Sweet & Sour CHINESE Street Food on Shantang Street + Silk Factory Tour | Suzhou, China

So this fish has no bones. It's like a sweet and sour chicken, but fish. Good afternoon everyone, this is David Hoffman from David's Bin here in gorgeous Suzhou, China. Today I'm going to take you to a silk factory. I've never been to a silk factory before. And if you guys didn't know, Suzhou is named the Venice of the East, but their second nickname is called the Silk Capital of China. Silk Capital of China, that's amazing. And after this we're going to go to what street? Shantung Street. And this is like a super authentic street next to a canal. There you can see a lot of retail, basically a lot of shopping and a lot of food. I'm excited because that's where we're going to have dinner. And now let's go inside and see them making silk. Are you going to buy some stuff? Sure. Me too. If you like. This is the ancient character about the silkworm. This character, the word, named Chan, mulberry tree. Baby. Here you can see the life cycle of the silkworm. They starting from the egg, then become the ants, then become the silkworm. They have a life cycle very short, totally only about 45 days. They eating every one week leaves, then they will shake their skin. The size become bigger and more white. There's over 60 silk factories here in Suzhou. And what she was telling me is that this is the best place in the world for silk. This is like the best, the best of the best. And all these factories are free entrance. So obviously you just come in, they give you a ticket and you go in and you see it all. And as we're walking through, obviously she just told us about the worms. And then now we're going to see the map here. And this is part of the silk road, right? And it keeps going. We have a little bit of a situation. Unfortunately, it's Saturday, it's 4 p.m. and no one's working today. They said they were going to be back in like 10 minutes, but they're not going to be back for 2 hours. So we're going to quickly fly to another factory really nearby. So we'll see you there. After a quick 10 minute drive, we've arrived to the biggest silk factory in Suzhou. We're going to fly in and see them weaving the silk. Let's go. The single cocoon, just one silk worm make it. So we can find the thread. So that make the fabric. And the double cocoon, honeymoon cocoon inside. Two silk worm. One is the female, another is male. They split the silk together. So very strong and then single cocoon make the silk today. They put the cocoon in the warm water, boiling water. Then you find the starch. Look at this. This is a pretty cool fact. So each one of these cocoons provides one mile of silk. One mile. So the way it works is that they put it in hot water and they put it back. When they find the string, you know the string, the silk string. They put it in here, into this machine. And then it starts cooling. It cools, it cools, it cools until there's nothing left. And then all you have is basically the worm. The pupa. The pupa, the pupa, sorry. The worm become the pupa, grow up. Then if not be the silk fragile to the farmers, then become the moss. Once they pull all the silk off the cocoons, then they come over here and they weave the silk into some type of fabric, right? So they either make scarves, clothing, whatever they want. Unfortunately, today is Saturday and there's no one working. But that's the weaving machines. I mean these machines are huge. And they have different type of things they want. Like templates for whatever they want to do. So next we will be here is the double cocoon make the silk duvet parts. And why? Because the double cocoon cannot find the silk thread. Much more stronger than single cocoon. This is over 80 double cocoon pieces. And once they're done with this part, they bring it over here. And automatically dry it. Then to that table. Four workers make the silk duvet by hand, not the machine. They according weight they sell for the silk duvet. If the winter time more thicker, more heavily. So at least need 8,000 double cocoon make the one silk duvet. Once you see the whole process of the double cocoon or the honeymoon cocoon, then you walk through to this section and there's like beds. Everything is made out of silk. All these bed covers are silk? Yeah, sure. And what does it cost for one of these? Different size, different price. All the design is different also. On sale price 5,881. Original price 6,000. 