Asia's MOST ISOLATED Market!! Rare Mountain Hmong Food!! | TRIBAL VIETNAM EP6

What are people selling in the entire

market

? How many different types of

food

are there? Our Highland

food

mission continues in the

isolated

northwest of Vietnam as Andrew and I last experience ancient Thai recipes that have stood the test of time. Today we are at it again traveling back in time. As we head to one of the

most

isolated

market

s in the world, it's really eerie, it's making me nervous Andrew, good morning man, good morning Mr. Sunny, another day, another funny food video, if we can make it to our next location because right now we are traveling through the Second Most Dangerous Pass in All of Vietnam How do you feel about my ability to host the show and conduct the Second Most Dangerous Pass in Vietnam at the same time?

You know, keep your eyes forward a little bit but then the camera can't see. My face, right now we are on our way to the city of Baja California, this is a really interesting place, it is a kind of huge melting pot of all these different cultures, all in one place, from there we will be able to explore many new and different ethnicities. groups we haven't discovered yet, for example, until now we visited the black Hmong, today we are going to visit the white monks, what's the difference, I don't know, eh, so let's find out. I'm just entering the town right now, look this half of the town is here trying to help prepare the fields for something, yeah buddy, they're planting corn in

most

of Asia, rice is king, but in these parts everything It's about corn, corn grows a lot. easier on this hard terrain, does not require as much water as rice and is high in calories.

The way you know they have a lot of corn here is that instead of rice wine, you often drink corn wine, which is even more potent, yes. It's brutal Andrew and I are on a mission to discover one of the most difficult to reach

mountain

markets in Asia, but first we will stop at the house of a white Hmong market vendor, her name is Miss Chat and every afternoon she prepares the food that It will be sold in the market the next day. She starts with corn. Today we are going to do. Know? There isn't exactly a good translation for the name of this food.

They called it a kind of corn dust. It all starts here in the grinding and starting this basic dish of the monks is called I can totally understand that it was consumed more in the past when rice was less available and more difficult to grow and she's going to flip the switch, oh, now it's found mainly in markets where people from near and far can taste the past, the corn comes out of this hopper here and then goes to the bottom of this giant rotating stone, once it's between these two stones it just turns into dust, it used to There were places here where you put wood and they manually grind the corn, now they have a motor, so it's a lot easier than it used to be after the corn is turned into a fine powder, strained to remove the lumps, then mixed with water and steamed on a wooden log for 20 minutes first of all, thank you very much for having us here today Andrew, if I may back up for a second, you know that there are 54 different ethnic groups in Vietnam, four of them are Hmong , she belongs to the white Hmong tribe, but I'm curious.

What distinguishes the white monks from other tribes in this area when she disappeared, there is a club for the funeral is that it is called white hormone. I understand that you grow food around here and sell the food. How did you learn this recipe? Is there something that was passed down from generation to generation? We learn from parents. I guess our parents learn from her grandparents and she learned from her parents. Yes, and Andrew today we are going to learn from her. Oh, I can't wait. Uh, tell her that she is my mom today and that she will pass the tradition on to me.

The amendment is half-steamed. She's going to throw it right here when you touch her. She feels like cornmeal. It's a little thick and a little dry. Even so. she's adding a little more water and then really massaging it, she's mainly putting water on her hand because it burns, it's not funny, that's my mom, so she's going to take it from here, put it back in this steamer, it'll finish steaming and once it's all done, it's ready to take it to the market tomorrow abroad. This is crazy, so now we're on the market. What is this market called?

Sorry, there are a lot of pigs screaming. It's a little difficult to listen to you. This is a bundle on the market. the few places where you can find Vietnam's various ethnic groups rubbing shoulders and engaging in good old fashioned trade, if they can get it raised or farmed then they will strap it to a motorcycle and sell it here. What do people sell? the whole market, this is how there are many different things, food, this is simply written a, today she will be our bridge to those who only speak the Hmong language. Did you understand any of that?

I just heard it, yeah, it was quite difficult, the thing with pigs is like you can tickle them or torture them and you get the same sound. It seems like there are pigs being tortured everywhere. Right, they're just lifting them up. Why do some people have a cage and she has pig bags? It's easier to carry, oh. so she just throws the pig in a bag, puts it on her bike and rides here. Yes, can I take a look at this document? Is it a good pig? Yes, it looks very big, how can you tell me a little about health?

