Salt Crusted Tilapia - THAI STREET FOOD Tour in Isaan!! | Kalasin, Thailand!

hey everyone good morning hope you're having an amazing day it's mark wiens i'm in kalashin which is in the northeastern part of thailand in isaan and this is a truly laid-back ultra relaxing city and province in thailand and it is the dinosaur capital of thailand but we're not really well okay yesterday i did go to the dinosaur park but i'm not here to really focus on dinosaurs i am here to go on a street food tour and so today i'm gonna take you on a street food tour of kalasin uh and this is gonna be a little bit of a different street food tour because this is one of the most ultimate early rising early morning cities in thailand so we're gonna start we're gonna backtrack a few hours to earlier this morning and we are gonna get started with this food tour i'm gonna show you all of the food all of the delicious isaan food that we eat in this video on this street food tour of kalasai [Music] yes that's her right there on the corner oh yeah immediately step outside you can smell the smoky aroma in the morning in the peaceful morning air good morning it is 4 30 a.m in kalasen and we are beginning the street food tour with a legendary place to eat grilled chicken so welcome to gayan yaidun and you've heard of midnight restaurants you've heard of late night stalls serving street food they open at 1am and sell until they finish out until they sell out which is usually by six or seven or eight a.m in the morning and this is kalasen this is not like a a major huge metro city this is kalasen this is a tiny little countryside town let me just go ahead and assure you that there is not a single nightclub in the vicinity so people are not coming here for the late night people are coming here for the early morning and so i think we can assume people are serious early risers in colosseum it actually feels incredibly good to be standing here next to the grill because in the morning now it's quite cool hello okay we got the double girls going here uh and then the chicken that's ready is served on the streets yeah the one who started the the stall um and she's taking a nap in the back she said she's cold it is actually cool uh it might be 22 degrees or so it feels great but it feels great to be in the grill too okay so we're gonna choose a piece a few pieces of the grilled chicken oh you did already and then you put them back on the grill to to heat them up again before you go mission accomplished success we got the 1am bag of grilled chicken although it's 4 30 a.m bye-bye thank you very much bye-bye this smells extraordinarily [Music] [Applause] [Music] delicious [Music] how convenient is this a table on the sidewalk i've never seen a more perfect location at 4 30 a.m in the morning for eating grilled chicken oh yes got the hot grilled chicken got the hot fresh bags of sticky rice and something that you have to eat with the grilled chicken it's uh right yes is a fermented fish it's the omnipresent fermented fish sauce or fermented fish of isaan um and then made into a chili dip but this one also includes the bonus of mangda which are giant water bugs so the essence is within the smell that water bug oh and the fermented chilies yes oh just the immediate burst explosion of aroma all right grilled chicken time and okay i'll just taste it first with nothing on it and i'll just go ahead and bite first bite i had is a little bit dry but you really taste the smokiness it's been on the grill for a while and that marinade the maybe some pepper in there some lemongrass and maybe the the coriander roots in there too and i think the style is that it sits on the hot smoky low fire grill for a long time so it kind of dries out so it kind of gets um yeah kind of it kind of like dries out and nothing like a little bit of fermented fish at 4 30 a.m wow that is the combination that is what you need nothing like a little fermented fish at 4 30 a.m in the morning and some hot sticky rice next also the hot fresh sticky rice when it's cool in the morning that is perfect pull this out of the skewer i want to navigate my way over to the dark meat over to that thigh that thigh and wing section oh yeah i guess they've really slotted it into the the bamboo skewer oh be careful don't spill your your fermented fish here's the wing thigh section this sauce is an absolute must on every bite you take what i'm all about the dark meat oh the wing juicy moist the chicken breast was a little bit a little bit dry for me but i i love the chicken wing and the thigh oh yeah and then with that again that that palapan that fermented fish and that essence of the water beetle what a morning wake up combination and that skin oh man that skin is amazing because the skin has been just sitting there slow roasting it's just become crispy to perfection and then again the quick dip to make things even more perfect [Music] that's the the winning combination right there and this might be the earliest grilled chicken i've ever had welcome to kalasain [Music] it is now approaching 5 30 a.m we just drove down the street into the neighborhood down uh side road and there's another famous place that