Hey everyone hope you're having an amazing day. It's mark wiens, i'm in the mountains of chiang rai in northern thailand and staying at landia lodge, which is a community-driven eco-hilltribe lodge, which supports two villages within the community, and today we are going to go up the hill. A little ways to the lahu community and we're going to learn about the lahu culture and a family. There has kindly invited us for lunch today where they're going to cook a couple of traditional dishes: lahu dishes we're gon na, have a chance to see some of the cooking.

It's gon na be a learning experience. It's gon na be a delicious experience and i'm gon na share all of the food with you and this incredible hill, tribe, food and cultural experience with you in this video we're starting the walk up to the lahu village uh. But for this trip we are staying at lanjia lodge, which is a community uh hill tribe eco lodge, which supports, which empowers uh the community, and there are two villages on this mountain sap on this mountaintop community. There's a hmong village, which is a little ways down the mountain, and we were there yesterday and we visited a local hmong family.

He was actually a shaman. He explained to us a little bit about the rituals we learned about some of the hmong culture and they prepared for us a celebration: unbelievable festival, welcoming meal, which was spectacular. It was truly an amazing experience, an amazing meal, and today we are walking up the hill uh, where there's a lahu hill tribe, village, community, the local family has invited us for lunch uh, where they're going to prepare for us some of the local wahoo food and We're going to see what they cook and we're going to learn about some of the food, the local food that they eat here too, we're going to visit a lahu family today, yes, yes, okay! This morning we are going to see laohu religion to see lauru shaman. Oh we'll all visit allahu shaman as well; yes, okay, okay, okay, look at the rooster on the roof; okay, starting from here; okay and yeah; it's small, okay! Okay! Oh so this! This village is a mix of mong and lahu; yes, okay, yes uh our guide! Mr rappan, he was just explaining to us, and also i learned this yesterday.

Visiting among family is that the hmong houses are typically on the ground uh, not on stilts uh or not built on a on a platform they're typically on the ground, where the lahu houses are typically built on a platform over the ground. So that's immediately how you can distinguish between a hmong and a lahu family, and so we're just now walking into the more of the lahu section. So you can see immediately behind me. This would be a lahu home built of wood and then on stilts above the ground.

I think we are just about to arrive to the family home, but really quickly wanted to tell you a little background about the oahu people, who are a ethnic people group, mainly in china, and originally they traced the roots back to yunnan in southern china. So mainly in china, yunnan, as well as myanmar, as well as the hills, the high mountains of northern thailand house, okay, the lahu shaman house is his name is, and he is 61 years old. Okay, he became chairman when his age was 20. in laohu culture.

There's only one shaman in the group. If there's a sick people come to see the sherman, he will burn the candle and incense to get that place. Okay and after that he used the small drum to hit to call the ancestors spiritual this island. They use this to check the sick people to see that which goes make the patient sick.

Okay. So if we get the right goals that make the patient sick, this will automatically mean. Step fiction is not due to the ghost oh okay, so that person has to go to the see doctor in masimiro very interesting to learn about the role of the local shaman in this village in this community. The shaman here he lives a normal life.

He's a farmer he has a family, he makes a living, but then, when his services are needed, somebody from the community uh calls upon him and then this is where they come to see him. We are gon na now move down to the other house uh, where the allahu family is preparing lunch for us. Oh, it's the house right right down, i think from the shaman. 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 for lunch. Today, uh they are going to be cooking us a lahu meal. Some of the ingredients are being prepared.

You already smell the lemongrass, the garlic uh fires over on that side, and i think right now, they're pounding up: okay, cyclic; okay, it's going to be chili's garlic and some of the coriander and salt, okay, salt and a little msgb m. Okay smells amazing. The vibrancy of the chilis, the garlic uh that coriander, which is that mountain coriander, which is very thin strand, it's so fragrant, um and then salt in there. I love their clothing, the outfits with the the uh intricate designs and also like the little silver buttons.

But something also to note is that they in the home, they still speak lahu language uh, but then because we are in thailand when they go to school, it's in in thai language, but it's still at home. They preserve the tradition, they preserve the language uh. They still speak lahu, the next dish that they're getting started on. I think it's a maybe mustard greens uh locally, which they grow for themselves, which they're gon na fry up with uh there's a pan of pork, any cow, oh wow.

