Thai Chinese Food Tour in ENDANGERED CHINATOWN Community in Bangkok, Thailand!

I came here a couple of times but it's been so many years ago that I've been here and the food is always top notch this is a very unique dish and it's actually very hard to find in Bangkok it's not very common that really to me tastes like a scrambled egg I hope you're having an amazing day it's mark Wiens I'm in Bangkok Thailand I'm on my way this afternoon to go meet my friend Michael from Bangkok vanguards and I've known him for many years he's an amazing guy what I really love about Michael is that he really focuses on sustainable tourism and he also cares so much and has such a passion for communities and off-the-beaten-path neighborhoods in Bangkok that are threatened and that are an in danger of development and so this afternoon we're gonna take you on a Thai Street food tour we're gonna go to an endangered to threatened community in Bangkok we're gonna eat some amazing Street food we're just gonna walk around and explore and I'm gonna share everything with you in this video my god good to see you man see you how are you I can't congratulate pose for your child he's with Grandma now he's gone yeah Michael quickly tell us who you are and what you do okay Michael and I'm basically a location scout to guide urban explorer with a big big passionate heart for thank ogen its communities so yeah and I'm very happy to need you today and you know to share some of my you know insights and and thank you like your time with you awesome so we're off to start exploring and eating right now this is a very very well known stall that serves Wiki a lot I've walked past this stall many times but I've never eaten here so that's gonna change right now or if we're ordering up some quickly a lot [Music] psycho you hang take fall upon your like the car so damn damn [Music] the whole base of the dish it begins with the wide rice noodles and within the wide rice noodles within the rice noodles our little baby dried shrimp that are embedded into the noodles and then those are steamed and then to assemble the whole dish she puts the noodles down as the base then she added on all the different toppings it's really a beautiful dish so what you do is you kind of mix everything up there are a number of different sauces especially a lot of dark dark soy sauce in here that makes the the base of the the dressing [Music] you really taste the fried garlic in there and you really get stuck there's some like a like a nutty taste and then you've got the dark soy sauce in there that has a sweet slightly caramel II hate so he might think that the noodles that show the village is very nice and I like the vinegar its various Chinese yep they say never do that annotator if you would slurp that noodle the sauce would just like spray I probably spray spray sauce all over your face okay they're also known here for their Todman black drive these are fried fish cakes she's making them I can feel the heat of the oil right behind me I think I got a twin or triplets I think I got to figure there's finely sliced long beans in here as well [Music] oh that's awesome that's spongy you can taste the red chili paste in there and it's just like that really amazing like almost like a dense foam indexer and also I don't think I even explained but they include a few of the fish cakes in your plate of noodles here as well so you get everything in that a very unique dish to make it even better hot sauce oh yeah man oh this makes you awesome no there's also another sauce here which i think is a chili vinegar oh yeah that looks awesome oh yes I think it's not too spicy okay fix that around Oh for me that's the balancing needed [Music] we're moving on next up right down the road there's a very famous South Bay place so we're gonna eat some something next Jay King and they serve I think I'm oh they have old top a giant plate of satay leave it up to you to do the ordering she did she did the ordering and this is what came to our table we got 10 skewers of chicken 10 skewers of pork and 10 skewers of its pork liver right pork liver and then it comes with a dot which is a it's a pickle there cucumbers in there there are shallots or onions and chilies in us like sweet vinegar sauce and then the peanut sauce smell the turmeric that's why all the meat is so yellow all never marinated in a turmeric mixture with coconut milk oh that's some awesome thought they call the meat is insanely tender we taste the riches of the coconut milk with the smokiness of the grill flavor on it he tastes the turmeric on there that's amazing oh it's ridiculously tender that's up that is so good you don't even need the sauce let's try the pork next and for this one I will dip in the peanut sauce I'll give it a little roll a little 360 I think this is a one biter [Music] yeah oh good actually you know that sauce is really good it's a little bit sweet it's rich and peanutty and almost like almost like foamy from the peanutty ness of it like a like a foamy peanut butter and yeah it is a little bit sweet and that completes nice out there they specialize in liver saute here and again you can see how it's just yellow in color because of all that turmeric he'll dip a