Hey everyone good morning hope you're having an amazing day. It's mark wiens, i'm in the beautiful mountains of chiang rai province in northern thailand, and this area is home to a number of ethnic minority hill, tribe, village communities. And today we have the incredibly special opportunity to visit a mong hill tribe village uh, where we are gon na. Do some hiking we're gon na visit the house of a local shaman, and i believe it's at his house, where they are gon na cook.

For us not just a uh everyday meal, but it's gon na be a feast, a local celebration, a special occasion meal, hopefully we'll be able to see some of the local cooking uh and i'm gon na share this entire experience with you and all of the food And all of the eating with you in this video - and so we are hanging out with mr rappan today and he nice to see you also thank you for being our guide today, and so, if we go down the hill here, it's mostly the the hmong community Right right, okay and the location here is spectacular, nestled in the cradle or the saddle of a mountain uh. The. If you look down that way, you can see the the valley and the mekong river, but we are high up on the mountain. It's actually a very cool morning.

The air is fresh. Ah, it's spectacularly beautiful place. If you do look at this village, you'll see that it is uh right against the or right along the main road. Mr rapan was telling us that when he was a kid, their uh hmong village was located on the top very top of the mountain and then maybe about 50 years ago.

They moved the community, moved down uh near the main road to be closer to medical care, especially medical care uh, because before they were just really remote, uh up the up the mountain. So now the village is in a location uh, where we're actually just 15 minutes from uh a city called chiang kong, which is a small town, but a decent sized town in chiang rai along the mekong river. How big is the village? It's 400 families, 300 families and the population is 1. 500..

Okay, it's pretty big, quite a pretty big village. Yes, pretty big village in this village. What do? What is the main crops that people normally grow in their farms and in the hills? They're? Mostly the bran? A corn, ah okay, tapioca tapioca for money - is that for them to sell or is that their own, their own consumption for themselves, okay, for themselves, okay, and also for ceo for money; okay and some also plan a rubber tree; oh okay and oranges, okay, and that's For commercial right right, okay, right, rubber trees, rubber trees, oranges, there's a lot of oranges, yeah, even bananas in this area, right, okay, 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, and that is a lovely sight upon entering this compound chili's drying in the sun, one of the greatest things ever look at this vegetable. Oh, these look like snap, peas. Okay, how do you say hello in in hong kong? Okay, thank you. This is quite hot.

We have kindly been invited to the local shaman's house, where he's going to show us some of the rituals, but this is also where we are going to cook uh. We're going to have lunch together, they're going to cook, so i can already see some of the ingredients in the back there, but first tea in a little bamboo cup and you'll see a little bit of a a slope on the cup. Because that's for your for your nose, so it doesn't hit your nose, so you drink it from the tall side. Warm that's what you need right now so pure and i love this little cup.

That's amazing! This is small shaman. His name is lauki. This is 58 years old monk shaman. If there's this, this sherman only have the same people who is sick by that the goals makes it.

The shaman cannot have the disease if the disease has to go to the doctor in the hospital. This is the horn of the buffalo. This hmong shaman used to use this to check the sick people that what's wrong with the sick people. This will tell him yes or no, it's negative or positive, and if this is not show means that patients sit not by the ghost has to go to see doctor this for protection.

The ghosts feel angry and will need to find him. But he has this to protect him and he has the red cloth. Red color is danger color, so the ghost cannot come close to him and if the ghost see this, the ghost will feel afraid the moon custom. How is on the floor? Because the placenta of newborn baby, the beer inside the house - oh it appears in the inside outside with the middle post in the house.

If they know about debbie, it's a girl, okay, the placenta that will feel under the bed of the parents wow. So that's why the house has to be on the ground right and not on stilts, okay, there's a reason for the way everything is done, uh, reason and tradition, and so i think from here we're gon na go outside where they're preparing some of the ingredients where They're gon na cook, for us the uh, a celebratory uh special hmong meal out in the back here is the open air kitchen and it's beautiful. They have the ingredients for the day. I noticed some of the hmong rice, it's a very special type of rice and very rare that we're going to have for lunch.

They have some pots going. They have some of the ingredients. The entire corner is filled with pumpkins, which they've harvested from their garden. Uh.

There's a duck going on a bamboo skewer uh, but something also important to note is that today is gon na be a celebration meal. It's gon na be a special, a festive meal uh, because mong are also known and i've been to some hmong villages where they often eat very simple uh meals, even sometimes just boiled vegetables and rice for a lunch. This is going to be my first time to have a hmong meal on a special occasion, a feast among feast meals. Here, oh um, okay and they grow it themselves.

Yes, but today is even a special day because we are eating long rice, which is a variety of rice, a grain of rice, which they grow themselves in the mountains, which does not need to be in a patty. It doesn't need to be wet and i believe that they don't sell this rice. They only grow enough for them to eat and you can see for adding it to the pot. It's it's kind of a short grain, a short grain rice.