1,000 dollars. Yeah. 1,000 dollars for this. See, let me feel it. Oh my god. That is incredible. Oh, you sleeping inside like silkworm. Like silkworm. Like a little baby. Now we've entered basically the gift shop. And here you can find everything. What I really want to buy my wife is a scarf. Something she can put on. You know, something nice. These are made out of silk? Embroidery. Embroideries. Yeah, yeah. I know obviously embroideries. But damn, that's amazing. No, maybe that one. Which one? Double side? Yeah. The color. The same. The color is different. Later we'll see a lot of the silk products. In that part we'll see the silk scarf. Silk underwear. And the silk tie. Pajamas. Dress. Everything. I feel like I just walked into a huge mall. Because it's a mall. But everything is made out of super high quality silk. So where are the scarves? I've been looking at some of these beautiful silk shirts. They're really nice. But these are like $150 US. These are about $100. These are super sick. I like the white one. The blue one also. And yeah, I mean this one is really cool. The only problem with this is that it's really traditional. Like it's too traditional for me. I have one. I bought one. I wore it one time. We've entered the silk scarf section. There's actually another section of scarves. But it's not silk scarves. These are 100% silk scarves. Very beautiful scarves here. I like something plain. Nice like yours. Not too much. This is nice. But something like this. I don't know. Only like the yellow color. We found the sale department here. 30% off for these. I personally like this purple and gold. And then this red one. These are for me. And they're $260 with 30% off. So you're talking about like almost $100. 30% off so like $70. They're really nice though. Like super nice. 99% silk these. The red one. The red one and the purple and gold is cool too. Yeah. That's nice. What's the price? $240. $240? Yeah. Not bad. Let me see it. The beautiful, elegant lotus flower silk scarf. Good quality. Final verdict is I'm getting one for my father, one for me. And one for my wife. This one is the most expensive. It's $700 which is like $110. And these are $240 each. But the discount is 30% off. So it's really, you know, what is it? $500 discount. So like $400. So it's like $50 for these two. This is the most expensive one. But it's good. It's good. Yeah. It's good. No, it's worth it. She deserves it. So $1,060. So we're talking about $135. $140. Perfect. Well, I could have bought more. Let's go buy more. No, I'm joking. I'm good. Thank you so much. Thank you. It's such a deal. I mean, this is a great buy. Come to Suzhou, buy silk. That's probably the best thing to buy here because obviously they're the silk capital of China. And now when you come outside to like the very end where you're going to pay, they also have other stuff like pillowcases. I was going to buy a few, but I really don't need them. And I don't know what my wife really wants. So I'm going to hold off on that. They also have like some small wallets for like kids. They have like mini scarves. They have ties. They have so many other things. Expensive scarf. Oh yeah, that's expensive. Yeah, this is the most expensive one we saw. It was like, I think it was like $1,000, this one. It's crazy. Pretty amazing though. Where are we going next? To the Shantung Street. Shantung. For shopping. No, I'm not going shopping. I'm going to eat. There's a lot of street food there, I know. Like a lot of small things, a lot of sweet stuff. Sweets. And local people, they buy and shop in there. Oh yeah? We made it. That was a lot of traffic. 20 minutes of traffic. Wow, the street's amazing. What we see here are just like a lot, a lot of restaurants, like street food restaurants, like little hole in the walls. This one looks amazing. That one has chicken feet. Everything looks so good. That one, that's like tea, right? Tea with durian. Pro-tea drinking. Pro-tea drinking? Wow. It's so different here. Very wide. Still a lot of cars though, it's not really so pedestrian. Not exactly Shantung Street, this just outside. Okay. So later when turn left, you see the traditional street, small alley, Shantung. Yeah, it feels like a way more commercial zone right here. But it really is, oh, that's KFC. Wow, look at the gate right there, a little alley right there. Yeah. Really cool. When the emperor come here, he write the calligraphy here. So the tablets, the memorial for the emperor come here. Wow, see this tablet is written by the emperor and right behind it, we have the Baby Grand Canal. Baby Grand Canal right here, coming out to like get over here. Yeah, look at this. Yeah, it's very, very tiny. I love the waterways here and you can see the different layers of the old city. This street is seven miles long, which is telling me that this is like the most commercial part, right? And once you get like 30, 40 minutes down the road, that's more like where people live. So less commercial, more people's homes. Yeah, I mean, this is another great place, another great shopping