little bit all the livers awesome oh it's like it's like free me you don't even really taste the irony inist of it but just like creamy and soft and tender really top-notch liver oh okay I think the liver and chicken those are the two winning skewers but I think this is not a one biter forget KFC forget all this junk food that they're going to build around here in the future as long as these places are round this is part of the street culture as part of the city and this is what makes Bangkok so great so shares on the heroes of the sidewalks hello makeup yeah seriously I think this is a saute that I prefer it without the peanut sauce it's so fresh right off of the grill it's sensational [Music] satay was excellent honestly like I actually preferred it without the peanut sauce because the meat is already so fragrant after eating a few Thai Street food snacks on the main road we walked into the alleys of Bangkok's Jalan chai community it's a small Thai Chinese neighborhood that's threatened by Bangkok's rapid development there's an upcoming subway station on the main road and nearby areas are being sanctioned for hotels condos and shopping malls development is a necessary part of any city but our hope is that some of the cultural heritage communities can be preserved Bangkok is undergoing a tremendous transition right now that a lot of people are not fully aware of it somehow we're into himself the policy that was announced for example we organized street food and in the process of course you know a lot of the traditional Street hawker areas have been actually wiped off and I mean it sounds a bit dramatic but it's a matter of fact right there's also like you're so people playing that it's in the benefit of the public but you know I think there's a lot of deeper implications but apart from street food it's also old neighborhood such as the gerund Hyde community view and you can see that has been since king rama v so what we see yeah and some of the you know this row house that we see these are built isolated the building blocks of bangkok and if you go to museums you see maybe black-and-white pictures animation when when bangkok start to modernize right and and a lot of these neighborhoods now fall under the new developments area because of the expansion of mass transit systems and so there's a value of land and so they're not considered actually heritage site even though this community where we stand a living museum in it is the roots of taya entrepreneurship and was that I mean family-run businesses restaurants you know small mom-and-pop shops but in this particular places we see a lot of shops that are selling Chinese paraphernalia this kind of very elaborate I should call it Chinese origami that they use for religious purposes that is this is last community in the entire country that is doing a sort of production and tray of this this thing also this is a museum yeah so really is one of the smallest little closet sized museums in Bangkok it's pretty cool I had no idea this even exists you could just walk past and it's also a kind of a community center where the families in this the tree that Chinese families in this community sometimes hold gatherings and meetings former Opera House - yeah no opera houses in Bangkok I know it was the residence of opera artists okay okay as you look around you can see the museum is not in the greatest shape the paint is peeling back from the walls the roof is decaying but as Michael was explaining to me this is a really strategic place in this community because they're they're making a point here that they can preserve the culture that they can share their unique Thai Chinese heritage here and create value for the community because they consider it to be like it's still a living link between you know the CME's the Thai Chinese cultural connection I mean the produce that you find here is the is the last one in the entire country I most Chinese people if they are specific like Chinese celebrations they would come they know jaren chai to get all these utensils or everything what they need for other celebrations they would come here and if that's going to be replaced here by yet another shopping mall I mean we are losing something I mean that you can't replace [Applause] [Music] we're just walking down a lane and this is this is a dim sum lane nothing there man happened to be making right now is called point jaw and it's a type of it's a it's like a meat filled dumpling like cool oh cool Cup oh cool okay okay you know there's a mix of minced pork and shrimp and crab in it they wrap the mixture in bean curd and roll it up into like sausage shapes and this is one of the coolest cooking dim sum things that I've ever seen before that's it's a stack it's like a it's like a Jenga stack and they're all supposed to be doing here and then they slowly steam normally they would actually deep-fry this and they would cut it in two you can see the little links that are already like marked out where you can cut it into bite-sized pieces but the very friendly ladies here we're already telling us that this shop their family has been running it for over 50 years there you go man so we just got like it this is basically like a sausage roll up