24 Hour Thai Street Food Challenge in Bangkok | Epic Food Journeys with Mark Wiens | Nat Geo

• Nat Geo challenged me to go on a 24 hour Thai street food tour in Bangkok. [clock ticking] This is an absolute wonderland of Thai food. They have 50 different curries you can choose from. Oh, that one's hot. I think those might be testicles. I've been living in Thailand for over 15 years, so I've got some really local Thai street food spots to show you. Oh. Ah. Mmm Mmm ♪ ♪

[narrator] We're in Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand, home to over 10 million people. On our 24 hour street food challenge today, we'll try some of the most iconic. - Oh, that aroma is insane. Oh, that's gonna be spicy. [narrator] And also some lesser known Thai foods that this thrilling city has to offer. We have 24 hours and the clock starts now. [clock ticking] [bell dings] ♪ ♪

• It's 6 a.m., Bangkok is just waking up. And I'm at Talat Trok Mo, which is a historical market right in the heart of Bangkok. This is a market where you can come to buy everything from fresh vegetables to pre-cooked food. And this is where we're gonna find our first bites of food to eat today on this tour. [Mark Wiens] Okay, I think I just found what we're gonna try first. She has the pork, which is marinating, and then she deep fries it here. But I wanna ask her what's in that marinade. [speaking in Thai] [Mark Wiens] Okay, some oyster sauce. [continuing in Thai] [Mark Wiens] Okay, white soy sauce. [both conversing in Thai] And lots of garlic, lots of garlic. [speaking in Thai] Oh, and pepper as well. Oh, man, you can just smell the aroma of the frying pork just wafting down the market.

[narrator] Moo tad or deep fried pork, is an irresistible snack you'll find at just about every Thai market. Something tasty you can eat on the go. [Mark Wiens] Oh, okay, now she's frying some of the pork ribs. [sizzling] Oh, oh, that's a beautiful thing. You see the caramelized, crispy edges. Oh, man. [Mark speaks in Thai] Thank you, thank you. When Auntie hands you a little ball of sticky rice, you take it and eat it together with the rib. Mmm They're like riblets. All that meat around the bone. It's so oily, so fatty, fully loaded with flavor. Nothing like a little fried meat to begin your day.

♪ ♪ Here we go, and I can immediately hear that sizzle. [conversing in Thai] This is one of my favorite Thai sweet snacks, which is called Khanom Krok, which is a coconut griddle cake. And she's pouring in a fresh batch right now. Sizzles on that griddle. Okay, so it's a rice batter at the beginning. Okay, and now she tops it with coconut milk, fresh coconut milk. And they start to sizzle, they start to caramelize, and start to crispify on the bottom. Five different types of toppings that you can choose from. ♪ ♪

Okay, [speaking in Thai] All right, awesome. Hot and fresh right out of the griddle. Peek, what do we have under here? Oh, the coconut, yes. Oh, feels so good in the fingers with the crispiness on the bottom and with that gooey, custardy coconut milk on the top. Oh, mm, yes. Oh, man, that is so good. Again, crispy, custardy, the flavor of the coconut milk, perfectly sweet, but not overly sweet. And then you've got that really tender, fresh, young coconut on topping. Oh, it's so good and so addictive. Let's try the next topping, topped with the green onions. Oh, oh, that one's hot. And this one is so interesting. We think about green onions as a savory food, but to eat it on something sweet totally throws off your taste buds and changes the direction of your thinking. So good.

[clock ticking] [Mark Wiens] It's about 9 a.m. and we're gonna go eat a meal that a lot of Thais choose to eat for breakfast. Oh, man, step into the shop house and it's just fully loaded. Almost is like stadium bleachers of different curries. - Ah, okay. - Okay, got it. Look, this is the kitchen where they cook all the dishes. They just have buckets of chilies and Auntie is the head chef here. Auntie is about to make another signature dish. It's an insane amount of chilies that go in. The entire wok, oh, man. - [oil sizzling] - [laughs] Oh, yes. That will make you gag a little bit from the fumes of those chilies. Oh, okay, oh, a big bag of frog is going in. And I love Auntie's skill. She just tosses in ingredients, doesn't measure anything. recipes, family recipes. Almost about done, then they toss in a whole handful of holy basil as well as lime leaves and then just kinda like let that wilt into the frog with the full force of flavor as we can see from the amount of chilies and spice that they use in their recipes.

