Asia's Most EXPENSIVE Food!! Farm to Fine Dining MARATHON!! (Full Documentary)

you're using the very smelly pungent loud shrimp paste in your special menu yes can any food work for fine dining fine dining it takes place inexpensive restaurants serving premium food to those who can afford it so we want to make people feel more comfortable from the reservation to when you leave the restaurant but behind the nice clothes and crystal stemware what am i looking at here is real food with real humble beginnings this is a small cow intestine [Applause] in this exclusive series we're demystifying high-end cuisine it's always been a dream of mine to eat a truffle like an apple do it he's like it's not gonna be how you think it's going to be exactly and following high-priced ingredients back to their source around 2 000 ducks that we have here wow it's really ducking loud here [Laughter] today this trailer park kid from central minnesota when you stand correctly you feel strong it's going to do his best to blend in stomach chin a little bit down left up and like this and okay never mind today this experience it's about a tasting menu have you ever had a tasting menu everything is just really small portion like the smallest by size right i want to find out why restaurants with the biggest price tags often dish out the least amount of food let's start here breathe it in do you smell that you mean this one this is vietnam's most violent condiment strong pungent aromatics some even prefer using the word stinky when it comes to describing this like a red bull in your nostrils or something else in your nostrils vietnamese fermented shrimp paste i think it's good i tasted it you tasted it yes sir it's so putrid but there's something so addictive about it in this restaurant they use it as a dipping sauce for a unique array of dipping vehicles boiled pork fried tofu fried young rice pork cakes fried blood sausage vermicelli noodles and plenty of herbs to me this is kind of like a tasting menu right many little options of foods they've got fried tofu cucumber what's your technique when you eat this i'm just gonna grab it and then leave it all right here's a fried pork cake it's such an intense pungent violent flavor that is so good by the time you cleanse your palate with the herbs you're like i want round two i want to go again with this thing okay let's do this one what sausage wow this is really good they have nuts in their sauce a little bit of herb this meal right here less than three dollars the tasting menu we're going to try later around 81 damn trent and i have been through a lot this year and she's proven herself to be a loyal friend of the show so i've invited twin to be my eating partner in this fine dining series to offer some balance so soon we're going to a place called monkey gallery where they do all this different high-end food here in saigon vietnam i'm a little worried well i'm new to having money i don't know how to act properly i wasn't raised right i wasn't raised that much at all to be honest what about you i'm a very typical vietnamese when i eat usually i put my feet that's embarrassing but it's so comfortable and then when you have my dining experience usually like oh everybody is so proper like what am i doing here right but maybe everyone's thinking how you're thinking maybe everyone in there is insecure and unsure of themselves maybe i hope so that's what i just assumed to make myself feel better oh look at all these insecure people i'm normal meet vietnam trained in france where he learned foundational culinary skills in a five-star hotel kitchen now he's making his own path returning to vietnam and creating saigon's trendiest tasting menu experience you'll never guess the places that i've been here he's got more freedom and he can take more risks offering a unique menu based largely on local ingredients some of which you'd never expect to find on a fine dining menu shrimp paste this is gonna be interesting i feel like we're not in your restaurant yeah we are in jalang market right now we're standing next to some of the smelliest local ingredients in vietnam a lot of aromas right later today we're actually going to see you use this ingredient in your special menu yeah it is called good job good you toss your toothpick in there kind of get it nice and coated let's try it out [Music] whoa it's really good yeah i kind of like that it has a depth of savory saltiness they have a lot of umami ripe pure umami it's super different from what we had earlier today though yeah because that's one is from the north so the technique is different with fine dining i assume like all the ingredients need to be really elegant and inexpensive foie gras caviar like can any food work for fine dining the stage is being set for you by the waiters fine dining is said to have begun in france hundreds of years ago traditionally this premium dining experience was quite formal dress codes were in forests and white linens were the standard we used to think about fine dining as like really expensive ingredients like you said but he said right now the carbon trend is shifting the cooks they try to play with different kind of ingredients that just show like themselves a little more these days that rule book has been tossed out the window and the words fine dining mean something different altogether me fine dining now high level food good service and that can come from any level of restaurant today's chef learns without borders adopting the use of ingredients and cooking techniques from around the globe when you are going to any country in the world you have to use the best produce you can find and then you can raise them up to a fine dining creativity trumps tradition as chefs look for new ways to challenge the palettes of their diners can cross cultural cross cuisine in a plate if it's good then we can serve it this is no longer the food of the ruling class this is a classroom with no rules attended by anyone who loves food and who can still afford it too part of fine dining is tasting menus so what is a tasting menu usually a tasting menu includes 9 to 10 courses the purpose of it is that the customer they really want to experience something new and to try the best of the restaurant the menu here is always in fluctuation depending on the availability of ingredients and the chef's creative inspiration right now he's assembling two dishes inspired by vietnamese street food while we're in the kitchen we're gonna try one of your menu items is your arm burning off you okay is it cooking it's okay medium rare okay if it gets to medium let me know we'll stop first up beef intestine small intestine seasoned with a fermented miso paste mixture gets grilled then it's stuck with rosemary topped up with miso hyundai foam and pepper now before we jump into it should we eat first with our eyes and then our nose and then our mouth do you listen to it too and then listen [Music] my god that's an intestine yeah it's so smoking and creamy it has to be the most delicious intestine i've ever had in my life next he'll somehow take one of the world's most offensive smelling ingredients and level it up marry a pork chowl with fermented shrimp paste he prepares the meat seasons it with sesame oil pepper and fish sauce then grills it over charcoal so he said he got inspiration from street food in vietnam like i said it's very much rare when you go to a tasting menu in a fine dining experience that you're gonna taste something that's very strong and a lot of umami like that finally he plates it a leaf piled with herbs the pork chow and the fermented shrimp on the side chili paste and fermented shrimp paste how do i eat this it's like tacos you use your hand to roll the salad and you dip in the sauce fantastic should we try it out yay let's go cheers oh my god oh it's like um you can feel a lot of flavor in this world it is like a symphony of music to my taste buds [Music] oh the shrimp paste with the pork is so good it's really delicious there's fresh herbs kind of giving a little bit of aromatics yeah we do have a lot of like wrap and roll stuff and then there's like an upgraded version of it yeah it's so powerful the heavy port kind of greasy and cuts well with this super umami or savory shrimp paste that is an experience the menu tonight has how many courses the biggest menu is around 15 costs that's wild huh tasting menus can range from six courses to 15. we're settling for nine so for that whole experience that's still only around 78 i know 78 is not a small amount for going out but for some of the top quality food you're gonna find anywhere made with creativity artistry it seems like a pretty good deal i think the same would you pay that much while the chef is preparing for tonight i have someone i need to see i was i don't know the best way to sit for this chang a pleasure to meet you ms chang founder and principal of john robert powers vietnam this is a training facility where they're teaching proper western etiquette something i'm surely lacking i'm western i don't know how much western etiquette i know so far how am i doing i think you look great very confident and friendly hey thank you she must have taken a compliment class as well do you teach a compliment class uh the reason i'm here is i'm doing this whole series on fine dining and i kind of feel like it's a place i don't really belong being confident with your etiquette is the key to being self-confident is it more important to look good or to present myself good both for the fine dining everything is important from your appearance i think you should chew for you some more colors when you're honest sometimes it i feel it in the heart i'm sorry to your posture just you know relax no even the way you walk the way you walk rather oh if compared with your age when you know the proper way to act you can show proper respect for yourself and others [Applause] when you enter to the restaurant with your friends if she is a lady you have to fully chair for her first and after seasick now you can come to your place to sit hey can you actually sit up a little bit okay sit down there we go oh well i learned that i need to push your chair in even though i'm paying your salary right now you want to project confidence appear comfortable and make those around you feel comfortable as well so when we eat you know our body with the table about 10 cm are you serious oh my lord don't make the noise when you eat we do have this kind of class in our university before i skipped it can i ask what's your favorite rule that when your students are watching like what rule do you just break all the time and maybe i will eat a bigger than normal there are a lot of rules cheers for just about every part of the meal when you ring also don't make noise okay i'm sorry but no rule is more important than your attitude with all the skills i learned today i'm going to bring that to this meal it's going to be better than ever awesome can we are you hungry yes very much okay now we're ready course one the pallet opener an oyster is brought back to its natural habitat topped in a velvety oyster cream apple zest of lime and covered with apple foam it's a beautiful presentation i'm gonna give it a smeal okay look at how you hold your bowl now oh look at that yeah i'm sorry are you mocking me do you need to go to etiquette school wow that sour sweet apple but it kind of takes away all that seafoody briny flavor that can be in there sometimes great way to start horse two action the harmony of asia hong kong shumai combined with the vietnamese snail paired with a pesto made of local herbs and silky mushroom sauce [Music] there's so much detail put into this it's insane oh this is very new to me the snail goes surprisingly well with the pork it's super creative course three inspired from japan a scallop soaked in ponzo dressing and miso oil adorned with jewels of flavor including sea grapes so the problem with doing a video about this kind of food is when someone