- Hey everyone.
I hope you're having an amazing day.
It's Mark Wiens. I'm in Bangkok, Thailand.
This evening I am eating at the Talad Rot Fai Ratchada,
which is the Train Market.
This is one of the most popular night markets in Bangkok.
There's a ton of street food,
but specifically tonight this evening,
I am here to eat, I think they call it the XXL.
It's a gigantic bowl of lobster tom yam.
Probably the biggest one I've ever seen.
So we're gonna eat that and we're gonna eat some street food
and I'm gonna share it all with you right now.
(rhythmic music)
It's a really popular night market,
especially with younger people who come here
to hang out, to eat street food, to go shopping,
and just a quick piece of history about Talad Rot Fai.
In Thai, it actually directly translates
to the Train Market.
And I remember years and years ago,
the market actually started on the railroad tracks.
There was an empty lot so it actually started right next
to the railroad tracks near Chatuchak,
but that plot of land, I believe was eventually sold
or something changed and then the market shifted
to two different locations,
this being the most popular location.
So there's no more railroad track,
but the market still retains its vintage, classic feel to it
and I am not planning to eat the XXL jumbo,
gigantic bowl of tom yam lobster myself.
I'm gonna meet up with my buddy Ramon.
Hey Ramon!
- How are you?
- [Mark] Awesome. How are you man?
- [Ramon] Good, good, good.
Hi! Long time no see!
- [Mark] Have you told Ramon what we're gonna eat first?
- Nope.
(Mark laughing)
- What are you gonna eat first?
- [Mark] We are gonna go eat--
- [Woman] I think we should wait.
- [Mark] Oh, okay.
Let's wait. - Until we order--
- [Mark] Let's just go wait and see.
(all laughing)
The main reason why we're here today.
So everybody say, "Hello", to Ramon.
- Hey, how's it goin' guys?
- We've been friends for many years in Bangkok,
but Ramon is an extremely talented artist.
I'll leave his channel in the description box below.
And Ramon loves to eat.
(ordering in Thai)
- In the back.
- [Ramon] Oh, awesome that we can smell the seafood.
Wow.
- [Mark] She's actually still preparing all
the tom yam stocks so we have to wait a little while
but in the meantime, right across the lane,
we're gonna try some,
typically Thai khanom krok,
are little coconut griddle cakes
and they make them in the half circle shape.
They sizzle away
and it's kind of a sweet, savory coconut pudding,
but this one is the most extreme version I've ever seen.
It kind of look like a crossbred between a taco yaki,
a Japanese street food,
and Thai khanom krok.
Cheers.
(rhythmic music)
- Pretty good.
- Yeah, that is pretty good.
Crispy and crunchy on the bottom,
but gooey on the top,
and then you've got that change of texture with the squid.
Dangerously tasty, oily snack.
(rhythmic music)
Imitation crab has never been my favorite,
but it all kinda melts together kinda nicely.
- Yeah, it definitely melts,
and then you got that crunch at the bottom
that's really good.
(Mark agreeing)
- Perfect timing.
She's getting started on the lobster.
(shell cracking)
That's gonna simmer for about 15 minutes,
and then after that, hopefully, we'll get them assembling
the gigantic bowl of tom yam.
- [Ramon] Is that crab, or are those fake?
(rhythmic music)
(speaking Thai)
- Ramon and I were gonna walk around as we wait for
that lobster to boil,
but we didn't make it far.
Like literally right across the alley
from where we are gonna eat the tom yam.
They're female crabs,
so you can see those eggs blooming,
there are like yolks pouring out of the crab.
When you order it she makes it into a green mango salad,
so she first adds some green mango,
some julienne green mango.
Then she adds the crab on top.
Then she adds some dressing,
which is just loaded with chilies and garlic.
- [Ramon] Oh! She's gonna give me a glove.
Awesome!
- [Mark] (laughing) Thank you.
Alright.
The spice doesn't kick in until after,
but that sauce that they have there is
just really, really potent.
(rhythmic music)
Oh that's insane.
Oh, it's so rich, it just melts in your mouth.
It's so garlicky.
I think we forgot to mention,
it's raw crab.
Let me scoop up some of that green mango at the bottom there
and its just like soaked in that dressing
with chilies all over it.
(rhythmic music)
Perfectly crisp.
It's refreshing and salty and sour.
(rhythmic music)
They also have normal-sized bowls of tom yam noodles here.
She's making a bowl of normal.
This is our bowl.
And that's gonna be full soon.
Oh man, she's just gonna litter it with seafood.
Okay, first goes in the squid.
