Good morning, hey everyone hope you're having an amazing day. It's mark wiens. I am in mehongsan, which is in northern thailand and it's a cold morning, but i am excited to be here. I'm excited to go on a food tour today, because me hongsan has food.

That is totally different from any other food that you will find in thailand, it's very influenced by shan or taiyai and burmese cuisine, and so today we're going to go on a street food tour of me. Hongsan we're going to eat some noodles we're going to eat some fried tofu we're going to eat some snacks. They have some incredibly tasty snacks, we're going to eat some spicy meatballs. I can't wait to share all the food with you now so so we are just walking up to the market this morning.

It is a cold morning in me, hong son. I love the outdoor section of the vargate, where you just see the sprawl of ingredients, but we're gon na walk into the market and try to locate uh some street food for breakfast. We need to warm up. We need to eat something to warm up.

Also. I just love how relaxing, how peaceful, how friendly people are in mahansan the pace of life is a little slower here. It's a little more relaxed way more relaxed than most parts of thailand and again the mixture of cultures, it's very influenced by the taiyai or the shan, but then there's so many different hill tribes in the surrounding mountains, and so people come down come down congregate. This is a crossroads for so many different hill, tribe villages and communities.

We found it exactly what we were looking for. Okay, this is such a cool stall. There's two main things going on: one is where she's just frying deep frying up some shan tofu and i believe that the tofu is made from yellow split pea and then on the other side of the kitchen, and he has a boiling bubbling pot of again. I believe it's split pea, tofu made into a porridge and then instead of boiling noodles in water, she boils she actually boils the noodles in this split pea, porridge and then she puts the noodles into the bowl with scooping in some of the the goopy porridge um And then seasons it with what looks like garlic, oil, some sesame seeds, some chili oil, some coriander and green onions, and then it's served alongside a bowl of the fried tofu and i'm happy to have bar counter chef's counter seating this morning, as well with everybody else.

Here, what an amazing stall? It is a bowl of noodles, but it's held together by the stickiness and the texture that consistency of the split pea, porridge tofu, oh wow, that is thick and hearty and rich, and so flavorful, oh man. I love that texture. It's so sticky and goopy. It's such a rich flavor at the same time, and then you taste, the flavor of those vegetables, almost tastes like a watercress and you've got a little bit of chili oil.

You've got the fragrant fried garlic and shallots in there, and those noodles remain really al dente really chewy. You taste the layers of soy sauce, maybe fermented soybean in there too. That's now, then. What you can do, i believe, is take the fried tofu and just add them to your bowl, because you do want to mop up all of that gravy that gravy tofu and it looks like there's actually two different types of tofu.

This one, which is a little lighter in color, and this one, which is a little more yellow, could be two different beans, but yeah you want that crunchy tofu! You want to just mop it mop it up. Oh wait hold that bite. I just saw the seasonings. The chili oil across the table we got ta, add some immediately there we go and mix that up now things are really gon na warm up this morning.

I love how the noodles stay so al dente. They don't get mushy at all. I think because they're not boiled they're, just kind of like whooshed around in the thickness of that melted tofu, oh man, that is extraordinary, chopsticks and a spoon because there's chunks, but then at the same time it's like it's porridge. So you, you really need both the light.

Colored tofu almost has a mozzarella cheese kind of texture to it. You can feel the holes in it. I love it looks so nutty so rich, so hearty sweet herbal, so many textures and actually feel like. I could almost take off my jacket after eating that it's that warming and that hearty okay, we got ta make room for others.

Others are waiting waiting to sit down. This is a very popular place for a right reason. Okay, let's move on. I just loved me.

Hongsan it's one of my favorite places in thailand and editing. The video brings back the memories uh, but i wanted to just quickly say thank you for choosing to watch this video and it's a longer video. So it might be the type of video where you need to get a drink or a snack and then sit back and relax and then watch the entire video, because there's lots more delicious food coming up and also the natural beauty of maongsan. And then one more thing, if you could take just one second, to give this video a like uh click thumbs up on this video.

That would be a huge help and thank you in advance for clicking thumbs up. Let's get back to the video extremely conveniently right. Next, to where she is selling well, what we just ate the shan tofu they are selling, what's called kong bong, which are the deep fried shan style, fritters vegetable fritters, especially one of the main ones, is made with green papaya. But then they also have some other leaves some other vegetables.

I think some onions or shallots, which are battered in a turmeric, spicy, batter and then deep fried you can just get a whole bowl of the fritters and just snack on them, but they also serve khao sen, which is uh shan style, rice noodles, with a tomato Broth over them and we are gon na eat at a different place later this afternoon for a really legendary bowl of khalsan, but just to eat it. Together with that, i decided to try the khalsan here, along with the fried vegetables, so i'm just going to try the fritters first and i think it look. I think that's uh shredded pieces of green papaya, but then also maybe some onions in there and you can see the batter is also yellow from turmeric, oh wow. Oh, that is extraordinarily tasty and fried and oily and crispy.

