- [Mark] We ordered a bunch of seafood dishes.
Potaek is another fantastic Thai soup.
It should be quite sour but what I love about potaek
is that it's such a pure taste.
(upbeat music)
Taking a trip today to Samut Prakan.
You're looking rather fresh this morning.
- [Ying] Really?
Reary?
(speaking foreign language)
Reary?
- Good morning, everyone.
It's Mark Wiens with migrationology.com
in Bangkok, Thailand.
Bangkok is located about 20 kilometers
north of the ocean, the sea,
which is actually the Gulf of Thailand.
So today we're taking a little drive to the,
I think it will be the closest sea in,
closest sea to Bangkok
which is in a different province called Samut Prakan.
It's about a 20 or so kilometer drive, not too far away.
We're gonna see the sea.
We're gonna hopefully eat some seafood
and we might stop off at the Samut Prakan Market first.
In order to drive to Samut Prakan
it's actually really easy to get there from Bangkok.
Just a straight shot down Sukhumvit Road.
(upbeat music)
We just arrived to Samut Prakan
right in the center of the town.
And what I love about Samut Prakan
is that we never left the city to get here,
although we're in a different province.
But at the same time,
Samut Prakan has such a pleasant smaller feel to it.
It has that small town feel to it as opposed to Bangkok.
We're just walking over to the market.
We're just gonna spend a few minutes
walking around the market, the seafood market,
just 'cause we're on our way this direction anyways
and it's a fantastic seafood market.
(upbeat music)
Have you ever seen this before?
Horseshoe crabs.
(speaking foreign language)
Lots and lots of awesome seafood at this market.
From fish, lots of platu which are mackerel.
And then lots of crab and horseshoe crab.
There are little shells and then there are lots of shrimp
and there are even some types of rays over there
as well as mantis prawns.
- Hello! - Hello!
(speaking foreign language)
They've got some giant octopus
and a variety of different squid.
She said they're really fresh and good.
- I don't really know which is which.
(speaking foreign language)
- This is always such a friendly market
to walk around and explore.
Many friendly vendors and so much good food.
(upbeat music)
Oh you know what's really good?
This one with ginger, mom, ginger and green apple.
I'll probably get mixed fruit for Ying.
- [Mark's sister] What would that be, like everything?
- Yeah, whatever she decides. - I would probably have more--
- Just outside of the market
we have stopped by at a juice stall.
She has a bunch of fruit and she's juicing them.
And I ordered a couple of mixed fruit juices
which she's adding in like pineapple
and a variety of different fruits.
But then I wanted to try an interesting combination
with bitter melon, and also krachai, which is finger root
which has a similar taste to ginger
as well as I think green apple.
Oh and she's filling in the mixed fruit right now.
But we'll see how the bitter melon one tastes.
This one is the mixed fruit that I got for my sister
and she says it's really good.
Oh yeah.
It is delicious.
It's perfectly sour and sweet and so fresh
It's perfectly sour and sweet and so fresh.
And I think she added in some beetroot as well.
That's what made it so red.
For my juice, she added in a couple handfuls of bitter melon
and a whole handful of the finger root
and then I think just apple.
Wow, that is intensely bitter and awesome.
Oh, bitter but smooth.
And then it's countered by the gingery taste
of the finger root
and then very sour from the apple.
(speaking foreign language)
And I like how it's squeezed so fresh
so there's still foam on top.
It's almost like a, a bitter melon fruit cappuccino.
(upbeat music)
Ying was at first feeding Micah in the car
so that's when we went to go walk around the market
but then she came out.
Hello, Micah.
- [Ying] Hello!
- [Mark] Hello, Micah.
And then she went to buy some,
what did you buy, Ying?
- [Ying] Chips, durian chips.
- She bought, oh durian chips, my favorite!
Okay, I gotta grab some of these durian chips immediately.
And by the way, thank you, Ying
for buying these durian chips.
And so these are just very thin slices of durian
which are deep fried just like potato chips but durian.
And normally they use a durian that's pretty unripe
so it has more of a firmer texture
rather than that pudding texture.
This is like the,
the top of all chips.
And I'm gonna wash that down with some bitter melon juice.
Oh!
This is awesome.
Durian chips and bitter melon juice, what a combination!
From here we are driving towards a place called Bangpoo.
(upbeat music)
It was just about a 10 minute drive
from the center of Samut Prakan.
And this place is called Bangpoo.
And it's a navy, Thai navy compound
and then they have a pier that goes out into the ocean.
And this is not really a beach,
it's not a swimming beach.
It's more of a looking beach and just a hanging out beach
and they have a seafood restaurant here as well.
And there's also, it's also famous for its seagulls.
And walking in here you can already see the mangrove forest.
And it's actually a whole road pier.
You can, I think you can get a golf cart ride
to the end of the pier
but I can see lots and lots of seagulls in the distance
and you can hear the waves crashing.
It's actually quite nice.
(waves crashing)
It's cool.
(upbeat music)
We are about to walk through the valley of the seagulls.
Luckily I have covered Micah's head
so that he doesn't get any bird crap on top of his head.
(seagulls calling)
Some people buy plates of, maybe it's bread or bird feed
to feed the seagulls.
So that's why so many seagulls come.
But they're actually really amazing
to watch and just observe.
They're so graceful how they fly.
And then all the way at the end of the pier
is a restaurant called Sala Sukjai.
And it's a seafood restaurant
and we are going inside now to eat seafood for lunch.
(speaking foreign language)
We walked into the restaurant
and I love the feel of this restaurant.
It has a kind of traditional, like 70s feel to it.
