hey everyone i hope you're having an
amazing day it's mark wiens i'm in
thailand and today i'm hanging out with
my buddy
drew what's up guys how's it going i'm
hungry this morning let's get some food
we both love to eat and so we're going
to go to a restaurant it's called
what's the full name of the restaurant
yeah it's
fish and man almonds river so this is a
river fish restaurant
uh so basically everything you're gonna
eat there is all river fish
it's about a 45 minute drive away from
bangkok
and it is fully worth the drive the food
is incredible
uh they have some very unique dishes on
their menu we are on our way there now
for lunch i'm really excited man let's
do it
let's go
[Music]
all right oh man
so i have no idea where mark just took
me like we could we could be in lao for
all i know but uh we ended up here
somehow
oh man this place is packed i didn't
know it would be so packed today all
right so that's a little bit of a drive
from bangkok but it's
so worth the food uh you get off the
highway and you come into kind of the
neighborhood area they specialize
uh in freshwater fish so that's what
we're gonna eat but uh
lots of other dishes i'm really hungry
so looking forward to this one
and also what's interesting about this
place is that it's in a big it's
it's a big old wooden thai building
almost like
barn style uh but a big open-air
restaurant
all righty man right perfect they have a
lot of very unique dishes they have a
lot of very interesting dishes dishes
that you won't find just at any
restaurant you have to come to a spot
like this
yeah they have a lot of amazing dishes
yeah man i'm just sitting here because
the whole menu's in thai and i only
speak english and
good thing mark and his wife are here to
translate so it's such a hard decision
something i love about this restaurant
is how it's all open air even the
kitchen and so you come back to the
kitchen section it's just all
surrounded in this entire roofing
structure but you can smell the aroma of
all the herbs that they use
because freshwater fish has a like an
earthy or a muddy taste
and in thai that's called mencau they
often use a lot of herbs and spices
for cooking up the freshwater fish so
you see ginger you see a
finger root which is kind of similar to
ginger there's green pepper there are
all sorts of chili pastes
um and they just cook with expertise uh
your aromas in here if you weren't
hungry thinking on the drive
coming here you will definitely be
hungry as soon as you start smelling the
aromas coming out of this kitchen
[Music]
so we ordered something like six dishes
just a couple of them have arrived but
we have to begin
the food i mean you can smell the aroma
of the herbs in there
ah it's so good this is this is really a
special restaurant
that i i've only been here one other
time and it was so good
i've been looking for an opportunity to
come back and today is that time yeah we
were just in the kitchen watching them
cook all this stuff and it just looks
so fresh and so good you can smell all
of those herbs hitting me in the face we
gotta get started let's let's do the
jungle curry
okay jungle curry yeah man this is
jungle curry never got jungle curry
it's called jungle curry because it uses
a lot of uh like
jungle ingredients a lot of herbs in
there it's usually very spicy
um so you can see there's basil in there
you can see there's the grachai which is
uh finger root and then we got this with
eel so you can see the little pieces of
eel and then you can just see the
chili's folded in there
look at that bite oh i lost my piece
wow it's so awesomely good
from the spiciness got the hiccups man
drew how was that first there dude
i'm dead already we got a whole nother
bowl to finish
the jungle curry here is just
sensational i mean as soon as you take
the air for
your first bite you almost get a little
bit of a numbing sensation because
there's so much holy basil in there
it's loaded with chilies i love
especially love the finger root in there
it's such an earthy just beautiful taste
and then you've got the the
eel you ordered it with eel so you kind
of crunch through the bones
it's so good
[Music]
it's so strong in every way but balanced
at the same time
and it makes my eyes water
that's sad
i love yours okay she has just
recommended that we get one more dish
uh which is also one of my favorite dish
so it was a easy sell
stink beans the next dish we have is
called padpet bakau
and this is uh another fresh water fish
you can see the blubbery skin
i don't know what type of fish it is
exactly but then this is a stir fry with
all the curry paste you can see again
just
loaded out with herbs there's a bunch of
kaffir lime leaves in here
there are green peppercorns there's
basil and you can just see the the
redness of those chilies and the chili
seeds in there i'm gonna put that onto
my rice and kind of detach it from the
bone because i think there's
at least there's at least a center bone
in there and just look at that herb
content
the ratio is just it's beautiful
wow wow that's awesomely good but the
fish itself is really like
really so soft soft you can taste that
fish fattiness of it i mean then the
skin just kind of has like a little bit
of a blubberiness to it what especially
makes it for me are the green
peppercorns these little circle things
yeah yeah yeah
really good man what do you think about
it i don't know if we can top both of
these dishes already
we got more coming oh good you're so
good i love it if you look around
everybody has ordered this
is their tadman which are their fried
fish cakes so what they do for the fish
cakes is they mince up the fish
then they mix it with curry paste and
spices also sometimes some long beans
but i'm not sure
they really like work it to get a foam
almost foamy consistency before they
drop it into the hot oil
to deep fry into the little patties
spongy uh-huh really spongy
you can tell it's pure fish that texture
is amazing yeah
it's so bouncy literally if you drop
this on the table if
it fell out of my floor you'd probably
like bounce up to an equal height
some seriously good food
and yeah it might actually kind of work
better just to spoon it on oh yeah
i almost want to eat it in two separate
bites add on some of this sauce
there's lots of peanuts in it and also
cucumbers
wow oh my gosh it's really quite sweet
i'm going to take a bite of the sauce
