Surviving Vietnam!! Eating the Rarest Food in Southeast Asia!!! (Full Documentary)

hi i'm sunny i have a travel show you're watching it right now oh no the show's been crushing it lately over 2 million subs in the last year oh it bit the spoon only problem is now i can't travel in the age of the corona pandemic at a time when my home country has over 3 million people infected america's burning down vietnam hasn't had any cases in months which is lucky for me what are they in because vietnam is where i live if you are in already you can stay in i can leave vietnam if i want to but if i leave i can't come back if you're not vietnamese it's not going to happen so really i can't leave vietnam for better or worse i'm stuck here but since life here has mostly gotten back to normal breaking away i can travel pretty much anywhere within the country and that's exactly what i'm planning to do oh the ultimate in relaxation my man oh man this is andrew my best friend in vietnam i need help this is my first time doing this the dude who convinced me to move here bro you've got to move up here he's lived in vietnam for six years he even speaks some pretty decent vietnamese is that a fishing boat yeah there's some in that boat is andrew covering me with this big sorry together we're embarking on an epic two-week journey through the most remote areas of central vietnam but there's a catch this bike is only one speed i gotta talk to producer me something's a little bit off here [Music] this is my producer she's evil i've had a bit of a history with producing me i don't trust her and for some reason i've given complete control of this trip to her if you fail any missions you don't get to sleep in a hotel how can she enforce that [ __ ] every place we go i don't is this everything we do everything we eat will be decided by her oh no and i'm just along for the ride behind both of us are the biggest bird houses i've ever seen how do you eat a bird's nest are people eating wood saliva after birth so when we do this what do you call these in your country andrew or this all this is going to be cooked and eaten yeah oh my gosh and definitely this oh my gosh i am mad well we are about to eat them yeah i did not see it coming where am i now yeah this is surreal man we're in an effing volcano two weeks two bikes cruising through central vietnam in search of the country's most unique food experiences this is gonna be good i hope honestly i don't know yet let's find out and that is me wang that looks pretty good is a coastal city and the fifth largest in vietnam with over one million residents it's also the starting place of our central vietnam journey me wang super famous central region dish right means noodles right and then what about wang i've got no idea somebody who's less mature might think it's a funny name they've kind of deconstructed it they put it all apart and usually it would be all put together in a bowl with what beef yeah beef chicken eggs all kinds of stuff i've eaten endless amounts of me weaning and i've never had anything like this yeah this is with a frog mee wang a flat wide rice noodle here this restaurant is serving these noodles with frog meat oh no how many frogs just came out the frog is marinated in turmeric ginger purple onion and five spice powder stir fried in a giant wok and served in a ceramic pot along with pork chicken mackerel and shrimp pizza i'm gonna try this fish it tastes like pickled almost grab some of these noodles [Music] that's nice that's good this is one of the quintessential vietnamese dishes generous portions it's very meaty i'm gonna take a bite of frog cap it's savory but there's something sour in there too that's affected all the meat the same so you're getting kind of different textures but the same flavor meanwhile you have these like super soft noodles that's a nice hefty meal okay as you know we're going on a trip here's how it's gonna work our best ever central vietnam journey has begun throughout our trip producer me will provide us with coordinates and missions showing us where to go what to do and who to meet i don't trust her i don't know what it is i think one time i made her go on a boat in japan it was a very bad experience i think she's just always trying to get paid back for that this is making me more nervous yeah you should be so basically whatever she says is what we're doing she's just handing me a card in my hands now the first hints of what's to come oh that is terrible handwriting gentlemen congratulations on the start of your central vietnam adventure but this is just the start as you know this is a bike trip to survive this journey you must keep an open mind and if you don't if you fail any missions you don't get to sleep in a hotel well man i've got to admit i kind of thought this was just going to be like what we usually do what do you think is going to be the hardest part of this trip two weeks filming through central vietnam hot hot weather minority accents vietnamese is hot enough well listen i know that we got bikes let's ride you ready let's do yeah let's do that we're biker guys now ah i didn't think it was this kind of a bike trip dana the city of bridges beautiful charming cycling is a much enjoyed activity here are we almost at the next location this sucks but not so much for two guys wearing giant crash helmets bro it's going to be a long ass waiting trying i got to talk to producer me something's a little bit off here i thought we're going to take it like motorcycles with big engines the kind that make girls instantly fall in love with you or guys whichever it's fine [Music] watch out yeah watch out for the car there's a bike pull your shoulders up ride with confidence these cars are very big and even these small scooters are bigger than these bikes producer me's coordinates have brought us here a restaurant with 60 years of experience serving another central vietnamese classic on sale a crispy sizzling pancake made of rice and turmeric batter topped with shrimp and mung beans served with rice paper fresh herbs and the country's favorite condiment fish sauce bro i can do this i was expecting scary foods you were just warning me this is fanta i love panto the bikes were a bit of a letdown but the food pretty chill in saigon yes sponsor huge size of your head yes but when you come to the central region what happens andrew right when it comes to eggy tumericky cakey things with prawns inside i think smaller is better more crispy exactly because of the crunch step one take one of these load it into the rice paper i usually do a couple herbs oh even more herbs jeepers she is overestimating how many vegetables i eat in a day get a nice tight roll on it i'm gonna go with the delicious peanut sauce here oh that's good that is crunchy oh it's so spicy too the textures are incredible you kind of tear through the rice paper and then the crunch comes after that right i'm gonna eat one more of you too because it was good oh and we didn't do the nook man what is nook mom is fish sauce do you know how they make fish sauce i assume fermented fish yeah but do they just squeeze it until sauce comes it just sits in a barrel for a long ass time really like kimchi i think so dude that is genuinely excellent there's a sweetness accurate i mean it's super salty then a bit saccharine sweet well i'm not sure why we came here i don't see any there's another card it's quite frequent why don't you just talk to me i hope you guys are enjoying the city because now we're gonna leave and never come back below are the coordinates of a village where fish reach their full potential and where vietnamese make their own form of sushi oh it's in a village though do you think they have nice uh sushi restaurants in the village unlikely you know what i don't think there'll be any unexpected twist returns i think we're good [Music] if you hate cities somehow you'll still like this place over a million people but with a small town feel one of the most developed livable cities in the country okay this is more like it we've got beach on the right buildings on the left no kidding man i love denying this has got to be one of the most livable cities in vietnam this is zero traffic for vietnam as well what makes a city livable to you this is modern city for vietnam it's newly developed it's really picturesque good food you've gotta move up here this is a sick city it is sick but apparently according to my producer we're never coming back ah next stop namo village where are we i don't know bro i don't know either at first glance this appears to be a fishing village but i don't see any fish perhaps this nice elderly woman can give us some answers can you ask her the name of this beach maybe um this is the namo beach are you making this up no okay this is great we are looking for fish i guess [Music] yeah there's some in that boat there's someone over here right fisherman from here i can see they've got some baskets of sardines they're bringing it in oh man ah this is village it's been here a long time centuries at least perfectly situated on the coast meaning most the folks living here in one way or another are in the fish business i did not bring my beach outfit okay that's the last one so that's one two three four five six seven eight containers of sardines here uh sinchon i like that he does the traditional sweat rub handshake you've been out fishing how long did it take you to get all these fish yesterday until then two people we got a guy over here so all the fish here what are you going to do with these fish that's what they do here in nemo they make fish sauce i get it this is where the fish reach their full potential i see turns out this is one of the rare traditional fish sauce making villages that exist throughout the entire country of vietnam mr wang's family was one of the first producing fish sauce in this village a legacy that goes back over 200 years how do you juice a fish andrew i don't think it's what you think oh shoot we got another card coming why does she seem so unhappy when she gives me the cards last one for today it says two halves make a hole the more you split in half the further you will go this can't be how they do it f andrew the next time we split up he's getting the crappiest drama i don't know what sonny's job was like but i can't imagine it was much worse than this i mean i think it's clear what she means we're gonna help process all this fish sauce one person has to carry all this and one person has to go into the factory which is probably a shade and a fan oh i'll do that then in the shade you're probably gonna have to juice these fish so i don't know if you made the right choice there andrew i hope he has to dig holes for dead bodies that's like 50 pounds of fish okay that's two there's six more down there meanwhile andrew is in the factory having a great time i'm here with anway they probably have a fountain machine in there and so this is the very beginning of the fish sauce making process the process is simple but cannot be completed without one crucial ingredient oh my god that one's flipping heavy the fish there's got to be a better way of doing this um maybe ah hello okay oh it's way easier all right okay now we're going to put five bowls of fish into this mixing bowl oh okay mo hi hi mom oh man they're very precise you just have to take a little micro steps oh yeah i mean who needs to pay for a gym membership right now salt thank you benny hi so just two bowls of salt in with those fish oh very big balls there you go okay so we're mixing the fish in with salt here it's really pretty coarse salt actually man that is still not light that's at least 100 pounds oh my god hers are way heavier than mine all right i'm coming for you granny it's pretty surreal feeling here we go granny okay and now we're going to carry it over to the fermenting vessel man this is tiring work i don't know what sony's job was like damn i heard they used to have a horse to do this job but maybe it died each pot contains four to six hundred pounds of fish which will eventually become a metric f load of sauce we're going to continue this and fill this giant vessel and just let the fish ferment here in the salt it sits there for an entire year oh we're in a hill now yes starting as this semi-solid fish mush oh no then with the help of bacteria it breaks down into a purely liquid state here we have the nukman that's been fermenting for about one year we need to go through one more process when the time comes it's filtered to keep the fish essence but remove the fish soles [Music] jeepers look at this that was brutal good thing i drank a gatorade this video is brought to you by gatorade not really [Music] hey andrew it's the sunny side turns out we're not just doing a restaurant tour it was way more intense how was that for you it's fine it's pretty easy what about you how was it here that was brutal stuff i can't even smell fish anymore my whole body is covered in it yeah it's pretty gross i'm telling you oh man i thought the whole time that what i did was really hard and what you did was pretty easy oh man that looks simple let's talk about this the fish sauce that is stinky see i can't even smell it anymore yeah i'm actually really looking forward to trying what this is i can't imagine that it's not just because you've seen it come from that sort of chocolate colored liquid literally go through a cheesecloth in it and it comes out clear it's pretty remarkable yeah it looks like a whiskey yeah that's right should we try it out [Music] oh wow it's intensely salty it is so salty is this finished is this the final form do people add water to it or cut it huh nothing man that's it it has it's like next level savory like people in japan always call it umami right this is wrong man there's no sweetness there that i'm used to our reward for helping with the fish sauce raw herring salad that's right raw fish a type of vietnamese sashimi you could say there's many ways to cook food the most common way just heat crack but you could also use citrus why do you put the lime on the fish so he said like the lime is able to cook it that's i'll cover it and it makes it good well i think we should start eating i see so many things here the fish are prepared two ways first the dry version lime juice a mixture of strong spices like ginger lemongrass garlic and chilies mixed well until the fish absorbs all the seasonings squeeze the liquid out then coat the fish bits with stir-fried rice powder i'm assuming it's going to be similar to what we had already bonsai we've got greens cucumber right here the rice paper and what like many vietnamese dishes they