opens at five they open at 5 00 a.m okay not at 1 am but 5 am ah that serves a noodle dish called white and so since we're already awake we're just going to continue with this khalasian street food tour and a bowl of noodles next right now one oh my god [Music] let me pull up a stool here and talk about a city of early risers coliseum you're on your second breakfast by 5 a.m in colosseum even as we're here it's she's busy lots of takeaway orders people are coming to sit down 5 a.m breakfast uh and so the dish that she serves is called guai yuan which is found in this part of isan it's a type of rice noodle she makes her own noodles and then the broth is made with pork but it's also thickened i believe with the rice starch and the um the gluten and so it actually becomes more of a porridge a noodle porridge almost i think you can call it a noodle porridge and it just smells fresh it smells good you gotta eat it with a kaikema salted egg and then there's pieces of pork in here and again it turns there are noodles in here but you can see how the entire consistency of it is like a bowl of porridge oh man actually this is exactly what you want to be eating in this cool weather that thick porridge texture i know this is exactly what you want to be eating on a cool morning because that's a type of thick starchy gravy consistency that just warms going down oh you taste the porkiness of that soup the broth uh the starchy gooey noodles add in the salted egg in thai it's called kaikem and what we're seeing is a lot of people they order the kai chem to go with this you scoop it out of the shell salted preserved egg into your bowl and that's going to kind of supplement that's kind of going to add some saltiness some extra salty flavor protein to your bowl and then we gotta go in for the chili oil they have both chili oil and chili flakes but i think what you're what you're really going after is the chili oil for this bowl of noodles [Music] let that squirrel stir that around get it mixed up with that porridge and you can actually smell the aroma of that chili of that oil of that smokiness the hardest part is trying to get enough on your spoon [Music] it really is a slurper's dream come true i mean you have to slurp it's mandatory to slurp actually off that makes it more exciting that gives it a depth of flavor a chili heat oh yeah it's like a porridge with more textures and then i'm gonna go in for some of that um salted egg next it is the type of porridge though because of this thick sticky sauce and the noodles if you slurp too hard it will undoubtedly go up your nose a little bit with that slurp but yeah this is just comfort food and i love this atmosphere here so relaxing so peaceful countryside the owner she's so friendly and this place is so extremely popular look how many i mean people coming to sit but then also lots of people just driving past on their motorbikes and getting take away you have to re remember to slurp very slowly oh yeah it will it will spray in your [Music] face i am feeling wonderful after that bowl of koicapua noodles the ultimate warming morning bowl of porridge noodles that you could possibly ask for and she makes all of the noodles herself so it's handmade uh and she takes so much pride and passion in what she does she is an incredible an incredible lady from here it's still the wee hours of the morning we are gonna go back to the hotel probably for a little while and then after that after a couple hours next up lunch [Music] [Applause] it's the middle of the morning now and next up on this food tour of colosseum we are at the central market this is the bustling central market where you can buy everything here from fresh vegetables and fruits to oh meatballs uh sauces there's food courts here there's the all of the essential issan spices that you could ever need uh herbs galore very cool market an abundance of ingredients uh lots of seasonal fruits and vegetables are available here too and this is a huge market all under one roof uh hello impressed with the organization the cleanliness of this market we are actually just passing through the market to the other side across the street where there is a famous place that makes grilled fish bapow [Music] actually i thought the restaurant that we were looking for was across the street from the market but it actually is part of the market it's on the corner of the market you can smell the fish grilling the grill is roadside on the corner and this is the ultimate spot for issan style pla pow salt crusted grilled fish this is the spot and they have a whole seating section food court area right here oh it smells amazing i'm ready to eat again she stands on the podium there with a variety of different grilled fish grilled meats um and then at the front at the corners where they're roasting up the fish they're salt crusting the fish and that smoke is just wafting through the market okay is [Music] uh the first step is they take the raw tilapia and some recipes or some versions around issan you will find that they stuff it with lemongrass or kaffir lime leaves but here they only stuff it with tandan leaves pandanus leaves then it gets a salt bath a full