This Could Be The BEST ISAAN Thai Food In America

So this is a drinking food with apparently dried marijuana on top. What kind of prawn, what planet did you get this from? Why did it just fall off like that? That was too easy. It's gonna get you high this time. But obviously this is like a black crab. It's like the spider of the ocean. Oh my gosh. My goodness. So these are imported from Thailand. Yes. I feel like they got bigger in the time that they left. Everyone knows Thai food. Many people have heard of Isan food from the northeast region of Thailand. And you might know it shares most of its DNA with Lao food. But do you know what it tastes like? And do you know why everyone's raving about it? And why it's credited for providing a lot of the punch, or maybe I should say elbow, that Thai food has? Let's head to Brooklyn and find out. Hit that like button and let's go. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to a very special Thai episode of Fun Bros Food. All right, right now we are outside of Zab Zab. And they are considered New York's best Thai restaurant. And one of the best Thai restaurants in all of America. They originated in Queens. This is their second location. And they specialize in Isan food. All right, Brian, tell us about your spot, man. Because you guys got, you know, written up. New York Times, you know, the publications. Oh, this is the true Isan flavor restaurant. That's what I call it. Is it kind of like Isan on a level that New York hasn't seen before? I would say so. I would say so, yes. Isan happens to be my favorite region of Thai food. And I know they're all great. You know, North, South, East, West, Central. What do you think about the title of one of the best Thai restaurants in America? Would you take it? I'll take anything, right? All right, you guys, leading off round one here at Zab Zab. We got the duck lop, right? And a lot of people spell this larb. But it's actually more like L-A-A-A-P, right? Like a lop. Okay, what am I looking at, Brian? Well, this is duck breast that we finely chopped. We got duck liver, duck dizzy, and we have our fried duck skin on top. Oh my gosh, this is all different types of cooked duck, man. Is duck considered even more popular in Isan than other types of larb? Or these are all very popular larb? Well, Isan is popular with the duck larb in a region called Udon Thani. Off rip, guys. The duck larb is a five out of five. Immediately. The ped is going crazy. I never thought I would like a dish so much that had duck gizzards in it. To be honest, I skipped the gizzards when it comes to the chicken. I mean, they're okay. I can do it, but this is the best gizzards I've had from a fowl. Okay, moving on to our other proteins here. Brian, what is this? This is fried duck kite. So basically, it's fried lemongrass with fried fish. So this is a drinking food with apparently dried marijuana on top. It's gonna get you high this time. Fried duck kite. Eating that fried dill is really interesting, too. I've never had something that kind of feels like twigs or weeds, but it tastes really good. While traveling is fun, man. You can just travel to Zab Zab. All right, our next dish is here at Zab Zab. We have the world famous crying tiger steak and the world famous som tum. But this papaya salad is done a little bit differently. The raw shrimp, the raw oyster, the black crab, the marinated black crab. Oh, I'm gonna shuck it together. That's it. Zab Zab right here. All right, guys. To the unassuming eye, obviously, you're probably thinking this looks like a spider. But obviously, this is like a black crab. It's like the spider of the ocean. How authentic would you say this is just how they would eat it in Isan, pretty much? Yeah, pretty much. Oh my god. All right, rounding out round one. We've got the crying tiger. In Thai, you were telling me this is called Sia Long Hai. Sia Long Hai, yes. Crying tiger. Listen, you can hear the steak crying. That's why they call it a crying tiger. Yeah, a little bit of a morbid thought that you hear a tiger crying. But hey, tiger's got emotions too, guys. Careful with this one. This has a bitter flavor. Actually, it's bile. Okay, you know what? I'm gonna try it. Let me try the bitterness. Let me see how this goes. Yo, it is bitter right away. I might more stick with the traditional jiao. I'm not gonna lie. I'm sticking with