The TRUTH About Mark Wiens' Food Videos!

Oh no man. Oh that was bad Mark. So bad. Today we're turning up the heat literally. My guest is a man who has eaten his way through more countries than I have cooked steaks and that is saying a lot. You know him for his incredible food adventures, his love for spice and yep that yummy face. Ladies and gentlemen the one and only Mark Wiens. Welcome brother. Guga thank you for having me. Thank you for being here. So happy to be here. So today we have a little bit of spice challenge for you. I know you can take spice. I hope so. You have, you can believe me you can do a lot better than me. How's your spice tolerance? Sriracha is pretty spicy. Okay. So Mark here we have a lineup of sauces courtesy to Hot Ones. Each one gets a slightly more progressed than the other. We'll start from something easy all the way up to Pepper X which I did an insane experiment and I can tell you my friend this is not going to be a fun time. Yeah the last dab could be your last hot sauce. Probably very accurate. So we got some questions for you and I say enough talking let's begin. Let's do it. Mark we're going to start with this one here it's supposed to be slightly spicy not too much. Okay. Oh whoa it has a... I didn't know it was going to be that ready. Easy pouring. I'm glad that was for you and not for me Mark. I'm glad it's number one. I know right. Cheers brother. Very vinegary. No it's not too spicy. Has like a little tingle to the tongue but not really. Oh it's spicy enough for me. Oh already. Mark you have eaten throughout many countries. Which one would you say shocked you the most? There was this one time in Kenya where they kill the goat and then they reach in and grab the kidneys, slice it for you while it's still twitching and you eat that. It's a very unique experience. It's less that's not what we're normally used to. No. Did you feel in any way wanting to say no but you felt like you couldn't say no? It was delicious actually. Really? If you could get past the rawness or the moving of it it actually tasted pretty good. It tasted pretty good? It was pretty good yeah. Let me ask you what does it taste like? It was sweet actually. You can taste the sweetness, the naturalness, the freshness. Well it was about as fresh as possible as fresh as it gets. Slightly warm still? Very warm. Wow. Very warm. It is sweet. Very sweet and very warm. It is sweet. It's very warm and like a little bit naturally salty. Number two Little Dick's. Little Dick's. Kind of a weird name. Oh but it's ghost pepper. Cheers. Okay cheers. Oh okay. It's fruity. No it's not. It's spicy Mark. Well talking about spice, why do you like spicy so much? Is it because you grow up eating it or is it you enjoy the flavor? I do love the flavor. I love that it's a feeling along with a flavor. I think it enhances everything. Chili enhances everything. Where does this saying came from? If it's not spicy I'm not eating it. Okay that's a whole story. When I first went to Thailand I would be trying all sorts of different dishes and so I would go to the same restaurant over and over again and I'd be like I'd want to order a different dish every day. One day I'd go there and I'd be like I want to order stir-fried chicken with peppers or I want to order red curry. I'd always tell the lady I'd be like can you make it spicy? So then eventually when I went there over and over again I would just name the dish that I wanted and the lady would call out to the chef I think who was her husband and she'd be like okay he wants stir-fried basil. If it's not spicy he's not eating. So she'd yell that to her husband who was cooking. In Thai it's called my pet my gin. Directly translating to not spicy not eating. Not spicy not eating. That's where that came from. Yes. So this one is Neal's The Real Deal. Cheers brother. Cheers man. Oh it's kicking up. Wow you're not even blinking Mark you're making me feel bad. No you're all right. Yeah I'm not all right. Mark you've been through so many countries so many different places. If you had to stop today pick one cuisine for the rest of your life which one would that be? Probably would say Thailand. Thailand. I know that you have your own restaurant in Thailand and you specialize in one specific dish which I can't say. Please correct me correct Kapow. Yeah almost Pad Kapow. Pad Kapow. Yep. What made you decide to come up with that restaurant Mark? So it's a dish that everybody loves. It's your dish of stir-fried basil with your choice of protein. In Thailand almost everybody loves it. So it's like maybe the national dish of Thailand. But everybody makes it in a different way and has a different flavor that they enjoy. So I like the version that's stir-fried and it gets like really smoky and dry-fried. So with a couple of friends we just decided to open a small restaurant serving the version we like. And it's a dish also you can get everywhere. So any restaurant that serves stir-fried dishes they'll make it for you. Oh I see. Like previously before there weren't really restaurants that served only that dish. So we wanted to just make a restaurant a very small low-key restaurant that serves only that dish. I gotta say what makes most impressive for me is the way you guys make the egg. And why is the egg so yellow like the egg yolk? Oh it's a duck egg. Oh yeah. So it's even richer than a chicken egg it's saucier. I want to go there and hopefully you'll be there and we'll try it together. Looking forward to it. Now we got Los Calientes Verde. Cheers Mark. Cheers. Oh it's a lot more spicy. Oh you like it? I like the flavor of that one. It's too spicy for me. Not spicy for you at all? A little bit. A little bit? Mark you eating so many crazy things throughout the whole world. We want to know one question. When you're not filming what do you like to eat the most? I like to eat a dish which is called gang