- Hi, check it out guys.
We have had the most insane 2017,
full of delicious street food,
so much amazing food and these are the highlights.
Check it out.
2017 was the best year of my life,
traveling all throughout Asia
and eating a ton of street food.
Hi, I'm Trevor James and I'm traveling
and eating to make videos for you.
Along with my fiancee, Ting,
she films and I eat.
And we both go deep for street food.
I've been living in China for four years now.
Eating and filming nonstop for you.
In the past year I ate hundreds of street foods
all around China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia,
India, and Thailand.
And we've gone deep into regions to uncover
some incredibly unique, delicious
and strange street foods.
All compiled for you into street food tour videos
and uploaded right here on YouTube.
2017 was the year the Food Ranger YouTube
channel really took off.
And the year Ting and I both began pursuing
Food Ranger full time with our hearts
100% committed to creating videos for you.
These are the top 10 street foods we found
and the story of our 2017.
2017 was a crazy year and these are the highlights.
Check it out.
We started off 2017 by spending New Years
in Chongqing, China, the land of
spicy and mouth-numbing hot pot and
incredibly flavorful Sichuan cuisine.
We made a couple new friends as we were
exploring the back lanes who invited
us for some hot pot with them.
(speaking foreign language)
Intestine skewers.
And it was around this time that Ting and I
were starting to get fully committed into Food Ranger.
I had just dropped out of culinary school
to go full time, creating these food and
travel videos for you,
and it was the best feeling ever.
This was definitely the best decision of my life.
And after Chongqing, we were craving
the flavors of Malaysia, so we flew in with
our good friend Chuchu to go for a full on
comprehensive street food tour of Kuala Lumpur.
Number 10 was definitely the mao shan wang
durian we had in KL.
With that butterscotch, sweet, stickiness
that's enough to make anyone fall in love.
(speaking foreign language)
- [Both] Mm.
- We also enjoyed some incredible Chinese,
Malay, and Indian cuisine.
And we put it all into one delicious
street food tour video for you.
If we could, we would probably
live half the time in Sichuan
and half the time in KL.
The food in both places is just off the hook.
(laughing)
- (speaking foreign language)
- After parting ways with Chuchu,
Ting and I flew into Delhi at the end of January
and began food ranging the back lanes
for some delicious street foods.
This was our second trip to India,
but this time was unfortunately a little more difficult.
Right after we landed, I got sick by drinking
a fake bottled water, which set my stomach
off for the whole trip, so we only managed
to film two videos.
But, for number nine, we found some
insanely delicious curries on the
street side in Delhi that were worth
flying there just to eat.
Looks amazing.
So we came back to India for a third time in 2017
to eat way more street foods.
This is truly what dreams are made of here.
And after India, we flew into Thailand to meet
Mark Wiens and Ying and explore
Bangkok for a full spectrum of Thai cuisine.
Mark brought us to eat so many delicious
street foods and for number eight,
a huge lobster as well.
This was definitely a highlight of 2017.
The head butter.
- [Mark] That's like a bite you don't even
want to swallow.
- [Trevor] After enjoying all the food in Bangkok,
Ting and I took a very special trip down south
to a special place to us, Prachuap Khiri Khan.
Here I proposed to Ting on the beach and she said yes.
We spent a couple weeks exploring the region,
eating curry and hiking mountains.
It was the best time ever.
And afterwards, we flew back to China
to spend time with Ting's family in Guangzhou.
We went for a huge street food tour
of Cantonese cuisine in Southern China.
We tried a ton of delicious food,
but the highlight and number seven
was definitely the whole roast pig
that we enjoyed in the hillside
in Ting's hometown outside of Guangzhou.
That is so beautiful.
It was so crispy on the outside
and soft and fatty on the inside.
After this, it was already warming up in April,
so we took the high speed train to Guilin,
over 250 kilometers an hour,
to one of China's most beautiful destinations
and found our number six dish,
the Guilin mei fun rice noodles
with ultra crispy pork.
Just watching them chop the meat
with the scent flowing through the air
was worth the trip alone.
Oh yeah.
Oh, it's too big.
We also took a boat down the Yangtze River
and enjoyed the fresh air and the greenery
all on rental bikes.
Then we came back to our home base in Chengdu
and did one more Sichuan street food tour
before going on one of the best trips of my life.
We took the train all the way from Chengdu
to the far west of China's Xinjiang Province
all along the ancient Silk Road
and discovered so many amazing specialties
and friendly people.
Apart from proposing to Ting,
this was 100% the highlight of 2017,
going deep into Xinjiang, meeting so many friendly
Uyghur locals and trying their incredible food.
(speaking a foreign language)
We found so many amazing dishes,
like lamb-stuffed pockets deep from a Tandoor oven,
huge chunks of lamb meat from a Tandoor oven,
tons of insanely delicious hand-pulled noodles,
and a huge spectrum of unique street dishes
like lamb skull meat.
Lamb head soup for breakfast.
I think that's --
are we actually doing this?
Mixed organs and more, all of which
made Xinjiang the highlight of 2017
and a must-visit destination for food lovers
from around the world.
Here's where we found our number five dish,
the da pan ji "big chicken plate"
spicy chicken dish infused with cinnamon
and star anise, all of top of a thick bed
of hand-pulled noodles.
(speaking a foreign language)
This is true joy.
Oh yeah.
Slurping these noodles covered in that fragrance
is absolutely mind-blowing, and here in Xinjiang,
you can go really deep into local farmers' markets
and have a unique travel experience just to try them.
