So you probably know ratan as a material that's used in making Furniture but in Thailand they make a rare Curry Ying My wife grew up in Southern Thailand Have you ever heard of the ratan Sho Curry No, Never, never, ever even I Asked my mom, my mom said what, what are you talking about and today we're going to show you how to eat it. Oh wow oh that's flavorful but really quickly. First, how did we get here? In order to support local communities and highlight their unique food? the Tourism Authority of Thailand has recently announced Thailand's hidden dishes which includes five rarely seen tie dishes that come from five lesser visited provinces and and they asked me to travel across Thailand to eat all of them. Over the last 10 days, I've traveled across Thailand to eat Thailand's hidden dishes.

Wow! From the mountains of Changai to the T Palms of Pepu. but today we're going deep into the jungle of Southern Thailand to cook and eat a dish that's so rare few tis have even heard of it. Hey everyone, it's Mark Wi and welcome to Trang in Southern Thailand And we're actually on our way to the province of Patal for the hidden dish, but the closest airport is in Trang So we caught an early morning flight we're on our way to Trang We landed here in Trang. We picked up a rental car and while we're here actually this is a breakfast Capital As soon as you sit down they bring you a tray of dim Su to choose from.

So I thought we should stop for breakfast! before we head to Patalo. Oh man I Really love Trang If you have some time to spend in Trang it's a fantastic City It's a fantastic province in Thailand The energy, the action, the colors. They have one of the best morning markets in all of Thailand People are friendly and the food is delicious and it is a beautiful sunny morning in we're in for an incredible day! Okay so we are going to have a real thr style breakfast here at Trang Muang. and literally as soon as you sit down they bring you a tray of dim suum to choose from I Absolutely love this place! It's a classic! It's a legendary thr institution breakfast ins institution so there's all sorts of unique creations and I'll just start putting a few on the table.

I think we'll go for the rice cake a variety of kunam jeeps. these are like the little dumplings show my dumplings I like the bitter melon Haka which I think is shrimp on the inside you want the you wants the salapa, the the buns and then I think also you got to try this is also super thr style the fried egg rolls which are definitely unique and then the vegetables and I think I'll go first for one of the Kum Jeeps these are the the shumai Trang style that's pretty tasty Porky I Like how the noodle wrapper is kind of chewy and really nice texture to it. and then the sauce is kind of like a sweet chili sauce. It's sweet, not spicy at all, just kind of gives that balance of flavor.

okay. I'll try the the broccoli next. a little broccoli dumpling with some minced pork. It's really juicy broccoli and there's this really tender kind of dissolving pork meatball on the bottom.

It is dim suum but it has its own unique character. And along with the food I think what? I probably like the most is just the culture I mean people love to eat breakfast in Trang Families come, employees and colleagues come together. They sit at a table, enjoy some tea, some coffee, some di, some chat hang out. I mean it's one of the greatest ways to spend your morning.

But along with Diam, this place is also really famous for their name called Trang muang and that is the roasted pork that you'll just find across thrang. And if you ask any person from Thailand what to eat in thrang, the first thing that's going to come to mind is the style Muang roasted pig. they roast the whole pig, they marinate it in a variety of spices like soy sauce star Anis There's a huge amount of spices in it and typically it's quite sweet. So this place is known for their muang and it's all sitting up there at the front you can see all of like the pork from the inside just glistening and even the way they cut it is very unique.

They score it so it has these little kind of like little fingers coming out of the pork to let it seep in all of that marinade all of that flavor and then they roast it so the skin is extra crispy. She sliced this up a fresh plate, chopped us up a first plate. you can just hear the crackling of that skin. So here we go check this Now when you get a piece you'll see that it has the meat on the bottom so it's got the belly section.

Then it has fat, variety of layers of fat and then the skin on the top giving it all those crispy all those different layers of texture and flavor. Oh wow oh that's extremely tasty. It is sweet all allang muang is sweet. This one might not be as sweet as some that we've tasted though.

it's almost like handy pork. but then at the same time you really taste the spices, especially coming through the star Anis almost has a little bit of a cumin flavor to it. To me you got the incredibly crispy skin, the fat that melts in your mouth, and then the meat, and the smokiness as well. all of those caramelized sugars and ingredients just totally absorbed into the pork.

