Hey everyone hope you're having an amazing day at smart queens, i'm in khan, ken which is in the isan north eastern part of thailand, and this is an amazing city uh. You will find some just extraordinary green papaya, salad and grilled meats, and so today we're gon na go on a legendary food tour of con ken we're gon na eat at some of the best restaurants dude. I'm gon na hang out with my friend, joel and lee, and we are gon na. Take you on just an ultimate feasting tour of congen.

The fire is kindling in my mouth right now immediately at the entrance you'll know you're here, because you can smell the sausage. The cyc isan, the isaan sausage grilling at the front just dripping the basin grill technique. Oh, it smells so good and this place is known for its meat and the owners. The family that runs this restaurant they're immediately so friendly.

Welcome yumi, welcoming you into the restaurant and we are gon na - have a meat feast to begin this food tour. It's all meat yeah. This is a meat restaurant and i love how the menu is organized by cow, pig, cow and pig. That's it cow and pig and drink this this field.

This feels great dude ready for some meat. Yes, this is the meat spot. What's up, oh man, the smoky aromas coming out of this restaurant are just unbelievable, um and then something she just chopped up is called, which is uh translated directly to crying tiger beef uh some say it's called crying tagger because of the hiss that it makes uh When it's on the grill, but it's one of the most delicious, like straight up grilled beefs, you can imagine yes wow, oh and markup, oh my god! Oh that is meaty. Oh man and garlicky.

Okay, it's like all right, in addition to all of the grilled meats and the sausage and the serrangay, the crying tiger beef. We also got a hot pot uh, which so she added this. It's a fire pot. She added in a bunch of ingredients, some kakua, which is uh toasted, sticky, rice powder, which is then pounded uh.

So it gives a crunch. She added chili. She added some spices. She added in like some different sauces and then poured in that broth from that master stock, um and then that's going to be served along with a plate of raw beef slices that we dip in hot pot style.

That's another dish that they're famous for here the table is full. Everything is just scattered all over the table. We've got sticky rice, we've got the different sauces, the okay, but the first thing we have to begin with, even before the the hot pot is the the guy. It is the ultimate of all isan dishes - raw beef, which is usually hand chopped minced mixed with a variety of spices, especially kakuo, and the crispy uh pounded, sticky rice powder chili's in there sometimes there's a variety of animal juices, uh digestive juices, but we got ta Start with that, it looks gorgeous a simple perfection of issan in one plate.

Meat juice just stirred up meat jam, got ta go in with sticky rice, though sticky rice make a little ball it up, and then she tops it with a variety of herbs, especially mint, and i think some green, green uh, onions and also sawtooth coriander. You feel the coolness of it cheers: oh that's unbelievable, oh it's so refreshing and so smooth and so tender, but really you taste, the sharp, salty flavor the crunch of the sticky rice powder, the herbs and the chili. In there the chili is nice yeah, the dry chili that it's a perfect one, actually master. That is insanely tasty though, but the way they've minced it it just melts in your mouth, it's so tender, but so refreshing like a few months ago.

So that is amazing to me one of the the signature dishes of isaan and because the vegetables have already been sitting in the the hot pot for a little. While i think we should move into that. Next looks like the the shank or the the shin of the beef. So you have this amazing pattern of fat within the meat and then it's like a flower like a a rose in the shape of a rose with tripe in the middle.

But i'll take one of these slices first, maybe that's good, oh yeah, just in seconds it curls up and cooks. That's definitely good enough and dip into the gel, which is the the omnipresent sauce of dried chili and everybody has a bit of a different recipe. All that texture, it's bouncy, it has a bounciness to it and they're gel yeah they're sauce whoa, it's so incredibly smoky tasty mushrooms. Oh she added a bunch of galangal in here too.

It's going into the oh wow, the sausage that he was that uncle was chopping up at the front and he also gave me a taste test, but he grilled it perfectly. He babied them. Look at the golden crunchy, perfect, roasted grilled skin this bite. I'm going to prepare myself a chili, a whole green chili and a slice of ginger, and then you have to immediately say that just completes the mouth experience, but all that chocolate is amazing.

It has a lot of rice in it. So it's almost a complete meal. In and of itself next dish, i'm going to try this one is a pla which is it's a type of like a mixture but off always including lemongrass and a mix of herbs, and this one is also beef, which is then i believe it's grilled burst. Lots of chilies lots of uh mint in here as well is amazing, probably something i always love because of the like.

