Ask Me Anything: Great Places to Eat in Tokyo and Bangkok

hello spilled milkers Andrew Zimmer here no I am not in a hotel room I am wearing my new PBS shirt uh and uh which is a nice soft cotton v-neck a slight V interesting um and uh it's a bonus edition of ask me anything because I missed last week I am so sorry um here is the world's smallest violin plane um but I was so I was in Las Vegas for the Super Bowl and things were hurtling at a million miles an hour on uh Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday it was um an incredible experience uh the restaurant scene in Las Vegas is absolutely exploding so many great new restaurants I went to Wolf Gang Puck's new restaurant that's taken over the Lup space Kama I went to uh Bobby Fay's new restaurant uh braser B both spectacular both from chefs with lots of restaurants and long Las Vegas uh history there uh I went off the strip to some of my favorite restaurants chubby cattle Auber araku um uh pingpang pong for dumplings I hadn't been there yet fantastic um I ate like a king uh I you know giggled like a you know little boy in a candy store surrounded by his football heroes raised a lot of money for uh gen youth uh at Taste of the NFL trying to uh eradicate student hunger in America and I I actually won money when I add up all the individual nights I came out net positive on the Blackjack front okay let's get right to it your questions Paula asks what is a good indoor Habachi I saw Dominique kren use one well I'll tell you you saw a Dom used one get it um I have to imagine that she used what's called a conro um uh Habachi if you've seen a lot of my indoor grilling videos or grilling videos that I shoot during the winter time in our kitchen Studio we also have one uh it is a Japanese uh it's a small small Grill and here's what's amazing uh about it um it is made from uh Earth andwar uh different than clay um but it is um essentially uh creates a radiant effect where it takes the Baton charcoal which burns hotter and cleaner than other charcoals to begin with and um actually amplifies it so these things can get up to 1300 1,400 even 1500° uh and you can put it underneath a a hood of any kind um it's absolutely fantastic um I am going to stick uh a link in here and let you guys know uh all about you've seen the pictures I'm trying to I took a picture of one um you've seen that before right that's a low one there's lots of different brands from lots of different stores uh you can just go on Amazon and buy one uh there are really expensive ones that are sort of carved out of a single piece of this Earth and wear and then there are other ones that are composite uh from it um but I love them cook on them all the time sorry my glasses are dirty and I can't read when that's going on um anyway uh Joe ask chef do you bake your own bread at home never if so what kind of breads have you baked lately none um here's my thing I have a lot of friends who bake really amazing bread everyone at work did the sourdough thing during Co so I didn't have to cuz people would come in with like three bus this big and say we baked all night please take one um also Minneapolis uh which is is where you know General Mills was founded and Pillsbury and all these other companies um using St Anthony Falls as the energy source to turn the Grist mil right the stone to uh turn the wheat into flour there are so many amazing bakeries here in town that I just go buy bread that's twice as good now a lot of people love baking bread for the uh spiritual centeredness they get from it and the focus and all that and I love that I get it by doing things like cooking spring rolls or coaco or vanilla custard um so I don't and I think half the chefs that make a big deal about baking bread only did it once or twice I'm just kidding no I'm not uh Mark asks on any of your TV show visits especially overseas have you ever felt unsafe or you or your crew threatened um well we've had lots of accidents well I shouldn't say accidents just situations where mostly at Sea in very small boats and a storm comes up um in uh in senagal in Samoa in uh I'm blanking on a couple others where you just we all people started you know whistling the uh themed Gilligan's Island until I threatened them with bodily harm um in terms of you know we had a car we did a torrential storm we were on a a mountain uh actually the tallest uh place in all of Puerto Rico in the middle of the national uh Forest uh there State Park and uh we stopped our car cuz we couldn't see anything we're were in a van with like nine people in it and we just started sliding sideways down the hill and thank God we stopped and were able to climb out but I mean you know stuff like that really really scary um but uh five or six times yeah five or six times uh in Venezuela Brazil Johannesburg jeppy's hostel one of the most dangerous places on planet Earth um Damascus we wandered into the wrong neighborhood the kind with Hezbollah spray paint signs all over the place um with cameras just wandering around trying to get b-roll um I'm I'm blanking on a on a couple others we've had uh weapons pulled on us and um some more serious than others uh in Venezuela um everyone was really frightened uh but I noticed there was no clip in the gun and the gun