- I had this idea that if we come to the fish market,
if we could find somebody to,
if we could buy some fish or something interesting
and have somebody cook it for us,
this would be the ultimate fish market experience in Sichon.
(reggae music)
Good morning everyone it's Mark Wiens.
I am in Sichon, in Southern Thailand, Nakhon Si Thammarat.
(speaking in foreign language)
This morning we are at a very local fish market
which is right next to the ocean.
And we're here to just walk around and see what we can find.
I'm loving it.
We got here at about seven,
it's about 7:30 a.m. and we were--
- [Ying] Is that one boat coming?
- Oh have a boat coming right now.
Okay we got here about 7 a.m. and we,
I was almost disappointed because all the trays are empty.
We thought they are cleaning up already.
But they have just told us, an auntie has just told us
that the fish haven't arrived yet.
So they'll be coming in about 30 minutes hopefully.
So we're here a perfect time.
This has to be one of the most picturesque markets
I've ever been to in my life.
It is right next to the ocean, just a friendly atmosphere,
just all local fishermen, the coconuts.
(reggae music)
How it works is that the boats come up in the morning
and sometimes the family members will then
sell the fish from the fishermen.
And other times some of the ladies at the market
they will come here and buy some of the fish
and then resell them at the market.
And this is the first boat in this morning.
They have a little selection of different fish
and some crabs in there.
(woman shouting in foreign language)
I'll have some Patongko, one.
(woman speaks in foreign language)
Yeah.
(speaks in foreign language)
As we're waiting for the main bulk of the fish to arrive,
we're gonna have some snacks for breakfast today.
One of the classic Thai-Chinese street snacks
to eat in the morning is Patongko
which are the fried donuts, savory donuts.
Grab a little bite like this.
Yeah, hot and fresh.
You got to eat them hot and fresh.
If they're like cold and stale, they're not very good.
One of my favorite sweet Thai dessert snacks
is called Khanom krok.
And they are making an amazing version over here.
Really old style.
(speaks in foreign language)
You gotta, (speaks in foreign language)
This is by far the coolest Khanom krok
that I've ever seen in Thailand.
Her technique is amazing and this is a ancient,
old, old style of making Khanom krok.
You got that really, the piece of the iron griddle
and then she's adding in the different mixtures
and even her spoon with the bamboo,
it's a piece of bamboo made into a little spoon
where she dips in and then adds
that coconut milk to the little cakes.
It's awesome, absolutely awesome and they're so friendly.
I've just been asking them about their Khanom krok,
they don't add sugar but it's just coconut milk.
There's two layers, the first liquid batter is coconut milk
and a little bit of rice flour
and that's what holds it together.
And then the top layer of liquid is just pure coconut milk.
Sometimes you'll see on the streets of Thailand,
you'll see that they use a lot of oil to oil the griddle
before they put in the batter so it doesn't stick.
They say they don't use any oil
because they don't need oil because of the coconut milk.
It's just all coconut milk, it's so much coconut milk
that they don't need, they don't even need oil.
And they make them into little cup shapes
and then they put them together as two.
So a little twin.
And normally you can, let me find one that's really hot.
Oh yeah, this one feels like it's right off the fire.
Look at that, if you can get a really close-up look at that
you can just see how that's just like,
like thickened, reduced coconut milk.
Oh that's amazing.
Oh I think that's the best Khanom krok I've ever had.
There's no sugar in it.
They give you a little packet of sugar to eat on the side.
You can either pour it on or you can just eat it
with no sugar and just rely on
that coconut milk for the sweetness.
The coconut milk itself has a little bit of a sweetness,
it's also a little bit salty.
They've added some salt to the recipe
to add contrast and that just kinda increases the flavor
of the coconut.
It amplifies the flavor of the coconut.
That's like coconut pudding
within a crunchy, smoky shell.
Outrageously good.
Here comes another boat in from the sea
and this is like a chain pulley device.
There's actually a motor there to pull the boat in
from the ocean and unto the bank.
That looks like it's been used a few times.
(reggae music)
(speaking in foreign language)
More and more of the fishing boats are arriving
but we got hung up on eating all those snacks
'cause they are so friendly and so nice
and just invited us to sit down and eat.
Today, for unpredictable reasons,
was honestly not the best catch.
Most of the local fishermen only caught small fish,
handfuls of mackerel, and a few crabs mixed within.
But part of the beauty of visiting this local fish market
in Thailand is that it isn't at all commercialized.