They just showed me the rice which they've already cooked, which is steamed. They cooked it in a an empty hollow log. I have already finished cooking it. They said it's much more delicious that way, and then i asked them if they typically in their culture in the lahoo culture, if they eat sticky, rice or regular rice, they said regular rice is their typical, typically, what they eat.

Mountain rice and they're just going to quickly show me, although they've boiled it already they're going to show me how they do it. Also they do steam it in a in a wok with water on the bottom and then steam. The rice in the log hollowed out log domain something around around 40 minutes or so steaming in the log that is beautiful and it's local mountain rice that they grow. I believe it's a type of rice that does not grow in a patio.

It doesn't grow in a paddy field. It just grows with on the side of the mountain in cooler temperatures, and you can already tell that it's going to have more smokiness to it, a more depth of flavor and even be embedded with the aroma of that. That would that log um, oh man, that smells good, so she started off by sauteing, chili's garlic, shallots added in some stalks of lemongrass, then some pretty fatty, delicious looking pork goes in and the aroma over the fire. It smells incredibly delicious already, and this is going to go along with the vegetable, the vegetable that they were, they just washed and cut it.

Oh, the next dish that they're making is banana blossom, but these are wild forest jungle, banana blossom from the side of the mountain uh that they're gon na make with pork, i believe as well, they're all level and they use only the salt. It's quite old. Okay, peel off some of those outer hard red leaves or red petals and get that soft heart, which is almost golden yellow in color. Get that soft heart interior is.

He gets the heart of the banana blossom and then slices them into fine, fine, choppings uh into water immediately to wash it, and if you don't put it in water, it will turn black and then also. I think that's also to take out a little bit of that, like stickiness too. It starts with the the base. Uh heats up some oil and then she fries some pounded, chilies, garlic, shallots and lemongrass.

That is, the key is lemongrass and then in goes some of the pork okay. So she tosses in a handful of chopped up coriander mountain coriander and green onions stir-fries that around and then all of the freshly sliced banana blossom goes in and as that banana blossom boils down simmers down. You can actually see the milkiness of it coming out the milky juices - oh wow, okay, so the banana blossom is ready. The final step she did.

She added another handful of the chopped up herbs, the wild, coriander and green onions and then just took it off just stirred it around. So those are just gon na wilt and add a final fragrance to the amazing dish and then over in the corner here, which they had already boiled down, because it takes a long time to boil is bamboo a wild bamboo with pork, it's more of a soup Um um an amazing meal, again cooked with so much love and hospitality, and them inviting us into their home to cook to learn about the lahu culture uh. There is a theme throughout many of the dishes. It's taking one vegetable or one uh ingredient from the forest.

Often wild or that they grow and then stir frying it with garlic, chilies, lemongrass, shallots and pork. So that is a common theme throughout the lahu cuisine and then there's also the lahu chili paste uh. The rice, which i am extremely excited to try cooked the traditional way, the mountain rice and then uncle just brought out the traditional spoon uh in a bamboo little cup, with the the stem off of it, which i'm definitely going to use to eat with made from Bamboo also, the stools are made from bamboo right, yes from bamboo. I love these traditional stools completely from bamboo as well.

Oh, it's comfortable too. You kind of sink into it, and so we are all sitting down for lunch. The food spread across two tables uh. Thank you so much to the family and to the amazing, ladies for for cooking this outstanding meal.

Yes, i cannot wait to dig in first thing. I have to taste, though, is just the actual rice steamed in the wood hollowed out wood. You can smell the fragrance of it too. The smoky fragrance.

The spoon is amazing. It can be used for soup too. The rice is wonderful kind of glutinous on the inside, but not sticky, rice smoky fluffy. It's dense, too.

You can tell it's very filling. I'm going to first try the banana blossom, the wild banana blossom with the pork with lemongrass, with chilies with garlic. In here and again, you can see kind of that milky broth, which comes out of the the banana blossom. Oh, it smells so good.

It's so aromatic too, because of the the lemongrass that the aromatics they add to it: oh wow, that banana blossom and the fattiness of that pork. It just melts in your mouth, but the banana blossom is incredible: wild banana bottom. It is extremely silky and it does kind of have a milkiness as soon as you bite down the fragrance of those chilies, the fragrance of the coriander, the green onions, the garlic in there, oh, but the banana blossom, and you just got this light. You just have this light fragrance of the of the lemongrass.

