EXTREME Vietnamese Street Food!! | Surviving Vietnam Part 1

This is the whole trip just cruise around to different yummy restaurants and eat food. I think we're good. I think it's gonna be amazing Da Nang is a coastal city and the fifth largest in Vietnam with over 1 million residents It's also the starting place of our central Vietnam journey. It's like 600 miles from here. So it is gonna be quite a journey It's not Hanoi along the way. We're gonna be stopping in some places It's not Saigon, and I know there's gonna be some unusual foods out there Central Vietnam has a cultural and culinary identity all its own Typically, it's way more spicy food and you often have whole chilies in there ready to munch on This place is full of fun food surprises and probably some not so fun surprises, too Anything you need me to help with now, let me know. I'm here to help now. We will tell the intestine I Don't know because for the first time in this show's history I am relinquishing control of where we go what we do and what we eat to our producer My partner on this mysterious mission is Andrew Fraser My best friend in Vietnam and the guy who talked me into moving here. How long have you been in? Oh, yeah, three years annoying. Why'd you move here? I mean, why not together? We're taking on whatever my twisted producer has thrown together And that is me Wang. That looks pretty good time to start Me Wang super famous central region dish right means noodles, right? And then what about Wang? I've got no idea somebody who is less mature might think it's a funny name. They've kind of deconstructed it They put it all apart and usually it would be all put together in a bowl with what beef Yeah, beef chicken eggs all kinds of stuff. I've eaten endless amounts of me Wang and I've never had anything like this Yeah, this is with a frog Me Wang a flat wide rice noodle here. This restaurant is serving these noodles with frog meat Oh, no How many frogs just came out the frog is marinated in turmeric ginger purple onion and five-spice powder Stir fry in a giant wok and served in a ceramic pot along with pork chicken Mackerel and shrimpies. I'm gonna try this fish Mmm, it tastes like pickled almost grab some of these noodles That's good, this is one of the quintessential Vietnamese dishes generous portions, it's very meaty. I'm gonna get take a bite of frog cap It's savory but there's something sour in there too that's affected all the meat the same So you're getting kind of different textures with the same flavor. Meanwhile, you have these like super soft noodles That's a nice hefty meal. Okay, as you know, we're going on a trip. Here's how it's gonna work Our best ever Central Vietnam journey has begun throughout our trip producer Me will provide us with coordinates and missions showing us where to go what to do and who to meet I don't trust her. I don't know what it is. I think one time I meet her to go on a boat in Japan It was a very bad experience Think she's just always trying to get paid back for that. This is making me more nervous. Yeah, you should be so basically, whatever she says is What we're doing She's just handing me a card In my hands now the first hints of what's to come. Oh, that is terrible handwriting Gentlemen, congratulations on the start of your Central Vietnam adventure But this is just the start as you know, this is a bike trip to survive this journey. You must keep an open mind And if you don't if you fail any missions, you don't get to sleep in a hotel Man I've gotta admit I kind of thought this was just gonna be like what we usually do What do you think? It's gonna be the hardest part of this trip two weeks filming through Central Vietnam hot hot weather Minority accents Vietnamese is hard enough Well, listen, I know that we got bikes. Hmm. Let's ride. Let's do this. Let's do it. Yeah, let's do that. We're like your guys Ah I didn't think it was this kind of a bike trip Danone the city of bridges beautiful charming Cycling is a much-enjoyed activity here Are we almost at the next location? This sucks, but not so much for two guys wearing giant crash helmets, bro It's gonna be a long ass wait in a train. I gotta talk to producer me. Something's a little bit off here I thought we're gonna take it like motorcycles with big engines the kind that make girls instantly fall in love with you or guys Whichever, it's fine Watch out. Yeah, watch out for the car There's a bike. Oh, ah To your shoulders up ride with confidence. These cars are very big and even these small scooters are bigger than these bikes Producer means coordinates have brought us here a restaurant with 60 years of experience serving another central Vietnamese classic Banh Xeo a crispy sizzling pancake made of rice and turmeric batter topped with shrimp and mung beans Served with rice paper fresh herbs and the country's favorite condiment fish sauce, bro. I can do this I was expecting scary foods. You were just warning me. This is Banh Xeo I love Banh Xeo the bikes were a bit of a letdown but the food pretty chill in Saigon Yes, Banh Xeo huge right size of your head. Yes, but when you come to the central region what happens Andrew, right? When it comes to eggy to murky cakey things with prawns inside I think