Hey everyone hope you're having an amazing day. It's mark wiens, i'm in chiang mai, northern thailand, and it is december 25th. Merry christmas to you and your family today is a very special christmas day, because we have been invited to an akka hill tribe village celebration. The akka are an ethnic people group who live in the mountains of northern thailand, as well as myanmar and lao and southern china yunnan.

They are going to cook for the entire village, about 80 families, about 300 people, they're gon na cook, a local feast at the church. I'm gon na help here and put in the bamboo sheets. I love bamboo shoots whoa! I'm gon na share this entire christmas celebration with you with the amazing akka people in northern thailand and all of the food. All of the celebration is coming up right now in this video.

So before we jump into this video, i want to just quickly tell you how this all came about we're staying at lisu lodge, which is an amazing eco lodge that supports this local community. They had arranged for us. We hung out with some of the community and did some cooking and filmed some videos. I think it was about a week before christmas and we started talking with the akka family who hosted us, and they said that the village, their village is predominantly a christian village and that they would be having an entire village celebration for christmas, where they were gon Na cook, some special dishes, and so being a christian and a christ follower myself, it was truly special that they then invited us to celebrate christmas with them in the community.

Literally up until a few days ago, ying and i and micah, we had no plans for christmas, but this is truly a blessing to be here and then to celebrate with the entire akka village, the birth of jesus. It's a spectacular day, it's december 24th, the day before christmas, some of the communities, some of the elders, are gathering at the church now and this begins the festivity we're on our way. Oh, they think they're they're arranging the truck they're, getting the truck ready and we're on our way to go pick up the pigs for christmas day celebration um. Oh, we can walk from here, okay, ah, okay, this is the truck.

That's gon na transport. The pigs needs to get up the hill. The christmas pigs have been chosen back in the village with the pigs and it's time to get started just crackles and it's so dry it burns. So hot.

You can feel your face just burning from those flames. It just scorches that skin blisters that skin, so it peels so fast. The preparation stages of the process are done time to move over to the banana leaves and they're going to start parting it out for the different variety of dishes that they're going to prepare. They're really taking the time to part out every single piece of the pig and every single part of the pig is going to be used.

One of the first dishes that's made kind of like the butcher's specialty is lob. Oh, it means minced up. I think minced up so taking some of the fresh pork mince it up with some of the blood first dish on the menu christmas eve. Oh - and these are some of the herbs that are going to go into that um.

Oh okay, another dish that they're making this afternoon is the belly. Pork belly simmering that down in a wok sizzling down with some salt, i'll, probably add some spices and some seasonings to that as well. Right on your connection, cut out cookie they've invited us for a christmas eve dinner now, before christmas day. After butchering the pigs we're all going to gather for uh, i think a simple meal, but just to celebrate christmas eve and the whole butchering party.

So auntie is just making the rice for dinner tonight. Oh and auntie's, showing me some of the chilies that she has grown. This is sesame seeds and these are chilis that she grows herself and dries. Oh nice, oh yes, and she just brought some fresh vegetables.

This is for me, this is one of the highlights of eating in the village. Oh man right off the bush. That goes with all the meats. Oh that's beautiful! That's literally picked seconds ago christmas, eve dinner, all the different parts of the fresh pig there's, the lab.

There's the pork belly, which was just roasted down, there's a mixture of the intestines with the intestines. They boil that they clean them, they boil them and then they added some spices and seasonings. We've got that fresh rice, mountain rice that auntie steamed in the kitchen and then just the pile of herbs and vegetables raw, which i just love. I think she might.

I think she just said she's gon na bring some chili dip. I got ta try that lab. First, okay, add this to the rice. I cannot wait to try that fresh, that fresh pork with that skin and hold this bite real fast look.

Auntie is making a a simple chili dip. That's what you call table set whipping up a chili dip, tableside first bite christmas eve: oh wow! Oh, that lob is amazing. The herbs in there, the snap of the skin man that spice blend. Oh man, you feel the tingliness of the makwan, which is similar to uh sichuan pepper.

They chased that bite of lab with the chili dip that she just made, and i think these are fresh pea, sprouts, pea, sprouts or uh. I think these are actually the um sunflower sprouts. That's just a simple table side. Chili dip! Oh, she has a pro tip.

