RARE Pakistani Village Food!! The Mountain People of Hunza!!

in this video you're going to see the hidden food and lifestyle of pakistan's most isolated mountain people meet the hunza this is a combination i would never expect to see together in one dish [Music] but first let's back up pakistan has a population of 220 million you'll find similar culture dress food and people in most cities across the country that is until you get here in the far north of pakistan beyond a multitude of mountain ranges you'll find the hunza valley right now we're in one of the many hunza villages on the mountainside mountain life here is so completely different from any other place in pakistan and i love it because mountain cultures tend to maintain their culture better over time a place so isolated its customs around food clothing and day-to-day life still remain largely unaffected by the outside world right now i'm on my way to a local home to check out their kitchen and seawatch for breakfast [Music] so we are continuing along right now going through this narrow path and up to a local home you have to come up these steps here the steps are made out of stone built into the house and you have to be careful because there is no railing here there are two ways to enter on the bottom floor and here on the top floor right through this miniature short door meant for joe pesci you walk in you see the main gathering room and then after that the kitchen let's go [Music] we're in the house of sadia generations of her family have lived here going 400 years back right now sadia and her mother are making breakfast good morning how are you doing yeah how are you i'm also just yeah she's making a couple different items for breakfast right now this is gonna be a pancake and then here is a fire she's flipped the pan upside down here so this has become the hot surface for the pancakes to cook on what is your favorite thing to cook is it gabratani new down india no it's not that really i just thought maybe because this entire room is completely wallpapered with food packages of indian rice you know how long you cook sometimes you throw away the box and you have to dig it back out because you're like wait how am i supposed to cook this again they never have that problem here guillen is a type of local pancake made from wheat flour eggs water and apricot oil right now she's taking a piece of dough and she's used the dough to spread butter on the pan here it's got a big scoop oh yes this pan is roaring hot even my knee is about to catch on fire at this point the people like hot because they're very cold at altitudes of at least 8 000 feet the air is thin and the climate can be harsh about time to give it a flip i love the texture the pattern on here it looks like the top down view of this village when you look at this houses built into the mountainside hug up against each other so no space is wasted the thick stone outer walls stabilize temperatures inside when it's hot or when it's cold where is the smoke going there oh there's a hole there in hunza homes the kitchen is located in the heart of the house radiating heat and dispensing food in this house each floor has a kitchen on the second floor right now there's a skylight above us so that's letting in all this natural light and then there's this glass box right here which lets in even more light for the floor below what is this room normally used for it's for summer time sitting here and so you eat here yeah do you sleep here yeah how many people sleep in this room then be honest out of 10 people how many snore uh three three we have a lot of different food here some dishes i haven't seen anything like this this trip so far we have the pancakes i saw you make that and then what is this one dry apricot soup rehydrate the dried apricots in hot water add crumbs of dough and wheat flour and cook until the mixture becomes thick it looks so much more complex maybe because there's just so many different colors of apricot there's like dark ones and light ones and it's created this beautiful like orangey brown heel to the broth which is also quite thick let's try it out it's very sweet obviously apricot flavor it feels more like a dessert than anything else this is addictive 90 of the food that you will have here one common ingredient is going to be apricot so again the soup has dried apricots this soup has apricot seeds [Music] this is a type of noodle soup dish smash the apricot kernels or seeds then add them to a pot of hot water to create a broth season with a little bit of salt i saw these earlier i thought they were almonds so they look like almonds but basically apricot seeds these are so good they're like a much better almond they're not like all dry and chalky they're half the size the noodles are made fresh from scratch wheat flour salt eggs and water mixed together to make the dough knead it then cut into small short strands and cook [Music] it is such gentle flavors tastes homemade you can taste like the wheat from the wheat noodle this soup is like my kind of soup i like my soup to be a bit lighter joining our meal ali a pakistani man on a mission to introduce his country's cuisine to the world though he hails from islamabad he hopes to one day retire in this region one other interesting thing about the food here is they didn't add any spices no sugar because how they like the food that every ingredient has its own flavor right here this is the pancake here she has apricot oil she just doused these with oil with this oil you can dump it as much as you want and you shouldn't feel guilty because it's a very healthy oil let's try it out if you like sweet do you eat honey okay it's not sweet now it tastes almost more like a crepe than a pancake which might have eggs in it the apricot oil i can't say it has a lot of flavor it's food loop it kind of makes it easier to slide down your throat it's very impressive very interesting to see in this side of pakistan because people if they know anything at all about pakistan is probably more about the big cities and the hustle and the bustle and the parts that have some similarities to india here completely different culture and different foods it's obviously reflected here in what we're eating right now less seasonings super local ingredients nothing too intense i love it very nice the hunza people or the hunzakuz are ethnically known as the barucho people with a population of sixty thousand they have their own distinct language musical instruments clothing and customs residing in the highlands of the himalayas they're known for their longevity with an unofficial life expectancy of 100 years are your grandparents around yeah how old are your grandparents 100 and they're alive yeah that's pretty good this is kind