It is literally approaching you're almost to the flavor of a pakora addictively tasty now to try some of the khao san and you can see that yeah. It's really. It's really watery. There's tomatoes in there there's pork in there, it's very similar actually to northern thai.

But this is more simple, refreshing, a little more watery, not as oily yeah. It's just simple. You taste, the tartness of the tomatoes, the sourness of the tomatoes. You taste that a little bit of pork to flavor it and then it's just like kind of just goes down easily and the noodles just slide down.

And then you can alternate with bites of the the fried vegetables on that bite. I'm going to go ahead and do some seasoning for my noodles add a little bit of chili a little bit of dried chili. Add a squeeze of wine mix that around get it going. I love just how light how refreshing the noodles just slide down into they.

Just like almost dissolve almost melt on your tongue. I think this one is morning: glory uh onions. There are uh green papaya. I think i'll just go ahead and add this to my to my noodles this time.

Oh yeah, oh man, that's gon na, be so good. So, incredibly tasty, that is just it's extraordinary. You taste a little bit when you taste the turmeric, you taste the coriander seed in those fritters and there's a number of stalls that you can choose from uh, but you got ta have breakfast when you're in hong kong. At the market from here we're gon na walk out onto the main street, and there is another place that i think we're gon na go to immediately eat because it's right around the corner.

Okay, so right around the corner on the parallel street to the market is a restaurant uh, a korea, rice and curry stall called messi bua and they are known, especially for serving authentic, traditional taiyai or shan food. So now is the perfect time they open in the morning. Now is the perfect time to order actually we're gon na order, everything that they cooked for the day. It's not a lot of dishes.

They have five or six different dishes at the front. Everything in pots uh, you can either order in separate bowls all the different dishes, or you can order a couple dishes. On top of your plate of rice, we're gon na just try everything that auntie made today uh, which is five main dishes and we'll get them in separate bowls with separate plates of rice and have a huge meal. But oh man, immediately as she opens those pots.

You can smell the herbs, you can smell the spices, it just looks so good and it's just straight up home cooking and i love this shop house corner environment, but maybe even more than the environment. I know i'm gon na love the food even more and again. This is all completely taiyai or shan food, and so you'll immediately notice number one some different dishes than you'll see in most other parts of northern thailand, especially the meatballs, the taiya meatballs, which are they're life-changing herbal spicy just powerfully flavorful meatballs, some of the best meatballs You'll ever have, and then there are other dishes such as ganghang lei, which is actually a burmese curry, but often associated with the shan food, because the shaan people brought it from burma to thailand and now uh ganghang lei is a popular curry throughout northern thailand. That also goes for the gang ho, but especially influenced and brought from the the thai the shan people.

The first thing that i have to taste are they're called jin loom, which are the taiyai meatballs. I've had some sham meatballs already a couple times in mae hong san, and i can already guarantee you that they are some of the most flavorful meatballs you've ever had because of all that paste herbal paste, that's within them, wow. Oh, that is amazing. Again.

These are some of the greatest. The world's greatest meatballs shawn meatballs could be the next big thing. It just erupts with juicy meat, oils and juices, plus all those herbs, the garlic, the lemongrass, the chilies in there they're, not extremely spicy. Oh there's the tomato in there too tomato adzumami, the fermented soybean adzumami, the meat, the kaffir limes, the fragrance next up for the genghang again, a burmese curry and big chunks of pork belly, there's ginger in here often times the shawn also add potato.

I believe and should put this onto onto rice gang lay one of the ultimate one of the ultimate dishes for this one: it's less tart, less sour, but more spiciest and earthy tasting and more almost herbal tasting. Oh, it's so good! You taste the burmese masala in there you taste the ginger. It is just rich from the melted, pork, fat and pork belly, and it's just like rich and incredibly flavorful. Oh yeah amazing, and it's also less sweet.

It's not really sweet at all. Okay, next dish, this one is the genghul mung bean noodles, a mix of there's eggplant in here there's long beans and genghou is actually a leftover dish. It's typically made with the leftover curry sauce from, for instance, gaeng, hang, lei or curry sauce from yesterday or the day before, which is then stir fried cooked down with a variety of vegetables with kaffir lime leaves with mung bean noodles, just noodles to sop up the Leftover, curry sauce, and so that's i mean, in my opinion, it's one of the greatest ever ways to use leftovers. Oh wow, yes, it tastes like the leftover ganghang like her sauce just with vegetables and with a totally different textural blend to it.

This one is the it's some type of an eggplant relish. It almost looks like a relish yeah. Okay, immediately in that dish, you taste the turmeric and the masala powder, the dry spices. You really taste the indian the burmese influence in that dish.

