Thai Farm Food!! 3 HUGE VILLAGE MEALS - Unseen Thai + Lao Food on the Mekong River!!

hey everyone hope you're having an amazing day it's mark wiens i'm in the small village of ban natan which is in nakampunom in the isan northeastern region of thailand and we're right along the mekhang river the people are nice the food is delicious and today is gonna be a huge food day uh some of the community from the village is gonna come together they're gonna cook for us some of the local dishes of this village and of this area and so in this video i can't wait to share everything that we do and all of the food with you [Music] never too early for fermented fish sauce [Music] arrived in the village last night and some of the community had gathered to give us an amazing welcome such a special welcome and to show their hospitality in this village and that's why i have these uh white strings wrapped around my wrists [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] this is um and then we woke up this morning at 6 30 a.m [Music] my okay and come upstairs to our home on this platform this is kind of the this is the family space this is the gathering area and what an unexpected unbelievable breakfast oh man this is everything you could want for breakfast in i'm gonna start with some hot fresh sticky rice what a breakfast though i gotta try that tampua for the first bite this morning oh wow there's nothing like starting your day off your very first bite of the day with that pungent fermented fish sauce so good and spicy to go with that and just absorbed into the sticky rice and this is one of my ver favorite variations of a tam with the the long beans and this is quite a quite an organ-y looking soup lemongrass in there uh galangal and i think that's mostly lungs right is that lungs [Music] oh that just melts in your mouth it's so soft it's so tender oh and it's very clean tasting almost the texture of tofu that's so soft and then we got some grilled chicken of course that's a perfect golden crispy shimmer char from the grill that grilled chicken is fantastic smoky salty a hint of sweetness and that kind of herb um herb flavor like lemongrass maybe coriander roots that grilled chicken as as tasty and oily as it looks next up i can't wait to try the mulk the packet looks like snakehead fish i'm not totally sure and then there's herbs in here i'm not sure if there's egg in here and then sometimes it can be roasted i think this one is steamed though oh yeah there's so much going on in here and you should see that that chunkiness oh there's even tomatoes in here wow oh and bones too so you gotta be careful of bones it's just all wrapped up wow that is juicy and it's so herb driven galangal half your lime leaves yeah the juiciness of that fish a little bit of chili in there maybe tomatoes are giving it juiciness as well oh that's just straight delicious another dip is a cheo pala it's a fermented fish fiery chili lots of herbs in there too green onions maybe a dip that you can dip in sticky rice that you can also especially made for grilled chicken oh man the pungency the fermented fish the green onions the dried chilies in there such a powerful flavor never too early for fermented fish sauce top-notch breakfast and we are immediately heading to start doing some activities gonna go around uh on the motorbike sidecar and we're gonna see some things and maybe gather some ingredients i'm not totally sure yet uh before we come back to cook for lunch oh we've all got hats oh thank you coffee mug up we are officially ready to start the day people here are friendly so relaxed and uh the slow pace of life is something that you're gonna love here this uh village is known for their forging of knives that's one of their main industries along with agriculture so we're gonna stop by a property here where they're making the knives first oh man i can feel the heat radiating on my face from that that glow-in-the-dark hot uh iron and also my ears almost ringing because of that hammer pounding and even the ground shakes a little bit but that is just a still he's an artist he's an expert and uncle is 84 years old uh and we asked him how long he's been making these handmade knives he said since he he cannot remember but since he was a kid so possibly 75 years of knife making experience and so the actual pieces of metal what the knives are made from are actually truck leaf springs that perfect piece of steel that perfect piece of metal uh which then is flattened and hammered out into a knife shape and it's all just from one piece because even the handle is just uh that same piece of metal which is curled up and then the the knife part the sharp part is flattened is pounded into a a perfect knife shape perfect especially for chopping and mincing up meat dishes like lab in isan uh he's going to show us really quickly