The fishermen are all from this village
and their catch isn't transported
to a bigger city or sold at a bigger market.
But everything that's caught is sold
and consumed right within this fishing community.
Oh Pla lai.
(conversing in foreign language)
We're trying to sort of talk to some of the aunties here
and see if anyone will cook for us.
Hello. - [Man] What is your name?
- Mark.
- What is your name? - Mark.
- Mark. - Yes.
What is your name?
- Dahot.
- Nice to meet you.
(hip hop music)
I just ended up on the back of a motor bike
and we are going over to auntie's house to cook some eel.
(speaking in foreign language)
(hip hop music)
- Try.
Try. - Try, try.
(speaks in foreign language)
Let me just quickly tell you what happened.
I don't even know if I can explain the whole story.
But we're at the market, and we actually started talking
with auntie who was selling eels.
I was just asking her how she cooked it
and she said, mix Pad Phet, which is a stir-fry
with chili paste and lots of chilies.
And then we just kinda asked her
or Ying talks to her and all of a sudden,
I was on the back of a motorcycle
on the way back to her place
and she's making a dish called Pla lai Pad Phet,
which is eel stir-fried with all the chili paste in.
I can't wait to try it.
Cutting up the eel is a real art.
But she is doing it so expertly.
You have to cut out that big, thick bone
and then she's navigating her way around it
and slicing the meat and then cutting it
into pretty small pieces.
But you can tell that she has done this many, many times.
At this house they're also making kapi,
which is shrimp paste.
It's fresh shrimp paste that they're,
well, it's not fresh because it has to leaven,
sort of ferment, to make it shrimp paste.
But they're making it right at home.
So this is homemade shrimp paste
and she's gonna include some of it in the recipe
that she's making with the eel.
To make the spicy eel,
she first sauteed a bunch of garlic in some hot oil
and then added in a heap of curry paste
which she had already mixed with shrimp paste.
And let that sizzle in the oil
to release a massive amount of flavor.
She then tossed in the chopped up pieces of eel
and stir-fried it until all of the eel was coated
in luscious curry sauce.
(speaking in foreign language)
Finally, a good handful of fresh chilies,
some young green peppercorns,
and plenty of fresh holy basil,
all of which were picked from right outside the house,
finished it off.
(speaking in foreign language)
The eel is finished and it's stir-fried.
They added in more chilies and some green pepper.
And this is a piece, a little piece of the eel, the meat.
Wow!
(speaks in foreign language)
That's delicious.
Eel is just so buttery and melt in your mouth.
And then that's just coated in so much curry paste
and shrimp paste, you can taste the shrimp paste nicely.
And that's awesome that they make
the shrimp paste right here at home.
And that's spicy.
Oh that's good.
She's packing it now.
Into bags.
And we're gonna head back to the fish market.
(reggae music)
I got my bags full of Pla lai.
The eel and they're gonna show me some more eels back here.
(speaking in foreign language)
(Mark laughs)
(speaks in foreign language)
Bye bye!
- Bye bye! - Bye bye!
- And we are off with a bag of eel.
(reggae music)
For the fish market, today there wasn't a lot of big fish.
It was mostly small fish, a lot of mackerel.
So I guess it really just depends on what day you come.
You might see some bigger fish,
you might see some more interesting fish.
But today was just kind of small fish.
But that's cool!
This is real life.
This is the reality, this is a local market.
They are selling fish just for people
within this neighborhood and in this coastal community.
This is what I love seeing.
This is amazing.
(reggae music)
So we're gonna just drive around
and hopefully find somewhere to eat lunch
and eat that eel and then just enjoy this area.
(reggae music)
We just stopped on the side of the road
because Ying spotted, they're picking the coconuts.
But they're using monkeys.
Monkeys are up in the trees and they're the ones,
the monkeys are picking the coconuts.
Boom! Here comes a coconut.
(speaks in foreign language)
Most of the coconuts in this coconut field are all
old coconuts and so they're picking them for coconut milk.
So you can't really, the water in them doesn't taste so good
but I asked them if they have some young coconuts
that I can buy.
According to NPR, Thailand has been raising
and training monkeys to pick coconuts for over 400 years.
And while there's some notable controversy
about the practice, in the short time
that I had the chance to watch,
I saw the owners handling their monkeys,
this particular monkey who's name was Kaimuk,
with respect and as if they were part of their family.
