Hey everyone hope you're having an amazing day at smart queens, i'm in mela up, which is a village in the mesarian district of mehongsan in northern thailand, and this village is home to a lawwa people, ethnic community. They are an indigenous people group of thailand, and so today we have the honor to spend a day at the village where the head of the village has invited us over to cook. What is the national dish of the lawa people? You could consider it an original dish of thailand, food original food of thailand, and so some of the members of the community have gathered at the house where they're gon na start to cook. I'm extremely excited to be in this village and i'm going to share all of the food and this entire time with you now, so we made it to the house uh, where they're going to be cooking the dish which is called uh right.

I think it can be made with a variety of meats, pork and chicken uh, but they're gon na boil pork they're gon na mix it with all sorts of ingredients, and it is the national dish uh the ultimate dish. It's a dish: that's uh, cooked for celebrations for festivals, for get-togethers of the law, people they are already uh taking the stems off of some local mountain lava chilies, and i cannot wait to just learn about this recipe, learn about this dish and then taste it. Of course, he's just gon na come in here to the to the indoor stove here just to uh dry fry roast, those chilis all of those chilis after the chilies are roasted. I think they're going to be pounded and then added uh mixed with the pork more as a salad.

Almost this is it's kind of like a pork, salad right, it's going to be a pork salad, it's a pork, salad dish, but way more ultimate than any salad. I think we could ever imagine foreign while they're still hot she's going to pound them up. Add some salt to the mortar and immediately being in this crushing pounding those chilies. You could just smell that aroma coming out of them is just irresistible and they are going to boil that pork for about one hour.

I think with nothing added right. You just just straight up, boil the pork until it's cooked until it's tender. Just thinking about this dish, dosa book uh it really. This is an original dish from this area from thailand.

This is an original traditional. This is like, as ancient and old of a dish that you can get here. This is a dish from this land. This could be original thai food.

Okay, the the dish is gon na, be wrapped in banana leaves, and i'm not sure if it's gon na be cooked within the banana leaves later on or just wrapped in it and to eat it from the banana leaves uh. But that's another important step is to just uh put them roast them over the fire just for a few seconds and that's gon na uh make them more supple and be able to wrap and be able to work with the banana leaves yes, auntie. It's local mountain rice that they grow, so they washed out a few times, and that goes over the fire, uh and then also something interesting to note is that uh they still speak the original lawa language, the younger people all know thai and speak thai, but the Older generation, especially, and especially at the homes they still maintain, they still speak language. I hope you're already enjoying this video about the amazing law, people and their food.

Also, a big thank you for choosing to watch this video, but right now, if you could just quickly give this video a like uh, that would be a huge help and it will just take you one second. So, thank you in advance for clicking like on this video they've also got over here locally. Some this is called. I don't know what the english name is, but in thai the dark translation is elephant.

Foot like a yam, which is amazing, it's huge - that is, that is heavy uh, so they're going to make this into a dish as well. Okay, so for the elephant, foot uh, curry, it's gon na be a curry or a soup, but she boiled water and then she added in some tua nao, which are fermented soy beans. Uh boiled that down she added salt. Then she said once it comes to a boil, then they added the the elephant, foot uh, which is purple in color, and it is uh.

They peel the skin and then chop it into cubes puts that in you added in what's called lung, which looks like the tops of a flower um and then there's gon na be chilies, there's going to be some coriander and green onions and then also another unique Ingredient, ah gacciao, which is roselle the flowers of the roselle, which i don't know if i've seen roselle flowers being used in cooking other than a tea or a beverage, but used in cooking. That is amazing. I said quickly, that's it! It's like a a boil. You can already tell it's: gon na have a sour, an amazing, sour and spicy taste to it, and that dish is ready makeup.

It's an honor to sit here with auntie she's. Just we don't speak any words the same, but she is smiling she's laughing she's cracking up, especially looking at herself in the camera, but i just had the honor to watch her as she put on some of her traditional jewelry and her. Her necklaces are beautiful, um and her earrings, and so i'm not going. She has uh earrings and she actually has a necklace or a a piece of jewelry that strands from one ear down her chin to the other ear um and the pork is coming along nicely.

