RAINBOW NOODLES, Seafood BREAKFAST & Most Beautiful NIGHT MARKET in Sukhothai Thailand

It's almost 6 and I'm about to go do something called arm scavenging at Whatt's Trap Home This is a practice where alms are given by lay people to the monks and lay people means those of us who are not cultivating. So pretty by the way. It's a gesture of giving and sharing where those of us who have something we're giving something to those who may not be as fortunate. So the lay people give the alms to the monks which of course helps nourishes their body, spirits, virtue. Really interesting ceremony so we're gonna go do that right now. So this is the bowls that the monks are carrying. Also one thing to note this is not a charity this is doing something really good something virtuous because back in the day when Sakamune established Buddhism he only allowed his disciples to carry the alms the bowl and that was the only thing they were allowed to to possess. So whatever people put into the bowl and that's typically food. So whatever food was put into these bowls were the only things that could really nourish the monk's body because monks were taught to give up worldly items. So that's why this tradition is so important because whatever food they get from from the alms is really what sustains them. So this ceremony is important to symbolize you know doing a good deed and helping others and doing something that's Right now we're at a local morning market right beside the temple and there's a bunch of food vendors here and the monks are also going through here and collecting things in their alms as well and just walked up and smelled the aroma of this wonderful lady over here cooking things in banana leaf. This is sticky rice with sweet potatoes inside. I'll tell you grilled sweet potato and sticky rice is even better. Grilled sweet potato and sticky rice inside a banana bread. That's the ultimate one. That was such a great bite of sweetness with smoke and that great banana leaf flavor. I'll steep deeply into it. That was a great first bite of breakfast. I gotta get another one. This one's with egg custard inside. I'm telling you there's nothing like this. This is a 9 out of 10 food item because that rice is so toasty and a bit crunchy on the outside. There's like an egg omelet inside this and that smoky char just seals the deal. Oh sweet milky chai tea. A little donut. Tastes like Chinese youtiao. Some fried dough dipped into the sweet creamy milky chai tea. It's a magical breakfast moment here in Thailand. In the morning you're gonna see a lot of vendors selling grilled fish. This is a very typical food item here for breakfast in the morning. So you're walking around you're just smelling like this awesome aroma. Still 6 30 in the morning and you see all the chili sauce everywhere. It's a magical moment. Sitting down for a little breakfast and chicken rice is something commonly eaten here this early in the morning. It's hot on the dry side but the chili sauce is good. When you're in Thailand there's no place you go where the chili sauce is not good. Of course grilled fish a very traditional breakfast item here with chili paste and sticky rice. The two fish we got sticky rice chili paste less than two dollars. Each fish is like 80 cents. If you want to retire early just move to Thailand. Your daily food budget will be and that's eating really well. Grilled fish is great. They salted it perfectly so really simply cooked. The fish of course is going to be a little on the drier side and the chili is not as spicy as I thought. It just provides that little prick on your tongue. The two fish here tilapia and catfish. Catfish is so much better. The meat is much more tender but the tilapia it's got a slightly better smoky flavor to it and it's salted more. And typically what we do with the sticky rice make it into a little ball dip it into the chili paste. Pop this in your mouth. Follow up with a bite of fish. That's good breakfast. When in Thailand eat this. So much better than just scrambled eggs and oatmeal. After breakfast it's important to get some exercise. Hey buddy! So I'm gonna go biking. Today I'm gonna be biking through Sukhothai Historical Park. That's really exciting. Also like check out this bike seriously. I think I got one of these when I was in China about 20 years ago. This is like vintage bike right here. But I gotta say just like the bikes in China these are ridiculously comfortable. And see the little thing on the back? I remember my dad used to be able to carry my mom in the back and me in the front you know when there's a bar. Three people on a bike. That was really common back then. This is King Ramkhamhaeng. He invented the Thai alphabet over 700 years ago. Pretty incredible to be walking around in structures that were built you know over 700 years ago. Dedicated to the people's faith at the time. And it's really just a surreal feeling just walking around here and just soaking up all that history. And when you're breathing in you're smelling the incense from the nearby temples. This has been one of my favorite trips just exploring places like this. Right there Bodhi tree. Supposedly Sakyamuni was sitting under one of those trees when he reached enlightenment. So Mr. Gop how are you? How are you? I'm fine. He makes amulets. Yes. Buddha amulets here. This is your workshop. Yes. We're gonna take a look. Oh you found these? Yes. Well I thought you made these. You made them. You started making them but these were the actual artifacts found on this land. Yes. Wow that's so cool. Look at this. Are you still finding it now? Like is there still more like on the land? Every day. Every day you find more? Yes. So we're gonna just walk around and we're gonna see if we can just find some. That's definitely not it. It's everywhere huh? Yes. You can see the original pattern on this. You can see it on camera better. It's possible that