Okay, it's not just put it in the rice cooker and cook it. This is a a process that takes experience and that also takes like knowledge of how to cook it and how to treat it just in hop just half and half: oh just half yeah. It's not fully cooked, yet it's like half cooked uh, but she drains all the water. That's the next step, never seen rice cooked in this process.

The next step to make the rice auntie is taking that rice um and into a steamer into an actual net uh, which is in a pot which is in another pot with water. That's gon na boil that's gon na steam, the rice, that's the next process. Ginger chili ginger me foreign, come on so over on this side of the kitchen. She is making a hmong.

Chili dip doesn't really pound it, but more like twists and mashes to bring out the juices to bring out the liquid from everything. So it's going to be coarse, chunky and that is gon na be incredibly flavorful yeah. What's it called she's going to be making a chili dip, i'm not sure if it's going to include the tarot stems in the chili dip or on the side, but she first peels the skin of the of the tarot stems cuts them into pieces, and you can Just see how i mean they are very, they are very light, very light for their size and very airy she's pounding up some chilies, a bunch of salt uh and some slices of ginger and now some roasted garlic goes in she's gon na pound that up wow. That is amazing, never seen a pounded, chili dip like that she takes the taro, stems and then slices them into the mortar and then mashes them up with the chilies.

And now you can see how i mean because they're so airy they're, so bubbly uh that just mashes down and they're so juicy all of that juice comes out of them. There's so much water in those tarot stems that at the bottom of the mortar there's actually a whole a whole like inch of juice and now she's just chopping up some uh lemongrass, i'm not sure if that's gon na be for the dip as well. Oh, she sliced up some lemongrass. She pounded that up added in a couple chilies, some more salt and then uh, the juice of one lime, pounded that just coarsely um and then that's almost like a dressing for the top of the the pounded uh tarot stems.

That is amazing. This is lavkai next dish that they're gon na make is a hmong style of a lab with chicken. A lab is a kind of a mixed meat mixture of spices, and i think it's mostly going to be made from chicken organs. She has a variety of organs on the plate.

Some gizzards some hearts some intestines, but i cannot wait to see the the hmong style of a lab foreign yeah. I thought it was the fish mint herb and i'm pretty sure it is now that she starts chopping. It up, you can immediately smell almost a seafoody aroma coming out of it uh, oh, that smells wonderful what an herb! What a what a leaf! Oh hello, get a little quick taste test that is spectacular and different from anything. I've ever had because of that fish.

Mint in there, it is just driven by the fish mint herb, but the chilies, the garlic, the lemongrass, it's all there, it's all present and then you've got all the variety of different textures of the chicken organs. What a spectacular dish! Now, it's ready! Okay, final taste, test of the rice, it's ready and now for the duck, which was on a bamboo skewer, which they already pre-roasted. But you can see that marinade on it and you can see that smokiness that free-range lankiness of that duck. Uh andy's just gon na chop it up into pieces.

Oh man that looks good. You can tell it's just gon na be bursting with flavor and naturalness. All the dishes are prepared. The black chicken soup is ready all the different chili dips, the the mixed organs uh, the blanched vegetables, they're gon na start dishing everything out setting the table inside.

Oh man. This is a an extraordinary meal. It smells so good. It's so fragrant that i can smell it through the mask.

Oh man and cooked perfectly fluffy. I can imagine for any hmong person. Hmong rice like this would be an ultimate comfort, food, something that brings back memories and family and just positivity. Oh one of the most spectacular spreads of food that i've ever seen all the different dishes laid out in bowls spectacular meal wow from the rice, but one of the final things that she serves out.

It's just the rice boiled water um and that's again how much respect they showed to that rice. That simple, but that's special thank you come on. Auntie is so nice and we're all kind of shy to get started. Eating give me the give us all a bowl of rice with one piece of the the black chicken on it um just to begin with.

I just have to begin with just the the pure rice first and you can see the grains perfectly. Oh, thank you. This one is the tomato chili chip chili paste, but i just want to taste that pure rice look at the texture of it. Look at the the individual graininess of it.

Oh wow, that was just the plain rice yeah. It's almost like, japanese rice. It's not sticky rice, but it is higher gluten for sure because it does have a stickiness on the inside of each grain and it's so fluffy but gooey. At the same time, the rice is amazing and i'm going to eat it with the hmong chili paste there.

There's roasted tomato in there there's chili, there's garlic, there's uh coriander and lemon grass. She okay amazing that chicken, though the texture of it, oh man and the flavor that just burst from it, the slight chewiness is outstanding. The chili paste the chilis, the garlic, the coriander, the lemongrass fragrance okay, we got ta, try the next dish. Okay, i cannot wait to try the green taro, the raw green taro mashed.