a demonstration of how you know that it's the best quality handmade [Applause] [Music] and they said if it's a not a well-made knife the knife will actually break and that is already that is a complete handmade knife thank you to uncle for showing us this just amazing art okay that was cool so cool [Music] we are heading to the garden now to pick up some vegetables [Music] [Music] it is windy but such a cool place we have arrived to the banks of the mekong river and the soil here is so fertile and right in season right now is called which i think is it uh choy sum i think it might be choi sum uh the vegetable but that is a beautiful sight that your little yellow flowers and just uh that is healthy that's green that is beautiful you can come here and actually buy straight from the farm uh and here's where they're packing it distributing it okay this is a picture-perfect beautiful mekong healthy vegetable farm on the banks of the river it is spectacular and you can it's so fresh it's so green you can actually smell the aroma of that vegetable okay yeah no money so you pick it kind of from the center of the stem and it just oh it just snaps off oh man oh yeah it smells so good so unbelievably fresh so unbelievably green okay another thing that they have here in a smaller amount which is like chinese broccoli i believe and then they also have coriander and dill growing as well which he's picking up now [Music] um [Music] next up and it's not too far away from the village and where we were along the river uh we're stopping by one of the naga temple it's a pilgrimage site in isan it's a pilgrimage site throughout thailand and so we're just going to stop at this temple and the magnificent stupa just for a little while and you can see on all four corners of the stupa surrounding the temple there are these massive golden kind of dragon almost serpent i think that is the naga and five heads completely gold and studded with jewels [Music] [Music] back at the house now the aunties are gonna get started cooking they're gonna cook two meals one is for lunch and for dinner so i'm not totally sure which ingredients are for which but we're gonna try to just follow them and see the dishes see some of the cooking uh some of the dishes that they're gonna make for for lunch and dinner tonight and as they're beginning to cook she's bringing out a fresh batch of konom tian it's a local snack and it's so friggin from that banana leaf but sweet a little bit sweet a little bit peppery oh that's what it is so i picked um my gum [Music] it's the pepper in there yes i've had this before hello oh that's great bang bang okay one of the interesting dishes that i'm very excited to try is called buffalo skin uh pounded into a paste uh chili dip that is natural what an ingredient that's gonna boil and then she adds in a little bit of pala fermented fish sauce into that water to boil it [Music] another dish they're making is a boiled chicken and so he's chopping up the chicken and then also that's going to go into there is uh green fresh tamarind uh plus galangal that grandma actually got from her garden right below the house earlier uh and also lemongrass is going in oh and also tamarind leaves young tamarind leaves nice [Music] oh [Music] huh another dish that they're going to be serving for lunch today is something called le plang and it is the isan version of raw pig's blood jelly soup oh man a little a little raw pig's blood that's a an unexpected dish i haven't had it very often but i have had similar variations of this dish one time in lao and also in northern thailand here she comes with a fresh sticky rice [Music] there are few things that give off a greater aroma the same kind of pleasing aroma as you get from freshly baked bread it's one of the biggest parts of isan and lao culinary culture uh and then you have hot fresh sticky rice that you can eat throughout the day yet another dish that they're going to make is called bonko which is a frog chili dip so she's just skewering uh the frogs they're gonna roast first and they're gonna make that into another chili dip oh man we're getting some special dishes today for lunch [Music] um i think all the ingredients are ready for the buffalo skin chili dip uh what she did is she also charred off some a variety of different peppers chili peppers and some garlic and shallots [Music] so pokemon yeah that's such a satisfying squishy sound okay that is gonna be a thick and chunky buffalo skin chili dip an update on the roasted frog chili dip uh they're coming along nicely so you said they're ready they are cooked but uh in the meantime she added on some slices of galangal which are also roasting over the fire and that's gonna go into the dip too oh that smells amazing [Music] and that's all gonna go in that's all gonna be pounded up into the chili dip the frog chili