I'm in Changra Northern Thailand with the AKA people and this is one of the most important ingredients. so we're going to harvest it fresh oh, you smell it like a sweet garlicky Aroma And we're going to cook at least three dishes for an amazing Northern Thai AKA meal. Oh, that's incredible. All coming up right now 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 they asked me to travel across Thailand to eat all of them. This Thai food trip is going to take us across the country from a rare Tddy palm fruit Korean Pepu to the Deep jungles of Patalon. But today we're starting our journey in the Lush mountains of Changra. Northern Thailand to cook and eat a dish you won't find outside of this region.

Cup myup myup We made it okay. GNA be needing a lot of coffee on this trip. Uh, but good morning. Hey everyone, it's Marqueen.

It's a very early morning in Bangkok to Thailand and for the next it's going to be about 10 days. It's going to be a fast trip, but we're going to travel all the way from the north to the south of Thailand on a mission to discover and to eat Thailand's hidden dishes and the Journey Begins. Right now, it's going to be about an hour and 15minute flight. Oh, we have about a 1hour drive into the mountains where we're going to find Thailand's hidden dish.

But since we're right in Shangai right now, let's stop for breakfast before we go. This is the spot It's called Baat and that is Auntie Eat there! Who makes this dish and the dish is called Namo Oh she's so friendly. she's so amazing every time I'm in Changai got to be here. Uh but she makes a dish which is called Namo which is one of the Staples of Northern Thailand It's a dish you absolutely have to eat.

It's this stew of meat and her famous dish is actually she has beef and pork. but I always go for the beef and so you get your you get your type of noodles. Uh then she serves it out on top of the noodles with some green onions and a squeeze of lime and some bean sprouts on top. Oh so happy to be here! Oh man yes so good.

I got the beef version. there's blood cubes. Oh and the noodles always got to taste the broth. but definitely you want to be adding the chili to it.

Yes oh yeah, that's one of the legendary flavors of Changai and they make this. They make this dish all over Northern Thailand but Changai is one of the best in case the flavor of the the dry chilies in there you taste the flavor of the tart. Tomatoes it has this sour meatiness to it and then just really really beefy and then those herbs to just contrast the the richness. Okay let's get those noodles.

M Mhm Oh man the beef is tender meaty, the noodles just melt in your mouth and have this slight chewi to them so absolutely need to season with some of that dry chili, Stir that around and give it a squeeze of lime as well. Mhm oh wow. the Smoky toastiness, the beefiness, The herbal broth, the tartness, all just submerged just absorbed into the noodles. Another thing you don't want to forget this is fried puffy beef skin crackling.

You can actually just okay, just toss them in whole, let them absorb. M Mhm it pops in your mouth, so bubbly, so crispy and beefy. and I absolutely love her. roasted dry chili.

uh fried chilies which are then pounded into a paste. this just like bumps up that heat gives it a smokiness. your lips will burn okay and then another thing you have to try here is called kangin and this is rice which is then cooked down with blood to create this kind of like hold the rice together. So it's kind of like this rice casserole with blood with fried garlic with fried chilies served with herbs on the side to cleanse your mouth.

Oh yes with the fried chili then immediately chased with herbs cor under mhm and that completes the bite in your mouth. but again the rice. it's so flavorful you don't even really notice that it's blood. It just kind of holds the rice together, gives it some richness and some body.

Then what you really taste is the fried garlic. That's just that is powering it. The flavor, the smokiness of the chilies, that freshness of the herbs. As good as always.

From here, it's about an hour drive. we're driving to the northern part of Changra to Messi into the mountains for Thailand's hidden dish. We're getting really high into the mountain now. It's beautiful.

This car is definitely struggling on these. Mountain Hills though. but I think we're almost there. the air is cooling off a it's so so happy to be here.

Beautiful turn myet. Oh wow! This place is absolutely incredible and this Village is called Pah. It is high in the mountains and you come here into the the Mist into the clouds with the view in the valley of Changai below. but it's so beautiful.

But man I'm just blown away by the beauty. I've been to Changai many times and we've gone to many mountain Villages but I've never been to this. Village right here. Fresh air take Okay oh what a place.

Oh you can smell coffee in the air. C We're having a coffee because most of the families in this community they all grow coffee and that's their how they make a living along with tourism. Uh, so they grow a lot of coffee around here. Oh man, I Don't think you could find a better place to drink a cup of coffee.

