Is This The Future Of Vietnamese Food???

Oh, welcome to Thon Thap Tham market located in the heart and center of district one here in Saigon. This market is over a hundred years old and is one of the few things left in this district that has not fallen to modernization. But today's video is not about this market, but instead what markets like this have inspired Vietnamese food to be today and in the future. But in this old market that has this worn rich history feel and presence to it, lies one place and one place in particular, An An. Not just any restaurant, but recently ranked the 39th best restaurant in all of Asia. So that's what we are doing today. We are going to see what this market has inspired food wise by going to An An. Chef Peter and his team have created a very diverse, fun setting right here in a local market in Saigon. So we're going to get in here and see what creations and inspirations Peter has come up with all from around Vietnam. How are you Peter? I'm good. How are you? Good, good, good. Congrats on 39th again. 39th. I was going to put a little flashing number 39 and we just unofficially changed the address to 39 Thon Thap Tham. What do you think? 39. 89, no good. Go 39. We just make it 39. We just remove the 8 and we put the 3 on. For people outside of Vietnam, they look at this, they think it's really unsafe. But you could consider this almost this as being dry-aged meat that's been sitting. So let's say the cow's been killed this morning. So now they've been dry, they're sitting outside. So the more liquid is removed from the meat here, that means more flavor. This meat here is non-refrigerated, dry-aged for half a day. Beautiful stuff. In the old days, people would come to a market like just two times a day. That's a school over there. The mother would drop off the kids from school, go buy something from her and some vegetables, garlic and stuff to cook for the morning. And then when they drop off the kids, pick up the kids in the evening time, they buy some more stuff for the evening or another time. And generally when they come here, she knows the customer already. There's this very personal interaction between them. It's not like a supermarket where you buy stuff that's saran wrap. And then the kids, she will ask them two questions. One, what dish are you making? And two, how much do you want? So it's like the base room. You come in, just come have a meal. You can tell it's Friday night. You got reservation, reservation, reservation in here ready to go. I'm going to go see the rooftop. Is that okay? Yeah. And this is where it's at. So they've actually got like a rooftop bar. And this is one of my favorite views of Saigon. Look at this. The breeze is cool. It's like 5 p.m. They're going to have music going. Friday, Saturday, DJ. Oh, this spot. Okay, but let's get this meal started. Basically deep-fried waffle. That's normally made with rice flour. And so normally it's street food, but just dust it with sugar. You eat it really quick. It's nice. So what we do is we just take that technique, and then we turn it into a savory dish that's not traditionally used. So sometimes just a small change. But we have to learn the technique how to make this properly. It has the banh nuong on the bottom. Then we're doing one layer of the smoked salmon. Then we have one layer of the white, which is the creme fraiche. We're taking the tia to, which is the Vietnamese seashell. We are extracting the flavor with a bit of cream. And so we're basically making a cream sauce with the Vietnamese tia to, which is lighter flavor than the Western dill. Or not tia to, but tia la. This is very French in this technique, with all the dots and all the different places. So we do some stuff where we just grill, and some stuff where we go to the trove to make sure all the dots are right, and all the shape. So this is traditionally what people think is fine dining. They don't see fine dining as stuff you put on the grill. But we do a mix of everything together. Oh, this thing is absolutely beautiful. What a great starter. I love the way the black, the greens, the oranges, all the colors kind of work together. Those textures are what you want for that first bite. You get the crunch, you get the creaminess. The creme fraiche gives it just like this little bit of acidity. It goes with just a deep, rich, smoky salmon flavor. And then the little salmon roll just kind of just bursts in your mouth. And that little bit of dill flavor is hint, it's faint, but it's beautiful. He took it from a street food dish, but that's kind of what I love about food and dining is we all get our different perspective. Because me, for some reason, I'm just getting cha-ca vibes, like cha-ca in Hanoi. So, you know, everybody's going to get different vibes. Probably the dill coming through it. That reminds me. This is very different. On the inside, very different than the Dalat style snail. In Dalat, they use a whole snail with the pork outside. And you eat this in Hanoi, they chop it up so you can taste the snail, so there's less texture. So what we've done is this more Hanoian style, Saigon Dalat style in its construction. But the sauce is actually more Saigon style, which is more of a coconut sauce, which you tend to see in Hanoi, in Saigon types of dishes. In Hanoi, they have it too, but they use more of a garlic and fish sauce. This is what we call a Vietnamese pestle. Basically, it's a herb sauce. Sometimes we use the herb that we want to... These flowers are edible flowers from Dalat. This is one single snail. Sometimes we do one because this way we pay attention to one, and you pay attention to only one when you're eating. When you get ten, what happens? You eat one, you think about the other nine. You're not giving love to the one. Peter over here is speaking truth. We need to give you more dishes to try and less things so that we pay attention more. All three regions in Vietnam and then the French culture in one piece of snail. In the straw