The Oyster King of Thailand - UNCLE TOM’S HUGE OYSTERS and Seafood at Floating Restaurant!

Good morning, I hope you're having an amazing day. It's Mark Wiens, I'm in Chanthaburi, Thailand. And Chanthaburi is very well known for their seafood. And so today's gonna be an amazing day. We're about to meet up, well actually, we're about to get picked up on a boat by Lung Tom, which means Uncle Tom. Uncle Tom is known for his oysters, he's known for his seafood. He's gonna pick us up in a boat, we're gonna go to his oyster farm, we're gonna, I'm not exactly sure where he's gonna take us, but then he's gonna take us to eat seafood at his restaurant. It looks like it's gonna be a thrilling day and I'm gonna share it all with you in this video right now. If you're just joining me on this series, this is day two of our Eastern Provinces of Thailand food and travel trip. From Chanthaburi town, we drove out to the pier. And this pier is called Tha Chalep. It's about a 15 minute drive. And Uncle Tom should be pulling up in his boat very soon. Lung Tom, my god. Sawadee krap. Can you just sit it in there? We met up with Uncle Tom, Lung Tom. Sawadee krap. He was here right on time to pick us up. And we are off. Come on, let's go. Oh yeah, this is just fantastic. The ocean breeze. This area has a lot of mangrove forests and a lot of brackish water as well. So I think we're gonna cruise around. But the highlight is gonna be when we go to Uncle Tom's oyster farm and he's gonna harvest fresh oysters for us. He just said in those nets, they are farming bak kao, which are grouper. This area next to the mangroves and by the coast is all brackish water. So it's a mix of salt water plus fresh water. And by the way, for this entire trip, we're gonna be taking some boats. So we got Micah, his very own life jacket, which I'm pretty excited about. And he is too. That was about a 30 minute boat ride and we have arrived to his oyster plot. Oh, I am excited. This is very cool. But he was telling us that some of the oysters, they take one and a half years or even three years to grow to their full size. Wow, yeah, you could do some curls with this, that's for sure. Yeah. This is so cool and the way that they grow the oysters is that they attach them to the strings and so they have a string of oysters so that they just hang down into the ocean but then they just grow along that string so that you have them already collected when you need to eat them. That was very cool to see. We are now off to the restaurant or his place where he takes you to eat seafood. Oh man, this is just absolutely awesome. An entire floating bamboo hut, a seafood palace in the middle of the water. The peace and the quietness. This is awesome. Oh, they have a homestay here too so you can actually stay here in this room on the floating bamboo dock. Uncle Tom is absolutely awesome. He is preparing a bed now for Micah to take a little nap. You can just smell the aromas of seafood wafting through the seafoody air. Passed out. First time I ever saw Ying take photos of the food. We are sitting down for this borderline ridiculous quantity of seafood. This is a gigantic seafood feast and everything is cooked right here on the dock. Everything is fresh. The oysters are what is like shining though. That's like the sun is shining at me. Oh, there's just nothing like these oysters. They are massive. They're, you can just see them kind of melting and kind of like slurping around. Oh, he just freshly opened these. I gotta try one as is immediately. I'm going for that center guy. Yeah, look at the size of that. And I'm gonna, I just have to eat this one straight, but after this one, I will show you how to eat it Thai style. This is one of those oysters where you're not really sure how to go in if you go from the top and kind of slurp it or if you just kind of pour it into your mouth. Let me see. Oh yeah, it's already loosened too. Okay, I'll go for the pouring method in that case. Oh, hello Ying. Oh, that's just as unbelievably fresh as it can get. It has zero like foul off kind of smell or taste to it. It's so pure. It's like jelly. It melts in your mouth. These particular oysters are not that salty either. Maybe that's because they're in the brackish water, but you don't have like that overwhelming salty gushiness. They taste fresh and clean and unbelievable. For my next oyster, we gotta do it Thai style. So what you do first is you apply some nam prik pao, which is the roasted chili jam. I'm gonna add some of that right onto the top there. Next up for hom jiao, which is, these are fried crispy shallots. There might be a little bit of garlic