COOKING 1000 WORMS into a Pancake - WILD Vietnamese Street Food! (Chả Rươi)

I really I haven't tried it before but I heard people said that it is so tasty. The smell is so good. The texture is also very nice. They can make even nine different kind of dishes. It's kind of warm. It's always a thrill to try a new food in a new country and that's why today is extra special because we're trying a rare delicacy in Vietnam that even most Vietnamese people have not experienced including Jum. Are you excited? I'm so excited, Sonny. Cool. Warm is not my cup of tea but when I travel to the north of Vietnam people keep talking about the sandworm. Why is it that so few even Vietnamese people have tried this food? So two reasons. The first one is it only can be found in certain places in Vietnam and the second reason it is so So we're super lucky to be here right now because the rest of the year you're eating frozen worms and I say always fresh never frozen with my worms. Let's go do this. There's more harvesting going on over here. Look at this. This guy's got a good like 15 pounds of worms over here. Let's see what happens. Look at that. That's a large amount of worms but you gotta let the worms dry a little bit evidently. I don't know. Is he cool if I just look at his worms? All right. I don't want to offend anybody. Some people are more modest with their worms. Wow. Holy crap. That is ridiculous. Oh my gosh. Look at this little wiggly guy. Get a close-up of that. How does it feel? He's upside down. Oh okay. He's friendly so far. He's not biting or anything. Okay. The feeling is special. Yeah. Special is the right word. There's like thousands of these little worms in here. Oh my god. Is this okay? I'm touching your worms. Is it cool? We cool? All right. Thank you. You're not supposed to touch someone's worms without asking but look at these drippy worms. Guys, this is what's going to be going into our food later. This is like the main ingredient for our meal today. Thin, slimy, wiggly. Yeah. They asked if you dare to eat it. Yeah. Heck yeah. Food is better when it's in season whether it's fruit, vegetables, or worms like today. Organic worms might I add. Whole Foods does not have worms this fresh. I don't think they even have worms at all. I was quite surprised to learn that this whole area, much like shrimp ponds, is meant just for raising these worms. Really? During peak season, the farmers tend to their little wormies once a day, lowering the water level of their ponds, creating a vortex that sucks the hapless worms into a net, spelling certain doom for them but a yummy worm pancake for me. We have a fresh batch of worm catching going on right over here. We're going to try to figure out how this works. Let's go. The tide is going down, the water's coming out, and it's draining out here. So the water is draining out and then all the worms are coming out with the tide. Yes. And then they get caught in the net. This is full of sandworms right in here. The net is just to prevent all of the stuff, the garbage from the pond to go out into here because this area is purely for the sandworms. These poor little sandworms. They never expected anything. They thought they're having a nice day at the pond. Oh, it's harvest time. These unsuspecting worms. She's kind of choking up on the net, making sure they're all just at the end. Here, can I be your strainer boy? The end of the net has a knot in it so they can easily release them and let them out. Look at that. What? Okay, you guys have this all figured out. What a system. Again, thousands of these things in here. So many they're wiggling about, unexpecting. They maybe don't even know that they're captured yet, which is heartbreaking, but also fun because we make fun food videos here. Oh, just go for it? From there, they're going to turn it into food somehow? Cool. These bad boys fetch about $20 per kilogram, making them quite valuable in Vietnam. Once these farmers collect their worms, they're preserved in styrofoam containers, shipped to Hanoi and sold as street food. Vendors incorporate the little worms into a type of pancake, much like what we'll eat today. So from here, they're already done. They cut it and we're going to go eat it? Let's see how they make it into the food. Yeah. After collecting our worm catch of the day, we head to our worm guide's house, where cooking is already underway. What's that? Is that salt? A little MSG. Oh, I like a lot of MSG. Can they put more? These worms are one ingredient in a larger pancake that also includes ground pork, eggs, ginger, chilies, and some Vietnamese