Ultimate HMONG HILL TRIBE FOOD!! Green Taro Stems + Roasted Duck at Shaman’s House!!

hey everyone good morning hope you're having an amazing day it's mark wiens i'm in the beautiful mountains of chiang rai province in northern thailand and this area is home to a number of ethnic minority hill tribe village communities and today we have the incredibly special opportunity to visit a mong hill tribe village uh where we are gonna do some hiking we're gonna visit the house of a local shaman and i believe it's at his house where they are gonna cook for us not just a uh everyday meal but it's gonna be a feast a local celebration a special occasion meal hopefully we'll be able to see some of the local cooking uh and i'm gonna share this entire experience with you and all of the food and all of the eating with you in this video and so we are hanging out with mr rappan today and he nice to see you also thank you for being our guide today and so if we go down the hill here it's mostly the the hmong community right right okay and the location here is spectacular nestled in the cradle or the saddle of a mountain uh the if you look down that way you can see the the valley and the mekong river but we are high up on the mountain it's actually a very cool morning the air is fresh ah it's spectacularly beautiful place [Music] if you do look at this village you'll see that it is uh right against the or right along the main road mr rapan was telling us that when he was a kid their uh hmong village was located on the top very top of the mountain and then maybe about 50 years ago they moved the community moved down uh near the main road to be closer to medical care especially medical care uh because before they were just really remote uh up the up the mountain so now the village is in a location uh where we're actually just 15 minutes from uh a city called chiang kong which is a small town but a decent sized town in chiang rai along the mekong river [Music] how big is the village it's 400 families 300 families and the population is 1 500. okay it's pretty big quite a pretty big village yes pretty big village in this village what do what is the main crops that people normally grow in their farms and in the hills they're mostly the bran a corn ah okay tapioca tapioca for money is that for them to sell or is that their own their own consumption for themselves okay for themselves okay and also for ceo for money okay and some also plan a rubber tree oh okay and oranges okay and that's for commercial right right okay right rubber trees rubber trees oranges there's a lot of oranges yeah even bananas in this area right okay i hope you're already enjoying this video just really quickly if you could take one second to give this video a thumbs up to click like on this video it'd really help me out and it will help the video out so let's get back to the food but thank you in advance for clicking thumbs up and that is a lovely sight upon entering this compound chili's drying in the sun one of the greatest things ever look at this vegetable oh these look like snap peas [Music] okay how do you say hello in in hong kong [Music] [Music] okay thank you this is quite hot we have kindly been invited to the local shaman's house where he's going to show us some of the rituals but this is also where we are going to cook uh we're going to have lunch together they're going to cook so i can already see some of the ingredients in the back there but first tea in a little bamboo cup and you'll see a little bit of a a slope on the cup because that's for your for your nose so it doesn't hit your nose so you drink it from the tall side warm that's what you need right now so pure and i love this little cup that's amazing this is small shaman his name is lauki this is 58 years old monk shaman if there's this this sherman only have the same people who is sick by that the goals makes it the shaman cannot have the disease if the disease has to go to the doctor in the hospital this is the horn of the buffalo this hmong shaman used to use this to check the sick people that what's wrong with the sick people this will tell him yes or no it's negative or positive and if this is not show means that patients sit not by the ghost has to go to see doctor this for protection the ghosts feel angry and will need to find him but he has this to protect him and he has the red cloth red color is danger color so the ghost cannot come close to him and if the ghost see this the ghost will feel afraid the moon custom how is on the floor because the placenta of newborn baby the beer inside the house oh it appears in the inside outside with the middle post in the house if they know about debbie it's a girl okay the placenta that will feel under the bed of the parents wow so that's why the house has to be on the ground right and not on stilts okay there's a reason for the way everything is done uh reason and tradition and so i think from here we're gonna go outside where they're preparing some of the ingredients where they're gonna cook for us the uh a celebratory uh special hmong meal out in the back here is the open air kitchen and it's beautiful they have the ingredients for the day i noticed some of the hmong rice it's a very special type of rice and very rare that we're going to have for lunch they have some pots going they have some of the ingredients the entire corner is filled with pumpkins which they've harvested from their garden uh there's a duck going on a bamboo skewer uh but something also important to note is that today is gonna be a celebration meal it's gonna be a special a festive meal uh because mong are also known and i've been to some hmong villages where they often eat very simple uh meals even sometimes just boiled vegetables and rice for a lunch this is going to be my first time to have a hmong meal on a special occasion a feast among feast meals here oh um okay and they grow it themselves yes but today is even a special day because we are eating long rice which is a variety of rice a grain of rice which they grow