(reggae music)
(speaks in foreign language)
(reggae music)
We've stopped off just at a local restaurant.
There's not a lot of choices for restaurants around here
but this looks like an amazing spot.
It's right next to the beach.
We have beach front tables.
(speaking in foreign language)
They have a few seats under shelter
in front of the restaurant but this, this out here
on the beach is the real beauty of the restaurant.
(reggae music)
The setting here could not be more spectacular.
The biggest danger right now,
is that I'm like this far away from a coconut tree.
So I better eat fast.
I'm gonna start with the kraprao neua
and this is beef stir-fried with holy basil.
There's chilies in here, there's onions she put
and also sliced up long beans.
And put this onto my rice, oh yeah!
The holy basil is really strong.
It's a little bit spicy.
You can taste the oyster sauce in there.
It's a little bit of a balance
between salty and a little bit sweet as well.
Next up, these are the tiny little shellfish
that, maybe they're tiny little clams,
I think they're tiny little clams that she stir-fried up.
This was not really on their menu that they cooked
but I saw them in the back there
and I asked them if they would cook them.
And then she just, like graciously, cooked a plate for us.
And look at these little guys, they're tiny.
And you just, I saw these at the market as well.
So they did sell them at the market,
at the seafood market earlier this morning.
Oh yeah!
Those are tiny but those are really good.
That's just a tiny, tiny little bit of flavor in every shell
but the flavor that you do get is wonderful.
These are like snack shells.
They're just sit here and snack on them all day long.
Okay next up our Kai jeow, this is an omelet.
Oh she put some onions in here too, wonderful.
And I will add a little bit of that Prik Nam Pla,
which is fish sauce and chilies.
It's one of the great flavors of Thailand.
It's crispy, it's salty.
The fish sauce gives it the wonderful Thai uniqueness of it.
And then finally not forgetting the eel.
(speaks in foreign language)
Let me take out some of this.
There's some bones in here too
but you can see all of that, oh wow!
Look at how chunky and just full of all those ingredients,
those herbs, there's lemongrass in there,
there's turmeric, there's young pepper in there.
(woman speaks in foreign language)
(Ying laughs)
(Mark speaks in foreign language)
Alright, so with the eel, you gotta,
I'm not sure if there's any bones in this bite or not.
Wow!
That eel is absolutely spectacular.
The eel itself just sorta melts in your mouth.
It's so soft and buttery and fatty.
But then that curry paste that it's fried with
they just, massive flavor it's,
you can taste the lemongrass, the turmeric in there.
It's spicy.
Properly spicy.
I love the green peppercorns and also
you can taste the holy basil in there as well.
(speaking in foreign language)
This is the type of community, rural, countryside restaurant
that's so friendly, that the owner,
who is the auntie who's cooking comes over
just to not only say hi but to come over
and sit and chat and just hang out while were eating here
and then that's the first time we've ever met her.
Oh, the love, the community,
the friendliness of this place is unbelievable.
These little shellfish are addictively good.
They're so good,
but they're so small.
You just kinda slurp them down.
They're delicious.
That was an extremely satisfying lunch.
But there is one thing on my mind.
The only thing on my mind after that lunch.
And it's in the back of the car.
(reggae music)
I've never opened a coconut in this fashion before
but they have an up-pointed spear.
This is to, so you don't fall on it I think
this piece of coconut but then you,
I don't know if I'll be able.
I'm gonna try using this for the first time.
Actually I have an expert who's gonna help me.
(speaks in foreign language)
He cut open that coconut a lot better
than I ever could have.
(speaks in foreign language)
That coconut is just filled with water.
There's so much in there.
Oh wonderful.
Oh it's kind of leaking out.
Got a hole in the shell.
(speaks in foreign language)
Oh yeah.
The coconut is starting to get on the old side I think.
It's a little bit, has a little bit
of a fermented taste but it's really good.
It's sweet and refreshing.
Oh yeah, it almost has like a fizz to it.
Just gonna take a walk out onto the beach.
But that was a satisfying lunch.
And just take a look at this beach.
Just part of what makes it, it's just how peaceful,
how relaxing, and how quiet, and friendly this place is.
Lunch was good but I also highly, highly enjoyed
walking around the market this morning.
Ying and I have met just in a,
we've only been here in Sichon for a very short time
but we have already met so many,
so many friendly, genuine people.
This is really an amazing coastal community.
I'm gonna end this video right now.
Thank you all very much for watching.
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Goodbye from Sichon, Thailand.