street. Lots of people, it's really bustling. There's less food here where we are at the beginning of it. It's more just like retail. So like hats, souvenirs, silk shops, lots of things that are Chinese. I want to buy something. What can I buy here? No, I'm joking. I don't need to buy. What's your favorite thing about the street? Nothing. Too crowded because I'm not this part person. I like the residential. Here too commercial, not my style. And are all these people from Suzhou or these are Chinese tourists? From another province, another city, not local people. Yeah, that's one thing about China is that when you travel around, people see Chinese people, especially in these zones. These are actually Chinese tourists. A lot of Chinese people in China travel mostly throughout China. And then you never know who's the tourist. I mean, I wouldn't know. You wouldn't know because of the way they speak and everything. But I would never know. And yeah, a lot of shops. This is just like, where's the food? Inside has the red bean juice. Outside is the sticky rice made with some of the grass juice. Oh my God, it's only 1.5 each. So like whatever that is, 20 cents each. Basic is like a sticky rice dessert. As you can see, lots of, oh my God, so hot. Red bean paste inside. Really good, really filling. It's burning me. I mean, I really didn't need to fill up on that. Luckily I only ate one. They also have another one, the orange one. That's pumpkin right there. I should have probably gotten one with pumpkin. I love pumpkin, but it's okay. Freaking amazing. Here we have sesame candy. It's so good. Very, very crunchy. I love sesame. It has almost like a chocolatey taste to it. There's peanut. The peanut's awesome. The black sesame is amazing. Like incredible. And you can see the guys cutting it right here. They cut them into bars. You can buy them. You can buy these bars right here. Like a whole pack. I'm good with the pack, but great to try. What are we gonna try next? There's so many delicious things here. They're all like little snacks though. I love it. That's the best way to do street food. It's just like try, try, try, try, try. After like 10 things, you're full and you're done. And I only spent $1.50 so far, so I haven't even spent a buck yet. But people are eating these amazing sticks. Whatever those sticks are. Now we're going through a tunnel under a bridge. And once we pass the tunnel, we're gonna enter like the more residential area. So basically the way it works is in this area, the bottoms are retail and people live upstairs. So I've been coughing a lot for some reason the past two days. So I'm gonna take some. I think the pollution here is affecting me. So I'm gonna try some. Tastes like a sugary bar of medicine. Pretty strong. I personally like this side better. It feels more real. You see people like to start selling everything here. Shoes, medicine, Buddhas. Here they have like a mini bakery. The bakery looks great. That looks awesome. Those right there. I don't know. I'm thinking we try something more traditional in terms of food. We're gonna find something else around here. There's also another restaurant. This is a restaurant right here, right? Like the xiaolongbao and some dim sum. Dim sum? We should find something more suzhou. Yeah. Also this is the wonton soup. Pineapple. This instrument has a long history. Since the Han dynasty. So they will make the music. That's the oldest instrument in China. Wow. They're nice. Can I try? No. This is the ancient stone arch bridge. This is the view I've been waiting to see. Beautiful. I love how it's dark and then the red lanterns and the lights on the bottom on the corridor of the river. Wow. This is awesome. After seeing the bridge and exploring this area where the locals live, we don't see that much food. So we're gonna turn around, go back to the other side and go to a restaurant to eat suzhou fish. It's like a super famous fish here. I think it's the most famous fish. Sweet and sour mandarin fish. Also we call the squirrel fish. Because when cooked, the shape looks like a squirrel. Once we cross that tunnel, as you can see, it's like never-ending amount of people. And what happens here in this little pocket, this is the entrance to the main commercial area. And everybody's on top of the bridge looking over the water. That's why it's so crowded here. And we're waiting here at the restaurant to see how long the wait is because it usually is a wait here in China. There's always a wait at good restaurants. This restaurant is extremely popular. And it's not cheap. Just letting you guys know. It's 198 yen for the fish. So like $30 for the fish. But I definitely think it's worth it. It's something you have to try. Every single table here has it. It's