SNAKEHEAD FISH! Traditional HOME COOKED Meal in VIETNAM

This is Mike Chen, my last day here in Vietnam. I'm in the town of Rakhia, and this is a really special place for one of our team members, Brenda. It's her hometown. And we are actually at her grandparents' house right now. She hasn't seen them in a decade almost, so obviously a really emotional time for her and her family. But they also prepared a really awesome homemade feast for us. And they kindly invited us into their homes to see them cook. So this is going to be a very homemade, traditional Vietnamese meal that we're partaking here. And this is grandpa. Hi, grandpa. He's like over 90 years old. This is all of Brenda's family. Asians all have big families. So we got this. All coconut for us. Oh wow, that's all for us? Yeah. Whoa, that's a lot of coconuts. This is the snakehead fish. Snakehead fish. Look at this. It's a really popular fish here in Vietnam. I haven't tried it on this trip. This is a cobia fish. Really pale looking fish. And those are fish patties we're going to fry later. And check out their cooking stations. Look at this. This is old-fashioned. Everything is charcoal. So I guess the grilling is going to happen right here. So the whole family is rice farmers. Can we check out the rice patties? Wow, look at this. Little lily pads. Lotus flower is my favorite. There's fish in here. We have a graveyard. The thing with Vietnamese graveyards is this, and it was explained to me by a tour guide. Vietnamese families, they tend to bury their relatives really close to their homes so they can like keep a close watch on them. Also, the spirits of the relatives would look over the families themselves, and the spirits of the ancestors would look over the family as well. So that's why, you know, in the backyard, literally, it would be where the tombstones are. That's Brenda's family's rice field. That's cool. That must be hard work. So we're going to start cooking. They're cooking the fish right now. Just whole fish is going on there. Scales and everything. Oh, look at that. What? Whoa, that is a massive, scary looking fish. That fish has cold eyes. That's probably why they call it a snake fish. So the whole fish is being grilled, like no scales removed. Vietnam is like the first country I came to where I had fish where the scales left on. Auntie number eight is supposed to be the best cook in the family, and the fish patties are going into the fryer. And this is the auntie we actually met in Saigon, and she's preparing the fish fillets. That's all for the hot pot. The fish is, I guess, done grilling from the bottom, and now it's on its side. My uncle is chopping off the coconuts. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Oh, come on. Come on. Wow. I feel the love in this coconut. You know what I'm saying? This whole family is just full, like overwhelmingly filled with love. I feel it, you know? I'm just like, he's happy, like the whole family's so happy to see her. Reunions are always so special. This is our lao, or our hot pot, and she added some salt, sugar, and she just added those bags you saw. That was coconut water. And then a bowl of vinegar. So I'm thinking this is going to be like a little sweet, a little sour. Extremely delicious. That's where our fish fillet is going to go in. Check out this fish. It's completely charred on one side. If you look at the face, it still looks scary. Basically, the entire fish, nothing done to it, throw on the grill. It's as simple as that. A couple of the fish pancakes are done. The hot pot is a-brewing. Can't wait to try this out. If I caught that fish, I would throw it back with some free fish food. Uncle is tossing another one of these snakehead fish on the grill. Three snakehead monster fish. I'm both terrified and hungry. Auntie number eight made these fish patties, and she wants me to try it right now. How do you say delicious again? Niang? Yeah. It's like a really bouncy fish cake. It tastes like fish and maybe a little pork mixed in here. In China, we often judge like how good a fish ball by how high it bounces. It's supposed to have a really chewy texture. You guys see how clean and beautiful that meat looks? She's like my favorite person ever because as I'm holding this plate eating, she's putting more patties on my plate. We all need an auntie like that. We do. I'm not sure exactly what this is about. I'm not just saying this because it's Brenda's aunt, but seriously, if I was served this at a restaurant, yeah, I'd come back the next day. So that's what it used to look like. You do see a lot of herbs in there. I see maybe some scallions, some garlic. If this was in a burger form, it'd be like an awesome fish burger. Ain't no flies were invited to this party. They don't get a bite. Before we eat, there's something we should try. Vietnamese durian. Jen's been waiting for this for like a week. It smells less stinky than I remember. It sounds good. It actually smells kind of good. I don't know whether it's because I've been eating so much durian that I'm kind of developing some sort of immunity towards the smell. I heard Vietnamese durian is different. Yeah? Sure. Probably the best durian I have. You know why? It's so good. It's not that stinky. The smell, it is a bit pungent, but it's not nearly as pungent as like some of the other ones. Best durian I've ever had. Right? I agree with you. I'm just gonna go finish this. Alright. Thanks, Jen. They