coating in salt and a salt mixture and then directly onto the grill and i love it as soon as he puts it onto the grill you hear that hiss from the heat the moisture and that salt crackling look at oh [Music] um wow to the papaya salad she has invited me to stand on the podium awesome good night oh okay [Applause] foreign [Music] come on [Music] and she is an expert she is so cool okay grilled fish is ready green papaya salad is ready it's time to eat grilled fish time okay you ain't got another plate of some thai but i got mainly just the fish and tam lao uh lao papaya salad but gotta begin with that fish that is the centerpiece and i love how they even display this entire platter she served it on they served it on a platter the grilled fish is the centerpiece but with all surrounding all sorts of vegetables there's vietnamese coriander there's sawtooth coriander cabbage and then two different sauces and he said the first sauce is three different flavors so maybe it's spicy salty and sweet probably and then the other uh or maybe sour it must be sour because the other sauce is specifically a sweet sauce made with tamarind and then he added peanuts to it freshly grilled fish in the morning the juiciness you can see the oily juiciness of that fish i'll go first bite sauceless just to taste the the freshness and the juiciness of that fish [Music] oh wow yes it is juicy slightly oily fish oily and then again that salt has just encased it just encapsuled all of the flavor into that fish and so you don't really taste much of a saltiness to the fish actually okay for my next bite i'll dip into that sauce the three flavors sauce or through taste sauce oh wow yes you need the pairing okay the flavors are spicy salty sweet it does have a sweet taste to it as well but balanced with uh very garlicky lots of chilies in there a little bit spicy that just goes well together and then to the tam lao the green papaya salad and they do not she does not mess around with the size of her green papaya salad here that's a massive plate look at the size of this oh that's a salad tons of dressing tons of juice to scoop up as well [Music] [Music] wow that is cool that is refreshing and just the pungency of her bala fermented fish sauce the saltiness of it the balance with the sourness i think that's what i love about hers more than well than other versions she added a whole lime in there uh sometimes it's not that sour that is a really nice sourness acidity to contrast that salty fermented fish sauce oh yeah and that's spicy [Music] and then you can go in with some herbs as well vietnamese coriander i love it yeah the fish is awesome i especially always love that tail section for this bite i'll try that sweet sauce he added in a lot of peanuts in there oh yeah that is pretty sweet but fruity tamarind almost a syrup and then very nutty [Music] and then one of the highlights for me you're just eating all the the accompanying herbs and vegetables and normally for this style of fish instead of taking out the center bone uh they flip it flip it over to the other side when you reach the other side oh that entire skin and crush just falls off oh it's so oily and juicy down below there [Applause] and then make sure you peel back that skin if you get a piece of that skin it will be so salty again revealing an entire side of extremely juicy roasted tilapia go into that juicy side of the fish again into the cabbage sauce [Music] [Applause] and then taste that with beer [Music] and that fish is just so incredibly juicy that salt crust seals in the juices and also one of the great things about a tilapia is just how unbony it is you have these pure fillets on either side that just the bones are so big and so distinguishable and that takes up kind of the center console and so it's so easy to navigate all of the meat on the fish and by the way this place is called jetu uh which is i think that's auntie's that must be auntie's name right uh the name of auntie but she's so cool she will take care of you if you are in kalashin this is straight up the grilled fish roasted fish salt crusted roasted fish corner at the market in galaxy so that completes two breakfasts and lunch we have one more place to go to on this food tour and it's going to be in the early afternoon we're going to try to get there right as they open and that's going to completely wrap up this food tour of galaxy [Music] oh yeah walking up you can you already smell that aroma i can smell that aroma it's a distinct aroma of egg being grilled over fire and i can smell it oh there's the spot right there on the corner it's the corner of the hospital i believe yeah it is the early evening in kalasina about 4 p.m it's the perfect time when schools are out when people start to get off work and it is the perfect time for an afternoon a popular afternoon snack in kalasena foreign this is an extremely popular stall uh so much so that you have to get a q number a cue card to get in line so they can take your order and you okay it's called how g which is uh very popular throughout isan it is uh sticky rice glutinous rice which is formed into a little patty and then dipped into egg and then grilled