(rhythmic music)
They literally emptied those trays into our giant,
it's a basin, it's not even a bowl,
it's a basin.
Dude, Ramon!
I don't know if we should have eaten those snacks.
(group laughing)
You gotta come take a look.
- Wow! (laughing)
(rhythmic music)
- Oh, oh, oh, wow.
(rhythmic music)
Now comes the soup.
(rhythmic music)
(laughing) This thing is absolutely giganormous.
It's so massive.
And you would actually think that the noodles are below here
but let me tell you,
there are no noodles in this bowl.
The foundation is all fish.
All the noodles are on a separate plate over here
and over here.
Oh, I just got stabbed by the lobster.
- You could bathe a newborn in this.
(both laughing)
- Actually we did.
(both laughing)
This is the most colossal bowl of tom yam
maybe in the world.
- This is an average bowl.
- That's a normal. (laughing)
(Ramon laughing)
Just compare. Yeah, just hold that up.
There's so much seafood it's hard to even navigate
where the soup is,
but there is a lot of soup down there.
Okay, I'm gonna dig in on this side of the lobster
and just get some of that soup broth first.
We gotta--
- [Ramon] I found a spot here.
Yeah, that's good.
- [Mark] Yeah
It's pretty awesomely good, really nice and sour.
You taste that herbs in there.
You taste that saku,
despite being covered in chilies,
it's not actually spicy.
You could go swimming in this with the seafood.
- [Ramon] Literally.
- [Mark] What do you wanna dive into first?
- [Ramon] Lets go straight for the lobster, yeah.
- [Mark] We gotta go for the trophy right there
in the center and this is the gigantic centerpiece.
I think we should just kinda go in and scoop it out,
kinda leverage this guy out.
There's the buttery head juice,
melting in there.
Wow, that is a huge chunk. Very muscular.
- [Ramon] Wanna get a little bit of soup in there.
- [Mark] Yeah, yeah.
(marketplace bustling)
- Tender.
- [Mark] Yeah and at the same time a little bit muscular.
Yeah, just wrapped up in that salty, sour tom yam broth.
Alright, lets go for the fish because the entire foundation
literally the bottom of this basin is all fish.
There's so much fish down there,
and we can kinda like--
Oh, you can dig from there, you can dig from all over.
It's just sprouting with fish.
In Thai the name of the fish is called plah doree,
and we have a lot of it to eat.
It's a very, very soft fish.
- Really soft. Really tender.
- [Mark] Because it's sitting at the bottom of the bowl
so it definitely absorbed quite a lot of tom yam.
So that's like a fish tom yam sponge.
(Ramon laughing)
Whoa, you can grab the whole bite if you want to.
They are definitely stuck together.
They have been sitting here for a little while.
Yes! (laughing)
- [Ramon] Hey!
- You dip this into the soup.
to rehydrate it in the soup and then you eat it.
(rhythmic music)
Let's try one of the mussels.
I think what we can kinda do, fill up--
Oh man, you've got the right idea.
Just scoop up some of the broth.
Just pour it on there,
the natural spoon.
Cheers!
- [Ramon] Cheers!
That's good.
(Mark agreeing)
- Mine is only half-cooked
so it kinda like melts in your mouth,
but I like it that way.
You gotta use a lot of different utensils
for this bowl.
Some things you gotta eat with chopsticks,
Some things you gotta eat with a spoon.
Some things we just gotta reach in with our hands.
- [Ramon] Just dig in.
- Let's go in for these shrimp.
And these are freshwater shrimp I believe.
The head just sorta falls off,
but there should be some goodness inside the head as well.
One of the great things about this tom yam soup is
you can dip all your seafood too,
It's a sauce and a broth.
And then you can suck up all the goodness from the head.
(rhythmic music)
Aw man, from the head, that's where it's at.
That juicy buttery-ness.
- Dripping with goodness.
(both laughing)
- [Mark] I think crab is next.
Little crab drumsticks.
(rhythmic music)
Everything is saturated with tom yam.
- [Ramon] It's soft and spongy.
- [Mark] You can always just re-dip.
Rehydrate.
I'm gonna do that spoon method,
grabbing a piece of the squid
with some of the broth all at once.
- [Ramon] Oh.
- [Mark] At first you think its gonna be a little rubbery,
but then it just chews so easily.
- [Ramon] Yeah.
- [Mark] Not at all.
- [Ramon] Yeah. So which one is your favorite?
- Out of all of the seafood, oh man,
the lobster is just a special trophy item,
but the mussels are so awesome.
The mussels are excellent.
How about you?
