Authentic Hmong Food - Organic + Plant Based Meal in the Mountains!! | Chiang Mai, Thailand

Hey everyone, hope you're having an amazing day. It's Mark Wiens. I'm in Mon Jam, which is a mountain village in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It's beautiful. And this is a Hmong people village. And they're known for their amazing farming on the side of the hill. If you just look around, you can just see the layers. You can see the terraces of farming, mostly vegetables. We actually spent the night here at a lodge. And the owner family, the mother, offered to cook us a very simple vegetable-based meal, Hmong meal. And so we're gonna go around, we're gonna see some of the vegetables, maybe pick some of the vegetables, a little bit of the vegetables. And then after that, we'll do a little bit of cooking, some really healthy, natural, very local mountain Hmong food. One load of Napa cabbage. That's gonna go straight to the markets in Chiang Mai, fresh from the farm from the mountain of Mon Jam. Walking into the lettuce field. And on this, this is more just like slope farming. But you can see across, you can see across that little ravine, it's more terraced farming. So I wanna go see what they're harvesting over there, too. I can't recognize what it is. So let's just take a quick walk over there. Around here, they do a lot of commercial farming. So a lot of these are for local markets, especially since we're so close to Chiang Mai, a lot of these vegetables would go directly to the markets in Chiang Mai. And then also, they do grow vegetables for self-consumption as well. And as the hill gets steeper coming down towards the ravine, now you can see the terraces, the steps, and these are still cabbages. But this view is spectacular. The breeze coming through, passes through, maybe you're supposed to get to this farm from the other side. It looks like cabbage, though, too, actually. We're back from the garden now, and the family runs the guest house, and then I'm not sure if this is their home or if this is the kitchen of the guest house. I think it might be the kitchen of the guest house where they cook some of the small breakfast dishes. But they don't usually offer food, but we just asked them if they could, meh, could cook, mom could cook. Okay, so here she is. Kob kun makap, kob kun makap. She's just gonna prepare some very simple Hmong dishes using the local ingredients, especially the vegetables. Awesome, actually, we're gonna go straight to go get some more vegetables first. Yes. Oh, wow. Hey. Tua. Tua phak yao. Wow. Panika. Ani. Saikaha. Yod tau. Oh, yod tau. Passa, passa Hmong. Passa Hmong, the yod tau. Yod, yod tau. Mm. Manja yao noi. Ah. Similar to long beans, or string beans, or green beans, but they kind of have, like, tiger stripes on them. And she's so, she's so friendly. And now going down, maybe for another, another vegetable. Ton lek. Malakaw yod makap. Ton lek. Look at this papaya tree, though. Such a small tree, but full of fruit. And now we're getting some leaves of the pumpkin. Yod tok tong. The big farms, that's commercial farming, but then just the wild farm organic vegetables that they just grow around the house, that's for their consumption. That's awesome. And she's just going for the young leaves at the top, the young leaves, not the big leaves. Wow. Mom, she mostly speaks Hmong language. She knows all the words for Hmong language, but limited Thai. But she's so friendly and so smiley. She's amazing. Okay, back to the kitchen. Now she's just trimming up those vegetables, peeling off the, I think, the outer skin that's probably pretty tough. Yes. Zao mong. Oh, zao mong, ahan mong. Uh. Zao mong. Zao mong, ahan mong. Zao mong. Uh. Zao mong, no mong. No mong. Zha tau. Oh, this one? Uh, ni. Ko tau. Zha tau. Uh. Zha tau. Put that all into the boiling water. So she added a little bit of oil and water to the wok, then heated that. Then tossed in the vegetables, the sprouts, and then added in some salt. Whoa. Yo so. I was just watching that cook, and then she just walked in with a huge basket of vegetables with a big smile on her face. So she's gonna make this, too. So many different vegetables gonna go into this meal. She probably boiled that for about 10 minutes. You can see that it's soft, and she checked the stems to make sure they're soft, and she's keeping that water almost like a soup, maybe, and all there's in there is the vegetable, water, a bit of oil, and salt. Om. How much hot? Um. So interesting, that vegetable must take a long time to cook, and maybe it has some bitterness or something to it, because she boiled it for a while, then poured out the water, and then added fresh water, and then put it back on the stove. Oh yeah, in Thai it's called pak kom. So it must, that means bitter, bitter vegetable. So it must be bitter. Try to take out some of the bitterness. Kutza? Ah, pepper, yes. She put it in a little plastic bag, and I think she's gonna pound it, or smash it. Ah, okay. Whole peppercorns, just pounded that into a coarse grind, goes into the green beans, and then in the green beans, yeah, so first she sauteed them off, and then she added water, and now the pepper, and immediately as she puts that in, that smells so good. Okay, kaprik, yes. Yes, chili time, and straight from the bush right there, into the kitchen. Oh, oh my god. So those are just the green chilies, and salt, and she didn't really pound, but she just mashed it, bring out the juices, look immediately juicy. Whoa, ran off back into the garden to get some more ingredients. Ah, pak shi. With the flowers on it, though, yes. Not totally sure what she's saying, but definitely something healthy, medicinal. And that's it, she chops that into the chilies, then just kinda mashes it one more time, just to bruise those, I think it's a type of coriander, I'm not 100% sure, I