smaller is better more crispy exactly because of the crunch step one take one of these load it into the rice paper I usually do a couple herbs. Oh, you've been poor She's overestimating how many vegetables I eat in a day get a nice tight roll on it I'm gonna go with the delicious peanut sauce here. Oh That's good. That's crunchy. Oh, it's so spicy to the textures are incredible You kind of tear through the rice paper and then the crunch comes after that, right? I'm gonna eat one more day too because it was good. Oh, we didn't do the nook mom. What is nook mom? Look mom is fish sauce. Do you know how they make fish sauce? I assume fermented fish Yeah, but did they just squeeze it until sauce comes it just sits in a barrel for a long ass time Really like kimchi. I think so Dude that is genuinely excellent. There's a sweetness accurate. I mean super salty and then a bit saccharine sweet Well, I'm not sure why we came here. I don't see any There's another card Quite frequent. Why don't you just talk to me? I hope you guys are enjoying the city because now we're gonna leave and never come back Below are the coordinates of a village where fish reach their full potential and where Vietnamese make their own form of sushi It's in a village though. Do you think they have nice sushi restaurants in the village? Unlikely, you know what? I don't think there'll be any unexpected twists or turns. I think we're good If you hate cities somehow you'll still like this place over a million people But with a small town feel one of the most developed livable cities in the country. Okay, this is more like it We've got beach on the right buildings on the left. No kidding, man I love to know this has got to be one of the most livable cities in Vietnam This is zero traffic for Vietnam as well. What makes this city livable to you? This is modern city for Vietnam is newly developed. It's really picturesque good food. You've got to move up here This is a sick city. It is sick. But apparently according to my producer, we're never coming back next stop Namo village Where are we? I don't know bro At first glance this appears to be a fishing village, but I don't see any fish Perhaps this nice elderly woman can give us some answers. Can you ask her the name of this beach? Maybe guy been a Danny? This is the Namo Beach. Are you making this up? No, okay. This is great. We are looking for fish I guess 2 a.m. Dang team. Yeah. Oh god. I hope god. Yeah, there's some in that boat There's someone over here right since our fishermen. Yeah from here. I can see they've got some baskets of sardines They're bringing it in This is Namo village It's been here a long time Centuries at least perfectly situated on the coast meaning most the folks living here in one way or another are in the fish business I did not bring my beach outfit Okay, that's the last one so that's one two, three, four five six seven eight containers of sardines here Sinchon I like that. It does the traditional sweat rub handshake You've been out fishing. How long did it take you to get all these fish? Yesterday and today Since how so all the fish here, what are you going to do with these fish? That's what they do here in them. Oh, they make fish sauce. I get it. This is where the fish reach their full potential See turns out this is one of the rare traditional fish sauce making villages that exists throughout the entire country of Vietnam Mr. Wang's family was one of the first producing fish sauce in this village a legacy that goes back over 200 years How do you juice a fish Andrew? I don't think it's what you think. I Oh shoot. We got another card coming Why did she seem so unhappy when she gives me the cards last one for today? It says two halves make a whole the more you split in half the further you will go F Andrew The next time we split up he's getting the crappiest job I don't know what Sonny's job was like, but I can't imagine it was much worse than this. I mean, I Think it's clear what she means We're gonna help process all this fish sauce One person has to carry all this and one person has to go into the factory, which is probably a shade and a fan Oh, I'll do that bed in the shade. You're probably gonna have to juice these fish So, I don't know if you made the right choice there Andrew. Yeah, I Hope he has to dig holes for dead bodies There's like 50 pounds of fish. Oh Okay, that's two. There's six more down there. Meanwhile, Andrew is in the factory Having a great time. I'm here with our way. They probably have a fountain machine in there And so this is the very beginning of the fish sauce making process The process is simple but cannot be completed without one crucial ingredient. Oh my god The fish there's got to be a better way of doing this. Um, maybe ah, hello Okay, oh it's way easier all right, okay now we're gonna put five bowls of fish into this mixing bowl Okay, mom. Hi. Hi more more more man. They're very precise. You just have to take a little micro steps. Oh, yeah I mean who needs to pay for a gym membership, right now salt. How do you many high? So just two balls of salt in with those fish who very big balls There you go. Okay, so we're mixing the fish in with salt here. It's really pretty poor salt actually Man, that is