Do this. The rules apply to humans too. I'm a little chubby and a little healthy. Real name. Well, we've been buying small things. Miss Chat has created Crystal and is serving her customers in the food court of this market. There is a logistical problem and As a food seller in a market like this, she comes here by bicycle, not by truck, so she brings half of the food and then half of the food that she prepares here. The men prepare in advance some of their pork which they will actually get from a vendor. here and cook it here and then there is this is the tofu that he started making yesterday at home all he did was grind the soybeans here he added water and some herbs and boiled it for an hour and then it will be served with the men men it sounds like a good breakfast right good morning this is beautiful all this is the food that you have prepared today you like to eat your own food she loves it that's why she did it oh there is a good answer yes that's great that's it's name men men how do we eat that?

Let's just eat simple, let's eat it well, let's taste it well. Oh, it's so dry. I don't say that in a derogatory way. First of all, it is a beautiful dish. It's very, very. dry it's super dry it's like eating sawdust almost like it absorbs all your saliva and then you need this so you mix it with the tofu no the tofu tastes good it tastes like silken tofu but it's a little mixed I think this is all the flavor Here what is happening in this bowl is very little. I'm going to get a nice healthy slice.

Yes me too. Good. Greetings. Well, that's all the spicy flavor. My mouth is already on fire. I went from having no flavor to having flavor overload. Man, if you ate that alone or ate that alone, you would be very disappointed with the combination here. This is the star, the Trotters, how do you prepare them? After boiling the Pig's Trotters for two hours, he cuts them into thin slices and Seasons the meat with his secret spices and lime leaves, that is incredibly good. I can't believe how tender the Trotter turned out, yes they are great, it's a really filling breakfast, you would be full all day.

I think that's the point, how old are you? I have been working here selling for around 20 years 20 years is a long time how the market has changed over the 20 years it is changing a lot every year it is growing more and more and more people sell it, more people on my side from here we go To meet A cultural guru, he will show us some of their traditions and talk about how they can be preserved in the future. There is a problem. I feel like we should bring a gift that's like a bomb gift. You bring butter or rice wine. or some meat, how about a pig?

That would be super happy, but it's too much, let's see, we're going to find a balance, we're just going to blow this guy's mind, maybe we'll blow him away while Sonny is off doing whatever Sonny does. I have been tasked with buying gifts for our white mother, a cultural guru. We're here in what is clearly the alcohol section. Can I try some of this while Andrew buys gifts? I'm taking a look at what else he has to offer this market. offer that has some strength, the average family in this area makes between two and three hundred dollars a month, which means they really have to be careful with their spending, but a lot of their things in this market are pretty cheap, oh, she'll get a cig too oh that's cool I have no idea what that means but I'll take it to show off a honeycomb sandal when you're here in the north even when it's cold you see about half the people wearing these sandals and That's because it costs about a super affordable dollar.

I just paid a little over ten dollars for all of this. I think it's a good deal. Let's see what else we can find. What we discovered is that giving away a pig is too much, but. I think a chicken might be a good consolation, so for items that people can't get from a big manufacturer, people will just make them locally here, for example, this one, some idea, seventy thousand. I think we can take a look at it. A homemade cowbell, a dollar, okay? This is seventy thousand, it's like three or four dollars for a chicken.

It is a good business. I think this guy costs about ten dollars. Not bad. Shall we weigh it? I thought this was about chicken. I do not know why. I am getting a peso, what is it for? This is like a Mortal Combat weapon. Okay, I was wrong all along. Apparently it is per kilo. Oh, it's like an old school paper cutter. This is how they do circumcisions locally. It is a brutal process that concludes my market. The tour is Andrew, finished shopping, let's figure out seven or eight dollars for a chicken and it still seems like a fair deal to me.

I was surprised how cheap it was. I'll take it as a good deal, sir, put it there. It is an honor to meet our Cultural Guru Mr. Enemy, here he is going to reveal his culinary traditions, including the most intimidating dish I have tried so far on this trip and we have tried a lot. We have come with gifts. This is alcohol and a chicken. Uh, first of all? Do you think about chicken? He chose it himself. He said it is a very tasty and healthy chicken. Oh well, I'm glad they told me it would taste delicious.

We're excited to be here because you're a music and mixology guy. As part of his culture preservation journey and because the man enjoys a good Buzz Mr foam makes his own moonshine with corn, how did you learn to make corn wine? A great mom and grandpa are doing it to learn from the family most of the heat. Alcohol in Vietnam is made from rice, what is the difference from corn? Kong wine is more potent and you become more easily addicted. My understanding is that once you engage in your first creative endeavor, you drink the alcohol that prepares you and prepares you.