start the same way a lot of herbs right he loads it up with fish too oh for me i can do it i can do it nice then you just douse it with sauce i [Music] believe that's so good that's amazing man i think the thing i'm most surprised about is how just soft and delicate the fish is the aromatics are pulling you in different directions right fresh blend of herbs this sauce is fantastic i hardly even remember that i'm actually eating raw fish okay next the wet version it's like a soup is that all chili seeds right it has a ton of chili in there oh no sugar water fish sauce a mixture of strong spices and peanut butter put some of these raw fish on top of the herbs put a little bit of the sauce in there too right throw in some fish add more spices and dig not fishy at all the fish is so soft i'm feeling the heat a little bit that's true otherwise savory not over salty though especially considering it has so much milk in it as well yeah right tam tamwon [Laughter] did you grow up making fish sauce or how did you learn to make fish sauce soda [Music] life on the water is hard but these folks make it seem easy chiseled hardened but always wearing a smile fish sauce it's like the sauce of vietnam a very sauce-liking country right and now we know the origins fantastic this is our first taste of central vietnamese food and hospitality so far so good now we're heading from the central region's largest metropolis da nang down the coast to the paradise city of hoi an good morning hoi an here it is the hometown centuries ago hoi an was a prize trading port the major trade port was moved by the french to da nang as opposed to hoi an leaving hoi an in a remarkably unique condition these days the ancient city on the river has been preserved and the mix of historical beauty and natural wonder has been a magnet for tourism that was until corona is this something you ever thought could have happened of course i'm sure you never talk about this suit either now this quaint village turned tourism behemoth is underwater i own several restaurants in hoian but now it's completely closed no sound so quiet and so dark i'm scared andrew and i are on a mission to learn about this city's uncertain road to recovery touring the restaurants that were hit hardest they're suffering a lot and the surprising entrepreneurs who haven't felt the pinch not ready for the wrestling yet so the bandanas don't have much endemic proof right check it out we have a beautiful breakfast in front of us we've got pork on a stick greens cucumber not a huge fan some kind of a peanut sauce and then what is going on here a fresh rice paper one that hasn't been dried out yet breakfast today starts here a straightforward vietnamese dish grilled pork fresh local herbs and two types of rice paper dry and steep they give you the elements construction is up to you so a little bit of herbage and then and then we wrap this bad boy up these are awesome yeah peanut sauce with some chili jam oh god my meat fell out oh god my meat just fell out mmm that's delicious that's good bro that meat has so much lemon grass yeah all the seasoning from the meat really comes through sauce is very spicy awesome texture on the wrap chewy but two different types of chewy tough chewy and soft chewy you know the herbs just add some freshness to it i say that every time i eat herbs because i don't know what else to say it's just all autopilot at this point i'll wait for you okay i grew up eating seven cereal compared to something like this it's just so good right why isn't this more popular this is a great vietnamese food yeah i don't know and you can't find it everywhere you can find it like basically here yeah that's about it how long have you been in hawaiian three years in hoi you're one of the reasons i moved to vietnam actually one of the main reasons so we became friends in saigon and then you moved away to here right why'd you move here i mean why not just the visuals here it's kind of a stunning town all of central vietnam has gorgeous beaches so that's no exception here and you want to see that unesco world heritage site is usually the big brother the nang is just down the road means you don't even miss out on any of the big city life you can get great food here not just vietnamese from all around the world if you're getting sick of the vietnamese stuff i guess but the countryside aspect kicks in you have these just gorgeous rice fields really really nice [Music] you get all the benefits of being a little bit isolated in the countryside but then still all the convenience of the types of places tourists would go to and the big city nearby uh oh looks like we have another card coming another card has been delivered by our producer this will inform some information about what's gonna happen today it says congratulations you survived your first city now you're in a city i hope will survive period point is one of the most beloved tourist cities of vietnam but in vietnam tourism has come to a stop down 98 from last year today you'll experience the new hoi an and learn about the hoi an of the future [Music] [Applause] so andrew this is old town right this is the famous hwan unesco old town last time i was here this place was packed and right now the streets are just completely empty right right [Music] around the world the corona pandemic has devastated the tourism industry in some ways vietnam was lucky because this country only had a one month lockdown now at least domestically things are kind of back to normal the other thing is all these businesses can open up legally a handful of these places are counting on domestic tourism but obviously at least 70 80 percent aren't even counting on that this is a tourist town and it survives almost entirely off international tourism look none of those guys are here now it's actually the only reason we're allowed to ride motorbikes through the town right now [Music] usually this is shut off to any vehicle going through here right now we can ride these big ass motorcycles through here no problem there's nobody here it's kind of cool for us but i'm sure the locals here would much rather have the tourists back a handful of locals or foreigners who are stuck here like me traveling through these now quiet streets is a rare opportunity for travel enthusiasts but how much longer can this city hold on boom we got bun meat here and it looks like we have a couple more on the way and it looks like we have a couple more pardon me on the way [Music] [Applause] [Music] so here we have it what kind of bun me is this oval shaped bread liver pate cha sous sauce veggies chaluwa champang chasu meat grilled meat shumai sauce chilies and finally an egg this is the infamous central vietnamese ban me a unique creation from hoi an made by madame fulham [Music] [Applause] oh it's fantastic it's good me right really good me great combination of ingredients a nice balance very fresh and then just crispy bun me bread i've eaten about a million of these things but they never really get old the bread is always very fresh it comes from a bakery right next door and no matter how much filling the bread never gets soggy for some reason i don't know how they manage that but it's kind of magic right it's delicious when did you start making bunbees [Music] so just like 10 years ago no when you started what was it like this place was a landmark before the days of hoi an tourism and long before this guy pulled up a seat here while nearly every tourist fueled shop is closed this place is going strong making food that's cheap and delicious by local standards or any other so they understand that this is a very difficult time and they're suffering a lot but there still hope she still have to make money to donate to the people that have to quarantine still very busy it's been three months since the last case of corona in vietnam strong community-minded folks like madame phong are part of the reason why vietnam dodged the pandemic so swiftly but some restaurant tours are still adjusting to the new normal can i tell you under this band it's just white skin and sunburn all around it massive rice um this is my good friend andrew hey hi actually he lives in hawaiian oh okay did we met before i've never met we've never met what's wrong with you yeah meet miss v a food icon restaurant pioneer book author and mother she doesn't feel the pulse of food in hoi an she is the pulse she owns seven restaurants right now all seven are closed so today we're crashing her home kitchen where she's making spring rolls made with grilled pork herbs and pickled veggies wrapped in rice paper we go across the land or snow we're the newest region grab one of these andrew thank you dipping sauce oh wow i love the texture that's perfect for me i don't like it when it has a ton of vermicelli because you can make it just as good and super healthy just with a lot of vegetables yeah very low calorie you can tell yeah that's a great spring roll goodness for drinks nine years ago she published a cookbook that sold over 35 000 copies she opened the first cooking class for foreigners in vietnam she appeared on cnn and for some reason she's agreed to be on my show where she's revealing her secrets of success the secret hard work and love what you do today i'm gonna make clam soup using lemongrass i got some ginger and green chili this glam soup is very simple her cooking journey started at the age of 10 when her parents opened a restaurant i have to wake up at five here i hate them four years later she was promoted to cook but look back if i don't start with that age i don't think i have my career today by age 22 she made her own path by opening one of the first restaurants catering especially to english-speaking tourists that was 30 years ago the biggest challenge for me in that day is no money to shop luckily i grew up in the market i know most of the people running the market so i can shop with their money so i can pay him the end of the day can i have it and can i pay you later every day you're gonna say the same thing someday you feel like oh man i was too much but you know you have no choice that's it try the clam dipping the broth and then the green chili sauce okay [Music] oh that is great man there's a lot of flavor in there the texture is so different because you've just cooked it the right amount of time this gets overcooked everywhere i gotta be chewy super chewy you know what i also love about this is that central vietnam has such good beaches right and have the fresh clams it's just so representative especially with the hoi an herbs yeah i'm curious you grew up in hoi an yeah obviously it's changed a lot i'm curious how it's changed from the time that you're a child until now so you know foreign before tourists like a hidden town one of the archaeology he found the hoiyan and then put into the unesco and it would become the place to be i remember my grandmom sitting in front of her house everyone passing her and said hello she know exactly where they live how many people in the family and how many generations in the house but up to now demographic change the character of the hawaiian change a bit because we have to talk with a stranger more than we talk someone you know well it's all about over here we haven't even revealed this yet this is a dish my mom cooked he made decision to marry my mom because of fish because of this i decided to marry my girlfriend when i saw how good she is at ordering food ordering not cooking food my next dish is grilled tuna fish in banana leaf is our family signature dish most of her ingredients are sourced locally from nearby villages some items are only found here rock sugar raw sugar too i like to add a bit of hoi and chili paste she uses exclusively traditional vietnamese spices to flavor her menus a bit of chili to make a bit more color now oh i need banana leaf over the years miss v has opened seven restaurants all in hoi an managing over 500 kitchen and restaurant staff an incredible undertaking that could be pulled off by few but when it comes to maintaining quality and consistency ms v still has her ways invest into the people this is the key part when you have a right leader the rest is easy hope you got a little right here on your lips i love to keep the food around my mouth for later yeah for a snack yeah it's a powerful flavor actually right like very delicate textures the fish breaks apart the vermicelli noodle is really light but the flavor is quite strong yeah i love that would you say this is a tourist city of course and now no more tourism is this something you ever thought could have happened of course i'm sure you never talk about this too either most of the restaurants for tourists the domestic market is very small for us i mean should those restaurants try to adjust or just try to wait for our case we're going to modify a little bit to adapt into a new category of the demographic do you see any positives in this temporary slowdown in tourism here you know the day we closed the restaurant i meet all of my staff i say listen something come up you don't know we all are just what's happening so take the time to be with your loved one and your family reconnect with the nature reconnect with the old day poi don't take it too negative you think about the break time i'll sing a song for you you're beautiful even when you're down according to the coordinates on this card given to us by the always cheery producer me we're on our way out of hoi an to visit our final destination in wangnam this this is where we're supposed to go really sure this is the right place the exact coordinates we are in the middle of nowhere oh another card in hoi an food vendors who cater to foreign taste buds are suffering but those who cater to the local pellet have become pandemic proof oh i like that interesting cannot be pandemic that's the case here at this bamboo rat farm baby rat what the [ __ ] which part is throwing you off the bamboo what the what the hell is a bamboo wrap i've never heard of a bamboo rat is it just a normal rat that eats bamboo it doesn't sound small there's no way that exists okay so somewhere very nearby here we need to find the farm with bamboo rat all right can i clap thank you so much for having us here i've been to the mekong delta in the mekong delta they just had uh rice field rats and i ate it and it was pretty good these they're huge these are super rats adorable on the outside weighing up to four and a half pounds costing up to twenty five dollars each so it meant food here the bamboo and the sewer can they can't jump out of these boxes you cannot trim over they can't oh no what a curse their cage is just a two foot