Well that's tasty. Let's try another piece of the just straight up the skin. Yeah it's so crispy. I'm getting some black pepper in that bite as well.

Black pepper star Anish This varieties of soy sauce, the sweet caramelized sugar, the porkiness, and then with all the rich porkiness, definitely wash it down with some hot Chinese Tea Got the K and it comes really nicely decorated. There's some chili oil, there's some garlic, there's some ginger on top with an egg on the inside so you stir it all around. Oh that's good. I was debating whether I should try this or not.

I really wanted to but then I was like oh man we have so much food to eat today. but the owner, they're so and by the way I should mention that the owner family here. they're so nice, they're so welcoming. Uh this is family run and they brought over a plate of kinu.

So this is another classic breakfast that you'll find I mean throughout. Southern Thailand It is soft rice noodles which then has a coconut milk based curry with crab in it and this is oh man it's one of the greatest things to eat in the morning for breakfast. Oh wow that is the flavor of the south of Thailand in your mouth at once. the rice noodles just melt in your mouth, the thick creaminess of the coconut milk, the curry, the turmeric in there, the crab in there.

there might be some fish in there also to to make it to thicken it to give it some body. Oh man and you've got the natural sweetness of that coconut milk and then the chilly heat in the back of your throat. Wow that's good. Oh man.

Ying this is actually the exact flavor of your mom's kin. Like oh same flavor, so good served with all the different vegetables that you can garnish that you can chase with. Okay, this makes our breakfast complete and let taste and always one of my personal favorites are the cashew Tre leaves because they're immediately sour and then they have this unique chalkiness that kind of coats your mouth which is just one of the many reasons I love Southern Thailand oh that went down so easily I couldn't put down my spoon so good. Oh yeah, happiness chease Oh oh what a breakfast! Oh sweating in the morning, all that digestion, all that pork delicious breakfast inang and we are now on our way to the main event to Patalon.

I Think it's going to be about an hour to get where we are going cuz we're not actually driving all the way to the town of Patal? Uh, we're driving to go meet our friend Puu in the jungle of Patal. This is going to be an incredible experience expence. Okay here we go I Think it should be about a 1 hour drive. Actually one more really quick stop before we head to Patalon.

Long Black My fantastic coffee! Really friendly owner. Highly recommended! Okay, we're on our way to Patalon. We made it! Oh man, patal is just such a green! Lush Paradise The jungle here is pristine. Okay kick up we have arrived.

It's so good to be back hanging out with puu and pong I think it's been about 2 years ago we came here and I mean this place is a nature Paradise They were so friendly welcoming us and we are going immediately to go harvest the ratan shs which are right across the river. a little bit slippery. Okay, we made it across the river to the ratan and it's Enti it's called why and I am extremely excited because I've been I spent so much time in Southern Thailand I've spent time in Patal many, many times but at least not that I know of maybe at a curry stall I've had this dish before and I've had ratan shoots but I can't I don't think I've ever actually had this dish so this is a real treat. I am extremely excited and especially I'm always excited hiking.

Through the Jungle Looking for ingredients like this to see where exactly your source of food comes from? Oh here it is So just across the river and we have come to the first ratan and you can see how SP Oh she's going to chop it immediately. It's extremely spiky here it is. This is our first shoot from the ratan and again it's so incredibly spiky like huge Thorns oh I have a a stick insect on me. This is the real jungle.

uh but this is what we're looking for. These are the ratan shs the young CHS and when you peel away the Woody bark outer surface, that's what's edible. The ches on the inside, the juicy chots, and I Believe the ratan is a type of palm tree, but it grows kind of like a Vine and I mean again, it's very common to use for furniture. Most of us know ratan as a material used for furniture uh, and making wicker baskets and all sorts of uh, materials, but not as an edible plant.

And so we are seeing a total surprising unique ingredient way to use ratan in the jungle of Southern Thailand Oh yeah, it feels so good refreshing straight from the mountain. So actually after we harvested the ingredients, we then took a little drive into the mountains where Puu has another piece of land, deeper into the jungle into the mountains of Patalon. Look at all the ingredients, look the entire truck is just filled with green things from the jungle. Yes my favorite ingredient on Earth stink beans.