the traditional. I am surprised that some of these fusion steakhouses haven't added kind of a crying tiger flavor. I see them add different flavors, but I'm like, man, they gotta hit them with some crying tiger marinade. All right, you guys. That does it for round one, but we're not done here at TabTab. I'm telling you, when I was growing up, the Thai food I got exposed to, it was good, but it wasn't great to me because it always tasted kind of like Chinese food with more peppers in it. But man, I'm telling you, once I got exposed to Isan, it just expanded my mind. All right, you guys. We have arrived at round two at one of the best Thai restaurants in all of North America, TabTab. Brian, what are we looking at? What kind of prawn? What planet did you get this from? Well, it was hard to find these prawn, but we found them. They're river prawns. Oh, my gosh. They're on the medium size. My goodness. So these are imported from Thailand? Yes. Oh, man, they took a long trip here. I feel like they got bigger in the time that they left. Um, all right. So how do we eat this? What's the best way, man? Because this thing is huge. It's gigantic. You can crack it up like a lobster. Guys, what I'm going to do is I'm going to take this tail meat. I'm going to dip it in the juices up front because, you know, that's how we do. And I'm with a little bit of seafood. So I got a little bit of the head protein. David, David, you want. How are you doing over there? Yeah, I'm just going to drizzle on. That's it. Thai river prawns at TabTab. You know, sometimes when you get the giant prawns, you're a little disappointed because it's dry. This was juicy, man. I oh, my gosh. Listen, guys, I know we're in the northeast right now, but I'm I'm taking the river prawns over the lobster right now. My God. Listen, guys, this is one of the best restaurants that I've ever eaten at. I'm being dead serious right now. This place is incredible. Look at that straight from Thailand. Oh, my gosh. Aren't you guys next up? Part of round two. We've got a drink and we've got catfish wrapped in a banana leaf. Brian, what is this drink? It's gel margarita. Essentially, we're using the gel sauce, which is tamarind, lime juice, palm sugar. All right. So this is some new school and old school, because David, while you're sipping on that modern 2023 margarita, you know what I got right here? Oh, man. Pork belly, bamboo shoots all steamed together in a nice little package for you. Mmm. Isan food. They know how to do bamboos, too. Brian, you've got another cocktail here. What's this one? Oh, this is the marco tulip. So basically, it's a lime leaf that we marinate. Let me try that. That's good. That's smooth. The only reason why I cough. It's got a lot of citrus in there. Whoa. Wow. Even the cocktails are hitting you from different levels. You know, that's what I'd say. Thai food is so popular because it's sweet. It's sour. It's citrusy. It's bitter all at the same time. I never had this before in my life. Wow. What are we looking at? This is very traditional Nam Prik Pra Tu. Fried egg with a Cha Om leaf. Mm-hmm. OK. And you have the Pra Tu, which is a mackerel, which is grilled. OK. So I'm just going to take a piece of this, right? Right. You didn't want to explain it anymore. You said just taste it. Oh, my God. What is this? That's a Thai eggplant. This is a Thai eggplant. Oh, my goodness, guys. Nam Prik Pra Tu. This is like we in the mountains. Right. I love how the vegetables are steamed. So like this kind of little cabbage that you have here, it's very, very soft. And I think it's a nice switch up from the raw wraps that we're used to doing. Yo, I love this egg omelet. Thai egg omelets, man. They might be the best in the world. Moving on, Brian, what do we got here? This is a dish that I think I want to say for sure I've had before. But even the way it looks is a little different. Yes. This is Pra Ming Manow, which is a steamed branzino in a lime broth. Andrew, how are you holding up? Because I'm telling you, the Muay Thai elbows, I feel like I'm in a fight with Rotay. Rotay. Pra Ming Manow. Lime soup fish branzino. Wow. You guys made this one sweet. I taste a lot of sweetness. I taste the lime. Damn it, Brian. It's not right that a restaurant should be hitting this many home runs, man. It ain't right. It's not right. Oh, man. I'm going to eat it. I put