It's Mark Wiens, I'm in Chiang Mai, Thailand

and Chiang Mai is maybe the capital

of night markets in the entire world.

And so it is a Sunday night.

I am at (foreign language).

This is one of the biggest and

the busiest night markets in Chiang Mai.

It runs the entire length of Ratchadamnoen Road.

Which is right in the center,

the heart of of Chiang Mai.

So this evening we're gonna go on a food tour

of the night market in Chiang Mai.

We're just gonna see what we find,

we're gonna eat some delicious food and

I'm gonna share it all

with you in this video right now.

(upbeat music)

This particular market is open every Sunday.

And it starts at 5:00 p.m..

Right now it's exactly 5:00 p.m. so they're just open up.

Most of the vendors are here,

but still sorta organizing,

setting things up.

There's a mix of almost everything at this market.

From souvenirs and clothes,

trinkets and lanterns and lights.

But mainly I'm here to just sample the food

and we're gonna see what we can find.

And try to eat some of the...

Mix of things.

And I'm still waiting for my friends

Tom and Joel who are gonna come also hang out tonight.

But we got here a little bit before they did.

I wanted to get here right as they opened,

the market opens, so I could get all the shots.

But they should be joining me soon.

(foreign chatter)

Anytime I see a cart that's loaded with this much meat,

in this particular instance, sausage,

there's no way you can walk past it

without ordering a few skewers,

and it is just smoking away.

You can see her,

the fan is blowing, the sausage under there.

The fat is just burning down,

it's just smoking away it smells so good.

Most of what's hanging on the bar is

sai krok Isan, which is a...

It's an Isan style sausage.

But then she also has some of the northern sausage.

Which is called sai ua.

In two different shapes and so I got one of the,

one skewer of the Isan sausage as well as

the northern Thai sausage we'll just taste them both

to taste the difference.

Okay this is the sai krok Isan.

(foreign chatter)

Oh wow!

Okay, that is a big bite.

It's so good though, just bursting with fatty juices.

And for sai krok Isan you have to chase it

with a chili because that's just pure meat.

As opposed to what we'll see in the next bite

of the sai ua, so I got a chili.

Oh yeah.

That completes the experience, it's so good.

It's so juicy.

Wow that's tasty.

And then as opposed to the sai krok Isan,

which is, there's no spices within the sausage itself

but you eat spices, you chase with spices, like the chili.

This one is the sai ua which is filled with spices already

within the ground meat mixture.

So there's lemon grass in here, there should be chilies.

These are a little--

Mmm.

Oh yeah.

Hohoho.

Sai ua is so good.

You can taste the lemon grass.

This one is quite a fatty mix.

But it is juicy.

(upbeat music)

Wow.

There's no better way I could think of,

to start this night market food tour,

in Chiang Mai.

Mmm.

(foreign chatter)

Now that market is still pretty quiet.

Well, very quiet compared to what it's gonna be.

Right now you still have lots of space to move around.

The vendors are still setting up,

but I can guarantee in a couple of hours,

especially when the sun is fully down,

the market will be packed.

So it is good to come early.

If you are weary of just single file crowds.

(upbeat music)

We ended up walking all the way across

to the other side of the market.

Actually we started on the end of the market,

but this is actually the front.

At (foreign language).

So this is the front gate here.

So this is where you normally come into the market.

And it's just now almost 6 p.m. and

it's just starting to get really busy.

(upbeat music)

(foreign language)

The hard thing about this market

is it's so huge and so sprawling and

it goes down so many little side alleys

and into little temple courtyards.

And so, within lots of little temple courtyards,

there are little food courts.

Just an everlasting supply of Thai snacks.

And so we saw the giant pan of bubbling, buoyant,

pork balls, in Thai they're called look chin mu.

And she informed us that they are 100% pork.

So it's just pork that's been...

Very ground, very smoothly and made into little balls.

They boil.

You can just see them all just like buoyantly

floating around in the wok, in the water.

Then she scoops them out, she serves them to you

fresh over some lettuce.

She puts on a little bit of toasted garlic

and some of the sauce,

which I think should be a little bit sweet.