So from the from the car the road ends on the dirt road and now we need to hike in. Oh beautiful place! Wow! stunning and so this is where we're going to do the cooking. This is the freshest rambutan you'll ever eat. Oh just blooming.

so beautiful. Oh man, check out this one. It's perfect. Straight jungle rambutan.

Oh well. Oh wow. The best rumon you'll ever have. So we're just getting started with the recipe uh for the gang Nam and this is one of the main ingredients along with the ratan chuts.

this is the the C the Krill paste. I'm going to quickly taste it. This is something totally new that I've learned the C here which I thought was shrimp paste or Krill paste. It's actually fermented fish which is pounded down with salt into this blob.

So that's just like fermented fish. Um, this is the main ingredient for the curry along with the ratan chuts. And then she's just laid out. All of the other ingredients that are going to go into this dish is curry.

A beautiful assortment of turmeric muit, lime leaves, roasted fish, palm sugar, pumpkin, young galangal. Oh and this is going directly wo the stickiness. Oh, the whole blob goes in Blob Okay, yeah and the ingredients list actually keeps on growing. She's keeping adding more ingredients and these are the the ratan CHS that we harvested this morning.

Oh Barbecue Barbecue Durian Yes, you want to eat. Oh yes please. C Cup Okay oh it's time time. Our first! Duan Oh wow Roy Roy Roy Roy Oh it's butter.

Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. Perfect.

Bittersweet Cream a creamsicle in your mouth. This is just pure happiness. Oh, talk about a kitchen snack right here. So the next step is to peel the yotw.

These are the ratan. CHS So you have to peel off that outer bark. that really hard outer bark that is used for furniture making and that's what's going to go into the curry. The Young choots from the interior of the ratan and so again as Puu was mentioning to us, uh, gang the Raton shoot Curry that we're eating.

It's rare to find these days, but he said previously it used to be a very common dish, especially in villages when there were Gatherings when people would come together. It used to be a common celebration dish, but now again it's you won't find it at restaurants, You won't find it just anywhere you have to go to the right person to make it. It's and you can tell just the amount of ingredients and even just the dangerous like just how dangerous that ingredient is to harvest it and to peel it and to prepare it. Ratan shuts, are ready.

Now back to the curry paste. She's going to make a pound up first. Black pepper. A lot of black pepper is actually are actually traditionally used in the recipes in Southern.

Thailand Come here. Wow, that already smells insane. Yes, an insane amount of black pepper. Birds ey chilies.

and they said they keep it natural using the stems and some of the leaves as well. and then garlic in there turmeric. Okay, yes, and as we're continuing to pound the CR paste, Uh, Pong just adds in garlic and lemongrass. Oh and also Gango goes into the water water and then lemongrass.

So the Mcot lime leaves went in. Now Lemongrass goes in. We need to take a moment to appreciate Pong's hand on the chilies. I've done that before and my hand just burns on fire for like 2 days and she just does it with ease.

She says it doesn't bother her at all. Palm sugar, Palm sugar. okay, palm sugar. one more.

M Oh wow, there's so much green in there. it actually turns green and yellow from that turmeric. I Like them. Wait, this is the this is the why do you have to Thum Is it like hard? or is it A So this dish has taken another unexpected twist: the Yotw or the ratan chuts.

They're pounded to bring out the juice she wants. She said she wants the water from the ratan chuts and I guess that is one of the secret flavoring ingredients of this dish. Um, and then she's going to boil that and then since. Well, we'll have to wait and find out.

But something like the chunky herbs will be then strained out of the broth so that it's clean, leaving all that flavor just infusing into the broth. And as those ratan chuts, uh, touch oxygen, they just immediately oxidize oxidize. Yeah, they turn red. Such a unique dish.

The YW is pounded that goes into The curry and that's going to simmer. She said for about 30 minutes to bring out all of the juices. the aroma is unbelievable. That amount of chilies, the garlic, the turmeric.

Oh what a dish. But in the meantime they've been like over here you got to come check this out. They've been making a a fruit Monument over here with all the local fruit that they've harvested, this is a community that's just just and I'm have the honor to write The Sign So this community is called n the Namok Ecotourism Community. It's really an honor to be here for.