still not light. That's at least a hundred pounds. Oh my god. Hers are way heavier than mine It's pretty surreal feeling there we go. Okay, and now we're gonna carry it over to the fermenting vessel Man this is tiring work. I don't know what Sonny's job was like I Heard they used to have a horse to do this job But maybe it died each pot contains four to six hundred pounds of fish Which will eventually become a metric F load of sauce We're gonna continue this and fill this giant vessel and just let the fish ferment here in the salt It sits there for an entire year. Oh, we're in a hill now Yes starting as this semi-solid fish much Oh Then with the help of bacteria it breaks down into a purely liquid state here We have the nook mom that's been fermenting for about one year It needs to go through one more process when the time comes it's filtered to keep the fish essence, but remove the fish souls Jeepers look at this. That was brutal good thing. I drank a Gatorade This video is brought to you by Gatorade Hey Andrew, it's the sunny side turns out. We're not just doing a restaurant tour. It was way more intense How was that for you? It's fine. It's pretty easy. Oh What about you? How was it here? That was brutal stuff. I can't even smell fish anymore. My whole body is covered in it Yeah, it's pretty gross. I'm telling you. Oh, man I thought the whole time that what I did was really hard and what you did was pretty easy. Oh, man. That looks simple Let's talk about this the fish sauce That is stinky, yeah, I can't even smell it anymore Yeah, actually really looking forward to trying what this is I can't imagine that it's not just because you've seen it comes in that sort of chocolate colored liquid Literally go through a cheesecloth in it and it comes out clear. It's pretty remarkable. Yeah, it looks like a whiskey Yeah, that's right. Should we try it out mole? Hi. Bye. Oh Wow, it's intensely salty it is so salty Is this finished? Is this the final form? Do people add water to it or cut it? Huh? Nothing man. That's it It has this like next-level savory like people in Japan always call it umami, right? This is raw umami, man There's no sweetness there that I'm used to Our reward for helping with the fish sauce raw herring salad That's right raw fish a type of Vietnamese sashimi You could say there's many ways to cook food the most common way is heat crack, but you could also use citrus Hmm. Why do you put the lime on the fish? So he said like the lime is able to cook it And he makes it good. Well, I think we should start eating. I see so many things here The fish are prepared two ways first the dry version Lime juice a mixture of strong spices like ginger lemongrass garlic and chilies mixed well until the fish absorbs all the seasonings Squeeze the liquid out then coat the fish bits with stir-fried rice powder I'm assuming it's gonna be similar to what we had already Bonsai. We've got greens cucumber right here the rice paper and what Like many Vietnamese dishes they start the same way a lot of herbs, right? He loads it up with fish, too. Mm-hmm. Oh For me I can do it. I could do it Nice, then you just douse it with sauce. I believe That's so good, that's amazing man I think the thing I'm most surprised about is how just soft and delicate the fish is the aromatics are pulling you in different directions Right fresh blend of herbs. This sauce is fantastic. I hardly even remember that. I'm actually eating raw fish, okay Next the wet version. It's like a soup. Is that all chili seeds? Sugar water fish sauce a mixture of strong spices and peanut butter But some of these raw fish on top of the herbs a little bit of the sauce in there, too Right throw in some fish add more spices and dig it Not fishy at all. The fish is so soft. Hmm. I'm feeling the heat a little bit That's true. Otherwise savory not over salty though, especially considering has so much nook mom in it as well. Yeah, right Did you grow up making fish sauce or how did you learn to make fish sauce? I've been making fish sauce since I was 7 years old. I've been running a family business for 4 years. The first step of my life is making fish sauce. I've been making fish sauce for 200 years. Life on the water is hard, but these folks make it seem easy Chiseled, hardened, but always wearing a smile. Fish sauce It's like the sauce of Vietnam a very sauce liking country. Right. And now we know the origins. Hmm. Fantastic This is our first taste of Central Vietnamese food and hospitality So far so good. Surely in our next episode producer me will have nothing evil planned for us There's one more dish we're waiting for. Do you have any ideas? Let's take a look. Oh God bro Best ever food review show is saying goodbye to all of our original best ever merch designs But for the next 30 days all of our previous designs will be available one last time So besties It's your last chance to snatch your favorite limited-edition merch all available in a variety of colors and styles link in bio to get yours From researching and shooting To editing and mastering our 10 person best ever food review show team works hard to roll out the highest quality Travel food entertainment twice a week. 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