themselves in the mountains which does not need to be in a patty it doesn't need to be wet and i believe that they don't sell this rice they only grow enough for them to eat and you can see for adding it to the pot it's it's kind of a short grain a short grain rice okay it's not just put it in the rice cooker and cook it this is a a process that takes experience and that also takes like knowledge of how to cook it and how to treat it just in hop just half and half oh just half yeah it's not fully cooked yet it's like half cooked uh but she drains all the water that's the next step never seen rice cooked in this process [Music] the next step to make the rice auntie is taking that rice um and into a steamer into an actual net uh which is in a pot which is in another pot with water that's gonna boil that's gonna steam the rice that's the next process [Music] ginger chili ginger [Music] me foreign [Music] come on so over on this side of the kitchen she is making a hmong chili dip doesn't really pound it but more like twists and mashes to bring out the juices to bring out the liquid from everything so it's going to be coarse chunky and that is gonna be incredibly flavorful yeah what's it called [Music] she's going to be making a chili dip i'm not sure if it's going to include the tarot stems in the chili dip or on the side but she first peels the skin of the of the tarot stems cuts them into pieces and you can just see how i mean they are very they are very light very light for their size and very airy she's pounding up some chilies a bunch of salt uh and some slices of ginger and now some roasted garlic goes in she's gonna pound that up wow that is amazing never seen a pounded chili dip like that she takes the taro stems and then slices them into the mortar and then mashes them up with the chilies and now you can see how i mean because they're so airy they're so bubbly uh that just mashes down and they're so juicy all of that juice comes out of them there's so much water in those tarot stems that at the bottom of the mortar there's actually a whole a whole like inch of juice and now she's just chopping up some uh lemongrass i'm not sure if that's gonna be for the dip as well oh she sliced up some lemongrass she pounded that up added in a couple chilies some more salt and then uh the juice of one lime pounded that just coarsely um and then that's almost like a dressing for the top of the the pounded uh tarot stems that is amazing this is lavkai next dish that they're gonna make is a hmong style of a lab with chicken a lab is a kind of a mixed meat mixture of spices and i think it's mostly going to be made from chicken organs she has a variety of organs on the plate some gizzards some hearts some intestines but i cannot wait to see the the hmong style of a lab [Music] foreign yeah i thought it was the fish mint herb and i'm pretty sure it is now that she starts chopping it up you can immediately smell almost a seafoody aroma coming out of it uh oh that smells wonderful what an herb what a what a leaf oh [Music] [Music] [Music] hello get a little quick taste test [Laughter] [Music] that is spectacular and different from anything i've ever had because of that fish mint in there it is just driven by the fish mint herb but the chilies the garlic the lemongrass it's all there it's all present and then you've got all the variety of different textures of the chicken organs what a spectacular dish now it's ready okay final taste test of the rice it's ready [Music] [Music] and now for the duck which was on a bamboo skewer which they already pre-roasted but you can see that marinade on it and you can see that smokiness that free-range lankiness of that duck uh andy's just gonna chop it up into pieces oh man that looks good you can tell it's just gonna be bursting with flavor and naturalness [Music] all the dishes are prepared the black chicken soup is ready all the different chili dips the the mixed organs uh the blanched vegetables they're gonna start dishing everything out setting the table inside oh man this is a an extraordinary meal it smells so good it's so fragrant that i can smell it through the mask oh man and cooked perfectly fluffy i can imagine for any hmong person hmong rice like this would be an ultimate comfort food something that brings back memories and family and just positivity oh one of the most spectacular spreads of food that i've ever seen all the different dishes laid out in bowls spectacular meal wow from the rice but one of the final things that she serves out it's just the rice boiled water um and that's again how much respect they showed to that rice that simple but that's special thank you come on auntie is so nice and we're all kind of shy to get started eating give me the give us all a bowl of rice with one piece of the the black chicken on it um just to begin with i just have to begin with just the the pure rice first and you can see the grains perfectly oh thank you this one is the tomato chili chip chili paste but i just want to taste that pure rice look at the texture of it look at the the individual graininess of it [Music] oh wow that was just the plain rice yeah it's almost like japanese rice it's not sticky rice but it is higher gluten for sure because it does have a stickiness on the inside of each grain and it's so fluffy but gooey at the same time the rice is amazing and i'm going to eat it with the hmong chili paste there there's roasted tomato in there there's chili there's garlic there's uh coriander and lemon grass [Laughter] she okay amazing that chicken though the texture of it oh man and the flavor that just burst from it the slight chewiness is outstanding the chili paste the chilis the garlic the coriander the lemongrass fragrance okay we gotta try the next dish okay i cannot wait to try the green taro the raw green taro mashed i've had green tarot before but nothing like this and i don't think ever raw like this [Music] oh wow oh man oh that's sensational the like crispness spongy fluffy airiness of it and that crunch