also want me to try this. This is called banh oe. It looks like a rice wrap. They say you can only get from this city here, not in Saigon, and you dip it in some sesame seeds. It's sweet. The sesame seeds are a little salty, and that gives it a beautiful sesame flavor. The inside, coconut shaving. Also mung bean. And what I like about all these ingredients, they're all ingredients that as you chew, its flavors just release more and more. So uncle, he's not scaling the fish, he's just taking out some parts that are more charred and more burnt. I think what's happening right now is that this fish is literally being steamed inside like its own skin. Wow, look at that. Look at that fish meat. Whoa. Oh, that is beautiful. This is the snakehead fish. You can see all the guts, everything is still in here. Look at this. Just squeezing a little bit of my chopsticks. You guys see how juicy this is? And I'm just gonna take a piece right here. This fish is so juicy. This fish doesn't look like it has a lot of bones. I see the big rib right here. That's about it. Look at that piece of meat. That is beautiful. This is fish at its purest form. No herbs, no seasoning, but no fishiness whatsoever. It's such a beautiful, clean flesh. You can taste the smoke from the charcoal. Vietnamese cuisine, gotta have some fresh herbs, lettuce. Take a piece of the fish, gonna dip it in some tamarind sauce, put it on my lettuce. Just add another piece here. Fresh herbs go on. Give that a roll. That's beautiful. This tamarind sauce is awesome. It's sweet and sour, spicy with the herbs. It does absolutely transform the fish. The fish on its own is already really good. And like I mentioned, no fishiness whatsoever, which surprises me because nothing is done to the fish itself. There's no seasoning outside, no herbs on the inside. It's just grilled as is. But with some lettuce, a little herb, you get that nice, natural crunch. Probably alongside the steamed fish in Cantonese cuisine, this is one of the most naturally delicious fish I've ever had. No joke. The meat has zero fishiness. Also, I got a little piece of the outside scale because it added sort of a slight charred bitterness to the fish meat, which gave it a little more texture. And that added more dimension to this fish. And I just want to say again, this is a great sauce. Auntie number eight just informed me that the hot pot broth is ready, so she wants me to have a taste. By the way, if you're wondering why I'm calling her auntie number eight, this is very common in Asian families where we call the aunties by the order of their age. So the oldest auntie will be big auntie, and then she's auntie number eight. The broth is very, very clear. It literally looks like pho broth with some ingredients inside. It's got a lot of vinegar in here. That's a good thing because I love my vinegar. This is so interesting. I've never had a hot pot broth like this before. It's almost like boiled apple cider vinegar. The vinegar taste is really pronounced, but at the same time, it's balanced out by such a beautiful sweetness. And then everything calms down with just that hint of coconut water. This is going to be awesome with that fish all dipped in there. All right, auntie number eight is dressing the fish in the cuttlefish right now. She added in some pepper, salt, sugar. All right, hot pot broth is ready. Going into our hot pot. I feel so fortunate to be here because look at the spread. This is really different than like a Chinese gathering, like a Chinese family gathering first of all. We're not going to have any salad. In Vietnam, constant fresh veggies. But please, please, everybody, let's dig in. We have the rice wrapper, one of my favorite things. I only discovered that in December of this year. It's like I've been living under a culinary rock. Fish is going into the hot pot. Come on, come on. I feel so bad. I don't want to, I don't want to start eating. Well, usually because you're a guest, they like to treat you very well. I see that. I'm being treated very well today. I feel very unworthy of this, but come on, thank you. She said to dip it in tamarind sauce. Yeah, that's a beautiful sauce. I'm the worst rice roll wrapper. Just use your two hands. It might be more useful. Here you go. Thank you. I do not want to be the first one to start eating. I mean, this is like my childhood screaming at me. It's just Chinese custom, probably all Asian custom. It's kind of like a battle because they want me to eat first because I'm a guest here. I also, but I don't want to be the first one to eat first. It's kind of like fighting for the bill at the end of the meal. Come on. So I'm going to put some in my bowl so I don't double dip. Yeah, no double dipping. We're not savages here. Here we go. The fish is really good. There's no fishiness to it. No. It's grilled really well. Perfect. I love how Vietnamese people eat. Because I feel like I'm getting my meat and it's really healthy at the same time. That's true. I feel like I eat a lot of this and there's no guilty conscious. When I'm eating a Chinese meal, at the end of the meal, I feel like I need to roll out of there. Yeah. But this, I feel like I did my body some good. The aunties don't want to be on screen because they're shy. It's okay. Alright, so grab some brews. Get a piece of the fish cake. And this is the sauce you dip it in. Good? That's a more pungent fish sauce. I like it though. I love the