I mean I mean look at this view. Oh good coffee, Look at that view. Yeah it's just so so quiet, so peaceful in the midst of the mountains. And yet amazingly between that Valley towards where we I mean where we drove up from, you can see the sun shining.

yet we're high in the Mist met up with our host Mr Aran and we are off to the Garden to harvest the ingredient now. So this entire Village Uh is made up of the AA people who are a a minority people groups who lives in the the hill. It's a tribe that lives in the mountains of Northern Thailand originally coming from Uh Southern China especially Yunan region and there are communities and Villages of the amazing AKA people within the the mountains here in Northern Thailand Oh man this Village is amazing and we're just starting to see our first glimpse of the coffee that they grow in this region. and this is what we came to get.

which In tha is called Raku which is the Garlic chai roots and that is the special ingredient. Of course we're going to be making some dishes with the garlic chive roots, but this is the all essential ingredient and especially important for the AKA people. These are garlic chives. Uh so yeah, so they don't have the bulbs of garlic, but they have the roots.

Oh man, the roots are fragrant. Oh, you smell it like a sweet garlicky. Aroma And this is the essential ingredient of the day of the entire meal that we'll be cooking. It's all going to be based on the garlic chive roots.

we're We're back at the coffee shop now where they're going to just wash off all the vegetables and the garlic Chive roots. Wow! I Mean when she when she washes those off, it's just amazing how bright and how white those roots are. Okay, we're in the kitchen now and she's going to get started making the first dish which is called Lab AA And so Lab is a common dish throughout. Northern Thailand which which is a minced minced meat, but this is the AKA version which is totally different.

She has the minced pork, but of course she's going to be using all the the garlic chive roots. Oh and also the garlic. CH Chives themselves. The leaves.

oh man, they're so aromatic. Okay, so also Orander Salan Mint Sal Mint Okay, oh man, the herbs smell so good. Uh oh yeah, looks like she's going to make it spicy for us. Oh, and then a few bulbs of garlic cloves of garlic go in and then the entire mixture is then chopped together.

Salt goes on. You can see that there's so many I Love that ratio. There's literally at least 50% herbs to meat. Um, and you can tell how the entire meat has just turned green because there's so many herbs in it.

The mixture with the garlic chive uh, roots and all the herbs. uh, she wraps it into a Banana Leaf packet which is called AB in Northern Thailand and then that's going to roast over the fire for about 10 to 15 minutes. The lob is actually an extra dish. I mean one of the dishes that I wanted to make because that's what they're they the AKA makes so well.

But actually the main dish that we came for and that we're highlighting is called Madu which is pork stir fried with the garlic chive. Roots So we have some pork belly here which has already been sliced up. She's already getting started slicing up more of the the Raku the garlic chai. Roots This is the real dish that we are highlighting here today.

Okay, she's just really frying down that pork belly until some of the oil and fat comes out starts to to render out of it. You can also already started seeing it start to crispy as well and it's starting to hiss and pop so chilies and garlic go in and some of that oil is drained. Too much of that oil. Okay here's the roak Shu The main the star of the show.

oh that smells incredibly good as she as she drops in those those roots. just a little. just a little water to Del glaze soy sauce goes in. Oh man, what a dish and the process in which she makes it, she strategically fries down everything and dry fries.

it. adds some soy sauce in, adds in all of those herbs and they really start to pop and hiss and that is done. I Love you got to take a look at this closeup introducing to you Madu this is pork stir fried with garlic chive Roots C So they're still going to cook another dish in the kitchen but this is fresh out of the walk I Had to come up and just try it immediately. Oh man with this background I Cannot wait to try Sizzled down until it just completely kind of like Crispies and the pork lard fat just kind of melts with those garlic tries.

Oh I can't wait to try it! Wow that is so aromatic. Oh man, the garlic ches are in Incredible! They have this garlicky flavor to them but mild and sweet at the same time. plus herbal. Plus you've got that flavor of the pork, you got the skin in there, the fat, the meat all in one crispy salty soy sauce, chilies and garlic.

Just simple incredible dish and you taste everything fresh straight from the garden, straight from the mountain. This is what we traveled here to eat and it's so good. but we have more to cook in the kitchen and then they're going to prepare the full meal. Thank! That's a Tanga cucumber That's a cucumber.

Oh man, this is the biggest cucumber I've ever seen in my life. It's Huge! Oh man, my mouth is watering. But we're getting started on the next dish which is going to be the N the chili dip which he's going to make with those green onions those special uh Mountain Green Onions as well as more of the garlic. CH Roots So the chilies and garlic have been roasted on the fire and that's going to go into the mortar and pestl first.