som in Thai. It's a dish of it's a curry but it's made with turmeric with lots of garlic with lots of chilies and with fish. With fish? And then it's usually soured with either lime juice or tamarind or garcinia. Do you prefer like a seafood style more than actual meat? What is your protein go-to Mark? I do love fish. Probably actually probably yeah probably fish is one of my favorite things. The variety when you get fresh fish it's like heaven. Which country makes the best fish Mark? I'm trying to put you on the spot right now. I mean it's got to be Japan that has the greatest fish. And you prefer more stew style or raw? It's different you know like like certain fish will be really good raw and certain fish can be really good in curries or stews or yeah depending on which fish it is. But regardless of what it is that matters it has to have either wasabi or some type of spice if not you're not eating. Not spicy not eating. Hey cheers. Apple caraway. Oh oh it kicks in after. You get that apple the first flavor of apple a little bit of caraway in there. You feel nothing? It's pretty good. Wow making me talking about feel bad have you ever had a bad fan interaction or a weird interaction with a fan? Okay the experience I always think about is one time it's probably happened to you as well but you're it's always awkward when you're on the urinal and someone comes in. Yes. And recognizes you. There's there's nothing non-awkward about that. That has happened to me a few times and it does not matter you try to put your head down head up you can't put your head in. Yeah you don't whether quite know to make eye contact at that moment or to say thank you or to like finish what you're doing before you then go outside to maybe take a picture. Exactly. Kind of weird but uh yeah it has happened to me. But grateful for the support. Absolutely absolutely. Next one is jerk. Oh scotch bonnet. Oh scotch bonnet excellent. Let's try this one here and see what happens. Yeah oh. Cheers. Oh I like that one. It is good. That one is delicious a lot of flavor obviously is jerk it doesn't feel more spicy to me does it feel more spicy to you than the previous one? No it doesn't feel very spicy to me. Wow. Yeah. That one is delicious. That is good. Talking about delicious Mark which country that you've been to that you would say it's very underrated? Bangladesh. Bangladesh. Dhaka. Tell me about the food what is it that you had there that it was amazing? So the food is very distinct because they cook almost everything with mustard oil mustard seed oil and that just totally infuses into all of the food giving it this amazing mustardy fragrance. Bangladeshi food is a food that you don't often hear that much about. Right I've never tried it before actually. Often when you there are Bangladeshis who open restaurants overseas maybe they brand it at more as Indian food or as another another food. That's what I thought it was gonna sorry Mark I'm uh it's uh slightly coming up over here it's uh I know it's easy for you but I'm suffering I thought it's very so Bangladesh food would be very similar to Indian food as well or? But it's very different. Oh it's similar but very different. I think it's very different. I mean I mean so so what I'm saying is Bangladeshis that own restaurants overseas they might more brand them as Indian restaurants because Indian food is it's more popular yeah more well it's more well known. So that's a country I must visit. Yeah and it's also just like if you love action if you love energy and busyness I don't think it gets any more busy than Dhaka. Dhaka is uh it's one of the most congested exciting cities you can visit on earth. I've never been I've never been to India it's also my bucket list and I love Indian food I just. Yeah Indian food is incredible. It's a must. Oh yeah you'd love India. Yeah but first time. And Bangladesh and Thailand. And Thailand. First Thailand yeah we're gonna come uh very soon video in Thailand me and Mark we're gonna do it together. Oh let's jump on to the ninja. Oh it does look like it's getting scarier. Cheers. Okay cheers. Oh that was bad Mark. Oh that's like straight up cayenne pepper or something. It's a ninja. Oh my god. Okay the heat level went way all the way up. Nothing for you. It is it's vinegary though. Yeah but it's spicy. Yeah it does tingle your tongue immediately a little bit. No problem for you at all? No problem. Talking about that have you ever tried any food that it looked kind of weird and you were like hesitant you got in there I'm not gonna eat this one but it was actually good. Okay a dish comes to mind and actually I wouldn't say like I was hesitant to try it but just it you're not sure from the looks of it you have no idea how it's gonna taste. But there's a dish in the Philippines in the south of the Philippines which is called tiyul itam. So basically it's coconut which they char and then they make it into this really complex soup with all sorts of toasted herbs like lemongrass galangal garlic chilies of course lots of other spices and then they grate it down into and so the dish comes and it's like a soup with like these literal it looks like charcoal. Sounds extremely non-appetizing. Yeah charred coconut that are like blackened coconut literally translates to blackened coconut but you take a bite of that oh and it's one of the greatest I think it's my favorite Filipino dish of all the Philippines yeah. It's the complexity and it doesn't even taste burnt you know it's a genius dish. I'm glad you said that because sometimes I do experiments and I take it out of the container or I remove the things that I'm experimenting with and it doesn't look that appetizing. As a matter of fact 90% of the things that I take it out doesn't look very appetizing but then I get the flavor and I get addicted to that flavor that I never tried before so and that's one of the reasons