wall and they just look up like man i wish i had back leg muscles how did you get into this kind of business information in the internet and then okay it's got my injury because first it looked cute yes does anyone buy them for pets not yet it's quite like bamboo wrapped but now the government they don't allow to do it so they bring it home they don't allow people to do what hunts yeah yeah right when's the last time you ate bread a common because it's expensive don't fit to eat fit to yourself right i had that problem in college with drugs oh the bamboo rat will be prepared three ways but first it's boiled in lemongrass and coconut water you know recently there's been a pandemic has your business been affected by the lockdown anything like that this in the breeding season is not ready for the restaurant yet so the pandemic don't affect much on him pandemic proof half of it is hacked into pieces and eaten with herbs and shrimp paste the other half is cooked with turmeric and bamboo shoots we've already used two halves but one dish still remains i want andrew to see what it is first [Music] boom and rat dinner we have almost everything there's one more dish we're waiting for do you have any ideas take a look oh god bro do you know what that is andrew oh blood right in vietnamese it's called deep gun blood and sorry let's pour some wine i think we're gonna need it thank you cheers to eating a rat good i feel like a different person a less aware person so cheers man i'm really chewing if i didn't have the visuals of it i'm not sure i'd have a problem and they'll likely danger to your health i'm cool with it well meanwhile the flavor it does have a bit of iron in there but the blood's not that strong because they've mixed it with so many fresh herbs it's very aromatic do you know anyone who's ever gotten sick from eating raw blood like that nutella comes out the magic word for everything yeah all right so that happened next is this one okay so we put it in a leaf put it in a little bit of shrimp paste dip harder i don't know that's a pretty aggressive dip i think i went over the top [Music] it's hard to taste anything mount thom and the beetle nut these are such rich flavors right mom tom smells like athlete's foot it's like rotten organic matter [Music] chase it with some booze the skin is so thick and this has been pressure cooked for hours i'm trying to think of something relatable to compare it to um oh the rat that i had in nigeria so people who have had the nigerian rat you would know that this one's kind of similar to that um why remember what are you doing i'm gonna try one that's just me dark meat vibes like a chicken thigh but more fat and even more like dense pretty good man i could eat that it's definitely a lot better than the blood there we go here we have a rat hot pot full of what french fries no it's related to the name of the oh bamboo shoots that's fun and exciting i like the theme i want to get a little bit of broth and a little bit of these bamboo shoots i like that that seems healthy and vegan there's a foot there's a head there's a head yeah oh whoa this is the head split in half vertically right i'll take them [Music] okay every time that's here thank you wow this one is a side of a head oh my god i just pulled the tooth out this tooth has chewed through kilometers of bamboo okay still alive i'm gonna eat a little bit of this face skin is that a nostril yeah chewy very true very chewy but a better chewy because it's warm well i think you're right it's easy to bite through but that sort of gelatiny rat skin it's not really the flavor that i was hoping for oh what were you hoping for i mean i preferred the more jerky like rubberized rat skin that's the one i would like even you grew up in this region and you've never seen this before yes i'm so surprised because this dish is really hard to find here hey should we have more of this alcohol the more we drink the more i'm liking this whole experience ah listen i've lived in vietnam for three years i thought i'd seen everything and something special happens when a pandemic sweeps the globe and you have no choice but to make more content in your own backyard suddenly you start finding things that you never knew were there a couple of hours ago i didn't even know this creature existed somehow our production team has scoured the entire country right finding the most unique food and they've really done their job this time i'm a little bit more apprehensive now for the remainder of this trip that is for sure i have a feeling this is just the beginning oh god [Music] hoi an is a treasure a gem tucked away inside southeast asia those who experience it will never forget only the slow passing of time will tell us what the future holds for this place and the people of this tourist getaway but folks here are resourceful they're survivors whatever this pandemic throws at them they'll take in stride and when the time is right they'll swing the doors open inviting guests from all around the world once more [Music] today we're leaving central vietnam's coastline ocean and beaches and heading into the unfamiliar central highlands it's pretty cool that they're still unspoiled countries dotting these picturesque mountains dozens of this country's indigenous ethnic groups diverse tribes who have been here for generations all their own culture oh boy customs and food oh what do you put in there andrew and i are on a food inspired mission breaking away from the tourist spots and going off the eaton path to the house that's the chat how do you get up there to live [Music] but first breakfast want to find great food in vietnam look for vendors with only one item on the menu there you'll find years of singular focus on a single broth a single recipe honing it in bringing it to perfection this restaurant has been doing that for 30 years perfecting they're iconic um [Music] this is sort of like the quintessential noodle dish of hayan we've had the other one mee wang and these are sort of the two dishes to vietnamese people would think of first when they think of pyrenees food this local classic starts with bold thick rice noodles then greens and slices of cha soup pork all that gets soaked in their homemade soy-based sauce before serving a spoon of chili oil and crunchy bits let's try it out let's go [Music] oh i like that the pork just like fried pork fat i love how vietnamese food is always on two levels the actual taste but texture is always taken into consideration if it's something that's just mushy or without a crunch they're going to add something to it yeah there's a few textures going on here i like even the bean sprouts a nice little fresh burst yeah very nice we're getting out of hoi an today it's a whole new level to this trip except i don't really exactly know what we're doing but oh wait we got another card oh no thank you why does she always have a skull her face looks like she's in pain just working with me so it says good morning gentlemen so far your epic motorcycle journey has included hardly any motorcycling that changes today from vietnam central coastline you'll be moving inland to its beautiful mountains here you'll become acquainted with some of vietnam's 54 ethnic minority groups also whatever your definition of normal food is change it what does that mean so we're leaving one of southeast asia's most sought after beaches a coastline seen by millions each year due to the current block on outside tourists this is a beach we could have all to ourselves but no we've got vietnam's east sea in our rear view as we follow a new path to the mountains trading comfort and tranquil predictability for the unknown some call it adventure for some driving a motorcycle can be relaxing driving a motorcycle in vietnam is not it's an exercise in constant and unwavering focus an abundance of obstacles threaten your existence around every turn dogs trucks rocks and on and on after an hour you'll feel like you just wrapped the math section of the sat your brain needs fuel so vietnam also has these rest stops done their way equipped with hammocks and refreshments squeeze juice from the sugar cane [Music] ah that is refreshing after some motorcycling it is very hot it is cooking man we seem comfortable it's not comfortable at all no this is a small respite in amongst hours of pain we're not even halfway to kantum me said you need to change your idea of what's normal food that's after you ate the rabbit ugh oh how do you get any worse than that i bet that was the peak i'm guessing from here it's going to be noodles local vegetables i wonder what they have in consumption i think it's going to be fine dude don't worry all right all right all right we should go [Applause] this part of our journey follows the famous ho chi minh trail a chain of roads and bridges that were built to transport soldiers and equipment to fight the southern vietnamese and americans during the vietnam war decades before these days it's a mix of clean smooth highways and local trails from long ago whether they're safe or not is up to us to find out is this what is there another way the map says that way this thing looks rickety as hell man this looks very old all right this is holding up the entire bridge why is it shaking so much i don't know it's just for you know dramatic effect right now this is what's holding us up right now stop [Music] hey try jumping that was a big jump right okay i think it's good we just got to be quick okay all right let's do this let's do this [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] producer me's coordinates have led us here to this rubber tree forest rubber trees are only found in tropical regions and vietnam is the third biggest producer in the world this particular forest belongs to mr fulm and his family good morning everyone okay good morning vietnam has so many different ethnic minorities part of the reason we're on this trip is to learn more about the different cultures so your family is part of which minority where you're from the gym local the yaeqing people an ethnic group of about 60 000 they're native to this area but they also inhabit parts of laos and cambodia they have their own unique language culture and of course food let's eat breakfast today this tribe welcomes their guests with a traditional sticky rice preparation cooked in bamboo with a special dip made from basil salt and chilies [Music] there's not enough sticky rice in vietnam i know it takes on some of the flavor of the bamboo a little bit a little woody and this is just a fireball of flavor i mean it's spicy super salty and then there's just tons of like intensely fragrant herbs on there on the side steamed bamboo shoots i'll also put that in there oh that's awesome today we're here to kind of learn more about how you live and definitely about how you eat and i want to know what is the plan today do you know what we're going to be eating for dinner tonight we are going to go fishing and chop porcupine i'm sorry trap trap trap yes chap porcupine a pokey pie when we trap the porcupine what will we do with it is it like a catch and release program ah then we are gonna fishy oh then we go fishing see that's a relief yeah i thought he was gonna say eat it thank god so we don't eat it do we eat it yes oh oh we did it i thought we just went fishing and then went home it feels inevitable we're gonna eat a porcupine okay here's what i think you go fishing okay i'll figure out the other part yeah but you have to get fish because if you don't get any fish then we only have porcupine no problem so i've been split up from sunny who apparently has to go hunting porcupine which sounds dangerous so i'm much more happy to be here fishing which i quite frankly love previously i've fished a lot in australia but on an ocean with big boats and rods and i can't imagine this is going to be anything like this but let's give it a try while andrew was away doing his thing i'm right here getting ready to learn how to trap a porcupine i took 11 years of boy scouts and we never covered porcupine trapping also i was never in the boy scouts right now my man is behind me he's trying to scale both the perfect spot to set up a trap all right let's see how it works step one i need to figure out what's going on so i'm going to try and uh just watch and mimic [Music] um so there's no fish there but i'm gonna watch him one more time and then i'm gonna try give it a go so right here he's kind of dug a pit and then now he's gonna put this bamboo stake into the ground from here he puts a branch around and he puts two ends of the branch into the ground it's basically gonna be like a giant mouse trap do they have any cheese how long do you think we need to wait 30 minutes 35 minutes in three or four days we have an animal can he try to speed it up to like 20 minutes [Music] i'm gonna give it a try so i'm looping this around my arm now i pick up with the fingers oh god he's not that impressed i'm really wishing that i was paying more attention to the action okay that wasn't too bad oh man maybe i've gone on this time let's see right now i'm about 30 feet from the trap i just want to witness the moment something goes in there okay that was nothing that was just acting i know right now andrew is catching a bunch of fish and i can't come back without an animal that would be a failure i'm not gonna let andrew beat me unfortunately andrew can fish harder but i can't wait harder i just have to wait [Music] guys i'm pretty disappointed nothing absolutely nothing and now a meal of just porcupine awaits me we have finally arrived at village preparations for a feast have begun but do we have anything to feast on andrew oh i've got some bad news dude i fished my ass off so you have no fish nothing man what about the backup fish back up fish you didn't use the backup fish it was a backup fish yeah we never catch fish on this show we just have a backup fish oh man why is here so you didn't get a real fish or a fake fish no that's right at least we've got the trapping how did the porcupine trapping go the trapping right let me show you bring it in right here my man we have one porcupine that has been trapped is insane it's kind of tragic because it's a beautiful creature it's gotta be 20 25 pounds i didn't feel legit bad bro i feel bad too but what can we do uh this is what they do here this is dinner [Music] porcupine meat although celebrated in this community is consumed pretty rarely last time mr fulm and his wife had it was five years ago so andrew and i are especially lucky to get a taste today wow guys this looks amazing can you translate a little bit let's take a look at the