Uhet D C D A Okay, and so that's the chili dip. Actually totally nothing like another chili dip that I've seen I mean I' I've even had some variations of AKA chili dip using nuts using like peanuts and other uh ingredients but this one is just completely herbal driven just with those green onions with the garlic chive Roots which I've said about a 100 times today already. Um and then with salt. One of the things that you'll notice is with the AKA as well as other tribes in the mountains is that they rarely use fish sauce and salt is the main seasoning ingredient.

Oh almost forgot about the Lb. Okay, OHA oh that smells incredible. So now we're sitting down for the full meal, everything is ready. This is an absolute privilege to be here.

The food is So Fresh So local and almost all the dishes contain Raku Okay so again going for some of the the mupu this time. Oh with the the chili onto the rice. Oh man with rice, it's so good! I Love the aroma, the fragrance, even the chewy texture of the AU it has this incredible chewi to it. Yu Yoku Oh yeah y Yoku that means delicious in the AKA language.

Okay, let's try the laaka. Oh and you can see. Oh look at the bottom of it C cup. you can see the bottom of it has charred with the Banana Leaf Oh wow oh that's incredible.

You really taste the fragrance of the garlic CH in there. That's all about the garlic ches in there. the sweet garlick is unbelievable and even that crunch of it and then the chilies in there. man that's tasty.

This is the giant cucumber which you can eat with the the chili dip. You can also eat it with rice. Okay, that has to be the juiciest cucumber you'll ever eat in your life. It's like a cucumber but a watermelon at the same time.

so crispy, so refreshing. and I love the nump Again, so fragrant from those garlic chives. But then also the the green onions in there which gives it this onion flavor as well. but such a freshness.

Incredible freshness, so herbal. Oh and the coriander in there too! Wow! The garlic chives are absolutely the star of this meal. The star of the show powering all the dishes just from that single ingredient. And I think what I love about it is it's not.

It's not overpowering, it's not too strong. it's just mild, mellow, fragrant, aromatic, and just Blends in such a Harmony together with all the other ingredients. Okay, then we also have a soup here made with the pumpkin leaves and the flowers as well. Mhm.

that's just simple, but so fresh. Pick just 30 minutes ago and I think Also, there's some uh, some of those green onions in there to give it a fragrance and some some coriander as well. Okay, okay, that's what's making it fragrant. is the the leaves of Ginger Ginger leaves in there? Okay, I got to taste it.

This is B King this is the ginger leaves I could taste a fragrance in there. it's like a very mild Ginger but just give in a and again aromatic. M that's like the equivalent of Ginger lemongrass. like it has that grassy grassiness to it.

Very chewy, but it just releases this sweet gingery Aroma cup. Okay so we have these giant leaves that we picked as well called Pacoy so they're basically just calling it bitter vegetable from the mountain. Oh it is a little bit bit bitter but sweet at the same time. Crisp a cup and then you can dip it into that that chili dip as well.

You can enjoy it like that as well. that Chast it's like vegetables on top of vegetables. Oh we. one more dish.

we've got an omelette with the garlic chives the leaves. Got to try that omelette while it's hot and freshh. Oh yes, that is straight comfort food again. I think I've said Aroma like 50 times so far this meal but I Can't help saying it.

It's true. It's just so aromatic. oily, crispy, spongy. Okay, everything is superb.

Here's that bitter eggplant m oh wow is bitter and creamy M delicious. Oh yeah, the bitterness keeps on coming. I mean it almost. It feels like an eggplant but it tastes like a bitter melon.

I Want to say a huge thank you to Mr Aran and his family. He has a coffee shop here which is called Pahi Coffee and he has a home stay here so you can come here and stay and just enjoy this amazing amazing place from here. We're driving back to Changai town and then we're going to meet up with my friend. Chef Kong He has an incredible restaurant in Changai and he's going to make another dish using the garlic chai Roots but something that's going to be totally different.

We came down from the mountain. we drove back all the way through Changai town and then to the opposite side of town to of the most exclusive, beautiful resorts in all of Thailand. Surrounded by rice, Patty fields and Lush mountains, it's called Basak Tong. It's just an impressively incredibly beautiful place and on the grounds of the resort is a restaurant which is called Locust Native Food Lab one of the greatest contemporary Northern Thai restaurants in all of Thailand Chef Kong Very good to be here! Could you just tell us a little bit about the idea behind Locust Native Food Lab um Locus Food Lab Basically we uh wanted to promote uh N Tha Cuisines Um, it's one of those Infamous Cuisines of Thailand.