gotta taste it, but just to bruise them, just to release that flavor with the chilies and salt, simple, but you can tell that's gonna be so flavorful with those green chilies. I could just smell that aroma, just popping. We are getting close to eating, and she's dishing out the rice, and one more tidbit is that in this area of Northern Thailand, this entire region, sticky rice, glutinous rice, is the traditional diet, but for Hmong people, it's white rice, plain, normal white rice, not glutinous rice. Okay, this is spectacular. Everything is plant-based, everything from, you can see right around surrounding here, and the Hmong people are really known for simple but fresh vegetable-based food. And so the food is often simple, but then you have a chili sauce, which she pounded, which I can't wait to try. And then the only spice that she used is pepper, but everything is just so vibrant. I like how she kept all of the juices that she boiled the vegetables in, so that you get the flavor from the vegetable as well, and not throw that water away. And then again, this would just be a very common, everyday meal in this area of this Hmong village, and probably similar for Hmong people, but maybe vegetables can change depending on location, geographic area. I'm gonna begin with the green bean soup, and that cracked black pepper in there. Oh, that's amazing. She added in a good amount of black pepper, so that's what stands out. Then, literally, there's nothing else in there but salt, and the green beans. The green beans are soft, they're so vibrant in flavor. Yeah, it's so simple, but so tasty. And you just taste the greenness, the freshness, the mountain. Ying already tried the chili, didn't love it, Ying? So good? Very good. That's what I have to try next. Yeah, I can't wait to eat that just with some rice. But I probably will eat it with vegetables, too. Yeah, that's unbelievably simple, but everything just right from the doorstep. Oh, wow. Yeah, that is extraordinary. Oh, wow. I don't know, what type of coriander is that? Zesty and citrusy. And then with those green chilies are just bumping with flavor. Those are big on spice and big on flavor. And then the saltiness in there, and just crushed so that the juices come out. Looks like one of the greatest, simple sauces you can possibly make. Oh, it's tasty. These are the pumpkin leaves. Did you try that yet? Oh, she did cook it for a long time. So it is really soft. It just dissolves in your mouth. You taste pumpkin, though. Oh, that's so good. It's like melt-in-your-mouth leaves and stems. The simplicity, but the freshness is just what blows your taste buds. Yeah, I don't think I've had pumpkin leaves like this. Normally, it's, I'm pretty sure these are pumpkin leaves, not. Yeah, but these are phak thong. Yeah, yeah, put that, and then mix the, mix the nam prik, the chili, onto there with vegetables. Did you try the pak khom yet? Oh, wow. What a combination. And then while the other two soups, vegetables, she added salt and a little bit of oil. This one was just straight nothing. No salt, no oil, just the vegetable. And she did wash it once and then dry it. She did boil it once and then pour out the water and then add more water and boil it again, maybe to get out some of the bitterness. And you can see it's still quite tangly. Oh, again, this one is more simple in taste because there's no salt in it. But you just taste the, feel the texture of the leaves of those stems. You taste the greenness of it. Wonderful. Each, every, each three is so different tasting. Oh, man, I could eat an unlimited supply of this. It's that good. Put that onto the vegetable. Even though it's all green, there's no red or anything in it. It's powerfully flavorful. Could not ask for better home cooked food and a better view and better love and hospitality. She came over and brought more rice. She's so hospitable. The pumpkin leaves are so, so flavorful. They're so nutty in taste. I can't get over that chili sauce. Oh, it's the best. Cheers. No, really? Wow. Oh, awesome. Thank you. They are amazing, mother and daughter. I had no idea Mae was running around getting more vegetables as we were eating. And then I thought she was gonna cook more, but she handed it to us to bring home. That is the most gracious, amazing fresh vegetables from their garden. Oh, thank you. Oh, man, and that smells incredible. They are unbelievably gracious, kind, amazing people. Oh, man, that was completely unexpected. Micah also has a bag of green beans, too, that she got. I think I'll just go ahead and take a seat right here in the flower patch. And I cannot wait to eat a bit more of this coriander. It's so good. It's so perfect and sweet. Oh, if you eat it on its own like that, it's sweet. Maybe it's just a wild coriander. Let me know if you know exactly what this is, but it is unbelievably just herbal and flavorful. And what a meal. I'm just, the freshness of everything, the love and hospitality, the Hmong culture, outstanding. And just how everything, all of the ingredients from right here, picked right before she cooked. So a huge thank you to the family. And they run in Mon Jam in Thailand, in Chiang Mai. They run a small guest house. They have a number of different, we stayed there, but they also have some other different accommodation options called Ban Ozone. I'll have the link in the description box below, but they're so hospitable. Such amazing people. And that Hmong meal was outstanding. So that's gonna be it for this video. I wanna say a big thank you for watching. Remember to click thumbs up and also click subscribe. And on this channel, I'm gonna be publishing more videos about especially natural food, eating lots of fruits and vegetables. And we're gonna be going big on spice. Thanks again. Goodbye from Mon Jam, Chiang Mai, Thailand. And see you on the next video.