♪ ♪ [Mark Wiens] Oh, that smells so good and everything is cooked in the kitchen but then walked over to the shop house where they display all the different curries and all the different dishes of the day and where you can order them and eat. If you love to eat, this is an absolute wonderland of Thai food. So even though it's blazing hot outside and we're still in the morning, people in Thailand aren't afraid to have a spicy meal. Here we go. Oh man, so excited. I'm gonna go straight for that catfish. Look at that gravy on the bottom there. It's just infused with all of those herbs and with all of that chili. Put that onto your rice. Oh. Wow. Mm-hmm The catfish just melts in your mouth. You immediately taste the flavor of the chili and that aroma of both the holy basil, which has this peppery flavor and the finger root that they sprinkled on top, which has this gingery sharpness to it and earthiness to it. Oh, it's so good. And then on the table, which is a ubiquitous Thai condiment or seasoning, it's fish sauce with chilies. And so you need to add a little bit more chilies to even bump up the heat. Now, these are already spicy but just to kind of bring the flavors together, add a little bit of chili. Okay, let's try the green curry. Beef green curry, coconut milk. With the chilies. Oh man. Oh yeah. The beef is so tender, melts in your mouth. This meal will just clean your system out. So far so good. Let's try the frog. Really meaty nuggets of frog here on bone. This one you can just see the amount of chili that they use. I think it's a frog leg. Oh wow. Okay, that's a flavor overdose. Spices that just warm your mouth immediately. And then the frog itself is really muscular, really firm. Traditional recipes to the maximum flavor. This is the real deal, Thai rice and curry.

[clock ticking] ♪ ♪ [Mark Wiens] Next up, I'm in Silom. This is Bangkok's central financial business district where everyday thousands of people pour onto the streets looking for something delicious to eat. Oh man, this place is packed, it's buzzing. We're here right at the peak of lunch rush. Oh, she just has a small, it's a closet sized stall. It has a one by one foot space to stand. But she assembles all of the noodles right here. Blanching your choice of noodles in the water, putting it into the bowl and adding all these toppings. And they do it so fast, so expertly. ♪ ♪

Okay. [Mark speaks Thai] Oh, nice. And I ordered the [foreign dialogue] but then also you can choose your type of noodles. I got the thick or the wide egg noodles. And then with everything, also with the Tom Yum seasoning. So it's gonna be spicy, it's gonna be a little bit sweet. It's gonna be salty. And this is a fully loaded bowl of noodles with the crispy pork. With the red pork, there's already a lot of seasoning, a variety of fish balls. Oh yeah. Mmm Mm Oh, that's amazing. The noodles, they're really tangly and really thin. They have an amazing texture. And they just have this like band like wid that just absorbs all of that flavor from the lime juice to the chili. But once you know how it tastes, then you can add your own seasoning. Add some chili oil, a little bit of extra chili flakes. One spoon will do. All right, and then a little bit of vinegar. And then from there, I'm gonna add in a little bit of that broth, rehydrate the noodles a little bit. Okay, and then you gotta fully mix it all together. Get all the noodles coated in that seasoning. Oh man, this is as good as it gets on the streets of Bangkok. Lunch was amazing. It's now the middle of the afternoon and I'm on my way to the next place to eat something that a lot of Thai people eat to stay awake after a heavy lunch.

♪ ♪ [clock ticking] This is what I came with you for. ♪ ♪ So green mango, you can dip it into that shrimp paste chili with the sugar. All right. Oh yes, that immediately puckers you up, wakes you up. And a lot of Thai people love to eat green mangoes because they're very sour. But then you have the combination of the shrimp paste and the chili, which bumps up the flavor even more. And that totally gives you a jolt. Just wakes you up.

[clock ticking] [Mark Wiens] One of the things I love so much about Bangkok is there's so many different ways that you can get around. So to go to the next place, I'm gonna take one of my favorite types of transportation. ♪ ♪ I love that breeze coming off the Chao Phraya River, the heart and soul of Bangkok.