spread here we have a little bit of all the farm animals and some from the wild chicken oh this this is um the fish you caught is that right andrew i mean [Music] he's like yeah whatever you say and then this is the porcupine i helped capture by waiting yeah and do you know where people always start no the booze booze in this village comes in the form of straw wine the idea is to mix a sense of community with a sense of getting ripped out of your mind all those who imbibe must share the purple color comes from the use of purple sticky rice in making the alcohol surprisingly pretty good it's really sweet yeah very sweet like a cough syrup right our first porcupine dish is the most straightforward porcupine barbecue oh that's very nice what they have that's pretty dang good sensational man it's so porky it's got some nice fat on it a lot of protein it just feels like you're a piece of steak almost you guys know how to grow this is a dish called fake dog meat because it's cooked exactly the way one would cook real dog but instead of dog we've got porcupine makes sense that's hilarious but it's fine because it's not really a dog it's uh it's just a porcupine that's just a porcupine hacked up sections of meat and bones are paired with lemongrass ginger pepper msg salt shrimp paste sugar honey and fermented rice well if stewed you can taste some lemongrass and herbs but this meat is also quite delicious this is the kind of cultural food i can get behind even the intestines our final dish porcupine intestine soup chopped organs heart liver and intestines boil together until their juices flow as one the gastric acids of the intestines contribute a deeply bitter flavor much like pure vile let's try let's go oh that's bitter we just got to the drinking food segment my god that's um different from what i expected i'm going to grab an intestine chunk [Music] wow that's where the porcupine stops being good at least the liver had some texture to it this was just gooey the kind of inside bit that hadn't cooked quite as much it just gushed out that was something different that's for sure i want you to drink some of this broth with me so um with cheers and drink some of that why are we doing this all right here we go [Music] that's a really strong flavor that is level 10 bitterness oh my god yeah he likes it please okay so he's going to take a bite oh he's just wolfing it down [Music] yes that's awesome man wow guys thank you so much for your hospitality for inviting us into your home and allowing us to share this real delicacy that you haven't had for years and years is amazing i just want to say come on come on [Music] [Applause] here's the best part about vietnam everyone who comes here they spend all their time in ho chi minh city and hawaii like the developed places but when you're on a bike there's so many places here that they just can't develop it's pretty cool that they're still unspoiled countries they're doing the ho chi minh trail it still has that we should go yeah we should definitely go yeah let's go [Music] this is flyover country often overlooked or skipped in favor of more convenient well-known tourist hot spots it's the bits in between right but if you dig deep if you scratch beneath the surface you'll happen upon discoveries that make the long journey worth it oh yeah we're leaving canton and heading even deeper into vietnam central highlands is this a new country where am i now while andrew and i await our exact coordinates and mission details breakfast [Music] this fall restaurant is a favorite among locals it's been around for more than 30 years but they aren't selling your typical far this is dry fall i know i was confused too dry far this unique offering is made by deconstructing the traditional fog we all know so well separating noodles and broth looks very thin the most the most thin it's the most thin one noodle i've ever seen in my life and then herbs and then some other fun stuff how do you live here without just being stressed out all the time no one else seems to care this place is fat this fur is that good here the dry phos starts with blanched fod noodles minced pork fried scallions onions and coriander in a separate bowl some serious beef brisket balls and tendon top that with green scallions and finally the broth of the gods so here we've got hoisin got chili sauce and soy sauce mixed together to me but basically how it is is good but the vietnamese way is to take the elements out of the soup and dip it into a sauce very salty yeah i think i need to mix that with some noodles grab some dry noodles [Music] that's pretty good i've always been a fan of for breakfast today i'm feeling a little bit like complete [ __ ] and this is like my go-to hangover cure this will heal your soul oh the tendon in here is fantastic i never used to like it now i crave it it's the best bit of fun the best we are deep inland right now and we're headed south eventually we're going to end up in chang where we end up in the middle i'm not sure yet but oh oh no another card she's circling around let's see what she has planned for us today you are officially deep in vietnam's central highlands here a patchwork of ethnic minority influence along with specific geographic geographic and climate conditions are a recipe for some of the most unique food in vietnam some of which you will not only be eating but also catching today oh my god the kwame again oh and then it says bugs i don't like bugs here's my experience with bugs the more you do it the more you just kind of get used to it it's like a beer did you like your first beer no that's right beer used to taste like ah right and bugs are like that it's not a big deal all right let's finish up this farm and maybe another bowl of it too and then let's hit the road okay central vietnam's highlands some of the most overlooked beauty in the country the journey to get here is long and arduous and 100 percent worth it [Music] beautiful is an understatement like a page ripped from a fairy tale tea fields that go on and listen an elevation that creates the perfect environment to grow coffee beans [Music] oh and the volcanoes i heard somewhere around here there's an old volcano a water yeah well it's not active anymore but there's a volcano somewhere let's ask oh uh xin chao could you come over here do you know how to say that is a magnificent mustache no no hey uh your your mustache good yeah anyways we heard there's a volcano somewhere around here do you know what to say volcano yeah uh you know fire think luau and then mountain nui [Music] ah oh that's it go ahead come on all right let's check out the volcano this volcano hasn't been active for millions of years local farmers have taken advantage of its rich volcanic soil transforming this once explosive help hit into a patchwork of gardens for crops growing taro sweet potatoes and flowers after almost killing ourselves coming up here we have made it and my god it was worth it yeah this is surreal man we're in an effing volcano we're at the edge of july province the name comes from those who have inhabited this land for thousands of years the jurai people are one of the largest ethnic groups in this country half a million strong mostly in central vietnam and nearby cambodia so the gentleman we talked to already he's jorah and then the place we're getting lunch next we're going to eat some jiarai food what kind of psych this is fun yeah this is a great start today's all about the jurai people and culture and uh their volcano too i don't know if it's theirs but i'm gonna say it is [Music] out here life moves at a different pace there are still traffic jams but they're usually caused by herds of cattle instead of motorbikes or cars it's hard to explain and probably impossible to measure but people seem happier here and honestly i can see why welcome to bazon restaurant bazan means red soil the rich fertile ground that's omnipresent in these mountains this is one of the few places that serves traditional dry dishes under the command of mister that's how cook his name is now is it a coincidence that his name is cook and he happens to be a cook our guide as we delve deeper into jurai food and culture area local and gerai member koya part of our mission while we're going through central vietnam is to discover the different ethnic minorities here and see what makes them unique can you think of anything that separates the gerai people especially when it comes to the cuisine the unique point is that gerai people don't use lots of ingredients but based on the flavors of the main food so i've noticed right here you have a squirrel how does one come upon a squirrel uh people are hunting and then give it to peasant restaurant have you had squirtle before no this is the first time i saw a coral and there it is right in front of you is it looking at you yeah he looked at me okay today's squirrel will be cooked in a banana leaf it's hard to believe the big fluffy tail comes out of that tiny little ratty tail first hack it into bite-sized pieces oh there's like a half a head that gets mixed with bitter gourd salt msg coriander chilies and water [Music] so we've got four different dishes first bile beef oh no we did the file yesterday that was the worst that was porcupine bile wow how bile is very different these beef slices are grilled over hot coals half of it is drenched in a deep bitter bile with the touch of coriander the other half has the bile on the side all right let's try it out okay cheers [Music] oh yeah oh yeah yeah a hint of bile you don't need much there's nothing like the bitterness of bile it's intensely strong next goat our next dish sliced goat meat steamed inside bamboo along with salt msg coriander chilies garlic oil and lemongrass [Music] it's kind of like a bit more mild pork but then you get the chewiness from the skin yummy here this is kind of what we're building up to squirrel i don't think i've ever had squirrel before and here it's kind of gift rad for me like they knew it was a special day so open it up wow it's all right there a squirrel mixed with bitter tomato what happened to this tomato what made it so bitter that's like really bitter eggplant yeah that's pretty good all right i'm gonna grab some of this meat oh nice smoky flavor fatty meat it's kind of like a turkey yeah definitely dark meat that's pretty good and there's no um oh what happened is that the pile yes that's awesome you were trying to cover up the squirrel taste and then you just put bile on it that's great when we were talking to the chef a little bit earlier he seemed like he got a little emotional why do you think he had that reaction in lakewood cities there is not very much foreigners so when he saw steam which have foreigners and this team is documented this make him proud [Music] to learn more about real gerai cuisine we're heading even deeper into the mountains to the town of ayunpok home to mr mo i a man fighting to preserve jurai culture this guy can catch and eat pretty much anything he makes bear grylls look like a glamping enthusiast today he'll teach us the art of the hunt [Music] my man first of all thank you for having us here at your beautiful home i see you're doing a little bit of cooking right now mr eye is a bit of a girai renaissance man just behind where we're sitting now his backyard has everything one would need to survive the apocalypse when the pandemic came you must have been like this is what i've been waiting for a garden chickens goats it's all there today we're on a mission to try some very unique gerai food already we've been to a traditional jarai restaurant where we tried squirrel have you ever had squirrel right [Music] now his mom just breaks up two squirrels they had in their fridge wow so that answers that question but today we have a whole different food mission my understanding is that we're going to actually be going out to catch some kind of food ourselves the outstanding voice today is the kinds of salt sauce made from ant yellow and almond from yellow and yeah a sauce yeah sauce how do you make a sauce from ants a blender and salt is a common staple of dry cuisine it can go with everything actually mr mo i is selling and salt as a little bit of a side hustle he gets his ants at the nearby waterfall we just saw him on a cliff catching ants and i didn't want you to try it there because there's something that you may not know that i do know dude these ants bite so i didn't want you on that cliff getting bit a hundred times being disoriented and then falling off here no cliff we've come to another tree there's an ant nest these ants build their colonies in trees each colony of these weaver ants has multiple nests the nests are made of leaves stitched together using silk produced by ant larvae oh and if you come too close to them they will bite the sh out of you but go uh giving yourself away okay okay we're adding a hug so he's gonna cut it down i'm gonna catch it in this don't let them climb up the basket keep hitting it on either side why not they don't want to get they're going to die in the bottom of the basket from head trauma they die from the acid or something i don't know all right well time to do the ant thing okay about that okay he's going up the tree right now yeah he's headed towards the nest okay i'm going to try to get this basket ready i can see it oh good oh that was easy okay oh my god now they're in there that was easy oh my [ __ ] god [ __ ] man oh take the nest out oh one is biting my arm i can feel it where's that i'll get it up okay get it down there look at this oh my god i don't want it to get me though don't drop the basket that's how it rolls i can i can see the [ __ ] like eggs or some [ __ ] there's eggs there's ant wow dude we're gonna eat good tonight look at that that's a ton of eggs a ton of ants this better be the best damn ant sauce in the [ __ ] world the first ingredient for our jungle feast is in hand these ants will be turned into a delicious ant dip adding a burst of flavor to our other dishes the dip starts with chilies and salt smashed together in a mortar then the ants and their eggs [Music] okay so right here guys we have a big container full of june bugs but these are like super june bugs now i know andrew is not a huge fan of any kind of bugs especially considering he just got bit about a thousand times all my rest oh there he is hey buddy pull up real close to him all right we have our next food here another bug uh i'm curious what do you call these in your country andrew get out of here oh dude that looks [ __ ] gross oh mother oh [ __ ] god look at that head pulsating now do you know why those are huge those