Oh, it's so good, yeah! Okay! Next up i'm going to try the lahu chili paste dip that looks fiery delicious and you can see how all the oils have come out of it and bruised it's juicy. But no extra juice added just the juice of the chili garlic coriander, there's definitely a technique to using this spoon because it could be used for soup. It could be used for rice and you can be used for mixing very convenient, very effective, okay, they're warning me. It's very, very spicy.

Oh wow yeah, those are spicy chilis, the flavor of the coriander, the garlic, the salt pounded in there. With that rice, oh man, i would be happy just with that rice and the chili dip. It's so good. Okay, next up for the bamboo shoot um made with pork also, and then you can see a little bit of chilies a little bit of lemongrass kind of that same spice combination.

I believe - and this looks very it's a clear broth. It just looks simple, relying on the fresh ingredients - maybe even some pepper in here too - and the bamboo for this one - here's what you can do with the bamboo spoon cup. When you need some soup, you can fill it up into your that is so convenient. It's genius: oh wow, you immediately taste the burst of the bamboo, the freshness of the bamboo, the hint of sourness, the naturalness of it.

I think that is the that's the theme of of this meal. This lahu typical food is that you do use pork as a flavoring or meat as a flavoring, but it relies on that natural ingredient, whether that be the banana blossom, whether that be the bamboo shoot or the mustard greens now to scoop up some of those those Uh, shreds of bamboo shoot: oh wow, it's just they're, crunchy, fragrant sweet, the banana shoot, the bamboo shoots are sweet, but i will add just a little bit of this chili. Oh, this is addictive. You cannot get enough of it.

I'm just gon na mix it up. Oh and there's a lot of lemongrass in the bamboo shoot as well and pepper. I think okay and then the final dish is the mustard greens stir-fried with pork, with um, chilies, garlic and lemongrass again and some shallots. I think i love it too and again everything has lemongrass in it the fragrance of lemongrass, the chili's, the garlic that one focuses on the mustard greens, which have a hint of a bitterness to it, but they're sweet at the same time and the effectiveness of this Bamboo spoon, the spoon cup, it's a beautiful thing, makeup makeup.

Yes, the hospitality, the generosity of this amazing family, i said, don't don't be shy. Keep on eating! Thank you. I am just absolutely loving the ability of the spoon and the ability to eat soup to eat. Rice to mix to stir to mingle, it's perfect, not to mention the volume, the amount of food that you can fit in here, the bamboo shoots and uh.

I think i actually love the banana blossom, the most with some of that chili dip to add to the flavor another flavor that you taste in the bamboo soup is the the roots of coriander, a full one. I've got a full cup spoon. I had to have seconds of rice too, it's so good, but down to my my final bite now with a little bit more of the banana blossom. I think this is my my favorite dish, the sweetness the silkiness is just outstanding mix it up and here's what else you can do.

You can really mix with this and scrape and gather the last whoa. That's going to be a big bite, a big last final bite. Let's see if i can fit it all in my night, oh man that might have been too ambitious. It got too big.

I don't think i can fit at all. This is my second to last bite and what a meal yeah wow, what an outstanding meal? Oh off, the off the rim of the plate for the final bite that was outstanding, that was an outstanding meal, a beautiful experience, beautiful time hanging out and just yeah. Incredibly, delicious food simple, but relying on the local fresh ingredients that was uh what made it outstanding. I also want to say a huge thank you to lanjia lodge for arranging everything uh, and i i love what they're doing, because when you, when we came here when we, when you come here, uh, it's supporting and empowering the community of both of the villages, the Hmong village and this lahu village, in a sustainable in an ethical way and one more thing i'll, have some links in the description box that you can check out some of the other videos that we filmed here, uh going into the the hmong village and eating an Unbelievable celebration meal, which was an outstanding experience as well, so be sure to check out that video and i want to say a huge thank you for watching.

Please remember to give this video 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 click the little bell icon, so you'll immediately get notified of the next video that i publish Thanks again for watching goodbye from chiang rai - and i will see you on the next video.