people buried all the pottery with the under graveyard. And sometimes they put like the money to hide from the enemy. So this could potentially be a massive graveyard. Now we're gonna make a buddha amulet. See how he does it. We make amulet because when we die we can go to the next life and we have ghost light in the next life. Throw the clay and press in the mold. Like this and write your name behind. Your name Mike. When you take it out, touch it. We're gonna make a sitting one. Got an elephant, a naga, dragon, buddha which I wrote the Chinese word for for buddha on the back. Only difficulty here is these kind of look like chocolates so I want to take a bite but don't do Apparently I can't hunt but I'm gonna try to make a fire quickly. Oh there you go. Looks so easy but I'm sure it's not. Man we have made fire. Are we cooking something? Ready for barbecue. That's what I like to hear. Melon. Melon? Melon rice powder. It's like a like a pudding. Almost like a rice mochi pudding on the outside. Hope you guys saw Thailand in your perspective today. This is the director of Sukhothai office of tourism. Thanks for having me. I appreciate that. Thank you. This has been great. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. That was so fun. Thank you. If you ask anybody what Sukhothai is famous for food wise, the answer is going to be noodles and finally I get to have some. Right now we're in the Natongjan district and if you are ever here, near here, you gotta come to this place. This restaurant is called Kao Perp Ya Kuran and Kao Perp means rice roll, Kai means grandma and Kuran is this lady's name. Her family created this recipe over 200 years ago because it was really hard for them to get noodles because it was too far away. So they were like make our own noodles and now it became an institution. So there's different types of noodles that I got. So pretty. It's like the rainbow of noodles. First one, check this out. These are called Kaob and these are rice noodles wrapped around a bamboo stick on the outside. There's rice cracker. You know those awesome rice cracker you get from the Asian grocery stores? The rice crackers rolled on top of the noodles so you get an extra layer of flavor. This is amazing. This is so flavorful. Really soft and just a bit of chew. It's got the little specks of chilies to heat your taste buds up and little specks of sesame to provide that additional aroma. Perfectly steamed noodle in a fantastically fun fashion because eating from a stick is always better than eating from a bowl. Unless we're talking about soup because soup can't. Stick soup doesn't work. So this is a double layered one with the rice cracker sheet wrapped around the noodle. Basically the double decker of the steamed noodle world. I like this even more. The outside layer of rice cracker provides an extra chew. It's almost like what the chicken skin does for the chicken meat. It has a different texture. So does this. This is an egg one. It's like fermented noodles. That's where you're getting the kind of the sourness from. And this one made with the egg. This might be my favorite. As much as I love chilies. This are such a rich deep flavor that delicately balances the taste of that fermentation. The sourness isn't as apparent because you're getting so much more of that richness. This is called the cow perp. It's the traditional steamed rice noodles. It's soaked in pork soup with a softly steamed egg. And this one you want to be careful looking at it because it's basically like staring into the sun. That's how pretty. This soup you see the bottom layer. There's a steamed noodle on the bottom of that layer. And then of course on top perfectly cooked golden eggs. All soaked in this light porky broth. Another reason why their noodles taste so good and the flavors are so rich is because they add pork soup into the noodles themselves. So the noodles are not just going to be like simple plain jang type of noodles. They're going to have some flavor. Oh yeah. This soup is not too heavy. You get that great taste of the garlic and the pork. I feel like I need something in this. A little bit of chili. I like a little vinegar. That's so good. These are gray tail bae. It's flat thin rice noodles covered in peanuts, sauces, chicharron, slice of pork, a lime. So the sauces are drowning these thin rice noodles on this plate. I can tell these are going to be very chewy noodles. And the sauce when you mix it up changes the white noodles to a golden color. Splash of lime. Oh these are so chewy. These noodles are definitely bae. You get it because they're bae noodles. It's literally spelled b-a-e noodles. To me this is the noodle dish that really encompasses Thailand for me. Tons of peanuts, a little sweet, nice fresh chewy noodles. Beautiful chunks of pork, got a nice color, got a nice crunch, got the citrus flavor. This to me is Thailand on a plate. This park is no ordinary park. This is the historical park of Si Sacha Nalai. It's basically the capital of the second kingdom of Sukhothai. There's so many of these majestic ruins. This is called the Seven Roll Temple. And the purpose, kind of creepy, it is the royal graveyard. So the royal family was buried here. So just like going into a church where you see the holy waters right by the entrance, these temples also have these basins here. So these used to host holy water and people wash themselves before they walk into the temple. What's really interesting is stones like this, this is lithorite. This is a very harsh stone. Can you imagine like 800 years ago, how they get the technology to not only cut this into like an even flat surface, like look at this, this is a giant rectangle. But how do they lift this monstrous boulder of a rock on top of these pillars? And how do they even shape these pillars? Things like this, and also the ruins at Sacsayhuaman in Peru, Stonehenge Pyramids. These things