Slow simmering so slow boiling. Ah, you can tell it's starting to really tenderize. Oh, these are the seeds. Can you buy it here, along with preserving the traditional lava culture and language and delicious food, some of the things that they produce and that they supply a lot of red beans and then also coffee? They grow a lot of coffee, and so we're gon na have a chance to see as they process as they uh supply.

Some of these ingredients. Oh yeah, it's very smooth, but you know things are getting good when, when auntie pops out of the door smiling with a brown bottle, um right, the skin, the fat, the chunks massive chunks of pork, uh and then so, the pork is gon na, be one dish And then she said the soup is gon na be also eaten, but as a side like a side soup, something to notice something. Something to recognize is that it's only salt that is used within the cooking there's no fish sauce, there's no liquid goopy, sauces processed sauces salt and that's how it's been done for centuries. So i think all the ingredients are ready.

The pork is boiled. Everything is chopped. All of the herbs uh, the next thing that she's gon na get started is chopping. The pork we've got 20 kilos of pork.

Another interesting fact that they just mentioned is that they said if you just slice it into pieces like a steak uh, it won't taste good. You have to chop it chop, chop and mince um and they said that flavor is gon na, be much better and i definitely agree there's some huge truth to that, as well as some tradition to that. I believe chopping it mincing. It is gon na bring the flavors together, mingle it with the fat, and that does make a difference.

Hello, awesome. Now you can see how it is a celebration dishes. It's a dish that brings people together to eat in a big portion in a big amount made for the entire community. This single dish is a major part of the law culture.

So, first for the dressing she got a bowl of the soup broth from the pork. Then mixes in a bowl of the pounded, chilis, a bunch of salt and a little bit of msg, hey, okay, um foreign um. Oh, this is a meal, that's not only about the food itself and the taste of the food, but the process. The traditional method, the amazing lawa people, all the pork - is wrapped.

That has to be like 20 or 30 packets of pork, and i think that's not even all the pork. I think they have more to make and mix uh, and then also the rice is gon na, be wrapped in a similar fashion within banana leaves uh a packet of rice. So that's what they're gon na do now and this again this is the locally grown la wa mountain rice, and so i think that's it. That's the entire process to finish off the soup.

She just added in a bowl full of chopped, coriander and green onions. Just stirs that around, i think, the whole process and the preservation of the traditional culture is what truly stands out about this meal and this entire process and this national dish of the amazing law people. So i think everyone else is a little bit shy to eat. On camera with us, but auntie, she is not shy.

I have the honor to sit to hang out to eat lunch with auntie um and then the rest of the the ladies who cook to lunch. They're in the kitchen. I think eating uh, the men are, are still occupied with auntie's bottle of of home brew, which is now and they're still working on that, but auntie and i we are gon na sit down to eat a spectacular moment and every this is just the traditional completely Eco-Friendly way to eat way to wrap food got the packet of pork here, she's going to show us how to eat it. I'll take some of the rice, maybe first i'm going to follow.

Auntie she's eating rice first before the pork, oh okay, now soup time coming up wow, that is a thick oily pork soup wow, that is, that is thick like gravy mmm, so flavorful, okay, next move into the move into the park. Yeah there is some chunks of fat um, the herbs, the salt in there. Look at that meat, it's so simple, but so ultra natural tasting the tenderness of the pork. You taste all of those herbs in there, the salt, the coriander and the lemongrass.

Oh, that's. What you taste also is the roasted smoky green chilies. It gives it a smokiness gives it a little bit of chili heat. It's not like overly spicy, but it's so fragrant and auntie seems to be following a lot of bites with a little bit of that supra.

So i'm going to follow. Also, she almost cannot control her laughter. She is amazing, but then you you move in for bites of rice. Something that's interesting, though, is that she's not mixing the pork with the rice she's, just taking bites of rice following a soup chasing with bites of the pork and then kind of repeating that, like i haven't seen her mix, oh man, that is just it's a simple Flavor, but it is incredibly tasty, incredibly fresh, incredibly natural.