are the queens oh my [ __ ] god bro i don't want to hit queen i don't know why it just sounds so much worse to prepare these scarab beetles for cooking we need to remove their wings and legs oh man i feel so freaking bad all the little tough bits that are hard to chew get tossed if you do this as a child they say you'll grow up to be a serial killer here's just part of the recipe oh man we just repeat that process about 100 more times when these bugs are ready it's time to hit the hot oil [Music] my man this looks incredible we have quite the smorgasbord here we have of course the june bugs that we help prepare andrew next we have blizzards and then the ants and it's actually like a little bit of a war scene in here because you see a bunch of hands that are still alive trying to grab eggs but they don't even know where to take them anyways grab a little bit of ants and a little bit of eggs we're just gonna eat a whole lot of it uh yeah just throw it in that's really sour exactly it's almost like a cross between a green apple and a lime yeah that's a good plate right our second dish lizards caught by our dinner host and cooked the gerai way simply roasted over hot charcoal waiting to be paired with a bit of seasoning i'm gonna just bust off a half a tail here and then i'm gonna get a little bit of seasoning here now this seasoning is ant free roll it up all right cheers whoa oh man all that sauce i put too much in there that's intense it's like citrus and aromatics and then it's fresh spice it is a bit weird you just munch right through the bones of the lizard but that's a good way to eat a lizard when are you smile witchcraft we tried some ants we tried some lizard here we have similar dip but they've added the ants in and of course that is going to accompany these big old june bugs right here cheers wow that seasoning is just so fresh way more mild than i was expecting yeah it's relatively good um i have a great surprise for you the queen remember you like the word queen we're gonna eat that next [Music] get out of here that is the least appetizing thing i've ever seen enough beating around the bush it's just a thousand bug eggs cheers that's 100 times worse got a little bit of a gush i can't believe that's the same bug i think there's a little bit of wing left on that or something because oh man can you translate and say uh he said he enjoyed it very much he feels uh honored to have had this experience the only thing he said about is he wishes there were more huge bugs that he could eat andrew i saved you there all right you almost offended this man oh thank you sonny to be completely honest i think these kind of bugs aren't that bad when i've had him in the past i just had him alone so here he's really dressing it up it tastes great i think what i'm starting to learn during this trip is that it would be easy for a traveler to come to vietnam experience a lot of mainstream cuisine and assume like that is vietnam but when you go places like this you realize even within this country there is so much diversity and this cuisine is unlike cuisine from any other region so thank you for carrying on the tradition and kind of like holding a torch for your people that shows what's special and unique about your food and your people and your culture can you try to translate any of them [Music] the spectrum of human culture and tradition is unfathomable that's crazy that's wild isn't that it's not yes there are over 190 countries but each country has pockets of ethnic groups and cultures that fight to keep their traditions alive fighting to not be swallowed up by the mainstream that flows all around them the girai aren't a collection of far-out jungle recipes they're one of the many unique ethnic groups that add to vietnam's incredible diversity now we're leaving the modest mountain town of ayumpa heading southward to a remote village most outsiders have never even heard of there's a river in front of us have you ever crossed the river before usually i'll use a bridge what's the worst thing that could happen let's do it it looks pretty deep it looks like a moving river [Applause] this is the home of the eday people one of vietnam's 54 ethnic minority groups here they've maintained food customs that have never been documented before the most special dish is made from small intestines what are we doing with the small intestine you have to wait to know more about it later andrew and i are on a mission immersing ourselves in an unknown culture in a place where time stands still there's just one problem we gotta split up and take on any farm duties they give us no matter how hard but before the adventure begins we need a little rocket fuel another beautiful morning good morning how are we doing i'm feeling great we are really deep into this mission right now we're starting today with some local street food a classic of this area do you know what it is in vietnamese i'm told this is vermicelli mama's like rotten well yeah is shrimp paste and this is crab so i'm assuming this is like fermented crab paste listen the fermented part was no secret after this we will not need a cup of coffee we're going to be pretty jacked up just from taking a sniff is that how you smell food let's get some boon i got some bamboo shoots now is this going to be like swiss cheese or something that's kind of smelly and then you eat it you just love it i doubt it sweet i doubt it [Music] interesting kind of gentle it does still have a slight rotten quality to it yeah it's got that fermented aftertaste that pungent kick behind it like a funky cheese yeah like a funky cheese get a little bit of egg a little bit of noodle this is pretty good i'm delighted and surprised yeah things are working out thanks for looking up today it's pretty good good day yeah producer me what do you think oh i don't like these cards they never are like hey good news i didn't spend as much money as i thought i would gentlemen your journey into vietnam's enchanting central highlands continues this is the place where pockets of once isolated tribes have only been connected for the past few decades today you will join vietnam's largest minority group the eday people in their village you'll assist them in preparing an incredible feast all right there is however one catch one of your jobs will be easy and one of your jobs will kind of suck you choose who does what well well i think it's pretty obvious yeah what do you mean i mean i had to carry the fish on the beach so it's your turn carry them look at this over there oh my god dude i was attacked by ants swarms of ants they were running off my legs that itchy feeling oh my god they're kwame again dude if you stop this at all i don't you just you had to gather ants can you see how many kgs how many pounds of fish i had to carry from the beach you think i forgot about that ugh don't you guys have ox i got a tin line on my forehead it's all white under my bandana it looks ridiculous i can't take it off are you kidding me i was in the sun where everywhere okay look you think i should have to do the sucky job and i think you should have to do this like a job there's only one way we can settle this [Music] right now we are on an old abandoned airfield right this abandoned airfield was previously known as the cell rail air base this spot now dilapidated and unrecognizable as anything significant used to be an important us air base in the central highlands during the vietnam war it was manned by the south vietnamese and the u.s armed forces from roughly 59 to 75. the area around chao rail air base was home to hundreds of highlanders with traditions dating back many centuries this includes the eday people who will meet soon but first in order of business we are going to race 150 meters down to the end producer me will be our flag lady when she puts her hands down the race begins and the winner will get to choose their task at the next location there are several walls of bricks and most dangerous of all large steaming cow pots are you ready i'm ready let's do this my only choice here is to win there is no telling what evil plan producer me has concocted or whatever it is i know the task is much better suited to andrew and not me the finish line is in front of me breathe focus i can do this oh yes oh no no i stepped up the start oh no no no no oh where do i go where do i go oh where's the hole oh no it's over here i think i lost him no you pulled the head come on come on yes i lost him come on come on oh this wall is gonna kill me [Music] for me [Music] [Music] good morning everybody first of all thank you so much for having us here today quite an honor this is a welcoming meal for us right i had a dream [Music] can you tell us what we have here one is eggplant the other one we call it grilled dogfish day fantastic can you pretend for the camera we've made it to a small isolated village home of the eday people this is mr e by kubar the patriarch to a family of 12. today we're going to help him prepare a once-in-a-lifetime feast but first a generous welcoming meal can i just grab a bite of this fish the texture of this it's like a fish jerky almost let's try it out it's intensely salty man oh very salty it's kind of like anchovies to be honest the texture is kind of leathery mmm and hard but not too dry i like it i'm gonna get some fish some rice put it all together i ate a whole chili on accident a little um spicy maybe a lot be careful because a lot of chilies already put in that bowl oh in this too yeah this soup is almost like a stew wow it's so fragrant i was expecting a much more neutral taste that's right it's very spicy a little salty a little bitter he's doing great you're not hungry but you're doing a good job eating did you grow up in this village joining us duan a young local who carries eddie blood from his mother today duan is a bridge between us and the locals here so he's grow up from this village how many people are in this village isabel 1 thousand and 200 people you know it's a beautiful village it feels like i'm in a vietnamese fairy tale pictures houses blue skies green everywhere animals and then just very kind curious people right can you tell me a little bit more about the customs or traditions of the eday people that separate them from other places in vietnam the ed are the 12th most populous of the 54 ethnic groups in vietnam totaling about 330 000 mostly living in the central highland region their houses are on stilts shaped like a long boat some stretch the length of a football field whenever a woman living in the house gets married they add another section to the house a house that she runs in this matriarchal society the men happy to be that because they can stand behind and support for the women how does it actually work every children have to take this family name of the mother for any very important issue of a family the mother give a decision and when the girl ready to get married the family girls have to go to the boy house to ask for marriage what do you do as a man if you're not getting any knocks on your door the kid with funny but when it comes to making big decisions best to defer to the ladies however when it comes to making food it seems like everyone pitches in i like that i think i like that let's see what they have in mind for andrew and me quick order of business we just did a race um i got second place which was pretty good you got destroyed in your face sunny side i'm told there are two tasks we have to do today and the person who got first place will decide what task he wants to do but can you guys tell us what the tasks are we have to do today [Music] first we have to go to the river or swamp and take all the elephant ears pants that's the ingredients for to the dishes yeah i can do that you mean you can do that the second task seem more creepy it's more adventurous because you have to take out an argument of the cow it's called small intestines what are we doing with the small intestine we will try to take the liquid inside to cook the dish andrew this is a tough one which task do you want to do do you want to do the cow no i'm going to do the river thing river it's like a plant how bad can it be i'm sure it's not taking the small intestine out of a cow presumably the cow will not be alive at that point i don't think that makes it much better well andrew i'm trying to make the most of this okay the eday people are mainly an agricultural society raising cattle and living off the land so slaughtering one of their own herd is a serious sacrifice and a tradition only reserved for special occasions fortunately some resources are more readily available and abundant like the recessed pools of swamp water that are home to this area's terrell roots we are here in some kind of jungle forest it looks like we're gonna be gathering some of these water herbs i imagine we're gonna be climbing right into this swamp when it comes to dispatching the cattle every culture approaches animal slaughter in their own way here one swift blow to the head and it's over oh this one is huge is that all right no no oh maybe that's too low maybe i chose to [ __ ] the tops oh man that broke off really easy okay okay okay i'm gonna try get a few more of these i could easily skip over the details that painfully remind viewers that our meat comes from animals but in this village the food processing starts from this very point oh get rid of the the rotten leek the eddie make a quick incision in the neck one more golden leaf all right which they immediately plug with a bundle of herbs this i have never seen before is this okay okay cut this one off she doesn't like it the idea is to keep the blood inside we'll find out why later okay okay i know that the women in the 885 kind of call the shots but i wasn't expecting this you know they really are quite bossy dry grass bunched around the animal serves as fuel for a short-lived fire i don't want to be throwing this one i'm black eye i need help this is my first time doing this then they remove the fur and begin the butchering help me come on the men work with ease performing what it seems like they've done a hundred times before okay but everything grinds to a halt when i get involved all these grass-eating farm animals have huge bellies because they have to digest an incredible amount of grass every day i feel like it's gonna explode at any second skin removed this membrane here is what holds all the intestines in he's going to cut through it but he's got to be careful to not actually cut through the intestines life is full of surprises especially when you have an evil producer who you allow to control your show this might be too