- (laughs) You can
actually just stir that up. It looks like melted ice cream. And what I like to do is
get a piece of actual meat, and then use that as a dipping sauce. Oh, you do not want to spill any though. (soft rock music) Good morning everyone. It's Mark Wiens with migrationology.com in Bangkok, Thailand. My mom, my sister, and my niece, are all visiting here in Bangkok. And so today, we're gonna
take a quick day trip to Ayutthaya, which is the
cultural, historical capital. And it's going to be a full car load. Ying and Micah are coming,
taking the whole family. We're gonna visit a
couple historical sites, and eat some delicious food. Are you ready... (mumbles)
Our road trip? Ayutthaya?
- Ayutthaya. (laughs) Everything Ayutthaya.
- Yeah. Micah, how is that milk? - Ayutthaya.
- Time to put you in your bed, in the car seat. (foreign language) - Let me introduce all of you to Imara. Imara is 10-months-old,
and she is my niece. Imara, good morning. (foreign language) I'm gonna be making a video today.
- Have you not make a video of this place? - Have I made a video in Ayutthaya? Probably years ago. But it's been a very long. - It's time for a new one.
- We are all loaded into the car. We've got Ying and mom,
and Imara and Micah. A double car seat back there. And according to Google Maps, it says it's gonna take
us one hour and 26 minutes to get there, so hopefully the kids will
fall asleep immediately. I know Micah. Micah loves sleeping in the car. He falls asleep almost immediately. We are on our way. Is he already sleeping? (soft rock music) Okay, we have just made it to Ayutthaya. That was abut an hour and
20 minutes driving here, and we're gonna first
stop at a temple called Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon, which is one of the famous historical temples, with ruins in Ayutthaya,
so that's our first stop. Hello Micah, how was that ride? Straight from the car seat
into the carrying bag. Come on Micah. Come on Micah. (drum music) It's a temple monastery complex, known for it's giant, old chedi stupa, which is over there,
we'll check it out later. But this whole complex dates back to 1357, and it was built by King Uthong. (drum music) (several people speak foreign language) Made it up to the top
level, the mid-level lookout platform, and you can walk
around the chedi up here, and actually, there's a nice, cool breeze, and a nice view of the
entire temple complex from up here as well. (drum and chime music) Micah, Micah. Oh, there he is. That was a good visit at
Wat Yai Chai Mongkohn. We are gonna take a drive now to go eat some boat noodles next. I'm looking forward to
eating some boat noodles. And, is Ayutthaya famous for boat noodles? (foreign language) (foreign language) The whole area. This who area, including Ayutthaya, as well as the northern
suburbs of Bangkok, that's considered the birth
place of Thai boat noodles. (soft rock music) We arrived to the boat noodle restaurant, and immediately, what I love
about boat noodle restaurants, the first thing is that
you can immediately smell the aroma of cinnamon, and
kind of a sweet, spice aroma. Let's eat some boat noodles. (foreign language) Here's something that's kind of cool. They have a hanging bouquet
of fried pork skins. And you just grab one, and pull. And then you eat these with your noodles. (foreign language) We ordered a variety of
different boat noodles, all with sen lek, which are
the medium-sized rice noodles, and all of them are, there's a mix of pork and beef, and then we got nam tok, which means that it's the broth, they put a little, it's a dark, rich broth. And how they do that is, they add a little bit
of raw blood into the bottom of the bowl, and then they put in the ingredients, and
then they pour in the hot soup, and the curdles the
blood, to make the soup really flavorful and rich and delicious. Imara's actually loving the boat noodles. This is her first boat noodle experience. I'm not sure how to
tell which ones are beef and which ones are pork. Sometimes they serve them
in different colored bowls or something, but these,
they're all in the same bowls. Noodles are on top. The meat is below here. There's some morning glory,
there's a piece of liver, some meatballs. And I do love to season my noodles, but the first thing to do with boat noodles to really taste the flavor,
is to taste that soup broth. And you can see that richness. And that aroma is wonderful,
and you can see that they've already added a
little bit of chili flakes in there, as their preparation. Mm. It has a sweetness to it, and it's already quite sour, and a little bit spicy. Yeah, you can eat as many
as you want actually. - [Pam] They're little, but they're not-- - [Mark] Oh, that might be, okay that's probably good right there. Ying really loves the cab moo,
which is the fried pork skin. And it looks really good,
how she fixed her noodles. I'm gonna add this onto mine as well. Did you try the fried pork skins Pam? - Yeah.