♪ ♪ [clock ticking] [Mark Wiens] It's a beautiful evening in Bangkok. The sun is just starting to go down. It's the perfect time to eat a specialty, which is from the northeastern region of Thailand. And I know an amazing spot. [Mark greeting in Thai] Oh, oh man. I love how it's just sprawled out onto the sidewalk. And what you'll immediately notice is the amazing cabinet of all things beef. Everything from the meat to the lungs to the, I think those might be testicles. And then she has all the seasonings spread out along here. All the grills and the soups. Oh, what a spot. Koi, okay. So they'll ask you actually when you're ordering food, you can order it spicy and then also you can order it bitter and one of the best flavors of this type of cuisine is the bitter, which comes from fresh bile.

[narrator] Yup, that's the bile you're thinking of. A green colored bubbly fluid that comes from a cow's gallbladder. While most countries discard it immediately, in Thailand it's prized for its bittersweet taste. And now she's making our Sua Rong Hai, which is the crying tiger beef. Oh look, now she's slicing an ox testicle. Yes, butterfly cut, yes. Oh, does that go into a little bit of a marinade? So after a quick toss in the marinade, she puts it in the griddle and or into the grate and then directly onto the charcoal. Oh, that's awesome. So this road that we're on, there's other main roads that are nearby, but this is kind of a relaxing street for Bangkok. But you'll see there's lots of taxis, there's lots of tuk-tuks, and there's also lots of motorbike drivers. And so people will come here, they'll stop, and she said that they love to eat Laap. Oh, now she's making the Koi. And this is one of her signature dishes that most people come here to eat.

♪ ♪ Put everything in it, bile, chili. Oh, and now the handful of herbs tossed in. Oh, and then just whisks that up in the pot. A little bit of raw blood too goes in. Gotta keep it hydrated. Yes. ♪ ♪

Oh, here it is. One of the absolute dishes you have to come here to try, which is called Koi. It's as fresh as possible. ♪ ♪ [clock ticking] All the food is here. Everything prepared right there on spot. Have to start with that Koi. And I'm gonna get a little ball of sticky rice, then be able to grab a bite altogether with sticky rice. All right. Mmm Mmm Oh man. The beef, it's so natural. Has a little bit of a, kind of melts in your mouth, but then at the same time, has a little bit of a chewiness to it. And then immediately you taste the bile, which has this bitterness at the beginning, and then it kind of transforms to a sweetness in your mouth. Oh, it's phenomenal. Okay, let's try the grilled beef. And this one in Thai, they call it Seua Rong Hai, which translates directly to crying tiger beef. And some say it's because of the sound that it makes when they put it onto the grill and it starts squeaking from the fire, from the beef. And dip it into the chili sauce. Oh. Wow. Oh, and that chili sauce, that will also surprise you if you don't know what it is. Not only does the Koi have the bile, the sauce is just loaded with bile. And you can actually order the sauce the way you like it. You can order it extra spicy, you can order it extra bitter, and then they'll add in the bile to the sauce. I can give you this jolt, jolt of unexpected flavor. So these are the ox testicles. So spongy and jiggly. This definitely needs a dunking in that sauce. Mm, they're so tender. Oh, it definitely is spongy. But I love how it absorbs that sauce. Oh, yes. [laughs]

[Mark Wiens] That's what I love so much about this place, the friendly people that you meet. - Thank you. - Thank you. Cheers. And by the way, you've gotta eat this meal with some drinks. Ahh [clock ticking] ♪ ♪ Meat, whiskey, and friendliness, that was the real deal. And with the night comes a whole new wave of energy in Bangkok, so let's go to the next place. In the thundering, iconic tuk-tuks of Bangkok, and I especially love riding them at night. Oh, you got that cooler nighttime breeze, but then also I love the different colored lights on the tuk-tuks as well. I found Mario in Bangkok.

♪ ♪ [Mark Wiens] Huge neon lights, traffic that never stops. Big crowds of people, and street food on both sides of the road. Welcome to Yaowarat. This is Bangkok's Chinatown.