hot for youtube meanwhile andrew is somewhere chilling in a cool clean jungle oasis oh man i've got to admit this is not that fun i just want to make sure i'm doing this correctly can you show me one time all right i see i see okay ah we didn't even need the leaves the whole time could we put in the basket okay okay all right she wants me to know oh this one big one we always want the big [Music] ones [Music] all right look we've got enough i've been told this has been great i've really enjoyed my time and i definitely chose the right task i mean now you will take this over here oh boy all of that oh god it is so warm i'm scared to rip it oh there's so much it's not gonna break what about this when struggling with any task all you can do is commit now we will tell the intestine so is that the part we want yeah they're actually going to be using part of the liquid from inside the intestine to cook our meal today so we've kind of cut one side of the intestine now we make the opposite side action brings results i did the task more slowly oh my god inefficiently and less competently than any local but i got it done nonetheless the accomplished feeling of victory sends a surge of dopamine up my spine it feels good fantastic that's really great well i mean as good as it can feel given the scenario [Music] cooking is underway the fire is lit rice is being pounded plants are being peeled the meat is chopped and prepped for a beef bonanza stir-fried beef with cassava leaves beef blood salad grilled sun-dried beef and then this a beef soup cooked with the taro stems andrew collected earlier the stock is made with beef bones green papaya bamboo shoots and taro stems all boiling in water the mixture is seasoned with a smashed mix of onions green chilies and salt finally to thicken up the soup they add a mixture of pounded rice and herbs now the star of today's feast and the whole reason i was elbow deep in a cow they call it vet ball all the preparation for the cow is underway right now we're back here to the small intestines let's take a quick look looks super fresh already in the pot cow skin cow bones meat and ribs so she put in the chilies and a bunch of minced onions and right now she's putting in some lemongrass that's msg yes salt salt and then some herbs this looks like sawtooth coriander now we go with the small intestine oh so now we're going to take all that juice out yes my oh my god oh gosh it looks like stomach acid i mean it's like split peas soup color green she will have the mucus inside what is the purpose of adding the mucus inside of here [Music] the mucus is like the most important ingredient of this dish it's make the dish fragrant [Music] wow that is out there my gosh they mix it well then bring it to a boil for 40 minutes that's it then it's time to eat ladies and gentlemen thank you for having us i am very impressed never have i seen a village come together to disassemble process and prepare a cow in a very large variety of ways i mean take a look it looks beautiful how was your day andrew yeah pretty good i liked it oh man i've got to admit this is not that fun and you was right yeah it was fine uh i just had to handle the intestines you'll try it pretty soon we have a lot of meat dishes to try the one we should start with our appetizer i think is the grilled meat oh i cannot wait to drink after this i got some dip on here i'm gonna try it out [Music] that's so unique the texture huh yeah it's like halfway between a jerky and grilled piece of steak right it's definitely more chewy but that's great man now why do you put it in the sun before you grill it the heat from the sun makes the beef taste better oh it's so spicy always is the alcohol ready [Music] oh dude that was epic [Music] what how did you eat [Music] a little sweet a bit unrefined i feel happier already andrew earlier today was picking some plants it's a kind of a stew almost like a split peas too where it's become like a sludge this is a result let's try it out mmm that's fantastic kind of potatoey yeah that is good it's just like potato and beef juice yeah it's got a little game to it but it's offset by the wonderful just savoriness of some pepper in there and yeah whatever they've done with all the extra herbs that's really nice man we tried your food right let's try the one i helped with huh let's do it it's right here in the ede culture of the past this dish was eaten only by the rich and privileged get some broth there for you thank you very much all right these days the beloved delicacy makes a more frequent appearance in meals andrew take a step and if they like it i'll like it too right now let's drink some broth ready i'm ready here we go whoa that was pretty decent i am very impressed that blows me away let me eat some of this meat it's nowhere near as bitter as the bile maybe it's a bit more balanced i am enamored with this let me tell you we put something in here that was bitter i thought it was going to be overwhelmingly bitter the deep kind of bitterness that makes you shudder into your kind of thing we experienced with the porcupine bar oh man what do you put in there it's so bitter it's like just the right amount of that bitter ingredient so it's in there it's part of the flavor but it's so dynamic yeah it's also savory and it's got some other seasonings in there to balance it out yeah i'd eat this sure do you know what we put in here [Music] juice wow because this is from the intestine the small intestine not the big intestine before today i didn't really know eating like this was possible ingesting the contents of a cow's intestines it's not a recipe i would have dreamed up myself but it's actually not bad yes yeah he knows he's like yeah we got this and i really admire the ability of the people here to not waste any part of the animal that gave it to life oh it's grilled with blood for this meal super unique super amazing i've never had a meal like this in my life love it really great sometimes i have to pinch myself because i really can't believe where i end up i mean is this really vietnam keep in mind this is where we started a bustling metropolis but just a few hundred miles away by bike and we're immersed in a culture that likely looks and lives the way it did decades before how does he help convince the younger generation to keep carrying these traditions forward [Music] that's fantastic i hope so too you've got something really special here this snapshot in time will soon fade because next we're heading out of the central highlands to the coast where we'll sample one of the world's most expensive ingredients oh and what these things are all over the place whoa oh my god [Music] but before we bite off more than we can chew we better get some breakfast good morning andrew morning mr sunnyside today's breakfast is a daring way to start your day the owner mr todd proudly brought this recipe from the north to the central region where locals can't seem to get enough of the star ingredient eel you know nobody knows how eels reproduce good leave them alone the eel meat is boiled with turmeric water and a secret family seasoning that can't be revealed add some fried onions and while it's cooking stir fry glass noodles with bean sprouts soy sauce secret sauce and some not so secret msg don't forget to top it with a mound of eels and breakfast is served i'm seeing some eel and then underneath that glass noodles it seems like all the ingredients are kind of just right there in the name let's give it a try it actually looks pretty good [ __ ] damn while it's so good little peppery just like a deep inspiring savoriness eating the eel alone it's just super tender i thought it would be bony so i want to take a bite of just the glass noodle bread why don't you give that to you that's my job all right andrew today's card says go to chang oh it's pretty short so right now we're in the chang's about 200 kilometers from here what do you know about this city coastal tourist towns much like da nang where we started this trip beautiful seascapes beach clubs good food i'm trying to figure out what she has in store for us the chang it's on the coast for sure it's going to be something from the ocean i'm excited i can do the ocean natrang city a beach lover's paradise in vietnam clean sand clear ocean beautiful scenery with tons of picturesque islands it's a perfect getaway destination for travelers looking to get lost sadly i'm not here for any of that instead andrew and i are on a mission to discover uh to discover well actually i don't know what the mission is we were informed to go to the train specifically here in front of these people um do you know what's do you know what's going on oh uh thank you come on g now we got a card from someone that's not our producer what's going on all right let's read to find out it says no you're not eating seafood today you've come to nachen to partake in an ancient food tradition that's really taken flight bird nests that's the food yeah what is that across from you the founder of one of ninchang's premier nest production facilities miss she and this production facility have been selling this delicacy for four years first of all thank you so much for meeting us it's a pleasure to be here joining us today mr chow an experienced local tour guide and founder of the tour company eat like a local you have five minutes to learn everything you need to know about this rare vietnamese delicacy go oh uh now i've heard that eating bird nests is a thing i don't understand how it works bird's nests are made of sticks and grass how do you eat a bird's nest this is like one kind of perk that she's gonna produce by the saliva turns out folks aren't eating birds nests made of sticks and grass but bird saliva much better and according to miss neon people don't pay big bucks for its flavor but for its perceived health benefits i have foggy head because of the jack daniels going through my veins we both have hair issues can it help with any of those things some part of the problem may be sewn but not really everything well i guess the bird nest won't cure all that ails me after all it's believed the bird saliva only acts as a supplemental trove of nutrients and vitamins especially good for the elderly and kids here on this property you have a whole processing facility for the bird's nest can we take a look at how you're processing this food and this bird nest factory known as yen sao nitrang started with only 10 team members now after just four years they've expanded to pretty much every province in vietnam so how'd they do it right now we're in one of your production rooms can you tell us what happens here so this is where they pick up the feather because after you collect the bird nest from the house they still have the feather of the perk in it preparing a bird's nest to sell isn't as easy as plucking it off a cliff and boiling it in some water first a huge amount of raw nests will soak together in water as the nests loosen and break apart large buckets of nest material are brought to specialists for detailed cleaning technicians use bright lights and tweezers to carefully pull off micro hairs dust anything dirty or impure the twice reviewed nest fragments are brought to a shaping specialist here those separated nest fragments are brought back together and reconstructed into the perfect nest it looks like a big bowl of vermicelli this is like a hundred us dollar vermicelli how old were you when you first tried bird dust [Applause] [Music] when she was young 10 years old she eat the birk's neck naturally from the clip outside of the ocean and it's really rare but now a day because everyone knows of the burden that's gonna help you to get stronger so people are gonna invest a perk house and then they collect it in from the house this small taste of the bird nest industry has wet my appetite for more so the original bird nest came from the mountain well andrew we should go there right now to the mountains yes andrew and i are setting off to see to get some answers heading to the place these nests begin islands like these are where it all started these bits of land far from the shore far from humanity are the perfect place to build a nest [Music] [Music] outside of arm's reach on a damp cool dark mountain's edge the place many swiftlets call home in the past one of the reasons these bird nests are so expensive is because it's so hard to get people would have to climb up this rock base in a cave where it's slippery where it's dangerous where if you fall you're going to be smoked in debt with demand steadily increasing locals have discovered a streamlined super efficient method of obtaining these nests but there is still an industry a desire in a market for bird nests that come from the mountain because some people believe these are the real deal i mean i'm starting to believe that out here in this hot sweaty environment this has got to be more effective it's got like the magic of the mountain of the ocean it's gonna fix your male pattern baldness my eating problem even though most nests are now derived through mass production the debate rages on about whether the birdhouse nest or the more truly wild mountainside nest is superior maybe msgno can clear this up let's end this flashback are we in a flashback and we're back and now i've also seen this before these sort of large birds nest houses but is there a difference in product i mean it seems much more exciting for me to get it from a cliff than just from a house so in the local people mind they think that is the difference but with the people in this business she's gonna understand the bird is the same bird they go to the mountain they also eat something like a worm and right here they also eat the naturally food you cannot feed them you just build for them a place to stay there andrew yeah if burden has come from the mountains originally right we should go to the mountains again what are you guys doing here we already did the scene go back go back go back after the bird nest is cleaned and reshaped it's brought to a drying room for two days finally it hits the sterilizer for one hour and it's ready for packaging each container holds only 100 grams of bird nest the same weight as about five strawberries with a price tag of around 6.5 million vietnamese donuts if you're looking at it per kilogram the price is 2 780 that's one of the most expensive foods in the world by weight wow from here her plan is to expand into different categories bird nest juice bird nest coffee even an instant bird nest like instant noodles man thank you so much for your time the only thing that remains now is to actually eat it now with