it on top of my little sticky rice, which I love to do. I love it, man. I love what you guys did. Because I've had this dish previous times and it was a little sour for me. But you guys sweetened it up. Wow. Listen, guys, I don't know if you guys have ever had like sweet meat from fish. I know in sushi, sometimes it tastes sweet. I'm telling you, this fish is sweet. This is the best version of this dish I ever had. That is so good. I'm telling you guys, you guys are still eating cheeseburgers. Are you kidding me? Aren't you guys to round out round two? We have been eating an incredible feast here at TAPTAP. What are we looking at, Brian? This is ling sap. So it's the pork spine. The other pork spine soup that we like is the Korean yukdaejang, right? Or gamjatang. Oh, gamjatang. That's what I meant. Oh. All right, you guys, this is ling sap sap, pork neck stew, Thai version. My goodness. Here we go. OK. Salty, sweet, a little. I feel that lime juice coming through. Oh, my God. Don't drug test me right now. I'm going to fail it. Don't drug test me, guys, even though I don't do drugs. Good. I feel like I'm on Hot Ones right now, Isan edition. Trying to eat a lot of delicious Isan food and talk at the same time. It's very difficult, guys. We're trying to accomplish here, OK? I know a lot of, you know, especially people in the younger generation, you guys enjoy substances. Come get some substances here, legally. David's trying to say you don't have to go to those substances. Just come to TAPTAP and get that TAPTAP right here. This is a dare program. OK. All right, guys. Brian, please explain what we're looking at here. This is tom sum, guys. It's we chop whole chicken. We chop them and we broth them up with young tamarind leaf, galangal, lemongrass. Galangal? Sounds like a Lamborghini. It could be another term for it. Blue ginger. Oh, that definitely sounds like a substance. Hey, guys, one thing I got to note, guys. Sometimes you'll look at a Thai dish and be like, all right, that's not that spicy. Just watch out for these little buggers here, OK? When you see the little Thai chili, just know that it packs a punch. And you might take a bite that's not spicy. But if you have this in one of your bites, it all of a sudden becomes spicy. How do we say it again? Tom sum, guys. Oh, man, you guys know, guy in Cantonese, it's the same word. I love that you guys use dark meat, chicken thigh right here, skin on. I'm telling you guys, there's a reason why Pete Wells gave this place three out of four. He rarely ever does that. Oh, is this my favorite dish? All right, you guys, our last two dishes here at Tap Tap is a Kaprao. But this is a different type of Kaprao, Brian. What's different about it, man? You told me it's the devil is in the basil leaves. Yes, we chop the beef. We hand chopped it. This is a ribeye. And we saute with fresh garlic, Thai chili, bird chili. And then we use hot basil. This Kaprao, a lot of people have had a Kaprao. This is a common dish, but they're doing it differently here. But I would say this is common in the sense that it just got common recently. Most people were still on Pad Thai, Pad See Ew, Pad Kee Mao, and then Kaprao. Is this the best Kaprao I've ever had? Let's try it. It's different. The ribeye is delicious, man. It's different. Guys, yes. Yes, Tap Tap does serve a Pad Thai. Yes, they do have a Kaprao. You have to get it right here. There's more layers and those layers are great layers. Last but not least, Andrew, what are we doing here at Tap Tap? Ryan, this is a salt-baked fish, but man, what do you guys call it? Mieng Prao Pao. Oh my gosh. And you can see the salt right here. I've had a dish like this before where they pack it with salt and then they bake it. It's delicious. What is the salt supposed to do for the fish? It gives the flavor inside the fish. I can't think of any better dish to end off this meal here at Tap Tap. I mean, like we said, guys, you know, Thailand has so many wonderful regions of food. Central, south, north, northeast. Bissan is northeast. It borders Laos. A lot, a lot of crossover. Maybe 90% delicious mountain driven dishes. They don't taste like anything you've ever had before. My God. And to hear about the origin story of Tap Tap, even the Woodside location where you guys just had your Isan chef cook up a family meal. And then that family meal, you guys