Oh yes, that is fish mint! Oh, it's so good! Oh man! It has this kind of slight seafoody taste to it. Even though it's pure vegetable, i love it, which again is mixed with a similar spice blend mixture. That's the label now that is a fresh intestine. Has this chewiness to it actually quite chewy, but really good and again you taste the muck one in there and the dried chili yeah.

I love these sprouts so that chili dip is not peanut. I did have a peanut chili dip and another another aka meal that i have, but this one is the white sesame seeds that she's pounded out that she grew herself. I definitely need to work on my veg bundling skills and that completes christmas eve dinner. It was so nice just to hang out with auntie, and then the entire preparation of the pigs was so interesting and so unique to see.

We're heading back to lisu lodge we're going to get an early night, because tomorrow, christmas day, we need to wake up really early. We need to be at the church by 5 a.m, when they're gon na start cooking for the entire community, so good night. Merry christmas and i'll see you in the morning good morning and merry christmas: it is december 25th, it's about 5 a.m. We got up early in the morning to come to the church to watch them as they cook the meal for the celebration.

The christmas celebration so they're outside chopping, the winter melons but inside i think they're already starting to cook something. Let's go see what they're cooking. Oh nice come on cup the steam coming off of that sloshing. Pork fat juices feels so good in the morning.

There's 80 around 80 families in this akka village, and so i think it's about two to three hundred people that should be coming for this meal today and then outside. I think, she's chopping up the i need to know my dongs okay thumbnail. These are bamboo shoots. Oh, you can smell that aroma of them.

The pickled aroma of them they're gon na be boiled they're gon na be cooked down with that pork, so auntie told us fermenting and pickling for three years, bamboo shoots. Oh it's very! It's an honor that we're gon na have a chance to try them stir fried up with the pork, and this is gon na, be one of the main dishes. I think that is loved by all people. Oh auntie's just come back pick some fresh vegetables, oh mountain mustard greens, which is one of the one of the common vegetables that that's again they grow and eat on a daily basis, and i think they're going to make a type of salad with it.

Okay cup of salad, with these greens, another big part of the culture something you have to have for an aka meal - is a nam prick, which is a chili dip, so they're getting busy she's toasting up chilies and garlic. They boiled some tomatoes that are going to go into the chili dip. Next dish here is going to be the pork bones boiled into a soup with the winter melon there's lemon grass in there. So you got ta really cook down this pork for over an hour because they want to make the the pork crispy and then it's just bubbling in its own fat.

So it's almost a coffee of pork and lard. Oh man, it's going to be so good render out that fat and the meat crispy. Oh, it's ready, but she's going to scoop it up drain it of the oil. Oh it's gon na be so good.

Okay. This is all ginger which they're going to pound down. For the mustard green salad and then over here, she's making the nam the chili dip so blending all of those roasted chilis and tomatoes and coriander. Oh man, that smells so good.

The roasted chili's in garlic foreign - and this is the way they're making lab for a big amount of people that are coming fry that down. So that's the minced meat with all those herbs with that one root that tastes so good, which is similar to chive roots. Oh i'll dry fry it down until it's dry and crumbly with so much spice and so much flavor, oh yeah man. This is one of the ultimate ingredients of the akka pickled mustard greens and you'll, see it all over the village, typically pickling in soda bottles and building that juice and that carbonation that living probiotic.

But the mustard greens are pickled and they're gon na make a salad with the mustard greens, my and they're, adding lemongrass also to the fermented mustard green. I salad, oh that smells incredible all the garlic and chili's in there and then. Finally, this is one of the last dishes in one of the dishes. I've been waiting for all that crispy pork, which has been fried down in its own fat for over hours, stir-fried up with chili paste and those three-year-old pickled bamboo shoots some lard to sizzle that down and man that curry paste smells incredible.

That chili paste i'm gon na help here to put in the bamboo sheets. Oh man, i love bamboo shoots, whoa, slides right down; okay, oh i didn't know, they're, also adding these uh vermicelli mung bean noodles. Also that's going to make it hardier. Okay.

So i believe that all the cooking is done and everyone is starting to eat kind of a brunch before the festivities begin, all the freshly cooked foods. So i think i think they want us to eat which i'm very okay with, but just a update about. What's gon na happen is, i think, we're gon na have a quick brunch, the food that's already cooked, then, after that everybody's gon na go, get dressed and get ready in their akka outfits and costumes, and then after that. Well and that's when everybody from the whole village will be invited and come to the church and then after that it will be the full feast for everyone.