And after our Xinjiang trip, we flew into Hong Kong
quickly and we had a quick street food tour,
trying some nice dim sum and noodles,
followed by a trip to Beijing
and another huge street food tour
with our friend Chuchu.
Chuchu brought us to try some really unique
dishes, like fermented bean soup
that tasted like burnt socks.
It smells like burnt socks.
(speaking a foreign language)
And a huge organ broth that was actually
really delicious along with our
number four dish, some life-changing Peking duck.
It was so succulent and juicy and tender
you won't be able to stop.
That is gonna be legendary.
After Beijing, it was already the end of June,
so we decided to make a trip
from the north of Vietnam all the way down south.
We flew into Hanoi and tasted the best pho
of my life and slowly made our way
down south to Saigon, visiting Huế and Danang City.
Each place had such unique, fresh,
and healthy food.
We really didn't want to move on.
In Saigon, we met up with our friend Sunny,
who brought us to taste some live coconut worms.
Man, this looks disgusting.
Okay, let's just do it.
- All right, here we go.
- Cheers.
(mumbles)
- [Trevor] That was an experience I'll probably
only have once.
After Vietnam, we went to Kuching in Borneo
with Chuchu again and tried some special
Sarawak specialties.
Here, we found number three, an amazing bamboo chicken
in the Borneo rain forest,
all made with local ingredients,
cut and prepared by our guide, Siti.
Wow.
Oh, there it is.
Oh!
In Kuching, Borneo, Malaysia, we enjoyed some
insane seafood with Chuchu and then
flew right into Jakarta to experience
some true Indonesian food and discover
the amazing hospitality of the locals
and the beauty of Nasi Padang,
where they bring you what feels like a hundred
dishes to your table and you only pay
for what you eat.
This is where we found our number two,
an incredible fish head curry in Jakarta
that was so creamy and smooth,
and the flesh was so soft it melts in your mouth.
Wow, that is succulent, it just falls off.
Wow.
Look at that.
Snapper head meat.
Trying these dishes for the first time
influenced our whole trip,
as we immediately decided we'd fly
right into Padang, the source of Nasi Padang,
to try the real deal.
We flew in and immediately fell in love,
spending a couple weeks filming, eating,
and having a good time before going to Medan,
where we did another huge street food tour
full of delicious Indonesian food.
Wow, he's just cracking that claw.
It's just spraying juice everywhere.
Wow, look at that flesh.
After Indonesia, we flew back into Chengdu,
our home base, and since we hadn't been back
to Sichuan for a while, we immediately
shot a Sichuan hot pot video for you,
trying the spiciest version possible
and burning our mouths off.
(gagging)
This is the one of the spiciest things
you'll ever eat, guys.
It was here I discovered Ting Ting can seriously
eat spicy, and right around this time,
we were reaching one million subscribers,
the most exciting moment of 2017.
2017 really was the best year of my life.
It was the year I learned that you can
create any crazy dream you have for yourself,
pursue it, and achieve it.
One million, we got one million subscribers, guys.
Now we're creating the street food videos
for you full time.
In one year, we brought this channel from 100,000
subscribers to one million.
And to thank you for being part of this
big journey we're on, we created a giveaway
for two round-trip tickets to Chengdu
and a full-on deep street food tour guided by us.
Now is the perfect time to announce our winner
to our huge giveaway for two round-trip
flight tickets to Chengdu and a full-on
street food tour guided by us.
There were so many amazing entries
to this contest we had a hard time deciding,
but we finally chose one, Narendra in the U.K.,
and this is his reaction when we told him he won.
Check it out.
Narendra.
- Oh my god, I didn't see you.
Just an image, and I was like, what's happening?
I was like, is he gone?
- You're coming to China, buddy.
- Oh my god, Jesus Christ.
I'm gonna be trying anything I can, eating everything.
Even the brain, I'm gonna take a shot here.
I'll take a shot.
- Take a shot, you wanna take a shot of the brain.
- I'll take a shot of the brain, yeah.
- [Trevor] We can't wait to take a shot of the brain
with you.
We'll be flying you out in the spring
or summer of 2018 and bringing you
for a full-on street food tour in Chengdu and Sichuan,
and after hitting one million subscribers
and announcing our huge giveaway, we followed the ancient
Tea Horse Road down south from Chengdu
all the way into China's southernmost province
of Yunnan, tasting some amazing Tibetan
and Yunnanese minority cooking all along the way.
There was a ton of yak meat, so many friendly Tibetan
locals, and massive feasts.
We were so lucky in Dali to find a huge
buy style community feast.
The selection of food here is off the hook
and a true once in a lifetime experience.
(speaking a foreign language)
That is strong rice liquor.
And after Yunnan, we were craving Indian food.
So we flew into Kolkata and created a five-part
Kolkata street food series for you
and also traveled into Amritsar, Lucknow,
and Varanasi, all coming up on the channel very soon.
Here in Kolkata, we had our number one dish,
an amazing family feast from our friend Aditya
and his family at home, a truly amazing experience
that we'll never forget.
Mmm, wow!
So 2017 was also the year we launched
our Tai Hao Le merch.
It means amazing, it means cool,
it means great, and it's what I always say
on the streets of China when I walk up to vendors.
It really makes people happy and smile,
and this is way to sport your positivity.
We also have a new shirt coming out:
Travel, eat, repeat.
If you wanna check those out, they're in the description
below or in my pinned comment,
That'll help support our channel
and keep us traveling longer.
None of this would have been possible
without you, so I wanna give you a huge thank you
for being part of the Food Ranger community.
It's been a great time in 2017,
and we're gonna create so many more
amazing street food videos for you in 2018.