pepper that's in these fish cakes. This is one of the best fish cakes I've had. Not just homemade, but it's ridiculously good. Alright, the hotpot is almost ready. I'm going to add some of the veggies in there. That goes into the fish sauce. It's a pretty piece of fish. This whole fillet, no bones whatsoever. Looks really gentle. One bone. The aftertaste hit me. It tastes sort of like a swordfish. It's a little fishier than the steakhead fish, but the meat is like a delicious fish steak. It's not the most tender fish, but that's why I said it's sort of like a swordfish. It has so much meat. It looks like a pork bill. That broth goes perfectly with this fish. A little sweet, a little sour. Can't wait to try this water spinach. This thing just soaked up all that broth. The broth is really good. You want to drink some broth when eating this fish. The coconut actually brings out the sweetness in it too. I love that the sugary element of this broth is from coconut. So it's not like sugary, like nasty sugary. It's good. I'm going to try this. Look at this massive squid egg. How is it? I love squid egg. You love it? I do. It kind of tastes like a mix between a scallop and a beef tenderloin. I think for this meal, the hotpot gods definitely smiled down upon us. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I can't wait to eat more veggies. Soaked in this broth. And there's a couple things I want to do. First of all, I need some more of that broth. Oh, thank you. This is so good, you guys wouldn't believe. So different than any other broth I've had before. I'm taking some water spinach, because god knows I need this. Because after I leave Vietnam, my intake of vegetables will probably drop by 80%. And I'm just going to sneak a little rice noodle in my broth. I'm so sorry that you guys can't go somewhere and order this. Because I wish you can taste how good this is. And the last thing we haven't tried is rice rolls. And there's two kinds. This is the one with beef. Pork. And mung bean. And the other, banana. This is really interesting. Mung beans I usually only have like sweet. This is not salty at all. Tastes like a mini zongzi in Chinese. In the south, southern Chinese, they love sticky rice with vegan salad. This is more like northern Chinese. Sweet sticky rice. Alright, cheers. Cheers. I definitely prefer this more. It has a little heart here. So Brenda. Yes? How does it feel being back here? Feels so good. Did you cry? No. No? I was filled with so much joy. I just couldn't cry. It's been ten years. Eight. Eight years. About ten years. But yeah, just seeing you and your family, it's very touching. They're showing love through food. They don't usually cook like this. No. So this is like a huge occasion. You're coming back here. We were supposed to be here yesterday. We missed our flight. But we missed our flight. And we actually had more food than this. But because we couldn't make it, they gave it away. It's always sad. More food. You know, everything on the table. I feel like it's everything you need in life. You need some meat. You need some veggie. You need a little bitterness. You need a little spice. What I feel like is the greatest thing about this meal is that it's delicious, no doubt. Everything is so good. But you taste a little extra. You really taste the heart of the people that made this. I mean, this is not just some restaurant where you throw the food down and walk away. You can feel how attentive, how much they want you to enjoy it. And that actually represents itself in the flavor of the dishes. Basically, you're tasting the extra element of love here. It's good. You guys ever tasted love? Yeah. This is love right here. I always think food is more than just about the flavor. Yeah, sure. It needs to taste good. But who is prepared by? It's not really just about the intricacy of the ingredients itself. It's really about the whole thing. And it could be as simple as a peanut butter and chili sandwich. You know? It could be the best tasting thing in the world. And not saying this is simple. Because this is crazy complex. Like, I mean, this is so much stuff. But I'm just saying you could taste something extra in all the food. So please thank them so much for having me here. And I'm glad I could. Which literally translates to, I'm stealing a little spotlight from you. Like, I mean, you're the star. You're like, this is for you. But I get to take advantage of it a little bit. So I'm really happy I get to be here and share in this reunion and the festivities. And of course, the food. Thank you so much for having me. You're welcome. And they're really happy to have you here. They treat you as a family member. And they're really happy that you're eating their food. And I'm gonna tell them, please let your family members know, like each and every one of them, how much I appreciate everything. You know, I know this is your day. You came here. But still, they did a lot of this for us as well. So thank them so much for us. And this is just such a fantastic feast. Probably the best thing I had in Vietnam. Just because, I mean, the feel. If you guys could sit here. You feel how awesome this whole environment is. And thank you guys so much for watching. And that's it for Vietnam. That's it for the series. So if you enjoyed it, definitely let me know. And maybe in the future, we all get to come back here. So finally, until we meet again, we'll see you later. Bye!