wrapped into being hurt it's really awesome really good I do however think it would be better if it was deep-fried no that's one of those things that you know on your first bite it's so Kay but the more you keep on eating it it just gets better and better with every bite and now that I finished that whole piece I can still feel and taste the black pepper in my mouth and it's so good in fact that young and I decided to buy a whole bag for takeaway to bring back home we're gonna have my mother-in-law deep-fry it and it will be absolutely awesome [Music] these are the types of neighborhoods and this in this entire market is actually is just completely hidden up hidden it's it's completely tucked away you can throw a stone in that direction you would be to the main road and you would be to a brand-new subway station that they are building and then if you walk any number of directions it's just like a completely different world and this is just a hidden hidden pocket back here [Music] [Music] and now we're gonna head out just to the main road here and there's a restaurant I've eaten out here a couple of times it's right past this car right over there but they they make amazing food so the the beauty of this restaurant is that they have all of the ingredients laid out starting with all of your vegetables here and then moving on to your meats and fish and seafood is all behind the glass cabinet in order to order at this restaurant you just come here you choose your ingredients and they tell you what they can make it's like a live menu here this place is great as you see and even as you choose one of the ingredients they just grab and assemble everything and then they cook it in the back [Music] [Music] here comes our dish right out of the kitchen the whole cycle has been complete [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I have to pretend I'm hungry now come on we're just so we're just now sitting down for the real dinner I came here a couple of times but it's been so many years ago that I've been here and the food is always top notch and what's unique about this place is that it's located right across the street from the cello and chai community that we were just exploring and that we learned about all of today this is a very unique dish and it's actually very hard to find in Bangkok it's not very common it's called haiku poems it's a type of shellfish and then if they stir-fried it up with green onions there's a bunch of chilies in here I think we're gonna Chile yeah there's a lot of chilies in there that garlic is really nice and strong but like they almost have to me they almost have an egg taste to them like if you if you don't know they're shellfish you might think they're little pieces of egg like I'm like that have just been cut up into little like grains it's a very new flavor to me it's really good right yeah yeah it's so good I love that next dish we have is called my jean suit and this is also not a very common dish that you'll find so when I saw it I immediately had to order it they stir-fried open it up with a bunch of garlic and crispy pork belly that needs to be followed with a little bit of rice well that's superb the flowers themselves they almost have a texture that's similar to napa cabbage like wilted like a wilted crunch you can just take taste garlic just folded folded within that niche and then you've got the crispy pork belly which adds extra flavor that's absolutely delicious it tastes good yeah villages even better with pork belly you're gonna love that one okay next up we've got Google pancetta and this is PUD pet stir-fried with chili paste and lots of chilies stink beans of course these are nice good meaty sized and then there's shrimp but in here as well it's one of my favorite things to eat in all of Thailand very strong yeah they are kind of sure these are kind of strong in flavor because they're kind of old you do taste a little bit of like a fumes that sort of go through your nostrils a little bit a combination of all these flavors on this thing that awesome that's that's the specialty of Thai food about these think he means well this is a job for a spoon because you can get some of the rice you can get everything in one bite without shrimp in stink beans this is a unique Tiny's dish that I saw and I just had to order it it was in the back of the kitchen they're boiled peanuts with pig's foot these are chunks of people I just leaked some of the juice out of it it's dripping oh no you oh no it's dripping even there's like a jellia should I move some look at that yellow sheen Casey so that's the gelatin that's not that's the collagen from the pig's feet right here you got to eat it before it falls off the spoon go for it go for it oh man oh that's delicious you think it's just gonna be like fine peanuts but they are encased in pig juices rather than have like a having like a crunchy nutty taste they have more of an almost like a starchy almost like potato Eve taste index return with a little more of a crunch a chunk of somewhere from the foot we got some those are some unique textures a lot of like jelly ish like gelatinous gooey gooey bits going on in there and I'd reach the bone on that bite it's okay but it's not