I experiment so much you know because you never know. You never know. Let's jump on to the next one we're actually making this happen. Oh yeah but this one is the bomb. The bomb. The bomb. Yeah with an actual missile caution. Yep. Yep. Yep. Let me get a whiff of that. Oh it's bad. Yeah it's like the full force the full force what type of chili are they using here? Red hot chili peppers. The one not good. Red hot chili peppers. The bomb. Yeah cheers brother. Cheers. Fatality. That one is just it just tastes so bad. That one is just terrible. Micah you're laughing at me. Guga you all right man? No that's just not good bro. That's not good. Oh who eats that? I mean that's disgusting. I quite like it Guga. What? Wow it's not spicy for you? It's spicy. It's spicy yeah. At least one is spicy but also the flavor it's I don't enjoy do you enjoy that flavor? I enjoy the flavor actually yeah. Yeah I like the flavor because it has a like a pungent chili flavor. Has a garlicky flavor as well it's quite nice. No Mark it has no flavor it has nothing. It's just straight up death. It's one of those sauces that's trying to kill you everybody. I oh what is better for you let's talk about this because you've been through Michelin star restaurants you've been to street food restaurants which one do you like best Mark? I love all kinds of food I'm like a I'm like a food I'm a food lover. You're a food lover yes me as well. I yes yes I like to try anything anyhow any way. And he specifically makes a special version with chicken lover. But street food has always been my passion and first of all what I love about street food is because it's accessible. When it comes to fine dining it's harder to understand but when you do learn to appreciate what the chefs like how they're thinking because they're operating at like a different level some of them are in another world of their their own. When you can really try to understand the chef and what the chef is trying to do and then like taste their dishes then it's also an incredible experience. Oh things are getting really serious now. You know that this is spicy are you familiar with this chili? Scorpion I'm familiar with the Trinidad scorpion yes. Oh you know I've been to the Tabasco factory and it smells like that. It smells just like that. Oh this one has kind of a deep a deep fermented flavor. How do you talk so normally when you smell that? Oh no no oh my god that's too much. Hellfire Guga. Used with caution extremely spicy. You say it so calmly why I don't understand what you say. Actually yeah one of my one of my favorite hot sauces is from Trinidad. The scorpion chili sauce from Trinidad. I think they grow some of the best chilies on earth. Oh I've never been to Trinidad either. They have some good food. Amazing food yeah. Never been I I have to I have to give it a go. It is so good. Let's try it out. I can't believe you don't feel anything. Cheers brother. I think I'm gonna feel this one. Cheers. All right. You feel nothing you're laughing. Guga you all right? Oh no man. I want a little bit more of that. You enjoy that one? That one is good. No it's not it's just spice. Mark you've eaten everything bugs, brains, is there anything that you will not eat? I think I'll eat pretty much everything as long as it's legal and okay with uh culturally. Is there anything that ever happened on a video with you that somebody made it a wonderful dish and you would just knuckle down Mike? Like it just wouldn't didn't quite feel right? Mark like I couldn't even spell I got I remember one I couldn't even say your name properly Mark so did that ever happen to you? Because it happened to me. It happened to you and I guess that video never got posted. Yeah there have been a few a few dishes where I had to kind of smile smile a lot and yeah and leave it at that. All right Mark it has come to the end are you ready for it? I hope so. This one pepped 91% pepper x. Yes. It might be like 10 times hotter than the last one. Yeah I've had the experience of this one and it was literally the worst experience of my life Mark. It's just it brings me bad so many bad memories. Oh my god oh my god Mark you feel nothing. You're laughing. I think it's coming it's coming it's building. No no you build already. That's not a pleasant experience. Slightly give me a headache I'm gonna be honest with you. You don't feel anything at all. From spice you can almost get this like euphoria. I have a little bit of a headache right here on my temples over here and yeah I don't know how normal people do this. It's insane you feel absolutely nothing look at you. That's good. It's pretty good. It's not good. It's not good. You while talking about that you have that signature yummy face. Does that yummy face also happen off camera Mark? Even off camera. I mean I would say that making videos is secondary. I love food I love the flavors and the varieties and so making videos was just kind of like something I wanted to do to share the food with others but food is I'm still like obsessed ever since I've been a kid. So food is number one video is second. Yes. So you make videos because it's an excuse you want to eat more. Yes it's a privilege to be able to make videos to be able to keep on eating. Well guys that wraps it up. Guys make sure you go check out Mark everything will be on the link on the description down below. Check out his videos because this man if you love food well he told you he loves food just like we do. I hope you guys enjoyed this video. If you did hit that thumbs up. If you're not a subscriber be sure to subscribe. We'll see you guys on the next one. Thanks for being here Mark. Thank you Guga. Thank you brother and you took that like nothing man. I'm dying over here I'm not gonna lie. You keep eating Mark I'm down. I think I'm gonna try some more of that that Pepper X man. I'm out. Out! That has some fumes to it.