- You should. And then you can mix it all up. - [Pam] It's like entertainment. - [Mark] Oh, and you can actually
hear that pork skin start to crackle when it hits that liquid. - [Pam] I like it. - Alright, going for the noodles now. I think you have to actually
eat the entire blob, the entire bowl of noodles. I didn't get all the meat in this bite, but the entire bite of
noodles in one bite. Or maybe that's because I've
been taking a lot of photos, and they've already sort
of stuck together already. - [Pam] You okay? - Mm. That's awesome. That extra chili. That bumps the heat up nicely. Okay, meatball time. Yeah, nice and firm. Mm. I got the liver in that bite. I'm trying to not drip
any boat noodles on Micah. - [Pam] He might get his first taste... - I'm pretty sure my first bowl was pork. But I think this one
is beef, the next one. The blob of noodles, the duo of meatballs, oh, they're stuck together. (chuckles) And then, yeah this looks like beef. This looks like beef this time. Mix that all around. And yeah, it's actually very sour. You don't need any more vinegar. I'll try to go for some beef and noodles. And you really want to
make sure those noodles absorb as much of that
broth as possible, per bite. - You're like a real guy. You go out with your family. - Beef is pretty good. The beef is quite tender. We just finished with the boat noodles. The restaurant is called
Kuay Teow Reua Pa Lek. The recipe they made, it's a little bit on the sweet side. I like the less sweet version, but the broth was really rich, and the overall flavor was
well-balanced and good, just a little bit on
the sweet side for me. We're back in the car now. Micah slept through that entire meal. But, Imara had her first
taste of boat noodles. How did you like the boat noodles, Imara? Oh, I think that's a yes. I saw her mouth water. And then also, they have a lot of, a cluster of street food
stalls right outside of the restaurant. So we got some snacks. We're snacking on some fried bananas now. - [Pam] They are really
tasty, they're filling. - Yeah.
- Between this. - Fried bananas are good.
- This and the noodles, I don't need a lot more. - Battered in coconut and
sesame seeds, and then crispy. (baby cries)
Oh yeah. They're always good. This particular banana
is a little bit sweet, and a little bit tart on the inside. Okay, next stop, we are going to Wat Mahathat. (soft rock music) We just entered into Wat Mahatat. And this is one of the
iconic areas in historical Ayutthaya, in the historical park. Today is a really nice day. I can't believe how cool and nice it is. It's overcast. (drum music) If you ever do any kind of
searching for Ayutthaya, this is one of the most
famous and iconic sites that you will see. And the story goes, was that there was a full Buddha statue, and the head fell off. And then over many, many
years, it grew into the Bodhi tree, as well as it
sort of wrapped into the wall, as well. (drum music) What I'm loving today is how
peaceful and quiet it is. And I'm here on a week day. But I've been here on the weekends, when it's just packed and, this gives it a totally different, peaceful, calm charm to it, when it's quiet like this. (soft rock music) - With video, Imara, Pam, me and Micah. Micah had a huge milk meal as we were walking around the ruins. Imara, what did you think of Ayutthaya? We are back to the car, and one of my absolute favorite, the best reason to come to Ayutthaya, is to eat freshwater prawns, which Ayutthaya is very famous for. I would not take a trip to Ayutthaya without eating some freshwater prawns. So next up, we are going to eat some freshwater prawns. It's a real treat. Most of the restaurants
are not located within Ayutthaya town, but they
are within the province. A little bit south of the
main part of the town. So, we're gonna drive a little ways, and there are a whole bunch of
freshwater prawn restaurants, which are usually along the river. And we're gonna try one that
I've never been to before. (soft rock music) Oh that's okay. That's awesome. It's like cotton candy. Ayutthaya, along with freshwater prawns, is very famous for roti saimai. A roti, it's like a little
pancake type of crepe, filled with cotton candy, which
is pretty much pure sugar, so it's not really my favorite. But Ying wanted to buy some to bring home to her family, and