a massive restaurant. We're on the second floor now. And we're looking for the table that they appointed to us. That's our table? Great. I'm fine with it. I'm cool with the table. Two dishes. One is the sweet sour mandarin fish. Another is the green vegetable with the sticky rice. I'm just here for the fish. Wow, there it is. When the Emperor Qing Dynasty, Emperor Qianlong, been in Suzhou six times. Every time to here, he ordered this fish for himself. So if you order fish, let the fish head, mouth, face to you. You're like the emperor. I'm the emperor today. So this fish has no bones. It's like a sweet and sour chicken, but fish. Super sweet. This is so freaking sweet. So it's like sweet and sour, put on top of the fish. The fish is fried. Let's see what else I can get. They actually raised the price to like 208. And 30 bucks. It's definitely worth it. The only problem with the dishes here is they're all really big. So it's usually for sharing. Nothing is like for one person. Here we have sticky rice ball soup. And they have like a little bit of pork there. We also have a vegetable. It reminds me of a wonton soup, but the sticky balls are extremely sticky and they're like soft nuts. Not nuts, mochis. Mochis. That's what it tastes like, a big mochi. But the star here is obviously this super sweet fish. There's so much too. It doesn't end. And I love how there's no bones. For me, the hardest thing with fish is bones. This is unreal. A super sweet sauce. Wow, look at that. I love the way they cut it. It doesn't taste too fishy. Obviously it's a freshwater fish. But the sauce, the batter. Good amount of flesh in there. Wow, I'm just going to like devour this thing. I love this fish. I don't want to eat too much so you haven't even touched it. So we're going to try to get in here to get the cheek. The cheek right there. Then you mix with the juice, sauce. Okay, so cheek. You got to eat everything. Everything that you see that's cooked in here, you eat. Cheek. If you like that sweet and sour sauce, you'll die eating this dish. It's so sweet. At the same time, obviously savory because you have the fish, the batter. A little crunchy too. How about the tail? Oh, look at that. Just go in here and start biting. That was so good. There's no bones. Absolutely no bones. Nothing in here either. Stay away from that. Look at this. Just pull the tail out. Right, go in. The way it works in this restaurant is once you're done eating, just go straight over to the counter and pay the bill. You don't have to wait for your waiter to come and bring you the bill. You come straight here and you pay. My bill came out to 246 which is basically almost 50 US dollars. You don't tip here in China. I think it's a great deal. I mean, the fish was remarkable. Really good fish. I'm really full. So we paid our bill and as soon as we exit the restaurant, we have the bridge. It's an incredible view from up there. So we're going to go up there right now. And over there, across the street, I mean, there's so many people here. How many people are here? Don't know. It's too much. Easily like, I'd say 50,000 people in the area. Just because it's like, it's overcrowded. All the boats, wow. Look at all the boats. It's like, it's really congested right there. Boat traffic. It's so crowded here. I mean, the views are incredible. You see the boats. Lots of lights. But it's ridiculously crowded. I gotta get out of there. There's way too many people. And yeah, we had an amazing day. We saw the silk factory. I love seeing the silk. I didn't know there was two types of silk here. So you have the regular silk cocoon, and then you have the honeymoon cocoon, which is the man and the wife, right? And that one, they can't just pull it out. They have to like, take it off, rip it apart, and then make a different thing with it, right? And then, you know, I bought some stuff. And then we came over here to this street. Beautiful street. Incredible commercial street. It's a little different from the canal, the other street I went to yesterday where the canal's there. This one's more street. Canal's behind it. And you have to cross bridges and see it. Lots of good food on the street, but I highly recommend going and trying the sweet and sour mandarin fish. It is so good. A little pricey, but I mean, I didn't finish it myself, and that's the only thing I ate. I had like a little bit of the rice balls, and I only ate that. It was so sweet and delicious. And I love this. No bones. Because my biggest problem is the bones. Emperor taste. Well, guys, I hope you love this video. If you did, please give me a thumbs up. Leave me a comment below. Subscribe to my channel for more awesome travel content. I'll see you in the next travel food adventure in China. Peace!