Unique WHOLE DUCK Barbecue!! 🇻🇳 Vietnamese Food in Rural Village, Ha Giang!!

Hey everyone, hope you're having an amazing day. It's Mark Wiens. I'm in the province of Ha Giang, which is in very northern Vietnam on the border of China. This is one of the most spectacular natural scenery province in the entire country. And they also have some incredibly delicious food. So today we are at a homestay. It's gonna be a huge traditional meal where they're gonna make some of the local specialties like five colored sticky rice, plus an entire pig and an entire barbecue duck. We're gonna eat some unbelievably delicious local and extremely fresh Vietnamese food. I'm gonna share it all with you coming up right now in this video. Very nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, sir, Mark. So your name is Tung, right? Yes, my name is Tung. How do you pronounce this province? Ha Giang. Ha Giang, okay. And what's on the menu today? The menu today, we have the pigs. We can make a few dishes from this pig. And then we have a duck. Okay. And we have fish, one of the traditional fish of the local people, they raise it in the pond in here. It is cold water. Okay. They're very tasty. And we still have five colored sticky rice. Oh yeah, that's another specialty in this region is the five colored sticky rice. So we're gonna have a chance to see the entire process. Very excited. In this region of Northern Vietnam, one of the specialties here that they're gonna be preparing is a whole pig. Right as we arrived, they have just butchered the pig. Oh, what do you have here? A duck. This is for eating also? Yeah. Oh, wow. For barbecue. Proteins are in full swing now. The pig is, all the hairs are being burned off the pig. The duck is getting blanched in hot water to pluck off all those feathers. Everything is fresh and nothing's gonna go to waste. These are the rice grains, which are all natural colors, right? Yes. So we have five different colors. And so Aunty is gonna get started as they're still preparing the proteins, Aunty is gonna get started steaming the sticky rice because that's gonna take a couple of hours. Okay. And is this dish eaten every day or is it more of a celebration or a festival dish or a special dish? Before we just make it when we have some festivals, special days. Okay. But nowadays, sometimes because of the tourists come and more and more, try some local dish. So then we make it and sell it at the market, on a Sunday market, every places. Okay, okay. But it is, so it is a very special dish. Yes. Okay. You can see this yellow, made from turmeric. Oh, okay. Oh, very nice. This red color made from sweet garlic. Oh, wow. And there are things, some of them, she said that just have local name. It's a very difficult to pronounce, yes. Okay. Oh, and a really nice blue and then like a lighter blue and then an orange as well. Mrs. Duk, she is the expert with the sticky rice, five colored sticky rice. So she's gonna be preparing it for us right now. She's getting started and this is such a cool, it's a wooden steamer, right? Yes. This is where it's gonna be steamed. So actually the first rice goes in and then she puts on some leaves. Thank you. She adds in some leaves to separate it and then the next layer is going in. So that's the entire process, all five layers of the colorful sticky rice and she does it so strategically because putting the leaves in between layers of rice, but also poking holes in the leaves so that the steam is gonna go through and the steamer is so cool. Then she tops it with more leaves. She added in some pandan leaves for fragrance as well. And you can just see how the colors of the sticky rice, it's been marinated overnight, so it just completely like the color has just embedded into each grain of glutinous rice and now she's just topping it with cover and that's gonna steam for a couple of hours. Oh, and look at all this dried smoked meat up here from the fire. What a kitchen. That's the process for the sticky rice. It now needs to steam for two hours. And in the meantime, they're gonna get prepared starting on all of the rest of the dishes, all of that fresh pork, all of the fresh barbecue duck and all the side dishes that we're gonna eat together with the five colored sticky rice. This is a seed from the tree, from forest. Oh, this is a spice? Very good smell. Oh. Yeah, for barbecue, very good. Oh, okay, so this is a spice that you'll be using for the pig? Yeah. Or the duck? For pig. For pig, okay. So this will be for barbecue pork? Barbecue pork, barbecue fish. Okay. Barbecue duck. Yes. Fermented rice. Oh, nice. Actually, the original taste of this fermented rice is sour. Okay. So when you add a lot more spice in it and more salt, we add some fermented rice like this. So fermented is like a liquid. So it's going deep inside the meat so it can keep blanches between the fat and the taste of the meat. Wow. Oh, yeah, you can smell the sourness. So those pork belly slabs get marinated with some spices, some local seasonings, and that ingredient, which, that's incredible, fermented rice, it almost looks like yogurt and you can smell that sourness. That's gonna hold the spices within the meat, let it soak in, absorb, and yeah, that's a, what a marinating process. The kitchen is getting exciting now. She is pounding up some kumquat leaves, which is an ingredient they're gonna use to barbecue and grill the duck. That's gonna be an amazing fragrance. And then over here, in this side of the kitchen, he's chopping up the organs of the pig and they're gonna fill that into the intestines, I believe, for a blood sausage, a ultra fresh blood sausage. Oh, okay. Oh, nice. Another dish. How many dishes from the pig? Six