dip and next up what an ingredient ah those are ginger leaves ginger leaves and now she's chopping up some coriander and some green onions all ginger leaves what in addition to this roasted frog chili dip [Music] final step is bala fermented fish sauce and a squeeze of lime finished ready that smells unbelievable what a recipe what a dish the amount of ingredients in there oh we're all sitting down for a family lunch everything is ready the different dips the chili dips are what's really standing out to me and this is just as local as possible fresh sticky rice the first thing that i have to taste is the the frog dip get some sticky rice this one is the choco oh and yeah that edition of the the ginger leaves that's what i am thrilled about [Music] yeah wow yeah yeah oh hello oh wow that's stunning unbelievable flavor and texture you've got the like gingery earthiness of both the ginger leaves and the galangal the um the frog in there is so fragrant and roasted and almost has a chicken a shredded chicken taste to it oh and she added in just a couple spoons of pala fermented fish sauce just to bring it together to bring it home to well-round that flavor it's stunning that's a perfect combination because it's kind of bitter another contrast of flavor and texture [Music] it has fully coagulated now welcome to a blood jelly with all those organs i'm not gonna get them [Music] oh wow that is tasty oh man all the different bits of the organs the cartilage is in there so many textures it's mostly coagulated blood that just kind of dissolves and melts in your mouth and then these are all the different herbs basils and saturated coriander that you chase with but yeah i mean that's one of those dishes that it's not the the safest thing to eat bacteria wise it does taste pretty good though i have to admit it tastes pretty good next up for the buffalo chili dip buffalo skin chili dip that is chunky [Music] it almost has a cheesy taste to it i think from the fermented fish sauce oh and that skin yeah that is like jelly and slightly has a like cartilage crunch to it at the same time you can tell that it's it's like boiled leather that's pretty tasty i think this is the final dish that we have is the oh yes this is the the boiled chicken soup uh with all the different herbs all with the green tamarind and the tamarind um the green hammer and the tamarind leaves in here you just taste that broth and they added in some kaffir lime leaves too wow wow yes oh that's wonderful oh the green tamarind i got a green tamarind seed in that but the sourness is coming from the tamarind and then that's just a simple boiled chicken soup flavor and then you've got all those local thai herbs especially lemongrass galangal in there which is creating that broth giving it that amazing kind of citrusy aromatic aroma to it [Music] oh man that buffalo chili dip is amazingly rubbery yet soft at the same time and some of the fresh dill that we harvested this morning as well oh wow it's one of my favorite herbs i love dill in every shape and form and that's straight from the banks of the mek but i think the best dish that frog chili dip wow that one that's the best and i just love how there's such an abundance of vegetables and herbs yeah such a major part of the local diet [Music] oh man what an incredible lunch that just set the standard for frog dishes that's a new level of frog in my life what a spectacular meal thank you to all of the aunties who prepared it [Music] here's my hat [Music] next up we've come to the riverside and this is not the mekong river but it's a river that that flows into the mekong and we're just maybe a kilometer away from the mekong i didn't even know this but we're gonna take a little fishing trip we're gonna go out on a boat and try to catch a few fish if we can [Music] so these are just floating rafts um and it's kind of a leisure activity you i think we're gonna float out on these floating rafts and go fishing but they're big they're stable almost like a houseboat it's pretty cool he has a boat with a motor on it and so he's just attaching to us to our raft and he has an engine so he's going to be able to push our raft along now that makes sense and we are off we're on our way [Music] just like all of nakomponom ultimate everything is taken to the next level of relaxation [Applause] so at first i thought we were gonna go fishing but actually we're not gonna go fishing we're just completely relaxing to the max i think you could hire this boat just to take a nap on [Music] [Applause] [Music] we just made it back to the house and some aunties have gathered they are preparing dinner the dinner meal again some more unique interesting ingredients local ingredients uh she's picking or plucking some flowers which is going to go into a lab with fish and then there's so many different herbs and