the head full of fairly useless bird nest knowledge andrew and i are finally getting a taste for real [Music] i'm talking vip dining just outside these industrial sized birdhouse buildings home to thousands of birds boom we're doing it okay my man first of all i heard you are the bird person meet mr gooey a bird nest expert and veteran in charge of this compound giving us a close-up look at how they operate behind both of us are the biggest bird houses i've ever seen when i hear the word birdhouse my mind immediately flashes back to the small cute slightly [ __ ] up looking monstrosity i made back in 8th grade shop class but this place is on another level this luxury avian condo can house up to 3 000 birds so what we're hearing these are pre-recorded bird sounds the question is once you build the house it's the perfect living conditions for birds how do you actually get the birds to move in everything he said is done in this house it's just 70 percent and the 30 percent he's waiting for it is luck so yes even if you build the swankiest bird penthouse on the block that doesn't mean anyone's going to move in so how many times a year are they building a nest upgrade so four times a year their home disappears and they're like let's just make another one that's the way we say it's not very smart work you know i'm gonna go inside in just a moment do you have any tips nothing else mr yui gonna guide you inside the first times all right while andrew watches our chef cook i'm sneaking away to get my own close-up vip tour of the birdhouse sorry andrew today i'm doing the cool job look while sunny is in there exploring the birdhouse i'm gonna do something that's actually useful like help prepare the food [Music] okay right away you can feel the temperature is about 10 degrees cooler than outside and it's very damp meet mr chung a five-star chef with 19 years of culinary experience today the chef is cooking up a three-course meal grilled oyster with bird nest bird nest yogurt and plain bold bird nest with rock sugar great so how do we get started uh oh geez it's a little creepy in here in the dark they look like bats flying around cool we're going to open the voices with scissors very differently here how do you no yeah cut a bit off now this is not gonna work okay whoa i think it's gonna work oh my god oh man i think i got half the freaking oyster shell in there oh there we go boom okay as we line this up punch it in and crank the lid open so far this seems pretty normal grilled oysters these things are all over the place and then on the ground is covered with nutritious bird poop something's off here this is supposed to be the cool job but it mostly includes walking through mounds of poo while even more poo falls from the ceiling it's a sharknado of poo in here at least i'm learning something right so we've got four oysters growing what's next elevates the fish sauce that'll soon pair with oysters mashed chilies garlic and sugar are all mixed with fish sauce then cooked in oil there's so many speakers in here they're off for the moment while we're shooting but usually these are turned on and it's like a little bird nightclub basically building a new nest doesn't take long but the process is painful the saliva itself is perfect for sticking to walls but it doesn't come quick each night the bird builds up about one millimeter of nest just a fraction of an inch after seven to ten days the nest is finally complete here we have some of the bird's nest i thought it would look like noodles but uh no it's just kind of gelatinous gooey taste really i hope it tastes pretty good the bird nest is added to the oyster along with shredded coconut mango strings and the fish sauce why is it that we are making it in this extravagant way does the bird's nest add any flavor to this dish thank you so much for your time i can't wait to try it out here we are there are very loud bird sound effects playing over speakers yeah they're not even real birds our very first taste of birdness mixing it with oysters yeah these are the ones i helped make but do you know how to cook not really remember the fish that you got us there's not a huge presence of nest it's hard to tell i think you've got to drink the liquid [Music] it's delicious but if you told me there's bird nest in there i would not believe you also with all these crazy flavors i'm not that surprised we couldn't taste right it's powerful there's two more dishes i'm hoping there's something that's just more purely bird's nest yeah me too course two the bird nest is placed in a small pot along with pandan water then gently steamed the chef slices and dices pineapple rambutan jackfruit mango and papaya they hit the grill to bring out some more flavor finally everything gets tossed together along with coconut palm seeds jellies and the bird nest along with some yogurt [Music] and course two on three one two three it's basically yogurt and fruit i guess if you want to get your bird's nest in in the morning this could be a good breakfast yes fortified with bird's nest and nutrients and other nutrients [Music] it's fine but like where's the nest i got nothing bro let me ask the camera guys hey did you see them actually put bird nest into the dish we have video proof i think it's just more of a medicine man yeah i don't know i can't tell it up well listen at least we know we're getting that bird nest nutrition the pure stuff right so far our experience has been pleasant but a bit underwhelming i knew the nests weren't renowned for their taste but i thought they'd have some flavor last dish last chance this time it'll be prepared in the most traditional way simply steamed in pond on water with a pinch of rock sugar now there's no sharp bold flavors standing between our taste buds and the nest are you ready i'm ready like when you have the dry bird nest it kind of looks like a package of ramen noodles right but when you cook it down it really it just becomes kind of a goobery sludge there's nothing else in it right it's just saliva and i guess it's just turning back into saliva oh you keep reminding me of that first i'm going to give it a smell very neutral not a lot there [Music] it didn't that's in this is one of the most expensive foods in the world and it tastes like nothing it's just a medicinal purposes it has protein that has some nutrients but the same that you would find in just eating some chicken meat look i'm not a doctor but i feel like if this really was groundbreaking medicine i'd probably be getting it from the pharmacy but i think that's a big difference between east and west the line between food and medicine isn't always clear and a lot of these foods come from china or have a background in traditional chinese medicine it's not purely like this is medicine this is nutrition so is it really good for you i can't say for sure if people take it and it makes them feel better in some way i've got no issue with that another lie so that's it bird's nest soup john first time i've ever tried it yup good good local cuisine always tells a story what you find on a plate can reveal a lot about geography climate and even cultural value the flavor is in the storytelling behind the food i like it here these nests have virtually no nutrition but they're really hard to get your hands on so what's rare is value the most as important customer for her market now is vietnamese and then she also exports to china korea japan because the asian people is the one who understands the most about the burkness and then they understand the way that make the health really better whether this food is just a few glops of pasty bird spit or whether it is the healing superfood the legends claim only the consumer can decide for [Music] themselves andrew and i run out of road so we're heading to the ocean we are the go team we got the fisherman's son have you caught squid before by yourself so can you just make me look good please not far from the city exists an entire village on the water home to those making a living off the ocean he's brought the net all the way up you can see there's about a hundred of these fish but this way of living and this way of eating it's nothing like you've seen before andrew and i are on a mission to blend in this guy's got like gills or something i don't know how he stayed down there for so long earning our key and go and getting our sea legs so we're both doing what we want to do this time yeah that is teamwork only finally if we don't fall apart first i have you on my show and you ruined my show oh i'm bringing the reality to this no before all that we're in the city of natrang ready to fuel up before shipping out let's eat well good morning everybody here we have a dish special to this area it's jellyfish noodles andrew this popular local delicacy has been offered in this restaurant for 38 years jellyfish noodles made simply with vermicelli jellyfish fish cake fish balls and fish meat all joined together with a steaming hot savory fish bone broth i didn't even know jellyfish is something you could eat have you had this before joining our meal ciao experienced local tour guide for eat like a local across from him miss tan vice president of this region's tourism board and overall jellyfish noodle fam this is her favorite noodle soups when she was young around 10 years old wow fantastic some lime tom oh god oh yes so this purple stinky shrimp paste it's mandatory andrew i can do yours too no no no no too little a little bit of chilies some fish sauce and i'm gonna give that all a nice mix i want to try just straight up jellyfish i've never had this in my life let's do it oh that's a fun texture it's just taking on some of the flavor of that really rich savory broth right it's just got kind of a crunchy texture to it yeah it's kind of like a gummy bear like a gummy bear but without any flavor take one more bite low broth low bone she asks is it good it's really good it's fresh super savory for jelly fish noodles i thought this would have a lot more jellyfish but it's not just about the jellyfish it's like all the flavors of the coastline mixed together right fish noodles fish sauce shrimp paste like everything coming together in one bowl [Applause] [Music] so you grew up in chiang mai 35 years since you've been here how have you seen this city change [Music] just a couple decades ago this region was nearly completely undeveloped now it's a destination known locally and internationally for its natural beauty islands and beaches and of course their unique regional cuisine yeah train really keeps a very important role in the tourism pictures of the whole vietnam yeah one of the big reasons we want to talk to you is because tourism has become such an issue right now because of corona it's basically devastated the tourism industry if you look at may last year to may this year international tourism is down like 98 and so for a city like ninchang it's especially devastating because a huge amount of these businesses depended on international tourists so the question is what is an enchanting tourism board doing to bring back tourism to this city [Music] until i'm complete so first of all the government have the information to every single hotel's tourist company house to face with the pandemic make sure one hundred percent that's nia tran is safe now and then she would like to share more the plan to announce the friendly and safely destinations so they can welcome the tourists back first of all the domestic domestic and then popular everywhere for international tourism for a while even while this video was being recorded vietnam had kovit 19 under control it seemed like it had been eradicated from vietnam altogether cities like the chang had even begun the long journey of bouncing back starting with domestic tourism [Music] unfortunately after this recording another wave of covid19 infections hit likely due to illegal border crossing from china we know it's tough times right now what is your hope for the future vietnam has already won once going head to head with the virus i believe they can do it again this is going to be one of our final cards i mean this is our final experience this says today you're going to experience the not so touristy side of this touristy region experiencing the people food and natural beauty that put this place on the map expect to get wet we're here just a little bit outside the city of nichang in this beautiful beachside village and uh we're with online men here dude sir how are you doing it's in town it's hot good very informal handshake this is mr t father to a family of six living in a modest home close to a pristine beach that's not yet lost its luster to development or tourism meaning this is an ideal place for fishermen to do what they do best a lot of the people living on the coast they have some kind of job in the fishing industry and seafood is hugely popular here we can see that in our little breakfast we've got some sticky rice and on top what is that actually i think it's caco like the same thing we made the fish sauce out of in the first episode it does smell pretty fishy but uh it's pretty neutral exactly just laying drew talking about cat gum they stir fry with chili put on top of the sticky rice well what i've learned this trip i flip and love sticky rice there's not enough of it in the world and in vietnam agreed oh it's really pleasant you didn't kill the bones at all yeah bones are pretty soft it's another type of thing where the fish are like have food have seasoning to bring the rice to life so the rice is more exciting i like it a lot just really good food well we don't actually know what we're doing today yeah this is his daughter she thank you yeah come on what's going on here i much prefer her to me gentlemen this is the final day of your journey congratulations on making it this far but you're not finished yet where you're going today your bites will be of no use probably the water today you each must catch your own food and contribute to a family feast i knew it you decide who catches what and we'll see you at the finish line hi um first of all thank you for being here second can you help teach us how to catch stuff today [Music] yeah he doesn't seem that interested actually so he's saying he's gonna go down to the water you can even go into some of the small caves and catch the laughter oh lobster would be great if you want to stay on the boat you're going to get some sweet but 50 oh andrew i feel like we've been going head to head a lot this trip in your face sunny side listen if you want to go on the boat you go on the boat no no i want to go in the water well you really want to go in