That looks really good, we gotta try a hot fresh pork ball.

Mmm.

Mm.

It's so soft and tender.

Yet, not mushy.

Very kinda neutral tasting and just...

I got a piece of Chinese celery on that bite.

And also the sauce, which is a little bit...

Sour,

a tinge sweet,

and a tinge spicy.

Mm, but you can taste the quality, the freshness of them.

You can tell that's just pure pork, that's luscious.

It's very mild in flavor but you can taste

just a hint of black pepper.

Maybe even white pepper.

(drumming)

(foreign music)

Oh there they are.

(foreign language)

What's up Tom?

- What's up?

- [Mark] What's up, JJ?

- That's so good.

You know what?

Have a try.

- Warm and sour.

- The last one. - Warm and sour?

- Sour and spicy.

(foreign language)

- [Mark] Already had some look chin and some sai krok.

- Nice. - Whoa.

- [Mark] Okay I'll taste it.

Thank you.

I would love some sai ua.

- It's like a Vietnamese sausage.

- They really take care a lot about people around them.

- Oh that's nice.

- I'm just joking. - You think so?

Okay.

- That is a ramble.

- Isn't it kinda like that German um--

- Yeah it's like Leberkäse.

- Leberkäse, yes that's what it is.

- It's like,

the Thai version of German Leberkäse.

- Yup.

- But spicy.

- And it has a little bit of a pepper,

black pepper dish.

- Yeah, sour, - But like so--

- vinegar, spicy...

- It's kinda just like the pork ball that I just ate.

Just in flat, square form.

(upbeat music)

(foreign chatter)

Something that you have to eat especially at this

market is called kai pam.

It's a grilled egg.

It's like an omelet.

It's like a trough of egg that they fill up

into a banana leaf, little trough boat.

And then they grill it.

They have a few different toppings.

One of them is mushrooms.

One of them is, I'm not even sure.

A bunch of different imitation crab.

But then it slow grills as she kinda stirs it with a stick.

And so that's kinda like a new form of an omelet.

That you should eat at this market, we're gonna sample it.

It's kinda stuck stuck into the trough.

Mmm!

Oh it's like a juicy omelet.

It's very juicy.

But...

I mean, apart from a different,

any other omelet, it does actually have the flavor of the,

the banana leaf, the bai tong.

- Oh, totally!

- The roasted banana leaf just embeds into the omelet.

Other than that it's just like a juicier omelet.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

It's actually pretty good.

How's that egg, Tom?

- [Tom] Pretty good, pretty good.

I got the one with the, with the bee.

- [Mark] Oh, the bee hive?

- Yeah. - The bee uh...

- Larv?

- [Mark] Larvae?

- Yeah.

It's pretty good actually.

It doesn't taste like bee though.

No honey taste, but,

very eggy.

- [Mark] This is another version with a different topping

that we got which is bee larvae.

(upbeat music)

Mm.

Oh yeah.

The larva's very creamy.

Mm-mm.

The egg was interesting and pretty good.

We're moving on, and now the market is just getting packed.

But we're on our way to eat more food.

(upbeat music)

Joel just got a passion fruit shake.

This is just pure passion fruit blended with ice.

(upbeat music)

Oh.

Oh that's just like, perfectly tart.

Nice and sour.

Just a tinge of sweetness and

you've got the crunch of those seeds.

Thanks, man.

- Sour.

- [Mark] Yeah, that's the...

That's just pure and good.

- Yeah, look all those seeds.

(upbeat music)

- It's so packed, yeah.

Especially at this time,

it's just like single file.

- Yeah.

- We're just in a line, going through the market.

(foreign chatter)

- Very traditional.

(foreign chatter)

- Kind of, stuck together.

Help me, help me.

Oh!

(laughing)

- Get some air intake, some air intake.

- Yeah, so it must be thick then.

If it's hot to eat like that.

- [Mark] And it is black sticky rice,

or purple sticky rice,

which is made into a little pancake

and then she sizzles it over the hot griddle.

She adds on a variety of toppings

including sesame and sugar...

It looks almost exactly the same as a piece of beef jerky.