we're definitely going to be eating that mekong fish that we already saw this morning the fish ah there's gonna be a bamboo shoot curry with the yanang leaves and a few other dishes i believe oh man that bamboo shoot curry smells amazing the final step is she adds in that handful of herbs uh which was kind of a jumbled mix of herbs but immediately as that that hits the curry boiling soup i smelled the aroma of lemon basil so definitely some lemon basil in there looks like almost some flat leaf parsley and maybe some coriander oh that's what a dish with that mekong river fish which they then chopped up they're gonna make a tom yum uh with galangal she just put galangal and lemongrass into some hot water okay [Laughter] so that's for the la the fish salad for this evening she really sliced up the fillets of tilapia fish and then squeezed in some lime and salt and then like squeezing out the juices i think you want kind of like the the to make maybe the the fish meat firmer um and then they're gonna just lightly cook it and then mix it with all the herbs the spices the cow the roasted toasted sticky rice powder and chili uh and lime juice oh man that's gonna be so good oh oh man now that is a genius move so she took the slices of fish and just lightly blanches them in the bra but in the broth of the tom yum that she's making with the other fish and i think now all the ingredients are ready for the lab [Laughter] meat [Laughter] um [Music] um key ingredient here is what they call padak which is the pallava fermented fish sauce oh man that is the flavor the king of all flavors in this area of the world and that's the homemade one in that bottle some of the community have gathered for dinner tonight another fantastic meal for dinner wrapping up this unbelievable food day in the village [Music] oh man uh it's tilapia so it's a neutral fish you got the acidity of lime juice the smokiness of the toasted sticky rice powder those flowers have a little bit of a bitterness to them and then the freshness of the herbs the freshness of that chili oh man what a just superb refreshing powerful thing oh and the umami of that fermented fish sauce as well spectacular okay okay we gotta try the soup now fish soup the this is the actual fish from the mekong but then she also added in the the bones from the other fish and then there is tomatoes in here there's a lot of galangal there's some herbs in here and that fish looks so good it looks so soft oh wow it's so good yeah the fish is so soft it just melts in your mouth and it's absorbed all of those herbs the caffeine lime leaves in there the galangal oh man and you taste that fish fat coming out from all that skin herbs some of the dill i can't get enough of the dough and next up this is the bamboo curry or bamboo stew with lots of mushrooms in here there's corn in here and the base of the broth is made from yanang leaves the sweetness of all those vegetables the bamboo shoot and that sweet corn then you've got the texture the elasticity of those mushrooms um and then just the green flavor so many herbs plants coming together in that dish two flower combination one again that's the yellow flower that my first time to try and you put it also in the lab and then also the butterfly people are i love like the velvety texture of flowers whoa that almost has a spicy kind of chalky taste to it [Music] so [Music] i didn't know what to expect today when we started off but it turned into an ultimate day of thai isan nakonpanom bantanon village food and ultimate day but just also demonstrating the diversity and the possibility and the different varied dishes that are available in this region of isan this is just a beautiful peaceful friendly village and so i want to say a big thank you to everyone who organized uh our time here to all of the aunties who helped cook to the head of the village and so that's going to be it for this video i'll have the information in the description box below and i want to say a big thank you to you for watching this video please remember to give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it leave a comment below i'd love to hear from you and if you're not already subscribed click subscribe and also click the little bell icon and that way you'll immediately get notified of the next video that i published thanks again goodbye from nakampanom and see you on the next video

Channel: Mark Wiens

Views: 1,142,182

Keywords: Thai food, Lao food, Laos food, Isan food, Isan, Nakhon Phanom, Mark Wiens, street food, Mark Wiens Thai food, Mark Wiens Thailand, things to do in Nakhon Phanom, food videos, food vlog, Thai food culture, Lao food culture, food videos youtube, travel videos, travel guide, Thailand travel, Thailand tourism

Id: DHZbDCO4e2U

Length: 37min 23sec (2243 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 07 2021