It's amazing, salty, herbaceousness, 30 seconds really taste the lemongrass in there, which she finally chopped up the chili's in there. Oh that's delicious next dish. This one is, but i think it's the same cut of beef that they used in the hot pot, and so then this one they they. I think they just kind of slightly simmer the beef real fast until it cooks and withers up and curls up, and then they mix it with all the different spices for la, including the sticky rice powder, again, the chilies fish sauce and lime juice.

Just the balance of flavor in every single dish, wow, that's good again. It's herb, driven and they're just partnered with that juicy beef. Okay, this one is the grilled beef, grilled steak, crying tiger grilled steak, and this has to be dipped into the jail and you got ta get it to your mouth before you trip and actually the meat itself is very lean, but it has this fat cap around It and when she grills it because of that fat cap, you just see the the fire just explode with smokiness, and that gives the meat an amazing char and an amazing smokiness, the texture, the flavor, the juices that just keep coming out of the beef. As you keep on chewing it, i think the last dish that i need to try that on this meat table is no deal which is dried.

I mean it actually means single day dried in the sun, but it could be longer than that, depending on weather conditions. Uh, but after that, after it's dried, so it's slightly jerky after it's dried, then it's deep-fried and this just smells so delicious they've cut it in a way, that's very thin and very crispy and again dip right. I think you can dip either way, but that sauce is amazing. It's all about that texture.

It's one of those meats, as you keep on chewing. It starts to get softer in your mouth. That's just pure snack food! That's why this place is so legendary. It's outstanding! The freshness of the beef and then just the quality of the dishes that they prepared.

This is a gem of a restaurant, the best dish, the dish that just stands out, the most that you just cannot get over is the the dip unbelievable and actually, when we tasted it before joel - and i forgot a very crucial step, which i'm slightly embarrassed about - That we have to do now. Okay, all right! Well, thank you man! Oh it's! So good making sure you haven't swallowed all of the the meat so that mixes together in your mouth hold that burn it's a 9 a.m. Move you want to be making every day. It's a it's a breath.

You want to have every day and then to break up all the different meaty dishes. You always have a plate of vegetables on the side, raw vegetables and raw herbs, slightly wasabi taste to it, but it's so crisp. There's long beans on here, there's basil, there's beetle leaves there's vietnamese coriander cucumbers and cabbage, and i even love to take the vegetables and then dip them into the sauce as well at jail. This meal is unbelievable top quality.

This is a must eat when you are in content up so just down the road. We are right in the center right in the heart of konken and the next place that we're going to on this food tour uh is okay. This is the dish, the dish of isan, the dish of khan ken which they do so spectacularly. Well, you cannot come to khan ken without eating green papaya, salad, it's known as university or degree degree right.

He claims to have a degree in bachelor's degree. His wife is always here again, you may or may not be here the different varieties of fish sauce, especially the pala, which is the it is the king of all flavor enhancements, uh seasonings in isaan, the fermented fish sauce, yeah all the aroma of that: okay. Okay. Okay, team, okay, the amount of chilis that they use here, the fragrance of their fermented fish sauce, unbelievable fermenty aromas, just wafting out of that wooden mortar wow, okay, and i think everything has already arrived on the table.

This might be the best university. I've ever been to in my life without a doubt, oh man, i think i think i could actually i'd be willing to go back to university. For this. We got another one too.

Oh my gosh, oh, i think you might have heard of this one with saltiness. Even that's pretty yeah, even that's popping with with uh colors and neon colors, but okay. First thing we're gon na start with is the so for this one. She added in carrots.

Carrots was the the big ingredient here: carrots, green papaya, a ton of chilies. She added in palm sugar fermented fish sauce, there's peanuts, there's dry shrimp in here, and so the last meal we had was dedicated to beef was dedicated to the meat girl of isaan. This meal is completely dedicated to the the pounded salads of isaan, which are probably two of the the most important things of issan grill and the town wow. That's insane truly a balance of flavor because you have the the saltiness of the fermented fish sauce, but then, at the same time, that's rounded off with that palm sugar that gives it a balance of flavor.

So it's not too harsh in the fermented fish department. That is a complete salad like every flavor. You would want balance perfectly and mega just mega in the flavor department, just overdose the flavor yeah yeah. Next up this one is the tamsuax.

So this is a pounded salad, but the key to this dish is that she added it adds in the jean, which are the the slightly fermented rice noodles, that is stunning, the maximum flavor on your tongue. Oh i'm starting to salivate. Now i love the fresh, the sour tomatoes, oh yeah, that one is the sour tomato, the fermented fish, but this one is the bakiya yeah. The highlight here is the fermented fish sauce.