Kind of like ushering in this uh, like a dedication to this community here deep in the jungle of patal. And we're here with all the the community for this celebration. for this dish, she wants a very clean broth. so actually that all gets sifted through, all the herbs get taken out.

they've already served their purpose infusing that broth and so then we're going to be left with this really clean infused Ultra flavorful broth. Oh Gango yes oh more. Gango goes in yes, pumpkin goes in and the sweet potato? okay, eggplant Yes, some of the fresh eggplant and this is the mackerel. roasted mackerel Who a bunch of MC Liels go in.

You have to add in a squeeze of lime juice as well. So another ingredient that's going to go gang somua. It's a type of citrus young Citrus leaves and they said that this is the only wow that smells like like orange oil coming out of there. They said that this is the only recipe that uses these leaves.

Mission complete. it is ready. The Curry Thailand's hidden dish from Patal Gang which is the Ratan Curry. But what a process! What a dish! This is something truly incredibly complex in making use of all the ingredients.

The abundance of ingredients from the south of Thailand I Cannot wait to try it and they're wanting me. They said I should just dig in right now. Well it's ready. although we're making more rice so the entire Community we're going to sit down after this to for this meal for this joyous occasion and also kind of like celebrating this community here in the forest.

First thing I need to do is just taste that broth again. 20 different ingredients in this bro. You see the yellowness of the turmeric. You can smell the aroma of that fermented fish.

Wow, Oh that's a powerful flavor. Oh oh wow. Powerful but so unbelievably balanced. Spicy turmeric, garlic, galangal.

You've got that Umami of the fermented fish. the sharp saltiness. Actually, you don't even really taste a sweetness, but you know that sweetness is there. Just balancing all those saltiness and all those ferocious, powerful ingredients.

that's an unbelievable amount of condensed flavor. Oh, that's incredible. Then we we got fish. We've got the eggplant.

I'm going to put some of this onto my to my rice. The pumpkin. oh that broth is just unbelievable. Literally you could drink and Savor that broth.

Oh wow, oh man. this might be one of my new favorite curries in the south of. Thailand I mean it's a little bit hard to decipher or distinguish what the the rat time shoots how they provide the flavor. but I think it's like this kind of Juicy bitterness that just wraps up the the flavor of this because they said if you make out if you make this dish I mean even though there are 20 other ingredients in it, if you make it without the ratan chuts, it tastes totally different and it doesn't have the same balance of flavor.

It's like an unbelievable Harmony The pumpkin melts in your mouth, the smoky fish, the toasty flavors all coming together in that breath and again like this entire series traveling across. Thailand For the hidden dishes, all food is ingredient driven, but these dishes are TR Tru about the ingredient about the natural ingredient that goes into them. That's an absolute must. That's mandatory to make these dishes and as you keep on eating that broth, you almost start to get a little numbness in your mouth.

She put in more just whole chunks of Gango Oh wow oh that's flavorful. Oh man. and Woody oh that's spicy too. Oh yeah, oh man.

I Love Gango What an ingredient truly like? So hard to find such a rare. Southern Thai Dish I mean again. I've asked people from Southern Thailand if they've ever even heard of this dish and haven't even haven't even heard of it, that this is a dish that needs to be preserved and I mean I mean and that's exactly what they're aiming to do here with my our great friend Pju and Pong who are preserving Thai Heritage the natural environment and culture of Thailand Yeah, they're just amazing People from here, we're going to all gather together with the community that's joined us. I think the head of the village here has also joined us and so we're going to enjoy our meal together, eat some more fruits, and just spend time together eating one of the greatest hidden pie dishes.

Okay, so now we're all sitting together. Oh man and almost forgetting. I Almost forgot. First round around the they roasted the SAT The Sting beans.

one of my favorite ingredients. You can just pop them out cuz they've been roasted and cooking them. It doesn't cook them fully, but it just kind of like wils them. One of the best single ingredients on Earth So good.

all right. And then we also have some of the dried fish here to add some extra protein. Oh so good. Okay and this stink Bean is ripe.