looks at this there's no way they can relate to it even for me it's confusing i'm right here wow do you expect a scallop to have that texture no because usually it's kind of like chewy right yeah this one is kind of like melting exactly course four japanese mushrooms for the next course we have the smoky strazia tala how do you pronounce the cheese strawbella that is the thing inside the burrito oh we paired with the trio shitake and king oyster mushroom and on top we have the mizuna salad with a little bit sunchol pepper from japan you smell that truffle smell that's truffle really smoky but you don't feel like overwhelming you feel full but it's not heavy i don't know how to explain that but it's really cool like that it's super cool [Music] you know there's someone i could have you talk to she teaches etiquette [Music] course number six five this is a palette cleanser meant to reset the taste buds preparing them for what's next palette is cleansed veal sweet bread is sauteed with butter garlic and thyme the biggest question of this video is why is it when people go to certain fine dining restaurants they feel like they pay a lot of money and then they just get a little speck of food plated with curry torched melted butter green beans and chiffonade lime leaves delicious so he said like when you taste food like that it makes you crave it even more oh that's spicy it is like fatty and springy like it's hard to bite through and then the sauce around it oh it's a bit spicy exactly by now we've had smoky savory sweet sour spicy there's like three courses left right now you just have to bring out all the guns spending your dinner indulging in a tasting menu is for the adventurous you never know what's coming and sometimes you don't even know what's right in front of you oh more foam it could be pleasant like this we were just told this is our first main course i'm sorry i'm ready for a nap right now torched tooth fish paired with cassava puree spinach and topped with butter foam [Music] oh the fish is great i'm kind of running out of descriptive words or more daring like this dry aged duck breast sauteed bathed in tamarind sauce and serve the japanese radish and soy bean paste how does it work the skin is very crispy but this one is like totally juicy it's decadent so rich very nice i'm ready for dessert ideally you'll experience a tornado of flavors and textures this is something that keebler elves would make if they were on acid challenging your whole notion of what's delicious we've done it nine courses that's incredible overall ten by ten i loved it there's a good mix of some recognizable food and somewhere it's like i know what that is but they put a little twist on it and then some foods where it's like what have you done to that scallop they mutilated a scallop and turned it into something i've never seen before since it's like a high-end restaurant right like i would expect something more but it's not intimidating at all it's been very cozy and yeah i mean i can share with friends here the mainstream eating scene in the usa places value on food volume wrong here the focus is on premium ingredients artistry technique and creativity but why do people like them and even more why are they so darn expensive there's a lot of items that make sense as far as being on a fine dining menu but with oysters i don't completely understand today we're going deep into the world of oysters visiting a remote floating ocean farm this is the typical oyster everybody knows when you go to a restaurant i want to see how locals cook up this tasty treat it looks like it's fried compared to one of the most luxurious fine dining restaurants in town what a fancy fish it all starts right here twin uh-huh the fine dining series officially starts right now it doesn't feel like it here yeah i know do you know where we are i have no idea you shouldn't know where we are we didn't blindfold you or anything is a coastal province in northeastern vietnam fishermen here supply a huge amount of seafood to nearby provinces and cities especially oysters all these bamboo lattices being supported just by big bricks of styrofoam i think that's what makes it float i didn't even pay attention i'm trying to figure out how i can walk on those and then there's tons of strings that are holding these oysters these suckers have been hanging by a thread in the ocean for nearly a year that means it's time to harvest there's about 30 people out here all working together kind of forming a human chain picking the oysters and bringing it into the boat how often does this happen year-round yeah today we're getting a closer look at mr lin's oyster farm oh some of these are mussels too though be careful though super sharp years ago he left the area's prominent charcoal industry in the mountains and headed for the coast buying boats and building the bamboo structures that would become home to thousands of oysters what made you want to switch gears and live the oyster life [Music] yeah so he said mainly because of the profit oh it's not for the love of oysters with only 10 of these bamboo lattice structures spread across the sea lin is able to produce 200 tons of oysters per year bamboo is very strong it's nearly unbreakable some say oh god it is breakable oh my god each structure earns him roughly 45 000 multiply that by 10 farms and you've got one man very happy with his investment how do you plant an oyster how do you grow an oyster at first um the oysters are small like his nail okay uh what are you sure they're small they attach everything into this rope and i asked him like okay do you do anything in that one year and he said no i just left it there they eat like tiny little creatures in the ocean i've heard oysters are kind of like the filters for the ocean keeping it clean so in that case is it still good to eat i see mr lin grows two types of oysters this is known as a ca core a domestically grown bite-sized creature the other one like you need to buy the shell this one it just attached by itself so you just put string in the water and these shells grow on it oh yeah he said exactly like that i'm interested they take six months to raise and they're less profitable but they're low risk and in high demand among locals i like it briny oceany taste it's not so overwhelming then there's this guy whoa the pacific oyster this is the typical oyster everybody knows when you go to a restaurant is everything okay a much bigger species often exported overseas there it is like a big goober why do i have such a big one [Music] oh my gosh oh it tastes like just drinking a cup of straight up ocean water it is very salty i like that it's meaty but it's also kind of gooey it's pretty iffy bigger is not always better okay i shouldn't laugh i don't understand that while most of these oysters are being exported some are sold locally in vietnam here these ladies are doing some oyster shucking like a lot of shucking making their way through this massive pile ma'am did you make this in prison how did you get this knife what is going on there this is what i did to the last guy who has too many questions once you have your shiv in hand that's that's ram no what that's only in japan these shells will be tied back together on the same ocean fairing string and thrown back in the water where a new generation of these guys will grow how much do you think this would sell for at the market five thousand dollars five thousand yeah does it blow your mind that in saigon there are some fine dining restaurants that sell these guys for like two dollars a piece she said very shocked yeah she's very happy that she can sell this for five thousand here since this is the source of it she understand in saigon because people have to pay for logistic money now oh i thought we're doing a flashback sequence before we jump into some of the world's fanciest oysters we're getting a humble heart-filled local lunch ma'am good afternoon how are you doing she started cooking at nine and spent 20 years in the kitchen so far you have all types of different seafood especially oysters how popular are the oysters on the menu oyster and shrimp are the most popular items on the menu today miss on is cooking us four very different oyster dishes sourced straight from the farms we just visited she just invited us to try this dish it looks like it's fried nice dish one deep fried ca corn it's a sea icon but like it's the bigger one oh there's a big in a small variety yeah they've been basking in the ocean for six months now they're soaking up some dill and flour [Music] i don't know if i've had fried oysters that's pretty good it has the seafood essence without all the ocean water taste what do you think it's really rich yeah it's rich and high in nutrition i freaking love nutrition raw this is like chicken nuggets chicken nuggets of the seed just to be sure about the taste i better have one more what is that [Music] you have the farm right next door it's super fresh it's super affordable for you guys is this still looked at as some special food are you just kind of used to it she said like the taste still tastes very good to them but i think it's because it's so commonly eat then you know it's not that big of a deal like like what it is to us for me it's a very big deal before we leave your kitchen i want you to get back to work but can we try one more dish with these small acorn oysters editor that's where you put in the voiceover it's made with this this and this oh yeah and then she comes back and then we're back in the scene oh great what is this one this is a seattle corn with a tomato sauce top up with fresh dill this is her childhood dish well let's take a bite of your childhood cheers cheers that's ultra yummy you can taste the dill right yeah very very oh wow ultra savory nice acid from the tomato the oyster is just kind of soft and tender of breaking apart but none of that like aggressive oceanic taste it's kindly welcomed into my stomach oh nice our last two dishes in huangmin feature these giant oysters raw oysters set upon perilla leaves with a sprig of fresh julienned ginger and grilled oysters topped with an in-house special sauce containing chili sauce scallions fried shallots and peanuts [Music] star five dining it's got a great deal i got a little bit of lime juice on here some of this really thick soy sauce let's try it out just shovel the whole thing back i think oh wow the leaf is what makes it a salad that i don't know i saw just a big glob of open water what about for you over there on your side of the table it's just a lot of salt water coming from the oyster a tidal wave of ocean water going down my throat uninvited no you invited in no i didn't want it okay so we tried the raw version this has been grilled [Music] okay oh my god it's so good yeah savory nice crunchy peanuts get a scallion oil in there god i'm daring it it's one of those foods where there's so many ways to prepare it and i definitely don't like all the weights i like about half of them my favorite so far and i think that is a recipe we're not gonna find in the fine dining establishment oysters are perceived as high-end luxury food but as you've seen ordinary coastal folks enjoy them too about 35 cents good deal yeah super cheap really good deal so what gives are some oysters really better than others or are some patrons paying a whole lot extra for nothing twin and i are going undercover in our best threads to find out more here at the log how would you describe the type of food you serve here yeah the lock specifies in fine dining experience serve a lot of luxury food including seafood oysters what makes oysters a fine dining food first you would look at the shell if the shell is clean it doesn't have a lot of stuff on it then it would be raised far away in the ocean because when you have oyster like next to the shore it's not very good because it's too close and the water is not clean our first taste of the high life oyster with caviar where's this