especially to her sister, who loves it. It was about a 20 kilometer drive from the center of Ayutthaya to get to this restaurant. and I'm already liking it, a nice relaxing feel. This restaurant is called Rauen Sai Nam. We got a nice table on the edge of the river, they kind of have a deck, a patio overlooking the river. and right next to the bride. Got a couple of dishes, but mainly, really what you want to eat here, are the freshwater prawn. And they are, they are very pricey, they are expensive, but it's a real treat. So right now he is lighting up the charcoal. We're here are at a random time in the middle of the afternoon. Oh hello Micah and Ying. Oh ho ho ho, I can already smell that shell roasting, that shell roasting over those hot coals. As he's roasting the prawns you can actually see the head oils, that liver, that yellow buttery goodness, just starting to melt. He cooks it just perfection making sure that, you really do not want to overcook these. He knows exactly what he's doing though, just so that they are perfectly coked and juicy and tender, and oily and butter. Ok, he said I can open it up. Oh, oh, that steam aroma that comes out of there is just insane. Of all the things you could possibly do in Ayutthaya, eating freshwater prawns is the absolute culinary and attraction highlight. And I've been looking forward to this all day long. They roasted for about 10 minutes on the grill. And then, we also ordered a couple of other dishes, which also look very good. But nothing can outdo the beauty of this freshwater prawn. And these are just roasted with nothing on them, I don't they are seasoned with anything. But they are served with a sauce, but normally you don't even need a sauce, just because you want to experience just that pure flavor of the freshwater prawn. Oh hohoho, you can actually just stir that up like, it looks like melted ice cream. And what I like to do is get a piece of the actual meat and then use that as a dipping sauce oh you do not what to spill any though. And just dip and fully coat. Oh now you have the best of both worlds in a single bite. That has to be one of the best things in the whole world. And that combination, that head oil liver, it's so buttery and so creamy. It is like melted ice cream, but with a bitter, slightly bitter roasted shrimp flavor to it. And then that meat is a little bit muscular, but at the same time it's quite tender. And it's, it's quite sweet. They cook them just perfect. So they are not overcooked, definitely not overcooked, which would dry them out and probably make them tough. But just, melt in your mouth unbelievable. If I could just choose, a single one ingredient, to eat in Thailand, It may be freshwater prawns. That freshwater prawn is immaculate. But this roasted eggplant salad which is called yam makua yao, it also looks pretty good, there's some big shrimp on top of there, there's some minced pork in here. there are some shallots, and those eggs, let me put some of this on my plate, And those eggs, which is like a half boiled soft boiled egg, on the side here, it actually, that yolk almost looks like the shrimp. On to the salad, oh a chili in this bite. Oh that's really good too, It's citrusy and it's salty, and again that egg just melts in your mouth like the shrimp. And then there's shallots in there, smoky eggplant. And then that dressing is a little bit sour, like lime, limey. And then it also has a saltiness, like a fish sauce saltiness to it. For soup we got tom khlong pla neua on. And this is a type of soup, there's fish in here. It's similar to tom yum, but a little bit different and they use dried chilies in here. And I've already tasted tasted this and it's very good, my sister really likes it. Oh, that's a good flavor. It's really, it's actually salty to the point where its, it's almost too salty, but just perfect right at that bottom line, where it just keep you craving more. A little bit spic you can feel that dry chili, a little bit sour, you can also really taste that lemongrass, and those kaffir lime in there as well. kaffir lime leaves, sorry. I'm moving back to the freshwater prawn already. For my next bite I think I will try a little bit of that sauce. It's breathtakingly good. And that sauce, it is pretty good with the sauce. That gives it like a little bit of an acidic, and also sweet and, chili flavor. But yah really, you really don't need anything to complement that prawn. We just finished with this meal, that was incredibly, unbelievably good especially the freshwater prawns. Nice restaurant, sitting on the river with a nice view and now I'm just hanging out and relaxing. That was the perfect was to end this day trip to Ayutthaya. And it was good to get out of Bangkok for a little bit to show my Mom and sister, and then to take the kids, the babies, walking around, and just to enjoy Ayutthaya. When you come to Ayutthaya, if you have the chance to try some freshwater prawns, you want to take that chance, they are unbelievably good. I'm going to end the video right now, it's been a fantastic little day trip to Ayutthaya. Please remember to give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it, and also, I'd love to hear from you in the comments section below. Thank you again for watching, and I will see you on the next video. Good bye from Ayutthaya, Thailand.