- Actually yeah, I was gonna say the mussels
are my favorite I think.
- The mussels?
- The mussels are great, yeah.
- It's soft and you got that spoonful of tom yam in there.
It's really flavorful.
(woman speaking Thai)
- [Mark] Now that we've tasted everything,
Ramon and I are just kina snacking on this giant bowl,
leisurely just nibbling away.
It's really good, actually I like the squid.
It's almost so soft that it almost has like a cheese,
like a mozzarella elasticity to it.
It's not the most fresh seafood you'll ever had,
but it's pretty decent and the flavor is pretty good.
You really just want to eat this for the ginormous size,
and just for how awesome it is to look at.
- This is amazing.
And you should see the looks on the people
that walk by because they--
- Oh man. People--
- [Ramon] They look and they take pictures of it.
- Some people actually stop and put their cell phone
right above our bowl of tom yam and take a photo.
It's great. Absolutely great.
This is a show stopper.
- Yeah, attention grabber.
- [Mark] Ramon's digging out the head.
The juiciest parts are in here.
- [Mark] If that just like, plops--
- I don't think I got it all but--
- [Mark] It looks like a cave!
(rhythmic music)
- Melts on your tongue.
- Yeah.
(rhythmic music)
(group laughing)
Hello!
- [Ramon] Oh hey!
- [Man] I watch your YouTube.
- [Mark] Thank you very much.
How's the tom yam?
- [Group] Good!
- [Mark] Where are you from?
- [Group] Singapore!
- [Ramon] Nice to meet you!
- [Group] Nice to meet you.
- [Mark] Quick update,
we've been eating pretty steadily for about 30 minutes,
and we have made a lot of progress.
Do you think we can do it Ramon?
- I think so. I think we can do it.
- [Mark] We will definitely see the bottom.
See the bottom of this.
(rhythmic music)
We are definitely at the very home stage.
If you rummage your chopsticks through here now,
you'd come up almost empty-handed.
There's a few things to go fishing for.
We are pretty much at the finish line.
For a drink.
- [Ramon] Together?
- [Woman] Are you gonna drink it?
- [Mark] I don't know if we can drink it together, can we?
(Ramon laughing)
That is a lot of salty broth at the bottom there.
Alright Ramon, (laughing)
it's your turn.
It's like drinking out of a bathtub.
Alright Ramon, we gotta do this.
There's still a few pieces of fish.
We're like moving extra slow right now.
- I've had to undo a belt hole.
- Move down the next notch?
- Yeah, I had to widen my pants a little bit.
- [Mark] We do have one final bite Ramon.
(dramatic music)
(cheering)
Accomplished.
Thinking about getting up.
but we just can't physically stand up right now.
How are you feeling Ramon.?
- I feel like I am two kilos heavier than when I arrived.
- [Mark] The seafood is still here.
Its at the table.
But instead of being in the bowl,
it's now transferred directly in our stomachs.
We are gonna be sweating tom yam for the next three days.
(rhythmic music)
We're stumbling out of that stall, that tent.
And now when we're leaving it absolutely packed.
But the entire market now is packed as well.
I feel like I'm just floating along right now
There's no food in this market
that looks good to me right now.
Oh yeah! Maybe a shake.
(blender grinding)
Pretty cool. Pretty creative idea.
This is great.
(rhythmic music)
After all of that salty tom yam,
watermelon and ice has never tasted so good.
That's the most refreshing things I've ever had
at this moment in my life.
(rhythmic music)
Yeah, it's nice to have a different taste in your mouth,
instead of just bites some tom yam.
- [Mark] (laughing) I agree!
(rhythmic music)
- [Mark] What are your final thoughts Ramon?
- [Ramon] Now that I've walked around a little bit,
I think I got a little more room.
It's a little more room now.
- It's starting to settle, starting to settle.
- It's starting to settle.
- Feeling better.
- A lot better.
- [Mark] Feeling better.
- [Ramon] That was awesome. Intense
- I want to say a huge thank you to Ramon
for helping me eat that.
But we just had a great time and Ramon,
again, he has an awesome channel,
a drawing channel, sketches.
= I show people how to draw their favorite nerdy characters,
from comic books, movies, video games.
That kinda stuff so if you guys are interested
in all that stuff then definitely check it out.
Link will be in the description box below.
Check out Ramon
and also he loves to eat.
And we just had a lot of fun.
So thank you Ramon for joining me.
- Yeah, Thanks.
- Thanks man.
Well that's it for this video.
I want to say a huge thank you for watching.
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Thanks again for watching!
Goodbye from Bangkok.
See you on the next video!