I've had green tarot before, but nothing like this and i don't think ever raw. Like this, oh wow, oh man, oh that's sensational, the like crispness spongy, fluffy, airiness of it and that crunch you can definitely taste the ginger in there, the chilies, the lime juice, which makes it so refreshing. Oh that's, just a burst of freshness and crunchiness and naturalness. That's that's unbelievable.

I'm just gon na take a vegetable to chase that some type of a pea or long bean blanched, but it's still crisp. You taste the freshness. You taste just the locality of that. It's right from this mountain next up for the chicken i mean it's similar to a lob, but it's a it's a bone style, it's more like an organ chicken organ mixture and i love it's so herb, driven and organ driven, but it's just all organs in there.

There's no actual meat which gives it such a a mix of textures. Oh that rice is just spectacular: oh wow! Yes, you immediately taste that fish mint and then it's just blended with lemongrass with the chilies salt and then all those different textures of the of the chicken you've got. The crunch of the gizzard. You've got the softness of the blood jelly and the the heart.

The creaminess of the heart, when a visitor comes, they will make a meal right a meal like this, but this this type of meal is a very special, a very special meal. Is that a drumstick? No that's the beak um just grab this chunk here. You can see that marinade there's chili's, definitely and i think it was grilled roasted over the open fire, definitely a duck that has some texture to it. Oh man a little bit chewy, but it's so flavorful.

It is a real duck, a real wandering around exploring duck the muscularity of it, the freshness of it, the natural flavor of it. Oh, the duck is amazing. Wow there's also boiled pumpkin. Oh yeah, we were just talking, their chilis are spicy.

That's again real deal. Chilies grown by them in the backyard along the mountain and that pumpkin melts in your mouth, sweet starchy think this is the final dish we have um. This is the black chicken soup. It's boiled down with definitely a lot of herbs, a lot of vegetables - and - let me just put my spoon out so we can taste some of that broth.

But they also said this is very medicinal and also served on a very uh special occasion uh because yeah, because black chicken is so medicinal and so uh healthy. Oh you, taste, pepper in there, pepper, salty and then just the flavor of the chicken, the chicken skin. The thickness of the chicken broth boiled down and then that vegetable almost has a spinach, taste and texture to it. Superb, oh wow yeah the hmong chili dips.

They are vibrant, spicy, salty, packed with flavor that when the umami of the tomato, the roasted garlic, it is powerfully delicious. Back to my drumstick, my piece of chicken here, oh man, these chickens are are healthy. Without a doubt that is mind-blowingly flavorful again it's textural. It's juicy the lime, juice, ginger combination and then another thing to eat is the the rice water soup, which it's actually kind of thick.

I think from the gluten of the rice, the starch of the rice, um and um. I just learned also that normally you wouldn't drink water with a meal, but you would eat the you would drink the soup and you would also drink this soup to kind of wash your mouth to cleanse your mouth to get some liquid. That's just that is rice. Water, but slightly thickened, so pure, it's just the again.

What shines is it's the real, the real thing, nothing added the purity of it. That's just comforting in a way that can only be explained by rice, water, possibly my favorite combination of this entire meal is the purity of the rice with the uh taro dip. Oh wow yeah and the spiciness of those chilies is just they're not only spicy, but they're extremely aromatic. Oh amazing and she's, just showing us some of the chilies that she grows.

She says no fertilizer is just completely natural that she grows herself and those are the chilis that we saw on the way entering earlier this morning before the mule. Those are the chilis knew it was going to be a good meal as soon as we entered the house with chili's drying in the front. I think this was a little mini squash and the blossom wow. I am full.

I am happy and just overwhelmed with the hospitality, the kindness, the just the incredible hospitality of this family of auntie and uncle, who provided this amazing meal and their family. What what talk is known for its simplicity - and i mean that was that was a complex meal. It was not simple at all, but the ingredient, i think what stood out to me is that the ingredients were not too complex. It's everything local everything from their house from their backyard from this mountain uh, but the love, the care, the combination, the pouring out of time and energy to prepare those dishes by an amazing family.

Ah, here in this village on the mountainside, overlooking the mekong river in chiang rai cannot thank them enough for their hospitality and an outstanding meal, huge thank you to lanjia lodge and all the staff and all the management here who have been. So i'm grateful for how they've been able to arrange uh activities, experiences authentic experiences within the community and to be able to support the community through doing some of these initiatives and some of these projects and these meals we're staying here for two nights. It's an amazing place, highly recommended i'll, have all the information in the description box below and oh yeah, what a refreshing, what a beautiful day in chiang rai, northern thailand and i want to say a big 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, click subscribe and also click the little bell icon.

So you'll immediately get notified of the next video that i publish thanks again for watching goodbye from chiangrai atlanjia lodge, and i will see you on the next video.