the water it feels like the more adventurous thing to do wait so we're both doing what we want to do this time yeah that's great perfect teamwork finally here a village like no other dozens of part-time homes on the ocean they've got kitchens they've got bathrooms but their purpose is as a type of ocean farm aquaculture like agriculture but on water fishermen store fish or lobsters here before selling or they fatten them up feeding them sometimes up to a year before the fish go to market so he said this is fish with around five six months old he catches the babies and then rears them or does he buy the baby you have to buy nursery fish to put it in here it's around two dollars per fish of course we won't be eating any seafood from mr t's farm today that would be too easy instead andrew and i are heading out into the open ocean and attempting to catch a meal for ourselves i am here with mr t but with a little help we are the go team we got the fisherman's son and we've got you of course do you have any fishing experience um actually my dad is the fisherman all right but i never fished before oh okay at this point i'll take whatever help i can get have you caught squid before by yourself can you so can you just make me look good please to the best of my knowledge we are here to catch two things lobsters and sea urchins [Music] uh that was fast right here he's got a tool it's designed to look like a little shrimpy with a ton of spikes okay so it's be careful i cut myself in theory it sounds like an easy plan just knock it in i'm gonna feel a lot more confident once i have some of these bad boys inside this net i can't go back empty-handed not this time not again out here okay we're gonna get in beside sun wind water and the boat that feels good you've got nothing you're gonna fish and i'm gonna watch you and learn okay so please uh show me show me your ways you wanna plug something to eat from the ocean you better develop your own methods quick or you're going to go hungry therefore out of necessity a tool like this is born in a new skill acquired this guy's got like gills or something i don't know how he stayed down there for so long this isn't something they teach in books but knowledge handed down from generation to generation he gave it a nice toss and then he starts to reel it in he gives it a tug and then he waits again look mr t just made that look real easy i'm a little bit worried about this look how sparky these things are i did not expect them to be moving this much so far we've been fishing for about 49 seconds we've not caught anything you have to be very patient oh the best way to learn mti is to get hands-on okay so i've got the rod i've got the spool go [Laughter] [Music] oh sho you know what go all right good give it some line let it sink right now andrew is in the water he has a better chance he's looking the fish in the eyes give it a tug we want the shrimp to act like a shrimp these squid are gonna be like whoa what an elegant realistic shrimp i'm going to eat that now even with skill and plenty of patience luck is a major factor [Music] that's my first net full of sea urchins the trickiest thing about it i think is trying to swim with a net in your hand but i've got to admit it's pretty fun there's plenty of this down there sometimes good fortune smiles upon you and sometimes oh what is this oh that's just you know that's a lure that's the lore okay she flips you the bird so feedback how was that like this level jesus is my first time take it easy kid all right let me try again [Music] better usually how long does it take sometimes it gets the squid around two to three minutes sometimes half an hour someday there's nothing oh no okay let me just bring it in we need to get creative right now andrew is catching up maybe sea urchins oh good god maybe a chicken or a duck look we've got food this is a catch and cook that worked out how did this happen this is surreal he's getting a lot of stuff down there i know sonny and i have really been kind of going at each other but i did great i hope he did great too this is going to be one hell of a final meal do you have any squid on the boat already kid you do wait you know english yeah what the what's going on okay i think that we pretend to catch it and then we delete this conversation so my buddy andrew won't see it oh is that squid dead already yes are there any what is my shell i think we just do it i don't think andrew hold on [Music] tug on it a little bit oh i think i got something on here what is this what's going on what's oh i can see it really oh it looks like a real squid oh my god oh oh it's really heavy it's increasing oh man dude i gotta admit i'm kind of impressed with sonny like i didn't think he'd catch [ __ ] he's swimming he's doing really well oh yes yes we did it wow that squid's not even moving what an amazing creature just a majestic did he throw a dead squid into the ocean and pull it back out andrew we just got back from getting our contribution to this family feast what'd you get we've got heaps of sea urchins man we even got a lobster it went great that's really nice yeah and how did you go sunny time great as well we uh got a bunch of squid we got three no you didn't man i reviewed the footage i saw it you saw the footage the squid was dead bro you took a dead squid and you threw it in the ocean no i was busting my ass what do you want me to do i was with a 14 year old kid how about not faking it how about not reveal that i fainted on my show i almost died for this [ __ ] show it's not even my show how do i even know you really got those sea urchins maybe he just put him there for you no that was hard work i was super proud of my efforts and here you are i don't know catching frozen food um sorry about that uh i guess what we really want to know is just more about your lifestyle here how does it work you have this beautiful farm how long have you had a farm here so uh can i talk okay it's been like a seven years already he's wake up quite early in the morning around five a.m and then he'll double check everything take care of all of the fish he's also go out fishing around sometime he has it sometimes he doesn't have anything sometimes it's impossible to catch fish right yeah it's impossible but you still need content for your channel yeah so fishing these days isn't like it was years ago all right so he's pulling up the net here it's a common refrain for fishermen around the world wow more and more effort for the same amount of fish you can see there's about a hundred of these fish the cat she brings in includes cobia barramundi trivally and queen fish what is the most expensive you have this is the lobster lobster is one of this region's most popular seafood treats getting up to around two pounds lucky for me these are on today's many along with andrew's catch of the day this is your first time catching the sea urchin but you've actually never even eaten it no that's wild to me he begins by cutting off all these spikes he starts slicing into the body and then he opens the lid and inside you can see all these little egg rolls so the stuff underneath is just not good don't eat it he squeezed some lime on there try it out it was really good really good it's not as smooth as i thought it would be i thought those eggs would just separate right in your mouth there's some chew to it it's not fishy in any way which is kind of surprising [Music] uh here's the thing i've had sea urchin a few times i don't really like it to me it's rich and creamy and that part is nice but then it tastes metallic at the end on the other hand this is super fresh still that like rich creamy a little metallic i think it's pretty decent i like it nice work dude you are officially the best gatherer i've ever worked with gathered this is a live animal it's moving i think that counts as like hunting oh maybe it's extreme gathering oh okay i'll take that extreme gathering sounds like a decent compromise it's pretty epic cooking is underway first up grilled sea urchin set atop a fiery charcoal stove add scallion oil and let the fire do the work next remember the squid i cut these guys are cleaned and steamed the lobsters get a similar treatment steamed with a hit of msg when you're cooking in a kitchen in the middle of the ocean preparation methods are a bit limited but here our greatest flavor enhancer is the absolute freshness of this seafood gentlemen and gentle kid we have done it look at this yeah what a feast i think we should jump into it where can we start can i try the sea urchin because we already tried the raw version and now this has been grilled but it doesn't feel like there's a lot in there oh yeah it's become more condensed and kind of dried to the shell right i'm gonna try it out [Music] oh that's good and wildly different from the raw version it has a bold flavor not something you wouldn't expect to be joined with the seafood well especially considering previously it was actually kind of smooth pretty it was creamy and rich but not that flavorful this is very strong yeah i like it a lot yeah how about these can we try these out so these are some lobsters he's cut up the lobster here this looks fantastic even better a beer boat just came and the beer is coming right now we're very happy yo so you don't take the whole tail he just takes like one bite at a time all right so give it a dip cheers [Music] that's really good lobster soft flavorful lobster yeah that's like a real meaty flavor actually probably that um sweet meat oh really good box is always good but i mean this is super fresh right over here this is great we started off today in ichang learning about how the pandemic has really devastated the tourism industry there here a good distance outside the city i mean is he even aware that there's a pandemic going on and if so has it affected his life in any way actually it does affect his economic because of the import export for example the lobster the price is gonna drop down like one third super remote and still still affected i mean every part of the food chain seems to be affected in some way unless you serve bamboo red right the pandemic don't effect much on him pandemic proof for the great moon in the middle of june falling up to the pole of the tide life on the water is tough this is tough squid people here live now as many previous generations have grab a piece give it a bit of a dip so it's hard to imagine what changes in lifestyle the future may hold i like it it's been really incredible kind of seeing your lifestyle here how you live it's very different than other parts of vietnam and i'm curious you have a big beautiful family what is your wish for your children and their future [Music] as a father and as a provider mr t must decide if his son should continue school past the age of 14 or commit to helping full time with the family business he chose the family business but given their specific line of work and their financial challenges i'm not sure how much of a choice it really was [Music] this going through the whole central region of the country known and unknown touristy spots and untouristy spots what's the one thing you learned that really surprised you just how quickly vietnam is changing like even in the mountains even in a time like with corona where things are changing at a slower pace at least i would imagine in these rural communities just the pace of change as well it's even like a place like this i don't know but i can't imagine this sort of way of life continuing for that long worst food best food from this whole trip worst food was pretty uh anything with bile oh is that the bile yes you think it's a fish sauce kyle is effed man for me the porcupine bile dish right i can't handle it right that is such an acquired taste but that deep violent bitterness i couldn't handle it oh what did you put in there it's so bitter and the best food you had the eel noodles all right that stuff was like butter it melted in your mouth the flavor was amazing i'm trying to think of how i can get back to bunwatcher just to try that again i really loved bees cooking in hoi an oh interesting great cooking but even better company you came reassuring mother nature's procuring there's no need for doubt in his mind of miles traveled dozens of meals eaten and a few very meaningful connections made eventually corona is going to be gone when corona is gone when we don't have to worry about it do you think hoi an will come back to life quickly depending on how much damage from corona but i would say that for the 21st century of course most people have enough food to eat you have plenty clothes to wear so what is your luxury travel as soon you already travel you can't stop yourself that to think about next destination and they will be travel a lot more that is another type of food so you won't give up vietnam lies between the big population areas xin zhao fishermen in the places that are hard to get to yes they've greeted us far from tourist offices would you call these in your country andrew for daily conveniences dude they're still calming these things don't give up the journey is long and hard now we will tell the intestine but whatever effort you put into it wow i'm very impressed you'll get back high and more yo [Music] from cheers 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 [Music] we're just happy you're here that is it for this one thank you so much for watching we will see you next time a piece all right how do we get out of here this is like our most precarious um we should take this boat and we should take the boat let's take the boat with families there's we found a boat [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Best Ever Food Review Show

Views: 7,081,201

Rating: 4.8217678 out of 5

Keywords: best ever food review show, befrs team, sonny side, central vietnam bike trip, south east asian food, vietnamese cuisine, what to eat in vietnam, travelling in vietnam, exotic food, bizarre food, da nang, hoi an, nha trang, kon tum, buon ma thuot, ethnic food culture, banh xeo, eel noodle, beef intestine, bird nest, ant sauce, bamboo rat, lobster

Id: dLiETi9sHCI

Length: 140min 45sec (8445 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 12 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/nyrothia]

20 minutes deep, everything they eat looks absolutly amazing. i'm jelly af. new travel goal set.

[u/DnDYetti]

Sunny has an amazing channel, I watch him all the time! Good to know he's making the best of a bad situation.

[u/Toxicity]

Man I miss Vietnam, I was about to go there but then the whole Corona show started. I love Da Nang, the first city in the video.