oyster from it's french origin oh but they made in vietnam oh the chef washes the oysters with a combination of kikka soy sauce kumquat juice and sugar add shrimp soaked in olive oil lemon sauce and top it with caviar fancy a f cheers okay cheers [Music] wow that's delicious mmm really good some nice caviar on there bringing some salt and then the oyster itself is just a little bit briny but so meaty oh i think it's so good don't worry i gotta say oysters it's confusing because i eat some oysters and i'm like how can anyone eat this uh-huh and then i eat that and i think it's fantastic what do i do tell him my problem yeah thank you for him there is no problem he's like i like his so we're good oyster 2 a grilled french oyster with truffle sauce eat it together with the salmon roll but what is it sitting on decoration it's a decorative cake oh no you can eat it but it would taste salty i'm learning a lot about fine dining you guys make cakes that you just throw away i know such a way first they're briefly oven cooked making them reduce in size priming them to soak up some new flavors add white beans then squeeze on a truffle-infused roux last torch [Music] along with the meatiness you taste the truffle right away just a little residual kind of oyster flavor and then i'm just gonna eat some of this cake oh my god he wants you he's right that's the worst cake i've ever had our main course contains a cornucopia of oyster creations including the smaller french oysters and these giant imported japanese oysters all raw with various sauces and flavors [Music] which countries are most famous for their oysters which countries have the most expensive oysters so he said that one's the best from france is there anything the vietnamese oyster could do to get a little higher on your list in vietnam he would like it to be push the oyster farm a little further to deeper water to improve the quality putting in the water whoa [Music] what a fancy fish wow you know a big part of fine dining is for your food to be literally smoking i didn't realize that it should almost have like a halloween theme these are like spooky oysters [Music] now we have the french oysters grown in vietnam but these big ones are actually from japan you know how they got here in an airplane again more food that is allowed to fly during kobit 19 while i'm stuck in vietnam not complaining the first thing we should do is just try this japanese oyster itadakimasu bro it's a bit much for the first date i don't understand oysters i either love them or hate them i'm going to wash it down with some white wine you want to pretend i know you don't drink so just pretend to put it to your lips yes so this one it has caviar a very small bird laid an egg in here i like that i like this one that's good this one has mascarpone and caviar on it [Music] more tolerable cheesy creamy i like the caviar but i still love still a lot it's big when it comes to meat whether we're talking salmon sashimi or fresh beef burger patties we can all agree that freshness is key right like the best beef you can get wrong new generations of daring chefs are pushing the limits of poultry and their diners pallets i'd always heard of dry aged beef can you age any kind of meat i mean you can within raisins what would be unreasonable because i never would have guessed duck today we're going deep into the world of aged meat got to keep that temperature nice and low otherwise if it gets too hot it'll start to age the meat a little bit too quickly than what we want is that just rotting basically discovering the secret techniques that go into making some of the most polarizing protein on the planet what should we expect when we bite into this i think you've missed a lot of things if you haven't really tried it it's probably my favorite way of eating it it all starts with the ducks guys today we are no longer ducking around sorry don't laugh it's a serious video today we have come southward to vietnam's mekong delta to learn how they grow some of the best ducks out there joining me today twin hey have you had duck before of course i probably didn't have duck till i was in my 30s what well today we're not just having any type of duck we're having aged duck have you heard of this not really there's a whole movement or trend behind aged meats so they've taken duck they'll put it in kind of a refrigerator and it'll just hang out there for two weeks whoa so like a lot of work well i don't know if it's a lot of work it seems like you just kind of hang it there today we're gonna be exploring this whole entire process we're gonna follow these ducks from being born to uh well the other side of life are you open to tasting a duck that's been sitting in a refrigerator for three weeks i mean i've eat bucks so you're kind of open to anything i've gotten word from a duck cooking expert that these are some of the best quality ducks you'll find anywhere right now we're amongst this giant paddling of ducks they are so cute they're very cute how many ducks would you say you have in here around two thousand ducks two thousand that's wild mr hunt has been in the duck rearing business for seven years now he's raising about four thousand of these little crackers at any given time what percent is being sold to restaurants and what percent is being sold as pets so he said mostly that these are sold for just meat oh look at you you're sad i feel nothing typically going from a duckling to a ready-to-sell adult takes about eight to ten weeks how old are they about right now two weeks only okay 14 days that's pretty big but this duck breed originating in france can become fully grown around six to seven weeks they require less feed and produce higher quality protein so there are many factors that would decide if the duck's going to be good but he said the dna it would take up to 70 to 80 just like japan's kobe beef good dna is just half the battle how they're raised matters too ensuring they go from fluffy tweens to full-blown adults while staying healthy this is the ducks in the adult stage how many days old are they here it's around 40 days barns are open clean and relatively quiet what makes a duck a good quality duck then they're fed the right stuff yummy industrial poultry he said like if he touched the breast then he can feel that it's pretty thick yep are you checking yourself i'm seeing if i would make a good duck i think so maybe he can help me out later we'll do that off camera after six to seven weeks the ducks reach a weight of about seven and a half pounds and they're ready to ship off how much are you selling the duck for here 100 house in vietnam though for a whole duck yes the duck we're going to be trying later today i think it's like half the duck is around 25 does that seem like a lot to you eating duck is common in vienna he said it's really high around just about any corner you could find it roasted eaten with noodles or stewed in a savory bread have you ever heard of a preparation like aged duck meat but aged he said he never heard of it this is a pretty foreign concept the meat preparation method dates back centuries back in the early 1900s they'd store the animals as a half carcass in the big refrigerated rooms that's how they get more life out of the animal now it makes frequent appearances on gourmet menus especially in europe and big town usa you should be able to pick up like a bit of cheesiness and a bit of hamminess and a certain kind of niceness as well meet george executive chef of stoker woodfire grill for the last three years he's mastered the art of cooking aged meats creating one of this city's most unique dining experiences would you consider this fine dining restaurant am i overdressed or properly dressed small just refined rather than fine dining it seems like each meets happen to be associated with kind of fine dining or higher end restaurants when i learned about this i felt like i won the lottery because i have a lot of aged meat in my refrigerator means turkey old pastrami it's been aging a long time so you have a steak right here we are so this is a 30 day dry age water house it's gra finished on grain so you get a bit more of a fat content through it this gets imported from australia then it sits in the refrigerator for 30 days when it starts resembling a giant stick of beef jerky it's ready to eat what is the most aged beef you've ever heard of i've seen 365 day dry shortline so it looks like a fossil a year it's almost a year a year would you eat that maybe the demonic dark outer skin is cut away revealing a more familiar steak color and texture he seasoned with salt and olive oil and grills on an open fire for five minutes [Music] take it off for a five minute breather then repeat a couple more times until this wise old steak is ready to eat i've tried aged beef before to me it was real funky is that how it's supposed to be it can be um so after 30 days it starts to develop a lot more stronger flavors you'll get a lot more like blue cheese and nutty notes to it even more pungent more powerful normally yes you ready yeah i'm really excited i'm gonna be honest i'm scared but let's just try it i'm gonna get kind of a medium piece here oh it smells fantastic a little smoky i think we should eat it at some point ready cheers [Music] that's delicious thank you very much that's real good it's smoky it's heavy the fat is delicious how was it for you just delicious i'm telling you what i've had in the past it was funky yeah and this is nothing but pleasant no funk at all i should just try one more piece to be sure though [Music] that's good i love it the only main difference i can tell is that the texture feels different right it feels almost a bit more dense kind of a unique texture that's fun to bite through how does the aging affect the texture um so as it gets older it'll start to firm up because it loses its water it will also start to get a bit more tender so it gets tender and firm it almost almost hammy good things come to those who wait enzymes and changes in water composition transforming the meat's texture and mouth feel like my hairline the meat is experiencing a controlled decomposition george yeah right now we're in uh your giant refrigerator but i've been in bigger ones where you can kind of walk around but no it's nice it's cozy quaint the conditions for this method are simple but must be precise the space should be well ventilated moisture is then pulled from the meat over time i'm looking around i'm seeing uh this what's this probably should be seeing that one there oh okay i didn't see that is that a giant tootsie roll is that butter we cut it in red beef fat just to limit that moisture loss a bit more natural enzymes within the meat come alive and start breaking down the molecular bonds this alters the flavor and texture we're here mainly for the duck already today we went to a duck farm the farmer was talking a lot about the breasts he seemed to be a big fan he said they're very full yes they are how long are you going to age a duck so for special events we'll take it to three weeks minimum is out of 15 days the duck is roasted for two hours constantly basting in a mixture of butter vinegar and garlic every 20 minutes next george grills it in the oven spraying on sherry vinegar to help crispify the duck skin what is the experience going to be as i bite down into a three-week aged duck it's going to be gamey a bit of cheesy bit funky a funky duck this is exciting okay pop off the duck breast and thigh and grill slice it into bite-sized pieces and plate it's garnished with caramelized apple chunks and a touch of vinegar sauce hey it's us yes have you seen a better looking dog than this it looks fantastic it is and so this one has been aged for two weeks and it's covered what is this a caramelized apple i like that that's kind of a weird start to a duck meal though let's jump into it the meat itself looks fairly pinkish and the skin is nice and dark it smells great there's some queens vinegar on