they're really good yeah i mean that
contrast that's almost like the same
effect that you get of sausage with
syrups it's almost like a custom-made
sauce
only for this these are some of the
better fish cakes that you'll ever have
a fresh water fish for sure
that texture will just like you'll be
amazed about that texture
next dish is the fried frog and so
there's some fried um
frog legs in there there's all the whole
bodies and then what's also awesome
is that you've got the whole they give
you the fried skin too right this fried
frog skin is one of the best
wrinkled up that is frog crackling
kind of like a prawn cracker
perfectly awesome everything is chopped
up here you got the legs you've got the
body
you've got the mid sections oh oh
there's there's a couple of drumsticks
down here
drumstick yeah i'll go for the drums
let's go for a drumstick you can see
actually that there's a lot of meat on
there oh yeah man
that's muscular
oh yeah immediately you can taste the
fish sauce
they probably marinated in fish sauce
before they deep fry frog really tastes
similar to chicken in my opinion similar
texture similar flavor
a little more chewy a lot more it almost
has like this
like rubbery texture on your teeth
[Music]
oh man it's good ying how's the food
the next dish we have is a fried fish do
you remember the name of this fish
what they do is they kind of slice some
slits in the side of it before they deep
fry it and then they top it with garlic
they serve it with a few slices of
pineapple on the side along with a chili
sauce
just kind of dig off that side fillet
there
um yeah you can just see how that how
crunchy how crispy that garlic is
oh man oh yes hold on
not the best angle but we're making it
work can you
just eat everything in the skin yeah
yeah as long as you be careful of the
bones on the top maybe
don't keep it in yeah let's just dunk it
go for it go for it dude
dunk it and i'm gonna try to lift on
lift on some of those chilies a little
bit
there we go
oh man all the sauce the sauce the
garlic
wow tasty man like i'm not trying to act
it out for the camera i'm telling you
this is incredible
we were talking like you kind of got to
get out of bangkok sometimes to find
meals this diverse and this good
when you start eating more and more in
thailand
you start wanting to seek out more and
more like regional
regional dishes as well as restaurants
that specialize in big so this
restaurant specializes in
i mean this is mostly central thai food
but they really focus on the freshwater
fish
and they do it so expertly well i mean a
lot of the dishes have kind of similar
spice combinations
right dude it's starting to pour rain
outside you guys
we're in the middle of rainy season and
uh
yeah every single day around 4 p.m it
just starts pouring rain
we got one more dish that we ordered and
we are kind of losing light because of
the storm yeah
but that's okay the food is just as good
this is one this is the dish that our
waitress
recommended and gave me the wink um
saying that we
should not miss it shrimp in here
there's the stink beans it's just
loaded again with that same spice
combination there's it's packed with
chilies
um even some orange chilies and then you
can see some green peppercorns in there
you can see some
um maybe some shallots in there and then
some of the
kaffir lime leaves and i'm just gonna go
ahead and take
we're about to like hold on yeah are we
about to let me move my drone
yeah go ahead and move man okay it's
just
downpouring guys we're dying over here
about to take that bite and the downpour
has started and it's
but we're in the middle of the meal yeah
no we gotta finish it up yeah we're
about to take a bite of the stink beans
okay oh man yeah the wind is coming in
just
gusting like misting us right now even
in the restaurant
very shrimpy
is awesome flavor
shrimp base gives such a like such a
flavorful saltiness
it's a depth of saltiness and complexity
you've got the the citrusiness of the
kaffir lime leaves and just those shrimp
that are like
they're really firm if you guys like
shrimp you're gonna love this one it's
really really tasty
and then just the stink beans man they
never they never get old they're
they're so good this is only the second
time i've had them oh okay yeah
the name stink beans just kind of stayed
away from them like stinky tofu right
but they're not they're actually not
stinky at all no they're not stinky
they're like tofu
they're very simple they're fragrant is
what they are
[Music]
it's just so like it's so spicy
and so herbaceous that it's almost
medicinal
okay yeah this is the dish
that fish melts in your mouth and just
wrapped up in that curry
it's insane i mean that's just flavor
overload
it's like just is a an amusement park
for your mouth
drew what's your favorite dish dude
jungle curry number one
even though it took me a while to get
over the spice but just the aroma and
all the different things inside of that
is the best and the fish man the big
river fish can't go wrong so i'm
definitely coming back here guys this
place is really good
yeah the more you keep on eating the
more the spice builds
but the flavor it just the complexity of
flavor just
like it just layers up into your mouth
and it just
soon you just start tasting chilis and
herbs just coming out of your
the pores in your mouth and your tongue
that was just
ultimately a satisfying meal
[Music]
it was incredible one of the best thai
foods i've ever had in my life
this place is so worth driving from
bangkok out here just to eat
especially if you love spicy if you love
strong
flavors this place it will not let you
down i want to say a huge thank you to
drew for joining me for this amazing
meal
and also you have to check out drew's
videos uh he's publishing his videos on
facebook and youtube
thanks a lot man yeah it was a pleasure
to be here by the way uh i make short
two to three minute mini documentary
style videos on facebook and youtube
every day so it's a lot of fun traveling
to every country in the world
and something i really like about drew's
videos is that they
are very inspirational and they always
have a meaning
and he always like fires you up in his
videos so that's it for this video thank
you very much for watching please
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goodbye
from the most amazing river fish
restaurant in thailand