was really rusty and it was an old AK-47 and I noticed that the the the gentleman his clothes were kind of frayed and I realized he wasn't going to shoot us he was just hungry so we gave him our food cooler and you know we knew the way these things work that there was another Compadre of his couple miles down the road and we said look we'll give your friend the other cooler just call him and tell him no guns I mean we just you know you don't want accidents uh that was funny afterwards uh but when it happened less funny um in the favellas of Rio De Janeiro we were hosted by an international Narco trafficker who controlled this little city of 400,000 people that's right 400,000 people um we were in there doing food stories and they needed to escort us and and uh some of his guys got a little jumpy when we arrived and we' unrolled the windows and they had very brand Spanky new fully loaded guns that clearly smelled like they had been used uh and um they they put them under the The Chins of the people next to the windows uh one of whom was one of our camera guys um and that was the last time he ever worked on that show he just said I I can't do that again and I didn't blame him I don't blame him for that decision fantastic fellow great shooter um but uh he just said yeah that's it for me um I don't know why I I mean I get scared to a lot of things but in those situations I just get like super calm and I you know I'm not trying to not doing one of these I just doesn't really bother me it feels like it actually I hate to say this in a perverse way it's kind of it's like you really feel like you're traveling and you really feel pretty alive uh when you're done with it kind of like I I've talked with big wave Surfers about this and and people who do extreme sports where you really are confronting death all the time and they say the exact same thing um Mark writes oh that was Mark's question uh oh travel guides I love this uh uh someone called chef salad writes going to Japan in a couple of weeks can you comment on some great places to eat in Tokyo oh my gosh my Tokyo list has about 200 places on it um so I picked and choose uh picked and chose picked and choose it chose I chose some uh for wagu uh aragawa and Goro ones in the Ginza ones in shinbashi uh for Yaki niku which I love uh sh taien which is in the Ginza barnon fantastic sushi so many good places uh kosaka kuube uh suku bayashi Jiro uh yes it's worth the hype mizutani yes it's worth the hype um Sushi doar rosham Mizu uh fantastic um tempura condo uh and Raku now I should tell you that uh rut I stay at a hotel near it uh near akasaka simply so I can eat there a lot really great tempura fried one piece at a time I mean is just transformative tempura in a Tempura House over there that only does tempura and Cooks one piece per customer at a time is has as much with the tempura over here in Japanese restaurants as my line on your bookshelf makes me an encyclopedia [Music] um tonkatsu I love tonkatsu fried pork cutlet uh myen is great for soba uh Taki yabu uh for unagi especially in the summertime when it's the season go to obana um all they serve is unagi the charcoal broiled eel uh it's steamed and then finished on the charcoal grill so it's just melting uh yakatori Birdland lots of great ones but sorry Birdland is just the best um for you know a a restaurant that has a variety of traditional foods and and it's kind of rare CU mostly in Japan you go to a tempura restaurant for tempura yakin niku restaurant for Yaki niku and so on but uh kou Ginza Yuki mura kadowaki ryugin and cond all great um isaki kind of medium and small plate restaurants with a large variety of stuff all centered around Saki and beer um it's kind of like a Japanese gastro pub uh I've got a few favorites auo fudo fudo and I like that one a lot cuz it's open late uh otaki is great uh hero hio is great um otaki is great because it's in skii so anyway you do the math there uh late night uh show tyen in the ginsa for Yakiniku I I talked about that um uh gon Kahala this one is great because they're actually open to 2: a.m. for food and 4:00 a.m. for drink typically Japanese places are not open for food and drink that late the only place that's open that late are uh nightclubs which are notoriously amazing um chanton for udon they're open very late uh and that's in rangi where a lot of hotels are and a lot of people stay um let's see what else do I have for you uh I mean that's a good list right certainly gets you there um I also think we've done if you're a subscriber you can go to the archives I've done other Tokyo stuff like street food and other things um uh middle fingers 24 writes best places with the best food in Thailand I mean that's like saying best places with the best food in America or in France um I like to it to a city and since most people go to Bangkok uh I like to stay at the capella or the Mandarin Oriental or the Four Seasons on the chiao pry um although I love the P Peninsula I've stayed there a couple I've been to Bangkok a lot I like Bangkok uh no jokes please um crab omelette uh Crea uPorn fantastic uh the rest of food's great here as well but don't skip the crab omelette uh tipi one of the best places for pad thae um they serve it several different ways um uh Ron