different dishes? Wow. Oh, you're gonna stuff it into the duck. Oh, beautiful. Okay. Oh, man, what an incredible duck recipe. All of those kumquat leaves were just bruised with garlic to bring out their fragrance and aroma, then with pepper, with soy sauce going into those leaves, just tossed like a kumquat leaf salad and that just gets stuffed into the cavity of the duck. That's gonna be so fragrant and that gets tied up to go on the barbecue. I do. So back over here to the sausage station. Talk about a genius sausage maker. He makes the bottle and then he cuts off the lid and then he like slices off the lid and then he attaches the intestines and re-screws on the top lid so that you have a scooper. That's the most ingenious homemade sausage filler. I've ever seen, what a genius. Oh, what a technique. Oh, that's I think already all of those organs, the fresh blood is in that sausage mixture, plus some of the fat which he hand chopped everything, everything manually by hand and then some herbs, some green onions, some Vietnamese coriander goes in. That's ready to be filled up into the intestines. So just in the span of like an hour, they've gone from, well, live pig and live duck, not only just like barbecuing, roasting the whole animal, but these are like straight up gourmet dishes. I mean, fresh blood sausage, duck that's marinated in the cavity with kumquat leaves. They're making another pork dish which they sliced up, mixing with some marination and some herbs and some ingredients which is gonna be cooked within a banana packet and grilled. And I mean, these are just incredible dishes, nothing going to waste and everything local. They raise, they produce, they grow. I think every single ingredient that you're using in their cooking. I mean, whenever you need a herb, whenever he was making the blood sausage, whenever he needed some lemongrass and some green onions, he just darted out the hallway here, straight to the garden to pick up the ingredients and then straight to the pan. I mean, everything is local and fresh. The ribs, he's just preparing the ribs now to be boiled. His last neck, that one is huge. You have to stand up, you gotta stand up to pull it up. How long will it cook for? I think one hour. One hour, okay. So the duck is on a rotisserie, a little motor with a rotisserie over fire that's gonna roast and spin for the next hour. I'm sure it's gonna get crispy and then just, again, just embed itself with those kumquat leaves in that marinade, that internal marinade. And after two hours steaming, Mrs. Duke's five-colored sticky rice is ready. It's so fragrant. You can see how the grains are perfect. And actually, they just remain perfect in the basket there, the layers, the even layers. So she's just scooping it out onto a platter. The colors of that sticky rice, it's so vibrant. That's such a beautiful, deep purple. And then, oh, one more color, I almost forgot. The black sticky rice at the very bottom, it's so fragrant and just so hot and aromatic. What a tradition. The sticky rice is ready, but we still have a lot more dishes to prepare. Like they're getting started, about to get started on some more grilled pork coming soon as well. This is boiling. That's the sausage and the pork is boiling now. This is the next dish that he's making, which is the thin slices of pork with some herbs chopped up in there and a light seasoning marinade salt. And then that goes into some very young banana leaves. He's wrapping it into a packet and that's gonna be grilled as well. And I think they're preparing a fire in the backyard to grill the pork and these banana leaf packets. Back here in the backyard mountainside, they're grilling up some more of that. That's the marinated pork as well as the packet. That's right on the fire on the mountainside. Oh, that's gonna be so good. It's gonna be smoky and just, oh, the pure, real, like the real deal. Oh, that's gonna be so good. With so many different dishes going on, I almost totally forgot about the fish, but all of a sudden a fish just appeared straight from the pond that they raised themselves again, everything, and it looks like a carp, I think, that's also gonna be grilled. Once the sticky rice has cooled down, Auntie then, she gets some fresh galangal leaves and then she's wrapping all the sticky rice into packets of galangal leaves and that's how it's presented and that's how it's served. Duck is actually ready. The pork, the intestines are finished, the sausage, and then they're still grilling up some things, but I think we're actually getting pretty close to eating. I am hungry and ready. Yes. Yes, he's the sausage chef over here. It's ready. Oh, it's fresh. Oh, you can smell the sweetness. Mm. Oh, wow, yes. Oh, wow, that's the greatest blood sausage you'll ever have. It is so fresh and so sweet, not irony at all. We want to make the outer crispy. Okay. Okay, so it's almost time to eat. They're just plating up everything, but another kitchen snack. Oh. Oh, wow. That is insanely juicy. Oh, you taste that sourness from the fermented rice marinade. Oh, that's incredible. Oh, that duck is just so oily and hot. Oh, and as soon as you cut it open, you can really smell the aroma of those leaves coming out. Wow, so we will eat the leaves also? Yeah. Okay. But not only is all the dishes important for this traditional meal, but also the presentation, and so they're just like herding everything out onto the platters on banana leaves. Hit, hit. So we're ready to start the feast meal, everything laid out. Thank you very much, Mr. Thien, and all of you for, yes. Okay. Thank you very much. Is there a way that you typically choose one first, or do you just choose anything you want? Anything you