Oh yes, some more veg just freshly picked and he just picked. She made the lab. Oh nice, oh man! Oh wow again, i've said it last night. I've said it every meal, but i love how it's so.

Vegetable focused backyard greens and vegetables present at every meal. Coupon cob beautiful, spread of food everything that they've made and we're sitting down with the pastor for kind of a mid-morning meal, 8 45 a.m, and i think the the church service starts at 10 a.m. Oh man and one more dish has just come, which is the pounded, pounded, pickled, uh bamboo shoots. Oh man, okay, i got ta start with the bamboo shoots.

This is an ultimately beautiful christmas meal, cooked with so much love, and so many local ingredients that bamboo shoots. Yeah three-year-old pickled bamboo shoots. I cannot wait to try it christmas special, incredible depth of flavor and stringiness and again, like i mentioned already many times, i love the love. The use of fresh herbs picked off the tree off the bush minutes ago.

Before you eat it wrap it into a little tight bundle, dip it into the num prick, which is this one, is all those chilies plus coriander, plus peanuts. In this version with tomatoes, wow the richness, the creaminess of the peanuts - and this one is the lav that auntie, ah so from the main pot. Okay, i need we actually ate this the other day when we were in the village, cooking man and it's so good. Something else is coming to the table: oh wow, oh fresh, oh re-up, on the soup, oh man, you smell the ginger in that winter, melon.

Okay, that lava oh wow, it's so good crumbliness of the meat, the flavor of the banana leaf and the the roasted fire in it and what really makes it for me. It's called rakshu. It's like this root, that's similar to chives. It has a very earthy earthy kind of taste to it, but that's what they chop up in there and this one is the winter melon there's ginger in here pork bones.

Put this onto your rice, just melts in your mouth. It's been simmered down the aroma of the ginger and the pork bone broth. That's just warm and soothing, that's something you want to be eating on a cold day in the mountains. This one is the yam, the pickled mustard, green salad that acidity the sourness.

The garlic in there chili flakes hand mixed, but really it's just all about that natural fermentation and then this one is the pounded, bamboo shoots made into a salad. Oh, this is with the mustard green summery that job that's just a flavor overdose. The complexity of those three-year-old pickled bamboo shoots tossed with herbs and garlic, truly a spectacular meal, again cooked with so much love cooking, using ingredients that are available right here that big girl - and i can tell you this - is one of the most memorable christmas meals. I've ever had and experiences.

This is so incredibly special what a a blessing and an honor it is to be here. Oh and this chili dip is absolutely insane flavor you're, just going to notice the sweetness of all the vegetables and herbs here, man flavor to the max sweet greenness that the flavor of fish mint, the roots. You definitely know you're eating it when you're eating it. I think this one is the rice, paddy herb.

Oh man, wow, that's amazing! I don't know if it's rice, patty herb has a bit more of a minty taste to it. So juicy minty and refreshing what a meal and now tea served in tastes, so good when it's served in bamboo cups, and i think we have about 30 minutes until church starts. Okay and the service has started what an amazing service and celebration. Oh man, that was fun and so joyous.

Yes, oh man, the service really filled up at the end it overflowing out of the church, and now the service is just about over. Everyone is setting up the table, setting the table scooping out the food and serving the all the different sets on the table after the service. Just everybody comes to the tables. It is a feast there's different areas.

They have a bunch of tables set out under the tree. They have a bunch of tables this long table here. I already ate a big meal before the service, so i'm just gon na eat a little bit because there's a lot of people that need to eat and that are here to celebrate. But this what this is, what it all comes down to.

It's been 24 hours of a christmas celebration in this amazing akka community. Oh, i don't think i tried this one last time. This is the fresh, the fresh mustard, green salad with peanuts and garlic. I have a bit more of these bamboo shoots.

Are so good. One of my highlights here a bunch of ginger in that fresh mustard, green salad. Oh that's amazing! What a christmas celebration i can tell you! This is a christmas. I will never forget the hospitality, the friendliness, the welcome that completes christmas in northern thailand with the amazing aka people, a huge thank you to kun emmy, who invited us to her home and her village, and then her parents and all of the aunties and uncles and The entire community coming together what an honor it was to celebrate christmas, the aka way, and then lastly, i just want to say a big merry christmas to you and your family.

Thank you. So much for joining us on this christmas celebration have a fantastic day. Thank you again for watching, and i will see you on the next video.