J fi uh she's that incredible cook it's the it's the place that also serves crab omelets she's famous for there's always a picture of her making one with her goggle glasses um I mean she was food famous before Instagram existed I was going there before Instagram existed uh go there don't skip the spicy stir fried noodles or her rice kanji or all her other fantasticness um yes the crab omelette is that good but there's other stuff there uh samum dare uh papaya salad and all the other isan dishes from the northern part of the country where it gets very narrow and it's right next to La uh papaya salad's actually the Leo ocean natural national dish but then colonialists put a border line between the two of them and all of a sudden Ean food which also they ate a lot of papaya salad which was in Thailand it came down to the south from there um Fried Chicken's really good there too so those the minced catfish uh salad and the spicy chicken soup uh uh sukumvit soy 38th Street uh for street food uh even though the rules have changed and but now some people are back on the street so check it out uh s noan uh traditional Thai food of all kinds I mean it's I mean they're Curry is insane it's hard to argue with eating anything there uh but they do make the best curries in town uh Chote chitter all the old Royal recipes the 100-year old stuff um me crb and spicy mango salad and all that stuff uh go to ya yaat Street um go during the late afternoon wander around eat as many places as you can uh that is where all the great hybridized Chinese and Thai food uh is it it sort of runs through bangkok's Chinatown uh joke's kitchen is there J um but just fall into a place enjoy the voyage of self Discovery uh leaked cang for grilled chicken that's what cang is they have great spicy sour soup they have great shrimp verelli but go there for the chicken uh Nang L Market uh just go past all the cheap clothing go past all the CDs and DVDs and find all the food stalls and Curry vendors and you will thank me later um uh Leo uh Chef tone who's there has won tons of awards he has a brand new restaurant that just opened like last week uh that he has um that he has opened which is fantastic and I've not eaten there but um I should actually look this up and give her the credit um world's 50 best best female chef Asia was just named uh oh yeah pay um her restaurant is called I bastardized her name it's long sunor yanak Kaji sunor sunor anak sunor anak uh the nice thing about Tai is that it's phonetically you can actually sound it out and you're correct uh she has resturant called poang and she was just named Asia's best female chef um so check out poang um she trained in the United States amongst other things went back to Thailand where she's from uh and opened up a restaurant there uh and it she just won the Accolade of accolades for her region I am very upset about it however I think it's okay sorry to editorialize that 25 years ago best female chef can't we just have best chef because when I just think of chefs like Dominique Ken and Sophie pick um uh I'm blanking on you know uh Pam which is her uh how she asked people to call her uh the chef at poong um and and 100 Ashley Christensen here I mean I could just I'm it's late I'm tired but all of those people can cook as well as other people and I think in 2024 it's it's okay if we get rid of best female chef and just put her up against other people I mean it's crazy Elena arzac in Spain can cook as well as any chef in Spain I I've eaten at all the restaurants in Spain I've done San Sebastian I've done Madrid I've done all the eating in Spain uh I mean not all but you get what I'm I put up my Spanish eating cred against almost anyone's um don't send me mean texts Jose andrees uh but I've eaten in his as many great restaurants cuz he sent me there as there are and I'm telling you the the ones that have female chefs there's no I I I just hate even saying the word female chef you're you're should just be chefs and and here's please take this in the in the way in which I intended it it would be like saying uh what let's have you know best black chefs Brown chefs yellow chefs chefs from Mars I mean it let's just do chefs if we do that everything level sets and today I think that uh we no longer need to live as if it was 105 years ago uh okay uh Bolan oh soy in the uh Bangkok old Bangkok train station is amazing uh Bolan um which is also uh amazing these both restaurants serve a lot of everything order anything on the menu um they don't specialize necessarily in one thing uh Street Trot uh very elegant specializing in fish dishes beautiful surroundings um the food isn't fancy but the surroundings are uh proach pety is where I go for roast duck and they do fantastic uh roast duck duck curries they do duck dumplings duck noodles all superb as well it's all things duck there um okay April writes Andrew I'm looking for recommendations on an easy three-ish ingredient rient marinade for pork chops my go-to for pork chops is mustard honey or apple cider vinegar with seasonings those often don't add as much flavor as I would like even if I marinate for a few hours what can I use that will lend a robust flavor in the finished dish well I would recommend dry rubs that have acidic ingredients in them