Oh and the chilies, the smoky melt-in-your-mouth eggplant - oh, that is incredible. Oh wow! Next we've got the chicken dish. It's like a really chunky, almost looks like genghang lei. The same kind of curry, taste with ginger with pepper lime, leaves oily oily sauce chunks of chicken and i believe, tomatoey as well, i'm not totally sure if there's tomato in there and then again you taste, i believe the fermented soybean in there like a concentrated chicken Flavor and then another dish we got is called kanawan, which was sitting on the table, so sweet chinese broccoli, there's a little bit of pork in here and it looks like very simple, just kind of almost a boiled in or a stir-fried and liquid vegetables yeah.

Just very simple, focusing on the vegetable itself a little bit of a pork flavor, a little bit of a soy, sauce, kind of oyster, sauce, flavor to it and the last dish. We got that we just got because she she had it at the front. Here is kai thoma dong, which is pickled lime, chicken soup, oh yeah, that one's kind of sweet, it's like the only dish, that's sweet and then you've got the sourness of the wine. By far my favorite dish, the meatballs, the shawn meatballs, the eggplant salad, that one is world class and also the ganghang lei, i'm not sure if she has the same exact dishes every day or if she rotates dishes.

But this is one of those places where you can just come just show up here, just see what's available for the day, don't miss the sean meatballs, but then just order whatever you see and it's all going to be home, cooked fresh, delicious local, taiyai, shan food. Okay, we'll split the meatball in half, so we can see the cross section this time. Oh, you can immediately see just the color, even the color of the inside of that meatball, how it is, how it's red and yellow and just filled with herbs chunky herbs. Oh and that aroma coming out of it, i also like how the meat is kind of a chunky grind, and yet it just crumbles.

It breaks apart in your mouth so easily. The eggplant might actually be my favorite dish, though the way it melts in your mouth. The ginger, the turmeric, the masala, the chilies in there and highly recommend merci beau from here we're gon na just walk down a little ways down the road to the lake and probably go walk around the there's. Some temples surrounding the lake uh, which i want to check out next and we need to keep on walking.

We need to keep on moving. If you don't, you will wind up sleeping for the rest of the day after that meal, we are walking a little ways off that main road down towards the lake area of mae hong son. It's a pleasant city. It's a such a relaxed, peaceful city and hong kong is just such a great city to walk around welcome to the lakeside uh, which is actually jungkong lake and again it's just a pleasant environment, not a huge lake, but there's a park that goes around the lake And then you can see the mountains that surround me, hong son and then to the far side of the lake is wat jong kam, which is the iconic burmese shan temple.

Now that i'm actually right outside of the temples, there's actually two temples, two different temples uh and it's a little bit a bit confusing, because this one over here with the golden stupa is called wat jong kam. And then this one over here with more of the wooden burmese architecture, is called wat jong kom. Let's go to wat jong kong first, which was built in 1827, especially made from wood and known, especially for its incredibly ornate and decorative burmese architecture. The design, the roofing structure, the architecture, is unique, uh and truly spectacular, so very quiet, very peaceful in here, and if you look around again the construction and then the decorate so many decorative elements, especially uh, the silver etchings and linings, which are just decorating the entire Temple and then how this temple is just built completely out of wood as well, and then next door to wat jong klong, which you'll notice with the golden stupa at the front again burmese shan and this temple is known for the paintings on the walls.

So, actually, you can spend some time just walking around this temple, because it's almost a museum of paintings and depictions, and there are also relics and carvings and dolls from myanmar. Actually, there's an entire museum here in the back, so well worth a look for the preservation of history and to just have a look around to to see the influence of the taiyai. The shan and the burmese in me. Hongsan from here we're going to take a little rest this afternoon and then in a couple of hours, we're gon na go eat.

What is well, maybe it's one of the national dishes, a dish that really represents me hongsan. Next up on the street food tour of mae hongsan - and this is one of the coolest spots uh, which is literally in the front - we're actually almost on the sidewalk but almost in the the front. Porch the front uh like living room of auntie, and she sets up a table with some low benches here and serves a dish called kausen which is very thin, rice, noodles and with a broth kind of a curry which is very tomato. Heavy.

It's similar to nam yao, but not exactly again. It is a taiyai or a shan based dish. When you order it, then she dishes out the cause and the rice noodles into your bowl. She ladles on that soup, curry.

Then she sprinkles on some coriander. I believe it's like garlic or shallot oil and then some crispy noodles just looks simple, homemade delicious, and then i also got a dish called khao kanjin, which is this compressed blood rice cake, which is steamed um, and then you again they when you order it. They take it out of the banana leaves they put it into the bowl. Add some garlic shallot oil on top and serve it with uh coriander such a cool place um, it's so fragrant with the tomatoes.