were never really completely solved as to how people back then managed to create such huge, precise stone structures like this. Anyway, a little bit of beyond science on this food channel. So we're at another famous noodle shop here. This is Jay Hay Sukhothai noodles. And the characteristic of Sukhothai noodles is that they're gonna be a little sweeter than other noodles because they use pure cane sugar in their dish. We have the long bean one with the regular noodles, cuts of roast pork, peanuts, cane sugar, stir-fried rice noodle with banana flour. And then it's the two variation of the soup noodle, one with the regular noodle, one with the rice noodle. And of course, the typical condiment tray of chilies and vinegar and sugar. This is something you don't see a lot in noodle shops, basically anywhere else, but sugar is a pretty common condiment for noodles here. Ooh, this thing caught me by surprise here. These noodles are so deliciously unique. For sure, the sugarcane is very noticeable here. These are probably the sweetest soup noodles I've ever had. The noodles, of course, perfect. Great texture, fantastic chew, soaks up that soup just the right amount so it doesn't get all soggy. And the broth is spicy, and when you sip it, it's thick, and it has like a roasted caramelization flavor. And for me, I think it just needs some more vinegar. And let's top a couple more. I think that's perfect because before it was sweet and salty, it was good, but now it's sweet and more vinegary. So it's got a more of a sweet and sour note that I'm more used to. So the next bowl is with the rice noodles. I think it's a similar broth and ingredients, but just a different type of noodles. Add some vinegar. These green beans really do have a great chew to it. Add cane sugar, add a little vinegar, a little chili. You get that savory element, and you get that sour element. But now, it's savory, sour, and sweet. And those are three great components to a fantastic bowl of noodles. Bowl number three is the dry noodles. Splash of lime, mix in all the ingredients. This thing's got a bunch of peanuts. Again, the long green beans, cane sugar is mixed in here as well. And this already came with a bunch of chilies. You definitely can taste the sugar a little more when the noodles are dry. So add a splash of vinegar. Create the great noodle trifecta. I mean, if you love sweet and sour chicken, sweet and sour pork, you definitely got enough room in your heart for these sweet and sour noodles. Last one, stir fried. The texture obviously is not as good as the regular noodles, but it soaks up that sauce so well. Now remember, if you do come to the city and you're trying these noodles, if it's not sweet, you don't taste the cane sugar, that means it's an impasta. Anyway, it's been a really awesome couple of noodle pit stops. First one, tasted the glory, the innovation of steamed rice noodles. In here, freshly made noodles with some out-of-the-world flavoring, with some history, archaeology, and some beyond science factors thrown into the day. This is beyond anything I thought it would be when I signed up for this trip. All right, I gotta finish up because after this, I'm going to a night market. There's something about night markets I just completely love. First of all, it's at night. Secondly, it's usually outside. You get to walk around, enjoy the nice evening air with the wonderful aroma of food and smoke drifting through the air. And this night market is at the Sokotai Historical Park. It's not a huge market, but it's all about the food. I've been to a lot of night markets. A lot of night markets. Nothing as beautiful as this one. You can literally get your food, go to the edge of the pond, have a seat anywhere, and eat it. And the carpets laid out on the side of the pond so you can just have a seat. I got a bunch of desserts. This is like a sesame ball, some sweet rice, and also a little coconut cupcake thingy. Oh my god, that was like a Thai version of a natural gushers. When I bit into that, juice bursted everywhere. Coconut juice was inside that mochi ball, and inside of the juice, raw coconut. There's a lot of coconut shavings in here. The other stuff in here is good. Rice is okay, but that black sesame ball, that was the greatest thing in a little banana leaf pouch. Oh, it's coconut cream inside. And this is great. Really sweet, really soft. It's basically like a smooth coconut cream with taro inside. Check out my little makeshift table right here. I got my foods, the lake behind me. Only thing I'm missing is a date. What am I talking about? I got all the love I need in the world right here. My significant others will be some pad thai, freshly cooked, smelling great with a little side of peanuts and sugar and chilies. Go ahead, squeeze a little lime juice on there. Freshly prepared papaya salad, skewers, and coconut ice cream. Couldn't resist some of my favorite classic Thai cuisine. Pad thai will forever be my go-to Thai comfort food. Pad thai and papaya salad. Oh, by the way, a little sugar on your pad thai. It does wonder. Excuse me, little skewers. Didn't mean to forget about you. Oh, beef meatball skewer. Get you some. This place really just holds so much magic and wonder, and it's really not overrun by tourists at all, which that's pretty important. If this ain't a perfect all-around food day, I really don't know what is. Basically, everything I love, food, history, archaeology, nature, all crammed into one perfect day. Coconut ice cream. I travel to a lot of places around the world. This has been one of my favorite days so far. I mean, I wish my archery skills would have been better today, but everything else pretty on point. In this night market, this and this, perfect conclusion to this day. As always, guys, all the places I went to listed down below for you. Thank you all so much for watching. Until we eat again, I'll see you later.