want? And then you can eat it together with the sticky rice? Okay. Okay, I'm gonna try that. That duck, I've been waiting to try that duck with the kumquat leaves. All that, that soy sauce dip. Oh, wow, that's the fresh duck. That is just unbelievably juicy and tender, and this thing is so crispy, and it just infused with the leaves, those kumquat leaves, which kind of have this little bit of a citrusy fragrance. That duck is incredible. And then also the sticky rice, this is a traditional dish here. I'll go in for that center one. The sticky rice is so hard to eat. Okay, I'm gonna try this sausage, which I already had a bite of in the kitchen, but now it's been grilled as well. This dip sauce with a little bit of salt, with chili. All right, the sausage. Oh, wow, the sausage is amazing. That herbalness and then the freshness of the sweetness of the blood, and I think it's the Vietnamese coriander in there. That really tastes incredible. Thank you, thank you very much. This is an amazing meal. And that fish. One of the amazing things is that because the Thai people are from the same ethno-linguistic group or culture as the Thai people, there's so many similar words that cross over from Thai language to their native language. Thai people. Mm-hmm, Thai people. Thai people. Oh, that fish. Oh, man. And the fish was also marinated in that fermented rice, so it has this sourness. What is that one spice called? Zoi. Zoi, oh, zoi, okay, zoi, zoi. It has a little bit of a pepperiness and a little bit of a kind of peppery but not spicy. Okay, I'm gonna try the pork belly. This is the boiled pork belly, which is cut, just sliced perfectly. So you have the skin, you have the fat, you have the meat. I'm gonna add some of these chilies to it. Yeah, I think, I mean, for sure, what stands out to me about this meal is just the freshness of all the ingredients. And again, like I said, how they produce all of the ingredients. But you can taste the sweetness of the pork. And that duck is just unbelievable. I mean, a free-range duck, the oiliness, the richness, the crispiness of the skin. I mean, it's just an outstanding protein-packed meal. I love the flavor of those spices, that zoi, the pepper in there. I mean, the flavors are not like a lot of spices. They're simple, country, remote, northern Vietnamese, like using recipes that use ingredients that are all found right here in this region. And that's what stands out to me. Oh, yes. The homemade rice brew is definitely free-flowing. And it's definitely turning into a wonderful, lively atmosphere. But we're gonna keep on eating. The food is just spectacular. What a special meal. Let me try some more of this sticky rice we have. This is the red sticky rice next. And definitely, each color of sticky rice has a different taste. And if you really think about it, some of them have more of a pronounced taste, like the turmeric. And then some more have a neutral taste. But it's really a special dish here in Ha Trang. This is the grilled pork belly. Oh, look at the fattiness of that. Oh, thank you. Come on. Oh. Again, with that pork belly, you can taste the sourness coming from that fermented rice. Like, literally, it's like rice yogurt, but sourness that just goes into the meat, gives it this amazing contrast of sourness to the fattiness of the pork. Something I haven't tried yet is the packet. This is, like, chopped up belly and pieces of pork with some more spices and then wrapped in the banana leaf. Mm. That's gooey and fatty. You can taste the skin in there. Oh. Okay, I think this is the liver. Wow. The freshness, the sweetness. I love that dry dip with the salt, with the chilies and the lime juice in there. Oh, that's delicious. This sausage. Oh, this is kind of the type of meal that you just keep on drinking, and then you just keep on snacking, like all night long, right? Just meat snacks all night long. Just take bites of meat. Nobody eats too fast. You just enjoy time hanging out. I think that's part of the meal, talking, yeah, talking, party, hanging out, drinking, and then just taking bites of meat. And that sausage is, I think that might be my favorite part of the whole pig. Leaves, the duck drumstick. Oh, man. That's a real deal duck. So natural, a little bit chewy, but so much flavor, especially with the skin and the fat and those kumquat leaves. Mark. Thank you. Toan. Very nice to meet you. Thank you so much. Nice to meet you also. Very good. Thank you. Oh, it's a beautiful morning. Good morning. Things got a little bit hectic last night, and then we ended up sitting around, hanging out, snacking on all of that meat and just hanging out, but it was definitely a great cultural experience and a great time to hang out with Mr. Tien and Tung and family and also friends that came by from the village as well. I wanna say a huge thank you, especially to Yes Di Travels, who arranged this entire trip for me here and who set this experience up. They specialize in responsible tourism and especially giving back to the community and cultural authentic tourism, so highly recommend it. I'll have their link in the description box below. So that's gonna be it for this video. I wanna say a huge thank you for watching. Please remember to give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it. Leave a comment below. I'd love to hear from you, and if you're not already subscribed, make sure you subscribe now for lots more food and travel videos, and make sure you keep on watching this entire Vietnam series. There'll be a few more videos from here in Ha Giang, which you're not gonna wanna miss, and then also some videos from Hanoi, so stay tuned. Amazing Vietnamese food, and I will see you on the next video.