over fire and the most specific special thing about this stall is that they only use duck eggs duck yolk to dip the the rice in and another special thing is that they have both white sticky rice and black sticky rice or purple sticky rice you can see that that grill needs to be very low fire no flame you don't want any flame you want to really tame out the fire with uh ash so that it just kind of smokes the rice and chars and just perfectly just golden roasts that egg yolk onto the rice it smells so good they're just like little hamburger patties hamburger patties they really are huh so just standing here they are so friendly and so cool but watching their process is actually very let's just say they have it down to a perfect science uh first the they're actually burger patties of sticky rice they go onto the grill and they grill for a little while for a few minutes then they precisely they have this special poker that they poke the patty um and they just dip it into that egg yolk batter but only on one side then that goes face down onto the grill until that's cooked um and once that cook that's cooked they flip it over and then coat the other side in the egg yolk and then back onto the grill to cook that side okay i ordered two of the white rice two of the black sticky rice and just look at that perfect it looks like uh a burger patty of salad it looks like a burger patty of sticky rice encased in a grilled omelet and it's so fragrant look at that perfectly golden it couldn't be more precise if you had had it down to a science oh they do have it down to a science okay let's try it first but there's also a special sauce to eat with it oh yeah that's just simple that's just everything it needs to be the fragrance of it though the fragrance of that smoky grilled egg that is what makes it and then the the sticky rice is not too packed not too condensed you taste and you feel every individual glutinous grain but it's all about that grilled duck egg they said you can eat it with or without but this is balabang which is fermented fish chili dip oh yeah immediately open that up i can smell it yeah they said you can eat it with or without but man if it's fermented fish chili dip i'm going with oh yes all that that takes it to the next level you got salty umami chili pungentness okay that meant that's what completes the happy meal oh man oh that's delicious okay let's try the black sticky rice so fast this one actually does because it's the black or purple sticky rice it actually does look like a burger on the inside this could be this could literally pass as a cheeseburger um look at that i'm just amazed at their perfection of this because i've had kauchi at a variety of other places they are by far superior that quality that taste that scientific perfection black sticky rice i mean give me the choice of white or black sticky rice or purple sticky rice i'll always go with the purple sticky rice more antioxidants just better for you um a little bit of a sweeter taste possibly i'm not i mean if your eyes are closed you probably wouldn't tell the difference um but it might be a little bit gooier and then just that same roasted caramelized omelet egg um duck omelette surrounding it oh man once i tasted that balabang i cannot go back oh thank you oh yes i mean it's good without that chili fermented fish dip but with the chili fermented fish dip it's a perfect afternoon snack in colosseum [Applause] they are so cool so incredibly friendly um it's at the corner here in kalashin on the corner of the hospital and it costs five baht per piece i think that is the original rice burger the original sticky rice burger with egg oh man what a fantastic afternoon snack and so that brings us to the end of this street food tour of kalasin i think what truly made it for me food was delicious but people everywhere that we went the people so nice so friendly and that's what really made this day this food tour so special but i will have all the information everywhere that we went to all the way from the 1am chicken which we went to at 4 30 a.m to the guide job to the papaw grilled fish to the ending rice sticky rice burger patties i'll have all the information in the description box that you can check out and so i want to say a big thank you to you for watching this video please remember to give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it leave a comment below i'd love to hear from you and if you're not already subscribed click subscribe and also click the little bell icon and that way you'll immediately get notified of the next video that i publish thanks again for watching goodbye from kalasin in isaan thailand thanks again for watching see you on the next video

Channel: Mark Wiens

Views: 2,016,920

Keywords: Thailand, Thai food, street food, Kalasin, Thai street food, Mark Wiens, food tour, street food tour, things to do in Thailand, what to do in Thailand, Thai cuisine, Thailand food, street food videos, vlog, food vlog, food videos, กาฬสินธุ์, Thai grilled fish, Thai grilled chicken, grilled fish, grilled chicken

Id: m7nvdUEa-4Y

Length: 35min 50sec (2150 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 10 2021