of what today is about one seeing a different lifestyle a different way of eating and living here in pakistan but also trying to understand what is so different here that allows people to live these long healthy lives i'm very impressed by that i must learn mem good day how are you i'm fine how are you i'm so excited to be here meet ms mazzati in her cozy mountainside kitchen for 17 years she's been whipping up regional favorites for locals and visitors alike what are you doing right now i'm making toilet this is the most vegetables i've seen so far on my trip so you already made this for us it's a top cheeto it looks kind of like a chapati it's a local pizza wheat dough is kneaded into a round shape and the filling made of chicken and local spices what is inside coriander mint onion green chili local japan garlic ginger little sauce cooking walnut and pecan oil you just gave away your whole recipe are you worried about that cover it with another layer of dough then cook it in a hot pan with apricot oil when both sides turn golden brown cut and serve with goat cheese [Music] oh it's so good it tastes like a whole wheat wrapper on the outside and then inside it's just so flavorful it's spicy you can taste the cumin there's a ton of caramelized onions coming through so what i like about this is that after having a breakfast which probably didn't have much taste to it this is like a nice contrast yeah absolutely i'm gonna give it a little bit of a dip here a beautiful pairing clean cool refreshing and sweet to go with something a little bit more heavy and a lot more spicy this is delicious thank you how did you learn to cook is my own grandmother okay how old is your grandmother 99 years she is there yeah oh she passed away yeah oh she was 99 that's remarkable my grand father is a 104 year old right now he passed away yeah but 104. and one secret that is the organic food but plenty of people in the usa eat organic food it's not working out for them having organic food just for like a few years just to satisfy your own self is something else but being raised in this very environment and you keep on having that for your entire life is different are you saying it's too late for me yeah a bit too late okay it's never too late the diet here may be a key factor in hunter longevity organic raw vegetables fruits and moderate protein consumption mineral rich mountain water is plentiful and then there's this the priced apricot rich in vitamin a and other antioxidants this food is omnipresent in hunza cooking used for its fruit seed and oil sometimes a lot of oil like in our next dish this is add water to a pot then add dry cow cheese dried mint salt coriander onion green chilies and small crumbs of chapati cook cows with apricot oil and it's ready bro bro this looks stunning this is food for the soul and also stomach we have a couple other ones here i think we'll build up to this first we have this i don't know what you'd call the super stew this one is called gilgit meaning brown lentil and potato a type of stew that's eaten with chapati made by stir frying coriander paste mint and green chilies in a pot add masala water brown lentils salt and potatoes cook and serve i'm gonna put some lentils some potato on here kind of a natural gravy that's come from all that let's try it out [Music] that's super yummy it's lentils potatoes but it has a nice texture and great flavor man this feels like real home-cooked food none of these like super intense street food flavors and what i really love about it is it's so spicy in the right way yeah it's like warming me up from the inside this one is called in the middle there's a pool of oil which uh is bringing me back to the lahore vibe there is a reservoir right here of just butter sorry butter i want to see if i can taste the oil directly to see if it has any flavor oh yeah when you eat it just alone it has a little flowery essence to it do we mix all that together take a spoonful of molita dip the spoon in this and then let's go for it oh oh this is the most confusing thing i've ever eaten but i genuinely like it i don't know where the flavors are coming from i don't know how they're combining it's like dairy but then it's also spice it's like putting tabasco in your yogurt in the morning there's a lot going on in my mouth right now that's what i was trying to say that had four taste phases so there's like a powdered cheese in there dehydrated couches that has its own unique flavor at first it's like creamy and cheesy like veneer and then it gets a little bit gamey after that there's some floweriness coming from this oil it does have some spice but it's not all like cumin and coriander it has its own flavor profile super unique sure morita takes the crown this is no joke it's one of the most beautiful places i've ever seen in my life i can't believe it every time i look out there i'm like that's cg that's not real [Music] why do you think this part of the world is so unknown to so many definitely in pakistan we had our realities couple of years ago because of all the law and order situation going on so the kind of media world that the world was getting was not very positive but things have become absolutely normal and now tourism is getting back to pakistan but other than that to be honest this part of pakistan they are super peaceful in fact for your audience i mean they're lucky to see all of this but they're unlucky in a way that the camera cannot capture the reality what the eyes can see so for that they have to come and see it for themselves i believe the nature has its own filter when you come to this part of pakistan it's so beautiful like i mean well ali this has been very romantic my wife she would really enjoy this but at least i'm here with you that's nice stuck with me yeah restaurants like this slightly alter their traditional recipes to suit visitors from other parts of pakistan who prefer stronger more spicy flavors i'm realizing now the only way to truly experience what it means to eat like a hunza coot is to go to someone's home you've come to another home in the same village the home has very similar architecture even if you look up there that is the skylight this time we are in the basement we're gonna make a chapati it's a cheese chapati yeah ah i like cheese she starts with the bottom layer rolling it out she puts it on there i love the way the traditional kitchens work here this is basically a fire inside of here and then they can adjust the tops that they put on so this one is for making chapati but they have other ones where they can put big pots on there whatever you need they even have one that can uh make french fries that's not true so right now she's put down the first layer and she's gonna add in some of the