You know people know about Sou and Thai and Isan right? but the Nor and Thai cuisine is something that really not known enough. so the concept here is to interpret it into something that people can they understand a little easier. So we bring in all the techniques you know French Japanese and Italian. all that and just make it nice and easy for you to understand.

and I also do a lot of wine pairing to here at the at the restaurant. Oh okay playing with food and wine. those are the things I love and yeah that's exactly what we do here. Thank you very much happy to be here I'm happy to serve you so alcohol comes later.

it comes definitely comes likei mojito. Oh wow so here we are. Mark coup C So what we have here, it's just four bites just to get you started. First on the far left we have here a Kti Kti.

Basically is a grill rice ball glazed with Organic egg yolk and top it with redey chili paste. m m all the flavor keeps on coming, the subtle smokiness. Oh and the chili paste. oh what a depth of flavor.

It's a bit too ripe, it's a bit too warm but this is just perfectly right and um Crips and nice And we're going to be pairing this with about two uh courses from now. Excuse me here you are thank you! Saab is um somewhat a food of Shan's people. you find a lot in T or in mean right? um you don't really see them outside M on in fact and a lot of time Northern people kind of feel like I never heard of this thing before. of course it's um it's a food of the Ch's people which I find very fascinating.

So we have our first wine pairing and Chef Kong he said that uh what he likes to do is taste a little bit of the wine really refreshing and crisp and a little bit a little sourness and then take take the bite mhm that just melts in your mouth and the the fiddlehead ferns with the the parah Hem little bit of caviar but not not a like over amount, just enough to like. add to it and give it flavor. We are okay. this is called num Numo I Don't know if you ever come across what Numo is but um they're black paste that come from the Patty field.

uh crab. You know normally when you have this thing called num numo the Numo is always. you know hit you at the very front end like you take it, it hits you right in the face. What we want to do is we want to reposition that smell to the back so that comes up with the idea of this guy.

Oh wow that combination and recommended that you get a bite with a little bit of the shrimp and with a little bit of the nump N Cream and kind of a light fluffy like biscet consistency on the on the bottom of the base with pickled cucumbers. All of it together is this incredible Harmony in your mouth. Thank you thank you Uh Julan this is B of course it's a semi Carbonic mations with a gra Rful game I Think it's very versatile. We're going to be pairing it with different kinds of meat today.

We've got uh, chicken and I even paired this with fish. You don't really see a red wine to pair with fish, but here we are. we've got the red wine. Oh there's a lot of flavor in that wine though.

A lot of flavor and yet refreshing at the same time. Okay and now the totally totally decomposed and recomposed again in their own way. The Haai M Mhm oh man oh wow, that's good. Such a condensed flavor of chicken plus the curry paste.

The finely shaved muit lime leaves, the crunch of the The Toasted rice and just that is some of the juiciest, the juiciest chicken bite you'll have. and then with some of the pickled vegetables as well. Oh yeah, so good. Wow the textures and the condensed chicken flter.

This is what we paired today we have Gango basically mean it's a an angle melon or Liam In tha M the smokiness of the fish, the foam. the angle gour has this yeah that herb. it's a cross between lemon basil and sweet basil and it is right there in between has like the the pepperiness of the the Sweet Basil the lemon of the lemon basil all in one. What we have here is uh gang fakon or basically a winter melon.

Curry this is uh the Curry of the winter melon. uh normally they cook it with chicken right now we change it completely and we cook it with duck instead. What we have here we have a dry brine uh duck filet which is local uh and then we grill it on one side just to make the skin. Crips um on the side we have the wintermelon that has been pickled, the wintermelon puree with uh, curry paste.

it looks almost like carrot puree and uh by Mcro T or the cir lime leaves deep fried on top, uh dark juice and a little bit of uh reduction of the curry itself together. All right. such an incredible insights into Northern Thai culture and what a dish. Oh the tender juiciness of that duck breast, the smokiness.

What you really taste is the the fragrance of those fried Mcot leaves. Oh man that's delicious. There's just stories about how you create gang hole. Normally they say that um a Chefs of the village will pick the leftovers and then they will mix it together, adding in a little bit of noodles and adding in a pickled bamboo shoot and then you stir fry it and they call that gangho I create gang ghole in uh in my own interpretations And we got this pork cartilage that has been glazed with gangho sauce.

So let me remind you again, these are not leftovers. these are intentionally construct for you. On the side we have this morning Glory which is uh p in tight right mix it with Greek yogurt a little bit hung curry powder on top we have the Bambo shoe that has been turned into ships. Oh but look at the tenderness of that the cartilage.

oh yeah you can see the cartilage in there. Gangho is another dish a very common Northern Thai Dish but with a very unique story. and then with all of the research again totally reinterpreted Something totally different looking than a typically than a typical gang hole m It is a textural playground in your mouth. so many different textures going on, even the cartilage is Snappy but it's tender, the crunch of the the morning GL And then we've got the crispy bamboo shoots.