The way things should taste even the herbs here, which are definitely from the backyard. The rice is from the backyard. The pork is local, the soup, it's all natural and incredible, and the rice is also quite quite sticky. It's regular rice, it's not glutinous rice, but it kind of has a sticky texture to it, and i think i've especially seen her taking bites of rice and then following.

We need more salt in the soup. I'm gon na i'm gon na retry it now too, with some soup; okay, not salted enough for andrew's taste, but that that soup is rich. That's just straight. Like melted, pork, fat, oh man with just a hint of a fragrance from the lemongrass.

Just look at the texture of that: okay, okay, yeah it got the head nod: approval um yeah. She especially takes the rice and then drinks soup after the rice to go with the rice. That's amazing! She does not speak english. She only speaks like maybe a couple words of thai barely any time, but just this is a precious moment with andrew she's.

Amazing, that's fascinating. To think about of all the things i've tried in thailand. This might be the dish, the dish of thailand and he's urging us to eat more and to keep on eating such a cool educational lesson and such a special meal to be a part of yeah that fat just kind of wiggles and melts in your mouth. The rice with a drink of soup - oh yeah, that's the the full pork experience just happily enjoying the meal and totally forgot about that.

Yam that purple yam elephant foot, yam dish curry with the roselle with that type of flour, fuzzy flour with the herbs in there with the chilis in there, and you can just smell the sour aroma to it, wow. That is incredible. Actually, the sourness acidity. It's just sour and salty a little bit.

Spicy you've got the the flavor of all those herbs and then that that elephant foot yam it has this amazing texture, similar to taro and without a doubt, these bamboo cup spoons are the greatest way to drink broth or soup. You can hold so much it's like. I mean it's like a cup a cup with a handle. I don't want to miss the opportunity to drink some soup with every bite.

What up ultimate pork experience again, that was a spectacular lunch and from here we're gon na go uh meet a man who grows coffee and he's gon na harvest, some of the coffee which is ready to harvest now, but we got ta hike up the hill first Micah got a ride. We got ta just go straight up the side of the mountain, though my god follow me. I can see coffee growing on the side of this mountain here, he's the one harvesting, the coffee, and now we are just in the thick midst coffee. Just blooming everywhere so much so that you have to walk through the coffee.

Oh, it's beautiful and i just love the coffee trees and emerged through the forest of coffee. We've come to the coffee hut, uh, where you can chill where you can harvest the coffee. This is kind of like the retreat zone. What a place and now would be a good time to just quickly tell you about coffee in this area in northern thailand.

Originally, a lot of the hill, tribe, communities and villages were growing poppy opium poppy and then i think in this region, about 50 or so years ago, the king of thailand introduced coffee as a more sustainable as a better way to earn money to make a living For your family, and so a lot of these hill tribe communities then started growing coffee and now you'll find like just amazing, world-class coffee on the tops of these mountains. In me, hongsan in chiang mai in chiang rai, we're gon na go pick some coffee without a doubt one of my favorite beverages in the entire world and just to see him harvesting by hand the fresh, the ripe coffee, cherries. It is a beautiful thing and it just makes every cup of coffee so meaningful uh. When you think about where it comes from how it is picked and the just yeah, it's it's a beautiful thing.

Then we scrambled back down the mountain where we're next gon na stop at a silversmith uh, the law people are known for their silver known for their silverware silver, jewelry and silver makings. They still have a number of silversmiths throughout the village and he's going to melt that down and show us how he makes the silver bars uh good night and then yeah that can be used now to make into jewelry to flatten to all sorts of stuff. That was very cool, very cool to see the silver shop ying ended up buying some earrings and some some jewelry. I got some coffee and some red beans, and so that is going to complete our this.

It's been an amazing experience, an amazing time at vandeup in mesarian district hong son. It was a huge honor to have a chance to learn about the law, people and their traditional food, the book and what a dish, what a process it was incredibly delicious. A huge thank you to everyone who was so friendly, who everyone who was so hospitable, the head of the village, that's going to wrap it up. I want to say huge, thank you for watching this video.

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