you can definitely taste the ginger in there the chilies the lime juice which makes it so refreshing oh that's just a burst of freshness and crunchiness and naturalness that's that's unbelievable i'm just gonna take a vegetable to chase that some type of a pea or long bean blanched but it's still crisp you taste the freshness you taste just the locality of that it's right from this mountain next up for the chicken i mean it's similar to a lob but it's a it's a bone style it's more like an organ chicken organ mixture and i love it's so herb driven and organ driven but it's just all organs in there there's no actual meat which gives it such a a mix of textures oh that rice is just spectacular oh wow yes you immediately taste that fish mint and then it's just blended with lemongrass with the chilies salt and then all those different textures of the of the chicken you've got the crunch of the gizzard you've got the softness of the blood jelly and the the heart the creaminess of the heart when a visitor comes they will make a meal right a meal like this but this this type of meal is a very special a very special meal is that a drumstick no that's the beak um just grab this chunk here you can see that marinade there's chili's definitely and i think it was grilled roasted over the open fire definitely a duck that has some texture to it oh man a little bit chewy but it's so flavorful it is a real duck a real wandering around exploring duck the muscularity of it the freshness of it the natural flavor of it oh the duck is amazing wow there's also boiled pumpkin oh yeah we were just talking their chilis are spicy that's again real deal chilies grown by them in the backyard along the mountain and that pumpkin melts in your mouth sweet starchy think this is the final dish we have um this is the black chicken soup it's boiled down with definitely a lot of herbs a lot of vegetables and let me just put my spoon out so we can taste some of that broth but they also said this is very medicinal and also served on a very uh special occasion uh because yeah because black chicken is so medicinal and so uh healthy oh you taste pepper in there pepper salty and then just the flavor of the chicken the chicken skin the thickness of the chicken broth boiled down and then that vegetable almost has a spinach taste and texture to it [Applause] superb oh wow yeah the hmong chili dips they are vibrant spicy salty packed with flavor that when the umami of the tomato the roasted garlic it is powerfully delicious back to my drumstick my piece of chicken here oh man these chickens are are healthy without a doubt that is mind-blowingly flavorful again it's textural it's juicy the lime juice ginger combination [Music] and then another thing to eat is the the rice water soup which it's actually kind of thick i think from the gluten of the rice the starch of the rice um and um i just learned also that normally you wouldn't drink water with a meal but you would eat the you would drink the soup and you would also drink this soup to kind of wash your mouth to cleanse your mouth to get some liquid that's just that is rice water but slightly thickened so pure it's just the again what shines is it's the real the real thing nothing added the purity of it that's just comforting in a way that can only be explained by rice water possibly my favorite combination of this entire meal is the purity of the rice with the uh taro dip oh wow yeah and the spiciness of those chilies is just they're not only spicy but they're extremely aromatic oh amazing and she's just showing us some of the chilies that she grows she says no fertilizer is just completely natural that she grows herself and those are the chilis that we saw on the way entering earlier this morning before the mule those are the chilis knew it was going to be a good meal as soon as we entered the house with chili's drying in the front [Music] i think this was a little mini squash and the blossom [Music] [Music] wow i am full i am happy and just overwhelmed with the hospitality the kindness the just the incredible hospitality of this family of auntie and uncle who provided this amazing meal and their family [Applause] what what talk [Music] is known for its simplicity and i mean that was that was a complex meal it was not simple at all but the ingredient i think what stood out to me is that the ingredients were not too complex it's everything local everything from their house from their backyard from this mountain uh but the love the care the combination the pouring out of time and energy to prepare those dishes by an amazing family ah here in this village on the mountainside overlooking the mekong river in chiang rai cannot thank them enough for their hospitality and an outstanding meal huge thank you to lanjia lodge and all the staff and all the management here who have been so i'm grateful for how they've been able to arrange uh activities experiences authentic experiences within the community and to be able to support the community through doing some of these initiatives and some of these projects and these meals we're staying here for two nights it's an amazing place highly recommended i'll have all the information in the description box below and oh yeah what a refreshing what a beautiful day in chiang rai northern thailand 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 so you'll immediately get notified of the next video that i publish thanks again for watching goodbye from chiangrai atlanjia lodge and i will see you on the next video

Channel: Mark Wiens

Views: 1,810,970

Keywords: Lanjia Lodge, Chiang Rai, Thailand, Chiang Rai Thailand, Mark Wiens, Hmong food, village food, village cooking, food videos, Mark Wiens food, food vlog, Thai food, Thai village food, hill tribe food, village food Thailand, things to do in Thailand, Amazing Thailand, Thailand tourism, Hmong culture, Hmong cuisine, eco tourism, village tourism, community tourism

Id: KyFUmf-eXTE

Length: 35min 25sec (2125 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 06 2021