there i don't know what that means but that's what's on there let's go for it i'm searching for the gaminess so i'm searching for that cheese what the duck it's really yummy there's nothing like funky here though it's not gamey like at all it's different than normal duck though right i mean i'm sure you've had roasted duck or duck made in the chinese way a thousand times because i look chinese okay you know what i knew you would take it the wrong way is the chinese people know how to make freaking duck juicy tender mmm it's not as dense as the other beef that we have in the kitchen it's nothing good holy ducking i wish i said now today we're going to be trying two different ducks duck that is aged two weeks and duck that's aged three weeks usually people don't get the three week one because it's too intense so i wanted to get the intense variety so we can compare it against this like making blue cheese the process of dry aging meat promotes the growth of certain fungal species sounds tasty right can you age any kind of meat it really just depends on how far you go with it duck definitely can chicken i wouldn't what are you worried about with chicken salmonella mainly oh over time it reaches maturity but the longer you go right here we have our three week aged duck the more intense the flavors will become i want you to fork that and just hold on oh smell that smell that [Music] yes this is what you've been waiting for all day this is like stinky tofu but you kind of like it don't you yeah oh oh it's bad it's so bad it's good it looks a little different like discoloration yeah let's try it out cheers you can tell yeah i think i like it it's an offensive aroma it's bold it's daring the smell is a bit more intense than the actual experience of eating it oh damn you kind of take in more of that decomposition of the tissue but then when you eat it it's not as intense as a smell when you mix that with the sweetness and the sourness of the sauce it kind of works together it's pretty strong for me too much for you because when we eat the two weeks it's not that clear you can still taste like normal ducks so i think maybe one more week like no big deal but it's big deal yeah so this is like your absolutely yeah what an experience dry aged meat don't try making it in your fridge like me leave it to the pros this is profound start with the young stuff and if that tickles your tongue work your way up to the more aggressive flavors i like the two week age stuck but i respect the three week age talk wow it's not for everyone i think it's good but if it's like age a little more like one day more then i'll be like if one day your palette grows weary of pedestrian proteins there's always something more extreme ahead shrimpies one shrimp is sticking his little arm oh they're like the poor man's lobster if you had to choose between one lobster or eight shrimp here in southeast asia they come in every shape oh wow oh my god and price around 10 bucks in a shrimp three to four times the other shrimp we just had [Music] today we're going deep into the world of shrimp joining me today venturing far outside the city to a shrimp farm oh no it came back i want to see how locals cook up this tasty treat oh my god compared to one of the most premium high-end restaurants in town do you know what makes these so expensive it all starts right here today we are in vietnam's mekong delta a place that's famous for growing shrimpies and it's actually very rare that we're able to film here you see there's some interesting kind of spiritual belief here that if you have people come and film all your shrimp will die really yeah these shrimps are like extremely camera shy this is not a joke when it comes to filming permission we've been refused by over 20 different farmers all for this reason luckily this man allowed us onto his farm regardless of this superstitious risk that rumor is gonna go a long way already we convinced him using sound reason and plenty of cash i'm glad that money can cure all that worldwide there are two thousand different species of shrimp some are pretty and some are monstrous have you ever had some fancy shrimp like lost like straight i know yeah what's the biggest shrimp you've ever had that okay that's a pretty good shrimp here in asia they're producing 75 percent of the shrimp the entire world consumes and most of that shrimp is raised on a farm farms are easier cheaper and a better option for controlling quality it's no different for today's unique blue-handed river prod this particular river prawn it doesn't really produce a lot of profit but you can get profit all year long okay so it might not be the most money but it's a safe bet overall exactly this is one of the most commonly eaten shrimp in vietnam these little guys tend to be pretty low maintenance as long as you make sure they have enough oxygen food and that their living space is clean why is this such a good place to have a shrimp farm first is weather so it's only had to season like rainy and sunny that's it and secondly it would be the water it has to be like a little salty only like five to ten out of a thousand mr faye starts the shrimp rearing by dumping one hundred thousand two day old shrimp into one of his ponds so what are these fish natural fish natural fish yeah he didn't put any fish here it just happened to be there very convenient you can see the difference in size from the two day old trip to the 14 day old trip they are seriously tiny it's pretty cute but i don't think i get full with that it would take around four to seven months to sell it's way longer than i thought yeah i mean it's so small you want to hold it did you kill it i hugged it with my fingers and i took its breath away oh my god oops oh no it came back to live and it jumped yes he was playing dead to put even more fat on their bones these shrimp stay here for a full seven months before heading to the before heading to the market [Applause] these river prawns are some of my favorite shrimps ever i just didn't see it for most of my life i'm sure you're used to it it's no big deal but the fact that they have big spooky blue arms is amazing to me yes is that oh my god that's their phone okay either that he got a phone call or north korea is attacking seafood seafood seafood mr tan has been managing his own seafood supply for 25 years one shrimp is sticking his little arm oh my god i mean i got scared that freaked me out offering a fresh selection from all over vietnam but this is his best-selling item the river prawn for the mekong delta right there oh yes okay i'm saying oh he's missing one claw that's a big shrimp feel this clock it's like a wet carpet [Music] oh my god oh this one is thick aside from river prawns local folks also commonly eat what the rest of the world eats like these white leg shrimp and tiger these have a beautiful stripe pattern on their back hence the name oh tiger prawn it's one of the most commonly farm-raised shrimp anywhere most of the shrimpies you see here have never ventured into the wild these guys are all farm-raised in fact 98 of all the shrimp you eat come from a pond farm somewhere and only about 2 percent are wild caught this monstrosity is one of the wild ones this one is a mantis shrimp mantis shrimp now i actually i have tried the mantis shrimp before in hong kong oh they caught some plastic because they don't want them to fight with each other the owner takes a moment to swing by and inform us which means it's very powerful so can it hurt you yeah what does it feel like oh yeah it had a hole it went right through when we're back okay so actually this isn't the same mantis i tried in hong kong there are over 400 mantis species and this is one of them oh oh my god that's his arm instead of a dangerous punching fist these guys are equipped with some seriously spiky arms resembling that of a praying mantis so they're still not to be messed with this is nearly three to four times the price it's very tough to raise them in the farm because they have to be consistently in really cold water and there's a lot of technology to be involved to raise them to this size so he said very hard bought straight from the market this food is already pricey but before we see it get the high-end treatment i want to see what local eateries are doing with this fancy food right now um we're here in an abandoned factory it's a large space it kind of has a cool industrial vibe like big fans and they have a fish tank behind you over there baba restaurant is offering a tank-to-table dining experience specializing in river prawn hot pot and all kinds of seafood but i've got a better idea people don't usually do this but today we brought our own seafood here this is great i've never seen this preparation before can you tell what he's done to cook it he didn't cook it that's right our first meal of the day is prepared green that means the shrimp is wrong that's right we challenged this chef to push his creative culinary skills and what did he do well almost nothing but that's on me just kind of stripped the tail away and then he's left the head so you're like ah right it's a shrimp we like to resemble stuff back together yeah i like that oh now that is pretty big for eating raw oh my god give it a little bit of a dip [Music] what do you think that's a bit big for eating raw yeah it's so fresh that is so firm i wouldn't even buy through it right i'm gonna take a smaller bite this time okay let's do it is softer it's like tender but the meat itself is kind of stringy and so i wonder if that's because it's old people say lobster when it gets really big or old it's not ideal so i wonder if that's the same but overall fun i think this would be a good drinking food yeah and our final course second dish features these praying mantis shrimp first he removes the sharp dangerous bits but keeps the cool parts these guys have never been in the deep sea but at least now they're getting deep fried then stir-fry along with fried pork fat chili sauce garlic more garlic and actually more garlic dude that is huge it's not a shrimp alien look i gotta be honest i'm not a huge fan of this kind of shrimp it's bad it's got teeth on its arms you put your thumb in here it'll make you regret it look at this this that's the part it's like it's weird to get it out it's hard to get it out oh wow that's a cleaned one i'm gonna put some of these pork and garlic crumbles inside the body cavity like it's a little shrimp taco cheers [Music] it's good it's good yeah it has that strong like aquarium taste to it actually it tastes like crab meat to me i mean it's got a hint of that crabby kind of sweetness it's still a bit mushy the texture it's not like a normal bouncy shrimp overall pretty good i think it's really good is that worth paying three to four times the other shrimp we just had okay now you're ruining it from it i think it's good but it's not that expensive it shouldn't be i don't think it can be made much better than this even here in this abandoned warehouse looking restaurant this big pile of shrimp comes in at 83 it's an expensive ingredient no matter where you are but now we're headed to one of the classiest spots in town seeing how they turn up the heat and the price on this tasty treat [Music] our final destination square one chef located inside the park hyatt hotel here they're offering high quality food with a luxurious backdrop what do you like about working with shrimp in the kitchen personally i love shrimp for me it comes down to the cooking technique whether you over cook it make it tough you undercook it and it's raw for the wrong kind of prawn whatever it is to cook it with some respect what is the wrong kind of prawn to have raw because we just had the river prawns not really you shouldn't eat those i knew he was gonna say that because it's fresh water we got parasites did it come from the river or it was farm raised you should be fine hey we should be fine we'll know within a couple of a couple of hours oh