You can see the sweetness the it's orange and sweet. so sticky. Oh wow that's like stinky. Jam roasted I've Had The Ripe stink beans.

um raw but never cooked like this. That like makes it sticky and the sugars come out. It's like a mango with stink beans. Oh that's so good.

And in the south of Thailand you always got to have some raw vegetables to garnish to cleanse the pallet. Oh man oh what a just spectacular meal. A learning experience. The complexity, the friendliness, the southern.

Thai Culture Look at how clear clean the water is. Man it's just a nature Paradise Just wild stink beans LSAT Wild Durian growing all over the place. The water is so pristine and they said this is a nature Paradise of deer. There's a lot of deer in this area that they are working to preserve.

you. just walk around this area and you just there's durian because it's durian season. they're just dropping to the ground and this is the best kind of durian. When they naturally drop to the ground.

that's when they're perfectly ripe. That's the best flavor. Here's another one that just fell from the ground just like a backyard Wild dirt. Yeah it's huge for just drop to the ground.

I Saw these fruit in the tree. which is this really red fruit it's called Mafi It's a rare fruit except they have it in this region and they said okay, let's go get it. It's right up in the tree. He's climbing the tree right now and he's just Barefoot climbing the tree.

How is he even holding on? Mafi He really is a Tarzan He's just climbing up this tree like he just like sprinted up the tree into the water. There it is. Cabb A more so. it's very similar to a a lat or A or a L Kong but called Mafai.

Oh that's delicious. Oh it's wild, milky and more sour than sweet. Oh that's delicious M Amazing. Absolutely a fruit.

Paradise What an incredible fruit. Oh yeah, so this is our tree house and again I mean as we've seen today, it's just such a nature oriented. everything is built to surround nature and so we have a this is our Treehouse cabin that we're spending the night in with a view of the river. you always will hear the flowing water from wherever you are, the peace, the nature and that's I mean one of the Char istics about this place.

Oh man, it's such a such a cool place and there's a variety of tree houses down the river. One of the cool things is that when you're right over the flowing water, there's less mosquitoes or maybe not even any mosquitoes. As soon as you go into the jungle, you'll get eaten, but right along the river there's no mosquitoes and this is our room. Basic mattresses are on the floor but all made from wood and over the river.

and I think that's what makes it so special. We do have a bathroom in our cabin as well though. Also basic water that you flush in the corner there. Yeah this place is a jungle.

Eco Camp So nature friendly, nature oriented but from here going to shower, going to take an early night, get some rest and then tomorrow we're heading into Patal Town. Had a nice relaxing morning and from here it's about a 40-minute drive for some more food. So we drove to Patal Town. It's so laidback, so peaceful, such a cool town.

and also the Cs Limestone Rock Mountain formations are so iconic and beautiful. Part of Patalon. Uh and there's a restaurant here that I absolutely cannot miss when I come to Patalon. We came here a couple of years ago and made a video and check this out.

They've done a little renovation. look who it is. Okay, that's fresh ganga sliced up and one of the reasons the food is so good here is that they make all of their own curry paste to all the curry paste themselves. they control the ingredients so they know all the flavors that are going into their dishes.

but they make it alls and the recipe is very simple and very unique here. Freshwater PS you puts them into the just that's just water and almost instantaneously as it starts to boil you can see the head butter juices, the oils. All the water actually turns red because of that head butter juices which are coming out into the water and that's what gives it the flavor. that's what powers it gives it the shrimpin.

oh man my mouth is watering for that catfish with the curry paste. The final step is that she chops up some fresh uh it's called V or in English it's tree basil or clove basil. it's really aromatic. she she tosses that on top kind of just waits for it to wilt.

turns off the fire ready for the th yum and I totally remember the process I mean she keeps an eye on it to make sure they don't overcook but she boils it until all of that head butter juices. it's called M inti. all of it comes out into the broth, then she removes the shrimp so they don't overcook and then she finishes the broth by adding lime juice and some salt and fish sauce to the to the broth and then in the meantime she chops up some onions and some uh fresh chilies. she'd call them like backyard chilies.

She chops those up, puts them on top of the shrimp and then after she balances the breth and she pours that over the entire mixture keeping the freshwater PRS fresh, not overcooked and just preserving just their natural beauty and just oh man it's a beautiful dish and now she's going to get started on the Gsom Southern Tha Style Yellow Sour Curry again something you have to eat when you come to Patalon. food is ready! Oh I Cannot wait to start eating. especially the Gango And the shrimp. Oh man, oh yes.