They make themselves right their own secret family recipe, and that truly is what makes this salad. The last main salad that we got is the tam tua, which is the yard, long bean or chinese long bean, salad and then again, oh there's a whole fish tail. We got a tail. Oh my gosh yeah, that is the chili, is starting to build.

Oh yeah, it's spectacular like it's a similar flavor, but the texture is totally different uh. It has this crunch, a crispness to it refreshing, spicy and just again that powerful punch of fermenty fish that, just once you start to eat bala like you just it's addictive, okay and then the final dish that we got is the no supernova, the bamboo shoot kind Of like a a mix um, so the bamboo shoots are shredded and then mixed with all the different issan spices and herbs and lots of chilies again, those chilis are kicking in joel and i are starting to sniffle star. Tears are starting to form. Yes, that is incredible: oh wow, it almost has a meatiness to it.

Actually, i thought of that, like on the level of like cheesy pasta, it's so meaty. It's like it's cheesy, because the bamboo is like sour too, like like a cheese, almost sensation, that is a salad and a half man yeah and the um. The red onions are so awesome. I think, out of all the different salads, the green long bean salad is the best, though that is just insane insane flavor like beyond imagination.

Oh i got the dribble. I got the ball off the bumper dribble down the chin. That flavor is just building the spices building. The fire is kindling in my mouth right now, just riding up waiting, keep riding, keep surfing, yeah, just insane overdose of flavor your tongue, your mouth, your taste buds can hardly even believe what their what's what's processing.

What's the signals that are sending to your brain, i have a piece of sticky rice on my nose. Oh my god, and their green papaya. Salad is just on another level, powerful flavors, with the amount of chilies that was extraordinary. So we had a meat feast for breakfast.

We had a crazy insane just outstanding papaya salad, something meal for lunch for dinner. We're gon na go with something. That's a little bit lighter. Well, quite a lot lighter a little easier on the stomach, a little easier to digest and it's also a very popular dish to eat in con ken just the carbide, so we're at a place called jae, hong and uh.

They have they serve noodles. They specialize in noodles here it's a popular street food stall, so they prepare the noodles all at the front, boiling blanching them, and then they have all these different toppings. Some braised chicken feet some pork balls, some pork bones ribs and then also one of the things that they specialize in here is muyo, which is a vietnamese sausage. So some of the noodle dishes, and especially the um, the kuay chap yuan kind of a vietnamese lao influenced dish.

I'll begin with the thumbs in it comes with chicken feet, it comes with chicken and then you can smell the garlic on here. You can smell the green onions after everything we've eaten today. This is just very simple, mainly you taste, the flavor of the braised chicken feet in there and then for this one again yeah. That broth is thick um, it's almost gravy-like and you can stir this up and the noodles are also very slippery, and you smell that garlic in there too much now, that's a slurpee dream right there.

The texture of those noodles is like. Oh, i like it. Actually, that's awesome they're, so gooey that's what they are they're gooey, but now it's time to season and micah really wanted to help me with the chili oil mica. Are you ready to add the chili oil give me how's your first taste test over there yeah? That was a good one, a big thank you to micah for adding the chili.

Oh man micah. You know how i like it. He added a heaping spoon of chili to everything you smell the aromatic smokiness of those chili that chili oil, and i think that's really. What's gon na make it that's, what's gon na bump it up, that's what's gon na just that's! What's gon na make it? I think i, like the white chapter i like the texture of the gumminess of those noodles, the glutinous they're, so glutinous again that chili oil mix that around stir that around there's slices of chicken in here their chili oil here is awesome, brings the dish together.

That's what brings it home and then finally, the chicken bone soup, which oh man micah added in a ton of chili in there so whirl that around oh that looks delicious and as you roll that around actually the meat just falls off the bone. So you can tell that was boiled for so long, especially i think to make that broth, the skin and the meat just completely disintegrates into that broth wow with that fragrance again of the chili oil again, i think anything could be good with that. I'm glad we decided to eat noodles for dinner. That was a total switch from the meat feast and the spicy.

Some thumb green, papaya, salad, feast that we had for lunch. That was a perfect wrap up a perfect ending to this khan, ken street food tour, and so that's going to be it for this video. I want to say a big thank you to you for watching this video. Please remember to give it a thumbs up.

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