boy oh it's coming soon let's talk about another type of shrimp we haven't covered yet the cabin carabinero the carabinero yes this comes from the mediterranean around spain it's one of the most expensive shrimp in the world it's right here i'm looking at it this expensive delicacy is one of the world's most coveted prawns renowned for their size and their color which they get by feeding on pink plankton these are actually recommended to eat raw it's one of my favorites this one here these fancy imported shrimpies are slightly torched for 10 seconds do you know what makes these so expensive it comes down to consumer demand there's a business behind it as well but for sure these amazing tastes i think when you try them it should be part of the explanation why they're so expensive okay then the chef places it on an oyster shell and tops it with haman and berico one of the finest hams in the world okay so what does the foam do it's a flavor it's made out of a hokkaido scallop we make it just like a cappuccino just like a scalloped cappuccino i feel fancy a great visual yeah cheers guys oh wow wonderful soft texture no stringiness and there's oyster in there there is we take the oyster and we make it into an emulsion similar to a mayonnaise this is your own creation it is i like it big fan can i have 12 more for our climactic shrimp dining experience we'll see the humble river prawn served two ways now how elegant is this huh so let's talk about it first jasper grilled prawns step one put a stick up its butt area and roast remove the shell and place it atop a bisque eat with caviar and an herb emulsion imagine if they just like boiled your body liquids and then they put your body like on top of the body liquids that's what they've done here with the shrimp that's a good bite cheers the sauce is kind of gentle buttery almost creamy with plenty of that shrimpy essence in it it's not super powerful and you can see here like the shrimp is not cooked it's still like you can have that firm texture still of the raw shrimp right i think that this kind of shrimp is just kind of a stringy shrimp yeah i don't really mind it it's fine but overall good yeah i would like more of them that's the whole poi of fly dining yeah i know something happened from the abandoned warehouse six giant shrimp and then we're here we have one shrimp our final dish has led us here the caramelized river prawn this is a more vietnamese inspiration going into this dish first making the caramel sauce a combination of sugar and vegetables along with fish sauce and soy sauce begin to cook down on the side the shrimps are blanched with onion and ginger add coconut oil the sauce leaks and finally sneak in some chili and peppercorns it's got a giant head and a little tail so i'm going to pull oh the tail kind of comes pretty easily cheers that might be my favorite yet oh wow [Applause] so to me that tastes much more traditionally shrimpy a great dense bouncy texture cooked all the way through very satisfying great comfort food i don't know if it's supposed to be well do you feel comforted yeah like it's like warm when you eat it together with rice i think yeah like a family vibe i would say right a good sharing food if you had more meat to sharpen shrimp it's one of those foods like oysters where it's kind of everywhere whether you're at a super local market a street food stall or a place like this kind of everybody has access to shrimp but it's all about what you do with the shrimp i'm curious that the people watching this would consider this a fancy food or just a normal meat but to me it still feels fancy maybe that's because when i was a kid i was in the midwest far from the ocean and it was just hard to get my hands on shrimp eating shrimp cocktail like once a year at christmas was like amazing but for you you grew up with shrimp i'm surprised like the first one i never thought of making shrimp that way so i do believe that to make it feel fine dining then it has to do a lot with the cooking technique as well and not just the ingredient itself i totally agree shrimp cocktail ain't got nothing on shrimp in asia once you get outside boring old traditional shrimp there's a world of possibilities you never knew existed [Music] a mushroom is a fleshy spore bearing fruiting body of a fungus they can poison you they can heal you it can help stop the spreading of cancer or they can give you one of the finest dining experiences known to man oh i stole my heart today we're digging deep into the world of mushrooms do they have a magic mushroom college seeing how these fun guys are grown in factories this is what my bologna looked like in college from super affordable i thought it would be dusty not dusty it's self-cleaning too ungodly expensive this is what oprah eats we'll be uncovering the vast array of mushrooms that exist in asia they actually have like 60 high of mushrooms and around the world that's what god's breadth smells like and it all starts now mushrooms they don't come from animals so why should we care today i'm with twin to answer that question yes today twin and i will be diving into the wide-ranging world of mushrooms from the cheapest i like that one because it's like squishy all the way to the most expensive you can find anywhere so this is super expensive super expensive so we have a long journey ahead of us but first we're heading to the hot pot store welcome to ashima good 15 years in the hot pot business and over 60 kinds of mushrooms on their menu they are the go-to spot for all things hot pot the cornerstone to any good hot pot experience is the broth so i'm gonna put my spoon in there very complex very nice over here the mushroom [Music] now usually you wouldn't really order this many mushrooms but they wanted to show us the huge variety they have here and they have outdone themselves this is wild first of all these are the oyster mushrooms but before we get too deep into this i want to go to an oyster mushroom farm oh really and we're there no [Music] these are the oyster mushrooms have you had these before in a soup maybe oh you never just stood by a wall of them like this yeah i know these guys are one of the most common and easy to produce mushrooms in vietnam what do you think makes the oyster mushroom different from other mushrooms i think the texture is quite good and when you put it in the hot pot it doesn't get so salty yeah but before i have a taste i want to learn more about where these fungi come from with mushroom farmer mr young sir how you doing on his humble farm he grows over 200 000 embryos and five different kinds of mushrooms right now we're standing next to a bunch of embryo bags it's a fun name right embryo bags here like on many farms the mushrooms are grown in reusable plastic vessels filled with sawdust and mushroom spawn the only two ingredients needed to grow a healthy mycelium so he said these are actually the fibers of the mushroom almost like tree roots yes yes yes each mushroom's mycelium grows at a different pace the oyster mushroom takes about 60 days to go from this to this this will be the base for the mushroom to grow later when it's fully matured the bottle cap is removed allowing the mushroom to sprout forth in the coming weeks all right can we eat your oyster mushrooms yeah you can eat it like right away let's do it all right ready ready there's almost like this fibrous fan texture on the back of the mushroom that gives it a nice squishy kind of taste as you chomp through it very good so that is how they make oyster mushrooms [Music] and we're back from the farm next on our hit list enoki mushroom enoki mushrooms or needle mushrooms are a popular ingredient all over east asia especially in japan i'd really like to learn more about these i don't have any information so where can we go how about a mushroom factory oh nice let's to go more about the needle mushroom farming process we've come to kinoko factory a place where these guys are produced on a massive scale the woman behind this magic mushroom operation miss tu hue with 16 years of mushroom experience she's adopted and applied methods and technologies from japan which allows her to produce cleaner and safer mushrooms with less environmental impact right now we are in your mushroom factory and i'm a huge fan of mushrooms all types of mushrooms how many mushrooms are coming out of this place so it would be 1 000 tons every year really to produce needle mushrooms on such a large scale nearly everything must be automated [Music] it starts with a glass cup filled with mushroom compost made from ram corn cob sugar cane radish beets and corn the sealed vessels are sent to a steamer for pasteurization killing any pests or bacteria after eight hours of steaming these vessels are moved to a machine that fills them with mushroom spawn then they're stacked in this warehouse where they grow mycelium for the next 23 days there's about i don't know one billion mushroom jars in here here a mushroom specialist mr neem will watch over his little babies to ensure their quality do you check the quality by tasting it ever because that's kind of my dream job no okay we should go yeah once the mycelium stretches through the entire vessel the cap is removed to allow the mushrooms to spring forth [Music] when the mushroom caps are formed the jar tops are manually wrapped with a measuring cone to ensure the mushrooms are the same size when they leave the factory once mushrooms grow to the edge of the measuring cone they're ready to harvest each mushroom is weighed then put on a conveyor belt and sent to packaging can i try some of this right now yeah ken okay i just broke off a piece that's not too much it's too much yeah you said it too much [Applause] it's earthy and really the best part about this kind of mushroom is the texture it has a certain like squeakiness as you chew through it i love it well from here i think we've got some mushrooms to eat young lady so we got to try the mushrooms in the factory now we're going to try them for realsies like crackers that's really cool that is my favorite thing about these they have this like crazy squeaky crunch from here we're going to the kitchen because there are two more mushrooms the chef here is going to tell us about let's go now i'm not going to teleport we can just take the stairs hello chef hello meet the head of the kitchen mr tuan the keeper of the most unique and most expensive mushrooms you'll find in any of the top hot pot spots what is this called in vietnamese there are two names one is after a flower and the other one snow mushroom oh i like that one it feels great they say that when you walk in nature it automatically de-stresses you and i feel like this also distresses you oh it's nice yeah it's one of my favorite mushrooms it's super unique it seems like it belongs on a coral reef underwater on the great barrier reef outside of australia it's awesome this is one of their most unique mushrooms but i want to try their most expensive one and see if the price can compare to truffles now this is a much more traditional mushroom shape hello i don't speak vietnamese um do you it's for you oh my god i can't believe you make up that problem my staff call me is everything okay everything is okay back to the mushrooms this is the matsutake mushroom it's also known as the queens of mushroom due to its very specific growth requirements this only grow at the roots of some trees and then it has to be foggy all year round it's one of the most expensive mushrooms in the world what makes this mushroom so unique and so rare namone of god this one is very special because it used to be served to the royals in japan and you can only get this mushroom for 30 to 40 days every year all right thanks for all the help we're very excited too should i you got it all right that's fine take the call we're gonna go eat thank you right here this is the snow mushroom one of my absolute favorites crazy texture all right you ready let's go for it let's go [Music] isn't this so weird it's so real it's a little spongy it's a little chewy confusing exciting it's like your first crush in high school you feel nervous but you feel good too i actually like it right yeah it's really good there's one more mushroom we want to focus on here these guys it's not as expensive as truffle but when you eat truffles you can't even have a whole mushroom they will shave you part of a mushroom and that's it but here we can actually enjoy some full mushrooms did you try it out oh wow oh whoa whoa yeah what it's almost like eating just wood in mushroom form kind of soggy texture like you can bite through that see it you can see my teeth on there that's an intense one i like that it's really nice this is one of the most expensive fungi in asia but i want to try eating the most expensive mushroom in the world the truffle so twin brought us here jordan descense or garden of senses a mix of traditional and modern fine dining with chef frederick at the helm chef how are you doing today very well thank you and jose we're great today we're covering mushrooms we've come here to explore the most expensive mushroom in the world the truffle truffle is a type of mushroom that grow underground it's one of the most popular ingredients in fine dining cuisine and an easy way to kick up the price of any meal why do people like truffles so much because it's very expensive i mean a few years ago it was real privilege of people who can afford it but then with the time everybody could buy them and taste them and eat them yeah it's interesting because in my 20s i never tried truffle anything but these days maybe with the advent of truffle oil now there's truffle everything but something happened to me a while ago where i actually tried a real truffle and it didn't taste like the truffle oil and i knew something was amiss does truffle oil actually have truffle in it no oh my gosh son of a gun there are hundreds of truffle species but only about 10 are edible [Music] here they have three varieties in stock oh my god smell it wow that's what god's breath smells like burgundy known for its hazelnut flavor wow it's gorgeous on the inside like a road map to my heart black often used for cooking as it better retains its flavor after it's cooked it develops the aroma and white this is the most expensive truffle here six thousand dollars for one kilo so i think that two offer to madame on a ring should be beautiful yeah sir it's always been a dream of mine to eat a truffle like an apple you're not going really to appreciate it you can do it are you doing it yeah it's so close all right i'm going for it hot aromatic very nutty not as moist as i thought it makes my mouth feel a little dry or like a hard delicious styrofoam this is why most fantasies should just remain fantasies our first dish chicken ramelod starting with the filling combine chicken mousse with chicken liver then add chicken breast pork fat and black truffle cubes spread out the chicken breast fillet then top it with a generous layer of filling french pigeon breasts fall raw and more mushrooms finally wrap it up and sous-vide for three hours at 145 degrees [Music] truffle actually there's no truffle yet there's a truffleman who's going to come and shave it for us oh the chef himself that is a lot that's fantastic it smells so good i feel butterflies in my stomach let's try it out mmm wow that's one moist loaf it's like very delicately seasoned as i'm eating it i don't get a huge truffle sensation i swear it's almost more of something you smell than something you taste it's interesting because as he's doing the shavings like that is the moment of climax after that there's not much to it well i still like it it still makes me feel like a fancy boy course two hokkaido scallops with a side of broccoli ice cream this scallop is seared on both sides then served with a spinach puree pomte cheese spinach and truffle oil serve with a side of ice cream made from broccoli that's been topped with deep fried bacon bits wow that's a mountain of truffle it's a lot of truffle that i cannot see the scallop anymore it looks great yes cheers [Music] it's just so good i'm speechless scallop alone is beautiful it's just plump kind of naturally sweet but it's a perfect match for the truffle so far we've had two dishes with truffle do you think it's worth the hype yes really i really enjoyed that yeah wonderfully married together on the side here something that you wouldn't expect to be married together broccoli ice cream [Music] [Laughter] [Music] final dish macaroni risotto with the most expensive truffle we could find in this city [Music] cook the macaroni then put it on ice in a separate pan fry up garlic and onions add white beans water rosemary and let that simmer sear onions garlic and sun-dried tomatoes add water macaroni butter and finally finish with an artichoke heart mix in the beans and plate with more sun-dried tomatoes scallions parmesan cheese basil and finally top it with slices of freshly grated very expensive white truffle [Music] we've kind of leveled up to the white truffle the most expensive one they have here cheers cheers [Music] oh that stole my heart it was like a fancy comfort food this to me is more reminiscent of what i've had in foods that have truffle oil a little more potent a little stronger flavor and you kind of feel it more in the nostrils which truffle do you like more i think it's hard to say because this one has got to blend in with the food already but this white one very strong so i think i like it more yeah i think i like it more too i like the flavor to hit me like a truck and so i appreciate the more intense flavor of the white truffle mushrooms they add so much to food into cooking whether it's texture it has a certain like squeakiness as you chew through it and then they all just have a really a pretty dramatically different taste to them all the taste of the forest after today i appreciate all mushrooms more and to me a mushroom doesn't have to be expensive to get my attention dude where did you come from here's to fungus [Music] mushrooms are bae there are hundreds of different mushroom species eaten around the globe and it's a crime that more of them aren't commonly available to folks in the usa this is all we really ate growing up but if you're watching this now know that you can scour the mushroom section of your whole foods or local asian grocery store to take home some not so common fungi [Music] today we're going far from fancy restaurants or city streets where the flip are we ah we're in the middle of nowhere really visiting a rarely seen caviar factory can i eat one of these no you shouldn't i wouldn't he always i want to see where this stuff really comes from and learn why folks are willing to pay so much for so little i dropped a bunch of eggs i did too it's also rude to not pick these off the table it all starts right here jonathan hey how you doing hey it's a pleasure to have you here this place is something you don't see every day this is the top of dalat we actually have two farms we have the sturgeon farm that produces caviar and we have the sturgeon farm that produces the sturgeon meat that we sell as well set on a mountain side built downstream from a natural waterfall you'll find the origin of vietnamese made caviar boasting over 10 000 fish so first of all caviar is that just any type of fish egg today we're joined by jonathan executive director of caspiar caviar one of the companies selling the caviar produced at this farm well caviar means fish eggs period but the term caviar has been synonymous with the high-end luxury fish eggs only from sturgeon from the caspian sea now because fishing is illegal we raise them due to overfishing catching sturgeon in the wild is illegal but where there's limitations there's innovation [Music] with caviar why is it so dang expensive well that's one of the most easiest questions to answer okay good there are four types of popular sturgeon species that produce top quality caviar glue gun ossetra sevruga and sterling the average age of our sturgeon is eight years to have caviar wow this farm began with just sterlite back in 2008 and they didn't harvest any eggs until 2017 nine years later how old are you when you first tried it 25 are you 25 right now what about salmon row yeah yeah many times so why is something like salmon row so much cheaper well a salmon after eight months has rose oh it just takes eight months yeah these sturgeon imported straight from the caspian sea are raised here for at least five years before they start developing eggs you never know for certain when a fish will spawn or lay its eggs each fish spawn at a different time so the only way to do that is to do an ultrasound and so today we're going to do an ultrasound for you okay can you name all the foods in your life you've eaten that have been ultrasounded first one for me my mom had ultrasound but you were not food okay what is he looking for so he's looking for the outline of the egg sac because the eggs that's transparent but the egg sac is a membrane and so you can see the membrane [Music] shoves it in there about two or three inches he's going to disinfect the hole when they release it back in the water it will actually heal while these fish are told the eggs for this fish came out it's not ready yet when it turns darker then it gets ready can i eat one of these no you shouldn't i wouldn't probably 25 cents of caviar right here each fish is carefully monitored keeping track of their egg development i think the fish is fine they probably like it so these eggs are actually ready right it's kind of a grayish blue exactly in about three months it'll spawn so we have to take the row out before it spawns um can i eat these you can try okay if they have no flavor then why are they so expensive this would be good if i had like a tequila shot do the tequila lick the eggs it just tastes like fish oil yeah pretty much i don't regret it okay good can somebody call the emergency room please to begin processing the caviar the traditional russian technique is employed he's disinfecting the fish the fish is so clean you could literally eat off it right now box cutter to the gut the color is amazing it's this really brilliant interesting kind of grayish blue color it looks really awesome each pound could cost up to 800 but this price isn't even close to the most rare prized caviar available on the market this is the most expensive fish in the world really yes these are albino sturgeon there's only three farms in the world that actually have these that i know of ten thousand dollars a kilogram wow is there any difference in the flavor or do people just like the fact that it's so rare and unusual there is a difference in the flavor and the color the color is absolutely white and gold are we gonna be able to try this today do you have ten thousand dollars on you uh i could get a bank loan well here we are what a fancy location here we are [Music] today we're sampling the more traditional caspiar imperial black caviar and the even more rare more expensive sundale golden albino caviar so the last thing i saw in person was them cutting the fish and then moving the eggs into a bowl can you tell us what happened between there and here what they'll do is they'll have a tammy so like a sieve and they'll actually roll the egg sac so all the individual eggs come out then they wash it and then they'll carefully measure salt our salt is actually imported salt and then we'll put it into big tin we'll let it age for about three days then we individually put it into each tin and we vacuum seal it [Music] today i'm going to show you guys how to eat caviar on the fly great ah now hold out your left hand right upwards and then make a small fist like this this is how people eat caviar at a party yeah i did not know that when you eat it put it onto your tongue and you let it sit for about three seconds and you slowly push it up to the roof of your mouth the