You walk out to the end of the pier here
and then they have a whole restaurant.
Even inside they have almost what looks like a ballroom
where you could have a wedding or an event.
And then on the outside to the left, the left or right wing
you can choose either one
and come out here and they have an outdoor
open air dining section with a great view of the water
and the seagulls, the sea breeze.
And we just ordered some seafood.
(speaking foreign language)
- [Mark's sister] So that's the thing right
when you make the stock?
- We ordered a bunch of seafood dishes
and they have all arrived.
I wanted to order crab but the waitress said
that they already ran out of crab.
So we came a little bit after the main lunch rush
so I guess they sold out of all their crab.
But that's okay we got plenty of awesome looking seafood.
I'll just start explaining what we're eating
from this dish right here
and then just kinda go around clockwise.
This is phak kood which is a type of fern, stir fried
and then we also got goong ob woon sen
which is mung bean noodles and shrimp in a
kind of baked in this pot
but with a stove, not in an oven.
And then we've also got hoi malang poo
which are mussels which are also kinda baked in this pot
along with some basil.
And then that's seafood sauce there on the side.
And then we got tod man pla
which are little fried fishcakes.
There's also some fried basil on top, I believe, as well.
And for soup we got potaek thale,
which potaek is another fantastic Thai soup.
It should be quite sour but what I love about potaek
is that it's such a pure taste.
I think a seafood stock and then seafood in there
but then it's just sour with lime juice
and then just a really pure delicious taste.
And then finally over here is a fried fish.
This is pla kapong tod nam pla.
Which is a, it's a barramundi fish
marinated in some fish sauce and deep fried
with that wonderful looking sauce there.
Check out that sauce.
- [Ying] Potaek.
- [Mark] Let me start with that potaek.
There's fish in here, there's shrimp, there are mushrooms.
- She's enjoying the fish. - Put some of this in my bowl
and I'm gonna get some of that fish as well.
And a lot of that broth.
Just taste some of that broth.
Oh that soup is amazing.
Oh it's so sour and then perfectly salty
and yeah it just tastes so pure.
I think it's a fish stock broth
and then all that seafood in there.
You can really taste the cilantro in there.
You can taste the chilies in there,
although it's not spicy.
But it has a fresh chili flavor to it.
Oh that's such a soothing broth.
You can have the shrimp with mung beans, mom.
- [Ying's mom] Ya.
- Okay, I'm gonna move on to the fried fish here.
Try some of this fried fish.
Break off this piece here.
And then that sauce in particular looks awesome.
Looks like there's some,
there might be some green mango down here.
It looks like shredded green mango with chilies.
Put that on, right on to the fish and eat with rice.
Oh yeah.
The fish is so crispy.
Kind of a sweet and sour green mango chili sauce.
And then next up, for the goong ob woon sen.
And there, they often flavor this,
you can see on the bottom,
there's some ginger, there's garlic,
and then also the rak phak chi
which is the cilantro roots
which give it some flavor.
And then sometimes they also add some
a little bit of pork lard down at the bottom there
to give it some, a boost of deliciousness.
But just those noodles are really fragrant.
Oh yeah.
I can really taste the ginger in there.
Or maybe that's 'cause
I got a whole piece of ginger in that bite.
But that is really good
and the way they've made it here,
the mung bean noodles are not soggy like they sometimes get.
And then also the mussels.
Yeah, there's water at the bottom here so it is steamed.
There's lemongrass also and there's also basil, sweet basil.
Let me get a little leaf of basil with a mussel
and dip it into the seafood sauce.
The mussels just have a slight aroma
of the lemongrass and sweet basil
and then dipped into that chili garlicky sauce.
Oh but you can, yeah, you can taste that sweet basil nicely.
I'm going in for the tod man pla.
And then that's all basil fried on top as well.
Check out the insides of that.
You can see some chili
and then also some slices of long bean in there.
Sometimes it can have a really really smooth
almost hot dog texture to it.
But this has more of a, like a ground fish flavor,
texture to it, which is really good.
It's almost like a fish scrambled egg
but deep-fried into a patty shape.
And then finally for the fried vegetable
which is phak kood which is a type of fern.
It's always one of my favorite vegetables.
It's crisp and then they've just stir-fried this
maybe in a little bit of oyster sauce
and a little bit of fish sauce maybe.
We just finished with lunch.
That was a fantastic seafood meal.
I think probably my favorite dish was actually that soup,
that potaek thale.
If you come to this restaurant don't miss that potaek.
It was so sour and so flavorful.
Really really good.
And then just this atmosphere here
and then also as you're sitting eating
you can see the seagulls flying around.
Very nice, very pleasant place.
But I can imagine on the weekends
it gets very busy here
because this is just such a nice place.
And the food is good.
(seagulls calling)
This was a great little trip to Bangpoo.
And this whole atmosphere here,
the seagulls are nice to see
but I'm probably gonna skip feeding them
but if you come here you can feed the seagulls.
And then the restaurant serves good seafood.
And then it's just,
it's pretty close to Bangkok.
I think this is one of the closest possible places
that you can come to see the ocean.
It's not a swimming beach but it's nice to look at.
We're heading back to the car
and we're just driving back straight up north
up Sukhumvit, back to Bangkok.
And goodbye from Bangpoo.
Goodbye to all of the seagulls.
Goodbye, seagulls!
And Micah has just been sleeping again
throughout this entire day trip.
He's enjoying the breeze though, the sea breeze.
Thank you all for watching.
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Thank you again for watching.
And goodbye from Bangpoo.
(upbeat music)