loved it so much. You were like, oh man, let's just change the concept of one of our other restaurants into a Tap Tap and base it around his dishes. I mean, I think that's an amazing story. And that's the beautiful thing about it, you know. And I'll tell you this, like sometimes food can be that simple. Just a nice salt baked fish with some good sauce. That's all you need. I mean, they're importing a lot of this stuff from Thailand from very difficult to reach regions. I mean, guys, the supply chain is not easy, right? Aren't you guys? We just left Tap Tap and that is northeastern Isan food. But we had to check out a spot that is doing Chiang Mai style food just so you guys can get some compare and contrast. Plus, we got to get this Sa Oi sausage in here. This is done in the grilled Chiang Mai style. Now, the big difference between Chiang Mai food, then Isan food from Bangkok food to, you know, southern Thai food is that it's more salty and bitter and less spicy. So this is actually my first time ever trying this Gang Ho. And this is my very first time having Sa Oi Nam Prik Nam, specifically with the green sauce from Chiang Mai. Like we said, it's very interesting because Chiang Mai and Isan are both very high up in northern Thailand. But they do have different flavor profiles because one is the northeast and one is just considered the north. As you can see, we got all these accessories to eat with the Sa Oi and Nam Prik Nam. I am telling you guys, if you guys have not had northern Thailand food, whether it's Isan or Chiang Mai style, man, you are missing out. This is probably one of the most best cuisines in the entire world, to be honest. My goodness, we got the Nam Prik Nam right here. Putting it on the cucumber, put a little bit of that, put a little bit of this, put a little pork rinds. I'm gonna even put a piece of squash in there. My goodness, this is the Big Mac of Sa Oi Nam Prik Nam from Chiang Mai. Next up from Chiang Mai, we are looking at Gang Ho. This is a dry curry stir fry using rice noodles. You've got other things in here. I could see appearance wise, this just looks like kimchi, but it's not. This is my very first time having this dish. So much bamboo essence from the stir fry in here, guys. My goodness, Gang Ho from Chiang Mai. Honestly, the flavor profiles of this Chiang Mai Gang Ho remind me the most of Yunnan food. Yunnan is a part of China where a lot of people said the original people who sort of populated Northern Thailand possibly came from the Zhuang people, and I can actually see the linkage. And it's so cool to see these border areas that border other areas. They're always gonna have different influence, just like Isan has so much influence with Lao food. Probably one of the most well-known dishes from Chiang Mai, which I just realized that it's from Chiang Mai, is the Khao Soi. Now, this is like a curry chicken noodle with different types of noodles, one's fried on top and one's just boiled on the bottom. Now, the origins of this dish are actually really interesting. It's actually called a Chin Ho dish, which means it's from the Yunnanese people who came and settled Northern Thailand in the mid-19th century. So it does have Chinese roots, but specifically from that particular group of people in China, the Yunnanese, which oftentimes are also Muslim. Guys, look at this curry noodle, fried, always using the dark meat. Oh my gosh, that chicken is falling off the bone. Why did it just fall off like that? That was too easy. Oh my gosh. I like it now because now I can kind of like shred it up, get the two types of noodles and chicken in one bite. You're tripping, bro. If you haven't had this, you're tripping. I mean, the reason why that we're coming here, guys, is to just show you that there is so much more besides just like, you know, Bangkok style food, because now Thailand is kind of being represented, you know, of all of its regions of food, because to be honest, it is really good. And there actually is a lot of undiscovered food, or I guess I should say unpopularized food in the Western world right now. And by the way, yes, if you're wondering why I'm using chopsticks for a Thai dish, it's because the roots of this dish are Chinese. So, you know, it's a noodle soup at the end of the day, you got to use chopsticks on a noodle soup, but everything else you can use forks in your hand.