You can actually smell the tartness. The vibrancy of the tomatoes smells just so good, oh wow, that is just entirely more delicious than it looks and more complex than it looks. You think it's just going to be this kind of tomato, simple tomato sauce. It's way more than that, you've got the yeah.

The tartness of the tomatoes you've got the richness of the pork broth. You've got the fragrance of the fried garlic and shallots the crunch of the coriander and green onions, also the crunch of the fried onions, which you really feel the different texture. That's almost like croutons on a salad, but all of those components together. Oh it's! It is amazing, but it does need seasoning, oh wow, with the ground chili with the extra squeeze of lime and then those little fried chilies.

Oh those are spicy. Those are pungent unbelievably smoky, and even you can just taste. The freshness of the chili powder as well makes a huge difference. This dish is actually incredible.

Like i mean it is entirely way more flavorful than you expect it's going to be when she serves it up to you. It is so tasty, so warming so comforting and just kind of like the noodles just kind of melt in your mouth actually and what's also amazing and almost confusing about this dish - is that it's really meaty tasting. You taste the porkiness of it, and yet it's not rich. It's not heavy.

It's really light and just brothy. It's like a pork soup with tender rice noodles that just melt in your mouth with you barely even chewing. Oh man, it's so good. It's really awesomely tasty! Okay, next to try the the rice blood and then also i mean that's, what holds it together and you can feel the stickiness of it as well, and then there's garlic oil on top served coriander, and you can also garnish with some of those little fried chilies.

As well as the garlic which i will oh wow, okay, i've had this many times. That is by far the best version. I've had it's so incredibly fragrant from that garlic, shallot oil. It just has this like glutinous texture, it's that is blood, i believe, but you don't taste the flavor of blood at all.

It's just so incredibly fragrant. What makes it is that oil, oh wow, it almost tastes like porridge like like congee, but condensed into a rice ball, because it has a very neutral just like slightly meaty, salty taste to it, but then with the raw garlic with that chili that just bumps up The flavor everybody that's coming here: they are ordering bowls of the cow's end, but nobody fails to order the khao, kanjin and actually she's almost sold out already. She barely opened like 30 minutes ago and she's almost all sold out of it. So i'm glad i ordered when i did but yeah by far that's the best version of it.

I've ever had and literally you are sitting in her living room when you are eating here. The only reason i am not immediately getting a refill and another refill and another rebuilt is because of all the food we've already eaten today, but oh, it is tempting, but i don't think i i should not. I should not can't even believe the simple flavor, yet the complexity that it provides and how addictively tasty. That is, what a spot.

What a gem in me, hong kong, okay, i'm pretty full uh from here - we're actually going directly up the hill to get a little exercise. We are going to hike up to wat prata doi gong mu. The entrance to the staircase is actually at a different temple, which is just up the road from the road where you drive to the top here, marked by two huge lions at the entrance, and then the staircase, just like the natural, decaying staircase into the forest. Just goes straight up, i love it.

It's so quiet and so peaceful and i love this staircase wow. Look at that. The nagayang naga staircase entrance, i think, what's cool about this staircase is that it's made from stone and then, additionally, it starts off. It's like a slope: it's like a curved slope, so i think, as you keep on going up, it gets steeper and steeper.

This is beautiful, spectacular views. It looks like we came up the less traveled staircase, but now we've joined onto the more traveled uh walkway. It's definitely a bigger more traveled trail to get to the top feels great to get some exercise. That was a fantastic hike to the top uh welcome to wat dai, kang, mu and uh.

There are two different chandes, both of which were built in the 1800s. I believe the late 1800s, the chatties - are shan style again and they, i believe that they uh enshrine the ashes of a monk from the shan state of myanmar. But really you come here just to get a perspective to get an overview of me, hong son and the incredible view uh, it's sort of like the the ground. Zero of mehongsan right here might as well.

Try it. I and ying also did buy some water and a juice from them as well. Here, oh, it tastes almost like pine, sweet and herbal and green tasting awesome view. One of the huge parts of my hong kong city is that the airport is right in the center of town and then you can see the city you can see downtown.

You can see the lake from here uh. You can see the surrounding mountains and beautiful beautiful province in northern thailand that is going to wrap up. That is going to complete this street food tour of me hongsan, and it has been an amazing day uh i this city, it's just the perfect size where there's plenty of delicious food to eat, and yet it's so relaxed, it's so slow. Paced people are extremely friendly and again the food uh.

There are truly some gems of cuisine in me, hong kong and again uh. It's so different from anywhere else in thailand that you'll find especially influenced by the taiyai by the shan cuisine and the shan people and culture, and i want to say a huge thank 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 and that way you'll immediately get notified of the next video that I publish thanks again for watching goodbye from mehongson and i will see you on the next video.