herbs and spices. Today, we're making a worm cake, but why stop there? Why not a worm donut or a worm croissant, or why not starting your day with a warm worm muffin? Has she ever thought of making like a worm muffin? Who will be the one who invent the recipe? Me and you. Yeah. Me and you together. She's like, I think I know what I'm doing. I have a worm farm. Real fresh. So now, we already have our pre-made mixture with the ginger in there, some egg, minced pork, and she is just dumping on gobs and gobs of worms. I thought this would be like a little bit of worm mixed with pork. It's a little bit of pork mixed with worm. Wowzer. That is real exciting. And look, guys. They're also excited. Look at that one in particular. Everyone's very pumped. How do you feel serving this? It's viscous. It's a thick material, but they're slowly blending into it. I thought that maybe they would be dead, but they're still alive. Right now, being in that mixture, they probably think, oh my god, I get to have such a feast right now. They don't know they are the feast. Sorry, guys. We are on the way to the kitchen. We have our freshly mixed up worm batter. A little bit of everything in there. We got some eggs, pork, and a big helping of worms. All right. We are entering the... Oh, that is a dark kitchen. Is this where she usually cooks? Normally, this one is to cook the food for the piggies. This is where she usually cooks for the pigs. She really wants to show you the traditional way of Vietnamese people when they cook. Okay. Well, the pigs have been enjoying it for years, so if the pigs like it, I guess I'll like it too. Hey, how do you feel about the kitchen? Is the food here? Is it pretty good? It's traditional. Okay. Hey, buddy. High five. Okay. After the fire is stoked, a banana leaf and several wild betel leaves are laid on the bottom of our cooking pan. This is amazing because they've created a base with some different leaves, and then they put pork fat on top of that, and now she's using a ladle to ladle on some of this batter, worm batter. It's one huge pancake in there. I've never seen anything like this, where they create a kind of a base to the pan just with leaves so it doesn't get so hot and it doesn't burn so much. For those of you cooking along at home, please note that after 20 minutes, they flip the pancake and continue cooking. After about 10 more minutes, dinner is served, and we are prepared for a feast. I feel like an archaeologist because these worms in this cake look like little fossils. I thought everything was going to be mushed up like a hamburger, but we got real chunks of worm in here. I know, you're hungry too, right? Okay, not that hungry. You should try it. The texture is nice. It's crispy outside. So on one side, we have the leaves. This is the betel nut leaf. This is really interesting. Are you excited? I'm excited except I see all the worms here. Yeah. But just close our eyes and eat it. I think that it's so good. The taste is very nice. I think the taste will be nice too. We just have to get past the fact that we're eating a cake full of worms. Cheers. Worm cake. It's good. It's tasty. I can feel the worm inside my mouth. Yeah, I feel the worms too. But the flavor is nice, right? Yeah. Okay, they're noodles. They're noodles. They're noodles. It's just like a bread with a bunch of noodles inside. So it's very earthy, like a pond. It's like that fresh water flavor in there a little bit. It's really savory. The texture is halfway between bread and an omelet. There's crunchy bits. There's mushy bits. And then once in a while, you get like a jiggly little worm in there and you're like, oh, that's a hundred percent a worm. For me, it's been a very cool experience to get to do something so completely different. And in fact, something that a ton of even Vietnamese people haven't done. I think it's worth trying. If you want the best worm cake, you got to come to the country. Interesting, unexpected, new discoveries. Chum, thank you so much. Let's do a little fist pound, a little worm pound. This wormy video was made possible by Christina's Vietnam. Christina's is offering social accommodation all over Vietnam. In Hanoi, they've just launched 15 beautiful apartments, perfect for large families, groups, or individuals. Christina's Hanoi is a great launching point. And from there, you can check out the whole city. Links for that are in the description down below. We will see you next time. A peace. That was good. All right. Let's eat some more worm cake. We could run away. We don't got to stay. I can feel it. It burns inside.