For your other creative endeavor playing traditional music, if that's okay, we'd love to see you play this instrument. We can do it? Yes, no problem, this is a metallic sound, a traditional Mongored harmonica due to the tonal nature of the Hmong language, every tone of it. The instrument corresponds to a spoken word in Hmong. For people here, listening to a Clank is like listening to a story and playing. The players are known as storytellers. Mr. Thumb's father taught him to play at age 14. Now, many years later, this has become integral to him. To preserve your culture, there is one more way to preserve the food of your culture, so right now we are making some very traditional Hmong foods here, a large intestine that has already been cleaned, so they have a funnel, they have the intestine in the mouthpiece.

There's the cutting edge art, after you take a deep breath and blow it into your gut, then you fill it with this crazy mixture. This mixture starts with minced pork lungs and fat, you add it to the pork blood and add ginger. Look. that everything is filling up, they're massaging it, trying to get the blood all the way from here, they're going to hang this over the fireplace where it's going to smoke, we're pretty spread out here. I have so many different foods I saw how black pudding was made this is not the one I saw the mink this is one that is much much much much much older preserving meat is a crucial part of lung food culture of all types among the live animals of all types in the country, the most important thing is that once a year they slaughter a pig and preserve it by smoking the meat.

That meat can be eaten all year round because the Hmong don't have freezers, so they learn to smoke it. Some meats age better. How old was he? one is about four months old, that's a good amount of time and some age worse, this one has a different smell, it's strange, how long has this one been around for four months? Okay, so these are from the same pig, yeah, it's the same pig, um, come on. try this no no no no no oh he's in the driver's seat I don't know what to do let them take over buddy just do what the man says he's given us a little bit of this okay ohI have a giant Patty dinner, I don't know.

I know what to say this clearly smells rotten it is more than fermented it should be good to make this soup smoked pork pig's trotters are boiled with daikon for an hour greetings it is not often that I worry about getting sick while eating a food, but this happens to be one of those times when this soup oozes a moldy and fungal smell that tells all the senses in my body to be careful, maybe this is where the whole body corn wine comes in, really funky man, It's almost cheesy like pork and blue cheese, but I'll do that if it doesn't make me sick and I can see why you might have this as an acquired taste.

It reminds me of truffles or smelly cheeses. A little wet at first. He is friendly. or like, oh what the heck is going on here and then over time you'd start to crave it, let's try it, this is the pork belly, it looks really good, yeah, smoked pork belly is fire roasted, then sliced into fine pieces and fry. with corn wine and a little ginger, what's it like? It's really good, it's like intensely salty bacon. I'm a fan of this one, come on, come on, come on, wait, man, sorry, okay, just have some sausage. Have some sausage and I'll be fine, after the black pudding you smoked for a couple of months, hot water to bring it back to life, squeezing out the juice, it doesn't taste like sausage, it's not super salty, there's blood in there, but no.

It doesn't have that minerality that blood usually has, the intestine is much chewier than a normal sausage, I imagine because it is real intestine. I'm also a fan of this. These are the perfect complement to drinking, especially if you have a wine like this is so salty that you need something to drink it, you need to chase it with something, so yeah, chase cycle, but overall I love the pork belly plus the sausage, the Next, I could go ahead and not have it here at all. I am with you in the same order, culture is something alive since you are a child.

Many Hmong traditions changed or began to fade. It grows. It changes or young people are changing a lot. The insulating nature of these

mountain

s has helped preserve. the local culture here for generations, but still there the culture continues there, so it doesn't totally change, but as the modern light gets closer and closer, it may only be a matter of time before the customs of the minorities ethnic groups will become mainstream forever within 100 years. are some of the Hmong traditions that you hope will be maintained. Miss Chad is the skirt to count very small and Mr. Foam, yes, so it is important that you fight in her way to push that day back as much as you can next time. our best highland food mission Andrew and I head to another market but this time the market gets too real oh man he's pushing it to be an influencer you don't need millions of fans all you need is This t-shirt to entertain and inspire. at your own pace don't be an influencer be a micro influencer get your shirt now okay make sure your glasses are clean we're about to start so listen tell us about the wine you make here they're made from corn and the East and This, oh yeast, yeah, ah, you're fired, no, I'm just kidding, this looks like my nose, huh, connecting, just blew air into the gut, literally farted into the gut, oh, What are we doing now that you're married? keep breaking it up make everything nice and separate guys another fun food video.

I hope you enjoyed it because I enjoyed it and Andrew was a little lukewarm about the whole thing, but he survived anyway. I liked. Okay, he liked it too, guys. you can subscribe to Andrew and his YouTube channel right here, go to his channel right now, subscribe and see what this guy is doing guys, that's it for this one. Thanks so much for looking. See you next time. In peace, no. You never say it you have to really say it stay with me I thought it was your thing I don't want to feel it I have the hand actually that's a good point I should do it myself yeah