eggs would separate by itself i've always just been seeing how fast i could eat it let's go wow and i'm not drunk this time i'm usually pretty drunk if i'm ordering caviar that's great it's really nice this has a very distinct cashew finish where others are peanut or almonds right the water in our farm creates this flavor i didn't know that my hand can be like the utensils they're serving yeah exactly here albino sturgeon i mean completely different a world apart even though it's from the same species of same species same fish they call this on the street white pearls on the streets on the street yeah i don't know what streets you grew up what you're going to taste is the same but at the end there's going to be a light salty citrus burst you ready for that fresh shall we cheers cheers do you get the citrus at the end you should just say yes okay yeah 100 the eggs themselves are more delicate tender the taste is still very rich a little bit more similar to a salmon row almost isn't it it has more of the fish flavor in it than the imperial we treat it exactly the same way when we make it thank you so much thank you so much is that a pleasure thank you was that your caviar hand no that was my cabbage okay good i don't want to shake the caviar hands black sturgeon caviar is the one true caviar and soon we'll see it brought to its highest potential but first i want to check out one more informal variety some call it red caviar and it's made in japan meet shoza co-founder of fume a japanese fusion restaurant offering top quality ingredients their loaded clay pot is a signature and it comes piled high with one special ingredient that's a nice looking salmon did you catch that no no do they come on a boat or an airplane airplane i cannot go to japan right now yeah this kovid 19 crab is getting pretty bad but i'm jealous of a dead salmon well let's cut its guts open i open the stomach sure what is the season for getting salmon roasted september to november just three months can you eat that yet i must do cure for the bacteria oh did we eat raw blood like seven times now from birds i think we're immune to everything well that's so much the salmon row are cleaned with salt and some sake to remove any fishy smell they're rinsed lightly with hot water then soaked in ice to prevent the eggs from shrinking thank you do i just take a whole shot i know it's kind of like a wrinkly old sack usually it's very plump here it's kind of like it melts into your tongue like taking fish oil pills that's what i mean next they're soaked in a mixture of soy sauce mirin sake and seaweed broth for three hours going from this to this [Music] wow it's popping you know it was so rich before but now that soy sauce kind of cuts through that heaviness oh what a big difference you want to finish that these eggs can pair well with just about anything it's so good with some rice but they can also play a lead role like in this here he's combined salmon tartare an egg yolk fresh salmon roe sea urchin edible flowers and gold flakes [Music] whoa whoa don't smell it directly yeah wait wait [Music] no beautiful let's try to get a buy with everything yeah i think i got everything here cheers whoa so much going on it tastes like opulence what does that mean like luxury i think the sea urchin can be a bit much for me sometimes when it's alone but here with the egg it's some salmon tartare it's really freaking delicious and it's so rich like look at you you got that marquee face our final course his loaded signature clay pot tell me what you want from me it starts with cooked rice and five kinds of mushrooms add charcoal grilled a5 wagyu herbs salmon roe sea urchin japanese black beef stew edible flowers and sesame seeds in this oversized clay pot no joke that's a lot of food so all that's getting mixed up like some kind of bibimbap that's worth 100 or more more this is just a beautiful blend of super expensive ingredients it's like the best of what japan has to offer it's only missing one like hokkaido scallops or something like that i say we go for it yes let's go that's me i've never had a sensation like this where it's like this really fatty savory rich delicious beef mixed with this kind of seafood essence all of it is incredibly decadent like over-the-top rich the most expensive rice bowl that i ever had oh yeah thank you oh i'm not paying for it i'm not sure who's paying for it let's dine and dash we're gonna run i think this is a super creative way to use the salmon rum it's an ingredient it's a star it's like everything in one but it blends together to make the dish better very luxury for me so from here we're going to finally go to one last restaurant where they're preparing a bunch of high-end dishes using the caviar yes let's go put it there julian executive chef that's right of queen saigon and bangkok or the last time you were in bangkok take me with you after their bangkok location was listed on thailand's michelin guide they opened their doors here in saigon offering modern european cuisine when it comes to fine dining one ingredient people always associate with fine dining or a high end is have you have yeah okay you got it we've already been to the caviar harvesting facility is that what you'd call it i guess i understand why it's expensive but why do people like it so much this i don't know why do you like it it's got different arrays of flavors so you will find some caviar which are really briny and seawater some other like raw state fish so that's what it's interesting while we're in the kitchen julian is cooking up two different caviar dishes first the puffs a non-puff is filled with hollandaise cream on the side chadoro tuna is sauced torched then set a top along with all more caviar found in the armor river near the china-russia border oh juicy yeah like a little pickle juice sensation but very creamy as well the texture of it oh it's so satisfying the second non-puff is filled with cam and bear custard and imperial caviar from the same farm we went to this morning let's try it out it's like a jalapeno cream cheese i apologize i grew up in a trailer park i only have white trash references for me this is like a nice spicy cheese you go the chip section the monterey yeah monterey and jalapeno which i love it reminds me of a very nice version of that there's one more we want to try in the kitchen this one right here our second behind the counter taste features carobineros shrimp the most expensive shrimp in the world the head is fried and the tail is left raw he adds prawn oil extract from the shrimp itself some lemon chives and finally the caviar [Music] the caviar brings some nice saltiness to it great fried little bits that get mixed with that raw section and then the citrus kind of brings it all together i like them still chewing that was a taste now we're heading into the main courses hey we're doing it yay it's actual dinner service right now in this restaurant and uh we brought lights first up pickled beet root cubes are placed inside a beet root some spices smoked creme fresh imperial caviar and finally dill [Music] when you pay two dollars for street food do you get something that's literally smoking real fire maybe yeah maybe it's on fire so this is really great based on a russian dish called borscht let's dig deep and try to get a little bit of everything oh my gosh the beets themselves are very underrated but here he's brought the beet to its highest potential and really the caviar and the cream together and everything else is just splendid and then you eat the bowl i think i mean why not force two finally putting the wood fire grill to work hokkaido scallops grill and place to top a seaweed bed on the side potato foam and asiatra caviar coming from another prized sturgeon species i'm gonna try a little bit of this potato foam with the caviar on top why that's from a potato oh that's delicious it's smoky creamy and the caviar is just soft and salty but salty doesn't do it justice it's not the same as just putting salt on there like that oceany kind of saltiness i was worried at first that i was the type of person who maybe i liked caviar because it made me feel fancy but i think i legitimately like it oh that's good you're one of them now i'm one of them give it a little bit of a dip church yeah wow that's so juicy i don't know if i deserve this karma i feel like something bad is going to happen to me after we leave i'm excited about the next one i don't know what he can do with caviar i mean a freaking bone but this dish goes deeper we want to see what's inside the bone have you ever had bone marrow before yeah but not this big only from a goat no i've had bone marrow from a goat i thought maybe you meant the same goat way smaller oh yeah maybe it was a coat i don't know this thing gets grilled roasted and torched until the marrow inside breaks down becoming irresistible then it's topped with an abundance of assietra caviar oh man that is so heavy this is so crazy oh my god i don't know how much is too much okay oh my god this is so good it makes me angry obviously fatty and rich as heck but something happens when he puts a caviar on there they complement each other i'm getting sleepy caviar to be honest i didn't get it i've had it a couple times before it just seemed like okay salty fish eggs but now after going through this whole process i definitely have a deeper appreciation for why it's so valuable but also why people like it so much i do appreciate that the chef can be so flexible about using the same caviar like i really don't know that it can be in so many different dishes in many forms much like life caviar is meant to be savored yes we should slow down for things like our kid's birthday a first kiss or a beautiful sunset but that 20 dollop of eggs piled atop a ceramic spoon commands our attention and it deserves our respect it can make time stand still for one precious salty moment [Music] today we're gonna see a premium buffet from a chef's perspective learning how they satisfy demanding guests who are paying top dollar we've got five main stations every station has signatures we're getting one last taste of the highlight it's amazing i see a full tuna looking at me and most importantly have you had abalone never learning the right strategies to beat the buffet there's so much food here we're not trying everything i think we should get some snails that's what you're gonna get at a buffet yeah no right i don't know what to do it all starts right here we've come to jw cafe known for its sumptuous buffet style offerings you can see this battle in a man a fact to the finish we can ward to the end if you lack so right when you walk in they have the dessert section they've got fresh fruit they've got little cakes and bars they have a freaking chocolate fountain everything looks so beautiful that i cannot eat it well everybody's about to tear it apart so we might as well be part of the destruction i'm ready this looks amazing [Music] [Music] renee has a strong culinary foundation and 26 years experience in international hotel kitchens now he's the executive chef managing all f b offerings in this hotel's restaurant chef put her there how you doing welcome to hanoi thank you very much what kind of skills and experience do you need to properly run a buffet at this scale um people people skill because we work with so many steps we have about 180 in the hotel how can one person manage all that i mean what does your day look like quality check i would say 20 30 of the time and the rest of the time is planning and execution have you ever tried to go to a buffet that you didn't work for and say i'm just gonna do a quality check for you guys for free no okay i was just thinking of a way to get a free meal high-end experience comes with a price tag unless you bring your own film crew here you'll pay about 73 dollars in the usa it'd likely cost much much more how many different food items are available when you pay that 73 400 400 for that price your