nestle, this almost reminds me of an egg. It's something so light and delicate, something like Peter was talking about. You really want to focus on this. Your attention goes straight to this one snail. So like I said, one biter. Don't let that attention fade. He's just transporting me to so many different parts of Vietnam. It's so much fun. I just love seeing something that you eat, that I eat in Dalat all the time, but has these hints of flavor that are the pure soul of Saigon. Doing is the bánh bò lọc, which is the white. The thing about bánh bò lọc is it's very chewy. It's a texture that is appreciated in Vietnamese cuisine, but in the West, not so much. So what we've done is we alter the ratio of the flour in this between the tapioca and the rice flour and the water texture to the way we like it, which means that it's still chewy, but not as chewy as normal. So the sauce for the bánh bò lọc, we do more of Hanoi style, Hanoi and also in Dalat. You eat, for example, the mì, bánh mì, they warm up the broth and bread because it's white, it's cold. In Saigon, it's hot as hell. So it's not practical to heat things up, but we do it because of the taste to maintain the integrity of the dish. Let it hydrate and boil a little bit to get some nice and shiny so they don't stick together. So we do it like that because it looks a little bit like a yin and a yang. These are a little bit of tòa gà that we poach in the liquid. The fat from the tòa will come out and will flavor the sauce also a little bit. Coriander, normally we're actually making an oil out of this thing. This is, of course, jimi toragasi, the Japanese seven spice. We use it because the flavor is a little bit more subtle than some of the Vietnamese Asian chilies. It's a little bit too acidic. This one's good, a little bit more balanced. If I didn't know what that was, a Vietnamese dish would not be my first take. Actually, it's more like ravioli. He has changed it more to a Western palate toward that wrapper. It's a little more melt-in-your-mouth. It's soft and set. It has just a very slight, just a subtle, subtle chew to it. Other dishes like this is different. We are changing the nature of the dish from a soup into like a sauce, more like a pasta. We use liquid as much as we can, but what we do now is we want the flavor, so we remove the water. It's funny, when you look at it, you're like, oh, that's mì huà hùng. But the way he's presented it, reduced down that sauce, it almost just looks like a nice fine dining Italian noodle. That's one of the best mì huà hùng noodles you will ever eat. I just can't even tell you how loving and doughy and warm those noodles feel in your mouth and the way the sauce is reduced. You can't see it, but you feel the love. You feel the reduced down flavor. You feel the intense flavor, and the best part is getting a little bánh đá, a little crunchy bit with it. Even the bánh đá is different. It's light, kind of like a phú yín, really, really light bánh đá like that, but there's almost a slight crystallization to it. There's this burnt, bitter flavor component coming from it that you usually don't get as much in this. It goes with that loving, meaty pork, shrimp, the peanut reduced down sauce noodle. Is it hot? Sorry. No, you're good. I'm sorry. I'm screwing up your work, though. Now, for the bún chả, what we do now is quite a little bit more radical in its change. We're taking the whole bún chả and we transform this into just a one-bite experience. We want you to eat this and you can feel the bún chả. So this is what we have two components to it. So we have the chả giò, and then we have the nêm nướng Hà Nội style that we're going to grill. And then we're going to put it all together when you eat this. Hopefully, you feel the bún chả. Okay? Bún chả Bùa Đen in honor of Bùa Đen. So when he and Obama go to Hà Nội, they eat bún chả and they drink Hà Nội beer. So we give you the total experience between Obama and Bùa Đen in one bite, one tiny little shot with the beer. And look at it. It is a one-biter. So they've actually got the little chả that they put on that grill. They got the chả giò, which is going to be the fried spring roll. You see the carrot, the daikon radish, the cilantro, all in that puree that you leave on the bottom. And then the foam on top. It's actually a nước bông. You can go for it. The chả giò, that is the main predominant flavor. So soft that the heat, the smoke, the char is just so enticing. And then the perfect ratio of the fresh herbs, the acidic, the sweet, with that crunchy fried spring roll. And now this is a bún chả, Obama, Hà Nội Bùa Đen. So it always comes with a nice little shot of beer. So this is the bún chả. Right now we're using wagyu and bone marrow. Okay, we want flavor. Okay, and bone marrow give you a lot of flavor. Sauce, everything inside already. Sorry, I didn't hear. What sauce is it? Secret sauce. Oh, gotcha. That works. Now this is the one that was smoking earlier. This is the bà lá lột. One of my favorite dishes in all of Vietnam. A little bit of peanut on topping with the sauce. Now I do believe this actually is supposed to be dipped in the sauce here. So I hope it is. I don't want to look silly if it's not supposed to be. I would literally come here and I would order 30 of these, eat 30 of these, and leave and be the happiest person ever. That was the bite for me. Oh my gosh. The wagyu, fatty, rich as it is, but now they're putting bone marrow in there. It's salty, enhances that flavor. The lá lột leaf, that little bit of pepperiness. Oh my gosh. One of my favorite dishes in Vietnam just took a few steps above. Call it right now, money bite. Should have called it money bite. Now my taste buds need a break after all that flavor, so they get a little fruit sorbet here. So this is, we're using a little bit of molecular technique to make this one. So we're taking the pho, we're taking it to one bite. What we've done now, we're encapsulating the flavor of the pho into one bite. And then we're making