♪ ♪ [Mark Wiens] Oh, you can smell the food in the air. All the garlic is filling the humidity of Bangkok. [clock ticking] Oh, here we go, this is the place I was looking for. They have all the desserts, which are Thai and Chinese mixes of desserts. Ginkgo nuts, there's lotus root, there's a variety of candied things and boiling things, and everything is bubbling. But this is what I came to eat. Okay, oh man, and she just scoops in with the cup, scoops in with those dumplings, the aroma of the ginger. That's why I ordered something called Bua Loy Nam Khing. And Bua Loy are these little dumplings with black sesame on the inside, and then it's served with Nam Khing, which is ginger soup.

♪ ♪ And we're gonna sit down with the owner as well, amazing. Okay, so I think I'm gonna dig into the-- [Stall Owner] Bua Loy. [Mark Wiens] Bua Loy Nam Khing. Bua Loy Nam Khing. [laughs] Mmm The wrapper is really nice and gummy, and then you just have this burst of nutty black sesame seeds in your mouth as you bite down, and that's contrasted by the spiciness, or the warmth of that ginger soup, lightly sweet, warm. Just feels good going down the throat, and very good for the digestion after all of the food we've eaten today. It's so soothing. [Mark Wiens] And I wanna show you what's inside of that dumpling, so I'll bite half of it. Oh yeah, it's oozing out, totally loaded with black sesame seeds, and it just fills your mouth with that aroma. Rehydrate that in the broth, fill up my spoon all the way, maximize all the flavor all together. Oh, awesome.

♪ ♪ [clock ticking] [Mark Wiens] Chinatown was great, but hectic as always, and now I'm away from the craziness down a side alley, and if you love to eat late at night, this is gonna be a meal for you. There's tables just going down the alley, but this restaurant is called Jay Nee, which is famous for a complete meal called Khao Tom, which directly translates to boiled rice, but you eat it along with so much more, a huge variety of different dishes. And before sitting down, I'm gonna go to the kitchen, see some of the cooking, and also meet Jay Nee, Auntie Nee. [Mark and Auntie greeting in Thai] She's in the middle of cooking as well. [speaking in Thai] Oh, okay, she's making a salad. Oh yeah, oh, that's gonna be spicy. [Mark Wiens] That looks like an unbelievable seafood salad. I can even smell the freshness of the lime juice in there.

♪ ♪ [clock ticking] [Mark Wiens] See, Auntie is already pouring a beer. - Yes, Jay Nee. [laughs] [Mark Wiens] Oh yes, so many dishes. Okay, and the yam basalit, oh, what a selection. Okay, cheers. Oh, oh, that's the most satisfying sip you'll ever have. Oh, in a frosty mug, in the hot humidity of Bangkok. That is, that's a relief. [Mark Wiens] Okay, let's eat. Okay, here we go. I got a cashew in that bite. I got an onion, green mango, roasted chili jam, a fried fish. There's like 10 different things going on in my mouth all at once with all different textures and crispies. Delicious. Okay, I'll move into the kale stir fried with crispy pork. And for this one, I can actually put it into the rice porridge. Okay, I'll eat it with the Khao Tom. Oh man. Mm-hmm The fragrance of the rice porridge, the smokiness of the vegetables cooked on a high fire, which is just embedded with that wok hay, and the garlic is what stands out. So big pieces of squid in here, the dressing, there's onions in here, there's lots of chilies as well. She made it extra spicy. [speaks in Thai] It's sour, spicy, salty. But one of the things I wanted to ask Auntie is why Khao Tom is such a popular meal. [Mark Wiens] It's comfort food. They feel like they're at home eating the dishes that their mother would cook or their family would cook. One of the great late night dishes at Khao Tom restaurants is called Kha Gai Super, which literally means super chicken feet soup.

[Mark Wiens] Let's taste the broth. And lots of chilies as well. Oh, that's a complete mouth feel. And it has this thickness from all that collagen and the fat that's been cooked out of the feet. Oh, it's so good. Yeah, that's a mouth overdose of flavor. She lives here, so she could be here all night. Okay.

[clock ticking] [Mark Wiens] The only limit to eating Thai street food for 24 hours in Bangkok is the size of your stomach. But I think we did pretty well. What's amazing is we only ate a fraction of the diversity and the variety of different Thai street food that's available. There's still so much more for you to discover.

[clock ticking] [narrator] Stay tuned, because on the next Nat Geo Challenge, we're gonna have a meal that couldn't be more different from the crazy streets of Bangkok. ♪ ♪