promised theatrical gastronomic tour how are you able to manage getting that much food prepared every section has a chef that's responsible for it so basically we work as a team together with all our chefs we put our menus together like a symphony that's been orchestrated a thousand times before chef renee is the conductor and every station works as a perfectly tuned instrument what time do you need to begin preparation to have all these items ready in time these items went on uh this morning at 7 30. food that needs time to be prepared starts first everything that's roasted or grilled is prepped and kept over fire with portions sliced and peeled off during service lamb legs bone-in ribeye steak 26 pounds of meat grilled to perfection next suckling pig roasted in chinese style duck dried for two days it gets seasoned and roasted beijing style [Music] while the meat is being prepared other stations are just getting started pasta freshly made from flour eggs and salt [Music] kneaded flattened and cut into fettuccine strips dessert crafting the perfect sweet blend of flavors releasing one final gush of sugar-induced dopamine before you finally collapse from overfeeding [Music] the seafood coming just in time loaded with a variety of sea creatures from around the globe shrimp gooey duck mantis shrimp crab canadian lobster and this 100 pound yellow fin tuna i'm not sure what heaven's like but if it can compare to this i'd consider being good it's all original enough staring at the food chef renee is serving a taste fresh off the grill roasted lamb left [Music] it's a beautiful bastard australian lamb did it fly here probably on the boat then i'm not jealous sorry these days with corona i get jealous of food that can fly because i can't fly can we give this a try let's dig in i'm gonna cut this a little bit are you gonna no i'm not bite off of [Music] that [Music] it's all original smoky and just super simple you're just bringing out the natural flavors a little salt little pepper and just a natural spice that the lamb has comes out beautifully usually lamb has such like strong taste but when you eat it you don't taste it at all right you can be gaming lamb when it becomes older the flavor becomes more strong so you need to make sure that it's not too old wow that's fantastic wow what are the biggest challenges in running a buffet this large the biggest challenge is to make sure that the people who come towards the end of service still have the same experiences if you just walk in the beginning i don't like food that sits in hot dishes and after 10 15 minutes all the vibrance is out of the food the flavor gets out of the food and everything starts to taste the same here they have a different strategy less waste better flavors all it requires is some thoughtful planning i don't need recognition about 10 of the dishes are cooked to welcome the soon arriving guests at 12 p.m it's all about refreshing batch cooking making sure the food is not out too long the desserts are artfully plated side dishes salad pizza ready to go [Music] cold cuts and cheese oh yeah baby abalone congee expensive heartwarming i know the future sifu it's gonna be the item everyone is after seafood is king in vietnam people come closely because of our seafood selection i don't need oysters shut sashimi sliced half the live seafood remains in the tank for guests who want to cook to order and half is steamed boiled or grilled for a taste of instant satisfaction right now preparation is underway for the brunch coming up at 12 o'clock right here the seafood section she's getting everything set up and put out they have slipper lobster spotted crabs they have baby lobsters everything just right here you can get full of this super unique very expensive seafood before we get started i have to ask the chef what is the right way to kind of cheat the buffet and really get your money's worth here that's what i'm looking at we're spending 73 how do i eat maybe 200 worth of food can it be done chef it is 20 minutes until meal service begins is everything ready very happy with it with the tuna here are you gonna cut this up live in front of people and get sashimi from this yes absolutely let's do that right now absolutely and cut to voiceover and then we will appear back and we have oh look at this wow the art of filmmaking here we have some sashimi tuna do you know what part this is from the back your back is a little less fat okay right on i'm gonna just grab a little piece you gotta oh hey you have chopsticks i'm gonna give it a little dip there we go cheers [Music] oh it's so yummy it's a local tuna from the machine area i love that it's local i never would have guessed that it's from the triangle the texture is so different from the tuna i have in a good way like usually it's far apart you know yeah super fresh super yummy this is where it gets really important okay and this is where um we should talk quiet because there's some corporate people around us the baby costs 73 what is a good buffet strategy because i know i shouldn't go eat some fried rice and bread and call it a day for me i i don't go to a restaurant for value eating i go for experience are you satisfied let's get back to the question you want to answer what are the most expensive items that you serve here okay because you have foie gras it's a foie gras unlimited yes i can eat as much as much as you want who could eat more than once well you'd be surprised we've had guests at a table of six ate about 150 slices what yes really without blinking and you didn't have to call the police sorry you didn't have to call it an ambulance no no no they walked out like nothing happened some people love it that's one way to get your money sorry lobster truffles all the meats the seafood in the chinese section there's a item with abalone country and some other high value items so indirectly you've given me the answer yes if you want to beat the buffet you just got to eat a bunch of meat and then get gout [Music] can you make it right when you always online how can you make it right when you be talking all the time right here is our first stop this is the chinese area tons of food but this caught my eye abalone super expensive have you had abalone no really yes so this is exciting and it looks kind of funny it's it what's it look like there's so much food here we're not trying everything it's important to first eat with your eyes it's like foreplay i'm looking at you you look great i'm not going to eat you we got to move on oh really yeah we're not doing it next section here this looks pretty familiar almost like vietnamese street food what you'd find at an out or like shellfish restaurant okay what do you think oh lobster hello okay let's get lobster yay and some snails so they also have canadian lobster back here in a tank i think we can just order one and split it okay also i think they have something here i'm guessing you haven't tried it's called a gooey duck i think i've heard about it maybe like on national geographic snail grilled gooey duck grilled and topped with scallion oil and ground peanut spiny lobster topped with beimel sauce and mozzarella then melted in the oven then the canadian lobster simply steamed this is quite a fancy seafood feast here what i like about it is we've taken a lot of things you wouldn't normally get to try especially all together i think we should start here this is a spiny lobster yeah how many of these lobsters could you eat like 20 10 two oh you were the worst person to bring to them there's no reason to bring you to a buffet all right cheers it's cheesy it's chewy it's satisfying mmm i think it tastes very fresh tastes sweet too here canadian lobster look like you when you go in the sun yeah that's right oh this whole day is worth it i've been working so hard walking around staring at food all day the only thing that makes me a little sad is in the u.s i would have just a big bowl of melted butter to put this into here um fish sauce no no no no no okay well salt pepper lime cheers [Music] i feel like a boss so good this is so much better it's better than the other one right yes the meat's real nice it's still got like some chew to it but not like so stringy and overall very satisfying i always wonder like when you're like oprah rich is this like a snack you eat 10 lobsters no yeah we've got some big beautiful snails here i like it doesn't really have a strong taste very chewy texture here i'm excited for you to try this me too this is a gooey dump my first time having buoy duck [Music] i've never had one this tiny before oh and bigger no they get literally this long yeah you ready for another round chef we're back for more excellent i was thinking usually when i go to a buffet i might mix and match and kind of make my own recipe you have pasta yes you have foie gras yes you have truffle exactly can we mix all those i can mix anything you like he's allowing me to ruin the name of french cuisine chef renee pan sears the foie gras he blanches the pasta and combines it with a green mushroom sauce plate pile it high with slices of burgundy truffle and eat this is a frankenstein creation this is crazy it's not a dish and no one would ever do this except for me and it came from my brain i think we should just cut the foie gras in half at first hey cheers oh my god it's like i'm eating like a piece of butter yeah i thought you could say like a piece of art but yeah like butter very rich buttery creamy it's just gently cascades down your throat like a fat kid going down a water slide here i'm gonna mix some pasta with some truffle with foie gras cheers [Music] i kind of like it somehow it worked thank you well i'm a bit of a chef myself i mean i didn't cook it but i gotta say the noodles do a good job of cutting some of the heaviness of that foie gras but it is still plenty heavy but i still like it i can tell i think we should get dessert oh still yeah let's do it here they make a dessert in front of you they make a teppanyaki ice cream rolls you know teppanyaki so the base is vanilla over here they have 16 topping options you pick two i'll pick two and we'll put all of it in there we want blueberry roasted almonds meringues and gummy bears most of the happiness i've felt in life has come by way of my mouth food just makes me feel good it's moira you that's delicious this buffet i could come here every weekend for a year and still find new flavor combinations that set off my taste buds and make me smile like achieving nirvana but with none of the discipline it's not cheap but my god is it worth it from researching and shooting to editing and mastering our 10 person best ever food review show team works hard to roll out the highest quality travel food entertainment twice a week if you like what we do here please consider supporting our patreon patreon allows fans of the show to contribute a monthly sum and receive a load of extras like early video releases private q and a's and beyond to learn more about our patreon check out the link in the description box down below and if you can't give or don't even feel like it that's okay too we're just happy you're here boom guys that concludes our fine dining series a huge thank you to twin did i say right yes twin is on the instagram.com follower there gentlemen only uh polite dm messages you know i gotta tell you guys men are animals that is it for this one thank you so much for watching we'll see you next time a peace all right let's uh leave and maybe they won't notice we didn't pay [Music] [Music] but you know what you're doing

Channel: Best Ever Food Review Show

Views: 3,436,243

Rating: 4.851058 out of 5

Keywords: fine dining, vietnam, vietnam food, vietnam where to eat, saigon food, saigon street food, food factory, best ever food review show, sonny side, truffle, wagyu, caviar, oysters, cheap vs expensive, worth it, high end food, premium food

Id: 2a-E7bVASBg

Length: 106min 41sec (6401 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 26 2020