filling this paste is made from cottage cheese coriander green onion walnut salt and a little bit of milk chapati number two it goes on and now we have a little walnut oil a generous portion of walnut oil this is nasib and her sister what's your name nice to meet you my name is sunny in my language sunny means legendary eater you know i've eaten uh seven things today okay how many things did you eat tea and bread i like this bread this is a corn wheat this is essentially cornbread right here oh you ate already [Music] oh i took too big of a piece it's very then you eat this bread then not speaking because it makes your mouth so dry finish this bread then talk that's a really good idea it's just like any good cornbread it absorbs all the saliva in your mouth please wait ten minutes [Music] done can i tell you something today i ate eight foods because i had that [Music] we have our dinner here this looks incredible so they've cooked something that we saw already but it looks slightly different this is the ulida right also with the oil in there but so many other dishes here we've got a chicken noodle soup buckwheat pancakes cheese chapati some dumplings and then a dessert can we start with these dumplings the filling is made of minced chicken coriander green onions and green chilies that is wrapped in a wheat flour dough and steamed these may look like east asian dumplings but here they're called mine too in korea this exact same thing is called mandu there's no way that's a coincidence that the same food has a similar sounding name because the area that we are right now is almost bordering china and central asia so that's why you find dumplings here but not in lahore so different that's fascinating it has a really interesting combination of meat it's like half meat half vegetable it tastes a little bit dry not super juicy but spicy a little bit more mild gentle flavors here they have cheese chapati let's try it out oh it's good this one's cheesy it tastes almost like cream cheese with some chives inside what's your favorite food here this one this is a soup sauteed chopped onions ground ginger and garlic in olive oil add in minced chicken ginger more spices and boil when the noodles join the pot you're minutes away from completion that's delicious super savory really soft noodles almost like a fun noodle chicken is really tender and trust me i love a soup with no bones i hate when they give you soup and you have to do some other work like pull bones out of your mouth put them on the table this is very good this is the buckwheat pancake quite different than the ones that we had in the breakfast is this something you eat a lot jump is the other thing so she's saying that this is one contributing factor to the longevity of the local rules of people it tastes healthy buckwheat is highly recommended for various health problems can it help gas no oh god finally this is a dessert it has a pool a reservoir right in the middle full of oil this is walnut there are crushed walnuts all around it but then this brown mess what is that this brown component is basically made from organic local wheat flour so what they do is that they age the local wheat for five six days in water and somehow it becomes sweet so a lot of work goes into this for sure so now she's working her way around the perimeter so you can see it's really thick she gets plenty of that oil on there let's try it out [Music] the source of the hunza fountain of youth is debated by many this is one of the best desserts i've ever had it's so fun to chew through and then really dense sweet texture is it the diet here is it the mountain water fresh air high elevation the copious amounts of apricot consumption perhaps it's a low stress living or the fact that traditionally local folks would walk the mountains and work the fields for most hours of the day you've been here your whole life has this place changed much since you were a kid biggest defining change for her in this entire region is tourism because back then there used to be very few tourists but now like tourists are coming in big numbers so that has changed the oral landscape of the area and now kids are more focused towards studies rather than working in the fields which her generation used to do back then so now yeah the people are adjusting to the new trends in a good way because when you walk around these villages these alleyways you know you feel these people are loyal to their customs and their traditions fascinating thank you so much for inviting us in your home for the food and for the company i really appreciate it next time in the hunza mountains i'll be taking on the ultimate animal cook up as i witness this village prepare an entire year just seeing it up close for the first time in my life right now it's incredible and it inspires a little bit of fear [Music] best ever food review show is a small team of independent creators and everything we do here works because of you guys click the link in our description to join our patreon and receive exclusive benefits of peace all right this is called you know we're in a multi-generational home right now you can't be a young person cooking food without an older person telling you what you're doing wrong and that's what she's here for he said too hot oh do you want me to turn on the air con generally we never mix lentils with vegetables like this is a rare combination which is i believe very local so a potato is a vegetable definitely not a fruit is rice a vegetable yeah for sure do we mix all that together or what do you think the move is i think we need to figure out the move together should we ask him don't trust my movie like a local local i'm the only local done oh you need tea oh no she's dying oh i'm okay my saliva glands are like fire hydrants boom that was a whole video here in the unzones ali has been an incredible ambassador to pakistan allowed his incredible access to do and see so many things we wouldn't be able to do without him and for that i say thank you guys that is it for this one thank you so much for watching i will see you next time yeah i think we should jump in this lake it's too cold oh okay good point let's find a hot tub hypothermia

Channel: Best Ever Food Review Show

Views: 1,974,418

Keywords: best ever food review show, befrs team, sonny side, middle east country, muslim, hunza people, pakistan, pakistani food, pakistani cuisine, hunza valley, gilgit pakistan, organic food, longevity, people live long life, where to go in pakistan, APRICOT seed, APRICOT, MULIDA, GIR GIR ALOO, CHAPSURO, GUR-E-GIALING, MANTU, CHEESE CHAPATI, CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

Id: 5279n4i15ho

Length: 20min 27sec (1227 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 03 2022