So refined so just incredibly well thought out planned. Just the Deep think that goes into every single dish is impressive. So what we have here is um uh N is actually literally means uh, vegetable water. vegetable or vegetable water could be exact.

What it is is basically a Chinese mustard leaves that has been pickled in the rice. uh water. or at the Nam out town right? The best. Wow, oh oh that is incredible.

Oh the mustard greens, the shreds of smoky Buffalo The acidity. wow that is that is spectacular with the rice. It's so meaty yet green and has this beautiful sourness to it as well that brings it together like a oh man, it's incredibly tasty. Really really good.

So we have here is okay, uh Rock shoe right? So we just take the rock shoe in, really clean it out and we want to get rid of all this small guys like this. We don't want that right? So little guy goes off because once we burn them, this thing going to just really just burn and make everything bitter. we don't want that all right. So we just want to take all the little guy out and after that we're going to burn it with the blowage.

so it's going to get, um, all blacken. Just going to go like that. just turn around roll it around just to make it burnt a little. We need that scent and I really want you to smell it afterwards.

Okay, see how it Browns out? Yeah and it gets softer as well. So we are. We are at the point of the meal now where we're getting the Raku again. the garlic chive root.

oh it's such a like sweet yeah sweet Aroma to it. yeah it almost feel like you're eating in a Chinese restaurant. almost feel like that, right? We want this Ro sh to be complimenting. Okay, all right I don't know if you seen them before, they're in the same uh family with Ginger Actually all right.

All right. So uh, we pickle them again and we're just going to go across cup CB cup CB Okay So we've reached the final dish called Kuim and it's the their own sausage beef sausage that they make and then this is the dish. I mean we've already seen uh We've harvested rakshu, the garlic chai roots. We've seen them being made into a variety of AKA dishes especially and now this is a totally different I mean Chef gong's own interpretation.

again just a total transformation. something totally unique and creative. What a unique dish! I Cannot wait to try it! I'm going to try that first one with the Raku M M. Oh oh that sausage.

it is Beefy and condensed but yeah not too salty, just so packed with meatiness. Then you've got the Raku which has again that that fragrant garlicky sweetness to it. but it's been torched so it has that smokiness and then lightly pickled so it has that little bit of acidity but not not overpowering at all. What there's a little bit of like almost like a fruity sweetness coming from something.

was that from the gongo stems? or was that from That's from the gongo stem. and there's a lot of cumin seed. Uh, a lot of cumin leaves in here? actually. Oh okay in the mole? Yeah, in the mole.

Okay, cumin leaves. Okay, last last bite. Wow, this is an absolute genius idea. Yeah.

Chef Kong Man, what a what a concept. What an IDE And it's a surprise at the end of your meal. the full menu of dishes yet in their traditional Family Recipe versions. Okay so I'm going to try the sticky rice and it really is true.

the sticky rice does not stick to your fingers at all, yet you can feel the the glutenous uh in each grein. I'm going to try the the Nao. this is the the Patty crab. First dip that the sticky rice in a little bit spicy, that sharp hint of bitterness.

Oh delicious. Okay this one is the numac. Oh wow. Really yeah that's so good.

Oh it has this incredible like pepperiness. Oh man that's tasty. Okay this is The Gang Banoy This is the angle gour curry with the the basil. Oh that's delicious.

You got the softness of the angle gour the flavor of those Basils salty. Okay and you start to realize you're getting some of those same flavors. some of the same ingredients but just different. different.

both versions. Incredibly delicious. Okay I think Lastly, this is the The Pako the Fiddle Fiddle Head Ferns Oh that's really nice, crisp and refreshing. Cool nutty excuse me.

So the granita that you see in this dessert is actually an organic coconut sugar. And you always want to start with the dessert. So one bite of dessert. one ZIP of wine.

Now this wine right now is the lowest alcohol wine in the world and it's called Mosato. Try the Wi. Life changing. life changing.

So here it is. dessert with another incredible Story You've got to mix it around a little bit. Try it. Yeah that's that's incredible.

Oh and then par. oh wow yes the combination the pairing. it's Heavenly Mhm. Oh man that is a a masterpiece of Harmony of a dessert Man what a me! Chef Gong is so talented He's an artist today has been all about garlic chive roots.

and I want to say a huge thank you to the Tourism Authority of Thailand for making this entire trip happen. and I want to say 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, make sure you subscribe now for lots more food and travel videos.

Tomorrow we fly to Isan which is a totally different region of Thailand in northeastern Thailand where we will find Thailand's next hidden dish. You're not gonna want to miss it.