my favorite I prefer the peanuts the next dish we have here is bata pian film yum chive and this is a steamed fish head actually kind of braised with all of this um pickled mustard greens and we got the head I think the head is also fried so the bit Boni the texture of the fish of this dish he's always kind of mushy because it's been boiled for so long it's not my favorite dish actually kind of mushy fish but that is what it is it's interesting it's kind of like a plain kind of soothing dish that you would want to eat if you don't want a lot of flavor the final dish that we got is called thumb boy I'm more SAP and thumb boy I believe that it's a pickled plum down here and then there are pork meatballs down there as well oh that's like shockingly good you're not expecting it to be that sour but it has this like really sharp like vinegary sourness oh this is the best thumb to do that because - it meets actually planned okay that's my flavors but this was to say wow that is it's like a wake up call I come I will come back here for this poem - and I will buy some maybe for my grandmother MANET that's amazing flavor [Music] we're going back to the community to eat it's starting to drizzle but they say that the rain is coming more so they've picked up our table and then moved us over to the to the neighbor's house across the street here and transported it underneath the the lanterns right here okay and now we're coming right back to eating again so Michael what's your favorite dish I have to say the king - the king judge and what about using Jude also the shellfish onto the rice and mix it in a little bit that's so good it's so salty you could just snack on those little shellfish all night long what a combination [Music] it's a good thing we moved under the out of the building because right after we moved it started downpouring we would have been soaked and the food would have been swimming as we're finishing this meal I just wanted to quickly talk to Michael Michael is the founder of Bangkok vanguards and Michael has a very interesting story actually I'm a quarter Chinese so my grandfather's Chinese and at war our entire Chinese origin like my mom is Thai Chinese he's like a Chinese innocent okay my mom is Thai Chinese and a quarter polish quarter German for a type okay so I have all this yeah and we actually submit to agree we have we kind of share a background history too because I'm a half German you are yeah you didn't know Chinese no way you have [Laughter] you know am I gonna give you private classes my dad has German roots yeah but it's probably been like Teresa for general your next look in your or you have to eat something like in methods of a grain of rice yeah [Music] das is nikka you grew up mostly in Germany though but then you came back to Thailand and how did you begin Bangkok Vanguard's yeah I began by walking into these areas whether it's along the rail tracks or the under the elevated expressways or the abandoned skyscrapers first you were just walking around and exploring ah yes exactly and it took pictures and then because I speak Thai you know it is extreme environments they you know I found a very compelling because like human life how people not just survive in extreme human environments but how they actually were so friendly and and and I thought you know this is these are some stories that I want to I want to share with a wider audience and then that eventually became Bangkok vanguards and now Michael is offering tours he's a guide he has a team but he really offers really unique really in-depth places like we just explored around traveling chai you're doing great work I'll leave Bangkok man guards in the description box below so you can check out all the details but I want to say a big thank you to Michael for walking us around and for eating with us today in Bangkok did you get enough food and it's gonna be enough till Friday so cool go check out Michael yeah yeah half German brother we're not sure what exactly will happen in the future we hope that there can be a balance between the the development and the history preservation of Bangkok yep anything else you wanna add maybe next time I can show you the the communis by the riverside definitely yeah and be awesome yeah I will welcome you at any time mark and anyone oh no cool so that's it for this video thank you very much for watching this Thai Street food video tour as well as walking around jello and chai community and if you're not already subscribed make sure you click Subscribe now I'm gonna be publishing lots more food and travel videos thanks again for watching I'll see you on the next video

Channel: Mark Wiens

Views: 2,072,707

Rating: 4.8742509 out of 5

Keywords: Thai Chinese food, Chinese food, Thai food, Thai street food, street food, Bangkok street food, Charoen Chai, Chinatown Bangkok, Bangkok Yaowarat, Yaowarat, Bangkok documentary, Thailand, Thailand documentary, Bangkok Vanguards, Bangkok tours, tours in Bangkok, tours BKK, Thai satay, ชุมชนเจริญไชย เยาราช, Thai dishes, best Thai food, date mussels, Thai Chinese documentary, Thai chinese, Bangkok development

Id: T26ovNBq95g

Length: 27min 40sec (1660 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 07 2018