like sugar and salt uh make a dry rub and let it sit for 24 hours let it sit for 48 if there's salt in there it'll almost turn the exterior kind of H y you'll put a lot of good flavor in there uh and sear it in a pan and finish in the oven or grill it um the other thing that I would do is I would just season it with salt and pepper and cook it and use a sauce the problem with marination is that unless you're using something really acidic that's why I love yogurt lemon juice and oregano for things like pork shoulder cub and I make kebabs out of it or for chicken is because the acids in the yogurt cultures and the lemon juice breaks down the the surface of the protein allowing all the flavors to permeate so unless you have an acid in there of some kind and yes salt and sugar acids just in solid form um you're going to not get that penetration that you're talking about speaking of Thai food that's why gang you know barbecue chicken in Thailand they will often make slashes and and by the way and in Peru and a lot of other places in the world they'll make slashes in the bird uh to allow the marinade to like stick in there and stay there and it caramelizes and get chunks of it in your poo assado or in your uh gang so do that or make a killer sauce and then people can just sop it up and drink it if they like uh AA writes vegetarian meat and potato Sunday dinner any ideas that don't include tofur or similar uh yes although I wouldn't say it's potato but I do uh shabo shabo get some Dashi boiling in the middle of the table in an electric pot or in a simmering pot of some kind um and put 20 different vegetables out all cut uh noodles I put tofu out it's not tofurky uh but you can put Bunches of noodles in there and make a dipping sauce and uh two to one soy to lemon juice two part soy one part lemon juice grated daon radish squeezed out little togarashi little mint scallion and let people dip their cooked vegetables in there swish swish it's like a Japanese Hot Pot Shabu Shabu means swish swish swish um first thing that comes to mind and it's great for Sunday night uh Angela in all your worldly travels what was the one place that stood out to you the most for the friendliest people the best food the greatest atmosphere thank than you from a future world traveler oh my God so many places from Syria to the Philippines from Chile to Egypt from Namibia to Croatia people are great I love people and they love showing off their place to people who are visiting um people make the places um are the fins uh or the sweds as like hey crazy fun as uh Korean students over by the university in Soul at 2 in the morning no no one is but still welcoming and fun and engaging so uh just get out there and see for yourself I'm right uh Jean writes what are some surprising things you make in a blender uh a lot of battered things pan cakes things like that it's just so easy you get full incorporation I just gently pulse um most of my soups uh especially vegetable purees um you know but I also use an immersion wand um things I Mak in a blender uh here's something I don't things like pesto I use my mortar and pestel for which is where the pest comes in pesto uh because if you puree and incor incorporate too much liquid into olive oil it turns it bitter um Mary writes hi chef I recently saw the Bizarre Foods La episode with Elena's tamales does she have some kind of mail order no or do you know where I can order some that are exactly like the ones you had no they look like the best tamales I've ever seen in my life they were uh but here's the deal um there is great Mexican food in every state in America so find a place that's local to you and ask them if they freeze and ship instate is a lot easier than out of state uh and there's probably some in your own Hometown um get out and explore find the best Mexican restaurants in your town and go talk to them about tamali seriously chefs love that stuff um I think you'd be really surprised uh Mays writes is booa Bay something an average cook could actually make Not Only Could you actually make it it's really easy um what I would do first is make chapeno which is a San Francisco fisherman stew based on booya base booya base gets its name really from an old medieval French verb where that means to emulsify the olive oil into this tomatoey broth um which you do at the very end and then you serve it with a ruy and you have all the poach fish usually poach it in the fish stock first and then add the one then there's a process to booya base but it really is just adding and it's just batch cooking um it's so simple but chapeno is even easier that's where you make a a very whiny tomato broth uh with some fish stock or clam juice and then you cook the clams and take them out the muscles and take them out and then the pieces of fish and shrimp that takes very little time and cook those and until you put it all in a bowl and pour the sauce over it and serve it with some you know very parsley Laden garlic bread and you've got chapeno recipes at Andrew zimmer.com I love you all have a great rest of the day

Channel: Andrew Zimmern

Views: 4,322

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Id: d__v1Qd6ioE

Length: 29min 11sec (1751 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 13 2024