I Think this might be exactly what we ordered last time. Let's start with that gome. Oh just with that broth, uh there's mixed vegetables in here. eggplant and coconut shoots.

Oh yes, oh man, that's the flavor of the south of Thailand And Patalon has some of the best turmeric in the south of Thailand. So vibrant, so pungent, the turmeric, the chilies, and then she adds in a lot of lime juice to make it sour. Oh man, that's a broth of Wonders Okay and then of course their signature T yam. literally that is so dark yellow, so orange it almost looks like a duck yolk.

and then I Love how they add chilies, how they add chopped up onions in here here into the broth and again sour from lime juice. Oh oh wow. mhm same flavor those shrimp powering it. the head butter juices.

Tomy The richness of it, the crunch of the fresh onions, the freshness of the fresh chilies. oh it's so good. I'm going in, look at look at how big it is and the actual the the shell has been peeled off so revealing the entire body underneath. Oh look look at all the the oil coming up.

did you see that like a waterfall of it was like a a lava cake erupting. Oh W mhm put that under the rice you can mix it with the the prawn literally just melts in your mouth. and then we also do have some some sat some stink beans on the table. One of my favorite ingredients on earth.

Oh yeah, never get old. I can eat them every single day. They're healthy, they're full of nutrition and then just that kind of like bitter juiciness that comes out of them. Okay and then we have the padet.

This is the stir fried curry paste with a type of catfish as well. Oh and the fragrance of the Baya the the tree basil and I think everything here is uh, fresh water Fresh Water Seafood Oh and I almost forgot about the Gango Oh the Gango is incredible. The freshness of that clovy flavored tree, basil. the fish.

The curry paste has kind of this toasty Smoky flavor and kind of sweet and spicy. Amazing home-cooked family. Southern Thai Food okay but I'm going back to the gang. some that fish melts in your mouth.

it's buttery, oily, fatty and then again that that Curry Unbelievable. The flavor, the thickness. oh the shrimp paste that also gives it some depth of flavor and that saltiness that adds to it. but just that that turmeric broth is just men.

I Cannot get enough of it to this day. And I mean my mother-in-law Ying's mom cooks this for me at least two or three times per week. but I cannot get enough of it. I can eat it every single day and never get tired of it.

Oh man, my shirt is just drenched. This is one of those meals where you just end up hot and sweaty. A hot and sweaty mess that is sweet, juicy, so good. I Love Mango! Looks like it's about to rain this afternoon, but that brings us to the end of this Patalon segment.

It's been so incredible to learn about the hidden dish and the ingredients behind it and also the amazing people behind those dishes as well. And actually this is wraps up the entire Series so all five Thailand's hidden dishes. We've traveled across the country from Changai to Ken to Petri to Trat and Kang and then finally here in the south of Thailand in Patalon. What a Incredible Journey and I think the uniqueness of these dishes.

um, what really stands out to me is that all focused on this one ingredient that is an absolute must that you need to have to make this dish. I've definitely learned a lot and it's been an overjoy of taste buds. Oh wow oh it's amazing and also meeting some incredible people, people that I've met for the first time as well as reconnecting with friends. and this entire series just goes to show how diverse the people of Thailand are.

the food, the uniqueness of ingredients and this is something that I've known and that I've thought for my entire almost 15 years living being based in Thailand And even after exploring so much of this country, there's still so much more to learn and explore. Oh yeah, it's really about to downpour. So I Want to end by saying a huge thank you to the Tourism Authority of Thailand for sending me on this mission on this journey across Thailand to eat five of Thailand's hidden dishes. And if you haven't already watch this entire series, make sure you go back.

There's five videos. Make sure you watch this entire series. they all go together and we I mean we really went from the very North to the south of Thailand searching for these unique and rare Thai Dishes that are really not found outside of those provinces. Uh, so that's going to be it I Want to say a big thank you also 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, make sure you subscribe now for lots more food and travel videos. Goodbye from Patal! This is where our journey ends and I will see you on the next video.