vinegar which i'm very excited about because they have vinegar and then they actually this is the pure pure sugar here of the so it's that same syrup that we had but just reduced down into pure granules dried we're buying a few things but they don't have much on stock here so we're going to order from them online and send to some of our friends some of these products but i'm so happy so it's such an honor to be able to support such a grassroots effort that are preserving traditions and just better quality food and taste this is the type of community effort that i love to support [Music] when you come here make sure you sign their book awesome hospitality food experience learning about the nepa palm fruit but really for me the highlight i'm a curry kind of guy that curry was the highlight and totally unique and different i i really think that that could be you could substitute that as chicken it tasted like chicken breast in the description box i'll have their information in the description box and you can even if you're in bangkok if you're around thailand they'll ship you their products from around town or you can come here uh arranged to come here when you're in nakhon si tamara it's about i think it was about an hour drive from the center of nakhon si tamarat city that was fun educational and i fully enjoyed it and there are quite a lot of mosquitoes back here so you got to keep on moving that's why i'm keep on i'm i'm moving ah but anyway thank you again to the community thank you to uncle and auntie for hosting us and that's going to be it for this video i want to say a huge thank you for watching please remember to give this video a thumbs up and remember to click subscribe and also click the little bell icon so that way you'll immediately get notified of the next video that i published goodbye from nakanzitamarat thanks again for watching and i'll see you on the next video

Channel: Mark Wiens

Views: 2,509,566

Rating: 4.8617473 out of 5

Keywords: Thailand, Thai food, Mark Wiens, Nakhon Si Thammarat, ขนมจาก, khaonm jaak, khanom jak, unique fruit, tropical fruit, crazy Thai food, unique Thai food, alien fruit, Nipa Palm fruit, nipa palm fruit curry, nipa palm sugar, food videos, unique food videos, Amazing Thailand, Thailand tourism, นครศรีธรรมราช

Id: BEQZ-kP9O5g

Length: 24min 34sec (1474 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 24 2021