smoke with what is traditionally put inside the pho, which is, you have the spices. Stainless, cinnamon. So you can smell a little bit of the aroma now. That's a bit of the stainless. Oh my gosh, look at it. It's just kind of jiggling. Oh my gosh. I knew it was a molecular ball, but even when you bite into it, you're not ready for it just to erupt and burst away. It does. It's so funny because it's very modern cooking technique. But eventually when you take that bite, it's the same sensation when you're eating pho out in a stall here in Vietnam. So sometimes what we do is we take two different dishes, two different ideas, and we do something that is somewhere in between. It's a little bit of Vietnamese flavor, but it's closer to carpaccio, but it's not normally what you see as carpaccio. Now this is a very good quality Australian beef rib eye that we dry-aged ourselves for about one month. Green peppercorn, red peppercorn, black peppercorn from Phu Quoc. So this one has the texture and the seasoning from the Vietnamese flavor itself. Oh yes, you see that dry-aging on the edges right there. Just kind of rip mine in half, get that quail egg spread out on top. With this tasting menu a lot, you've seen a lot of beef and pepper put together in another dish. It's doing it so well. Three types of pepper, that aged beef, pulling that moisture out, intensifying that delicious beef flavor, which is already a good cut of beef coming from Australia. Then taking that quail egg, spreading that yolk all over it. Just take it to another level of richness. So this is pho. So we do many variations of pho. Pho is such an important dish for Vietnam. Basically, we take a French dish, but we Vietnamese it. So the inside has the flavor, it has the banh pho inside, but it's inspired by a French dish. So what we're going to do now, we're going to lift the cover up. You can see it, right? But today, it's only going to be inside. So this is where you eat it. It's a very clean broth inside here, so you fill it up. I'm going to make you taste it. I'm going to taste this right now. It's very light, very clean. Very light, very delicate, very clean. The spices come in later. Yes, right. So we want to make a very clean, delicate flavor. So what we do now is, we have this, the French call, they have something called bouquet garni, which is a mix of different types of herbs, usually from Provence. So here now, we'll be creating something we call almost like a Saigon, Dalat bouquet garni. So we have different types of herbs inside here. You can put a little bit of different herbs and eat it to get different flavor. So we already put some of that puff pastry in there. I dig that. I like that you have some of it in there and some of it not. Go in there. Wow. Actually, it's going to be easier to go with the spoon here. It's so hot. To me, golly. I mean, that just takes it back to mom and grandma's cooking, like some chicken and noodle soup or some chicken and dumpling soup. Look at this pastry. Nice, buttery, flaky, light, crispy. Insane. And why not take advantage of this rooftop and finish off a little dessert up here? So for this dessert now, we do something which is radically different. So sometimes we call this contrary pairing or opposite pairing. So what we're doing here is we have a home white chocolate that we make into a foam with the coconut water so it's not too sweet. And then we're using caviar from Dalat, my hometown, where you're living at the moment. So it has a sweet and savory and also the strawberry is also from Dalat. For us right now, we picked this is probably one of the best strawberries in Vietnam right now. We give you a dessert which has basically sweet and savory at the same time, something a little bit unusual. So hope you enjoy. Now y'all, I have not eaten much caviar in my life. Definitely have never had caviar with my dessert. I'm gonna do like Peter said, get a big old one bite money bite. I'm being rocked in so many different directions from the caviar, that pop, that burst, those pearls of saltiness. The actual strawberry, it's got like a syrup sweetness to it. And then the foam, this white chocolate foam, it just dissolves in your mouth. Not only is it just so many different flavors going on, but the textures are well, are just complete opposites. The opposites that attract. Also, normally we don't have dessert wine in Vietnam. So what we do now, this is called gào nếp. So we are taking something that is very traditional and we are taking the process and we're redoing it. For me, it works as kind of like an after dinner drink. So we call this a limoncello, a Viet limoncello. Because for me, it reminds me of an Italian limoncello, but it's not as sweet. Definitely know it's alcoholic, but it's interesting. I think it does have just like a sweet, sweet rice liquor flavor to it. A little fruitiness to it. Bubbly. Now y'all, that was a really, really special experience because it's like nothing I've ever had before in Vietnam. And that's the whole point. Peter's a very good friend of me. I have so much respect for Peter because he is somebody blazing the path. You know, he's taken a lot of chances by doing this. He's taken a cuisine that's, you know, very, very known for sticking to tradition, which I have no problem with. But I love seeing Peter do something like this, putting Vietnamese food on the map. I talk about it so much. I feel like Vietnamese food is underrated. And what Peter's doing is just helping it grow, expand, and get known to a wider audience. So I'm so happy I got to do that. I'm so happy I get to know Peter. I'm glad I got to bring y'all along with me. I hope you enjoyed this. Just the symbolism for being in this old market to having the new Saigon built around it, and having Peter's restaurant here is truly special, very symbolic, and loved every minute of it. Hope y'all enjoyed this video. Something a little bit different, and hopefully not the last time. That was Max. Catch you at the next one. Peace.