in here too. I'm going all in on that. Those look kind of like cornflakes, but I can assure you they are shallots. Next for a chili and a little piece of garlic on top there, a clove of garlic, a chili. And next you add on some nam jim seafood, which is the seafood sauce. There's lime in here. There's chilies and garlic in here already too. A little bit of this, maybe a little more for good measure. Looks ridiculous. Okay, I think I got all the components, except there is something that you have to chase it with as well. That is just absolutely, insanely beautiful with all those toppings. Maybe I should spoon this guy. Oh, look at the size. Oh, this one goes deep. Look at that. Okay, maybe I should spoon this. Spoon it out and then eat it from the spoon. You can barely fit that into the spoon. Oh, and I lost the garlic. Okay, I better grab that garlic. Let me put that garlic right back on top. Wow, this is a giant oyster one biter, and I don't really want to eat the whole thing in one bite. Well, it will be kind of fun, but I just don't know of another way to, I'm sorry for, okay, what I want to say is just sorry for the giant bite I'm about to take, but I think that really is the best way to eat this oyster. I mean, if you bite into it, you risk losing all the toppings or, okay. And then the final step, you chase it with kateen. And that completes the Thai oyster one biter. I mean, they have it totally figured out. You've got the oyster, that slimy factor. You've got the nam prik pao, the roasted chili jam, which is a little bit sweet and a little bit spicy. You've got the sour, spicy seafood sauce. You've got the garlic and chili. You've got the crispy shallots. And then finally the herb to kind of cleanse the mouth at the end. Moving on from fresh oysters, let's try the oyster omelet. And she fried this in quite a lot of oil. There's only two eggs, but then she added in a bunch of oysters and then just fried it to golden crispy Thai omelet perfection. That's just like melt-in-your-mouth oysters wrapped up in a crunchy egg fluffiness. You cannot go wrong. That's delicious. Yeah, that would just be absolutely sensational with rice. I have to. So let me grab a little bit more. The meaty part from the center where all the oysters have congregated. They do have some sauce prik, which is like a chili, ketchup-y type of sauce, but I usually like to go for the nam chim seafood on this as well, which is the seafood sauce with garlic and chilies. Next, we have bak krapong tod kratiam, which is a fried barramundi fish. You can see the garlic on top. I think I'll just go right in. I gotta add on a little bit of the nam chim seafood to this bite. Their nam chim seafood is excellent here. Nice and sour. You can taste the garlic. Just a hint of a balance of sweetness. One of the local Chanthaburi dishes is called senchan, which is a fried noodle dish. This one is stir-fried with crab. You can see the red sauce on it. There are some chives in there as well, and pieces of crab, and then it's stir-fried. This is to accompany the seafood feast. Mm. It's a little bit on the sweet side, but it has, I'm not sure, maybe it's tamarind in there. It has kind of a little bit of a fruity flavor. The noodles themselves have a really good texture. They're kind of gummy, not like mushy at all. You can feel each individual noodle. Then, of course, you can pull out bits of crab. And this is a, oh yeah, because of the way it's cooked and because it's young crab, you can eat the shell. Next up, we've got pla pla, and this is a Chanthaburi specialty again. There's fish on the bottom of it, but then on the top, it's like a mix of salad. There's cabbage. I can see some lemongrass, some shallots, some mint leaves, and it's served with a peanut sauce. Then I think below there, I think below all that mound of vegetables is some fish, minced up fish. Mm, mm, mm. It has a little bit of a ginger taste to it. And the lemongrass, the fish is a little bit sour as well. You've got those really refreshing herbs, and then the peanut sauce, of course, it's like full-on peanut, plus it's sweet and kind of tangy, but sweet, again, in a tamarind kind of sweetness, like a fruity sweetness. Next up for the tom yum goong, and lots of shrimp in here, lots of mushrooms. This is what she was making as we came to the dock. Let's just start with the broth first. Oh, oh, it's so soothing. It's perfectly sour. It has that creamy shrimpiness to it. Mm, yeah, it's really good. Taste it. Few more things still to eat. This is just a never-ending, all-you-can-eat seafood buffet. Okay, it is time for the plate of crabs. These are not huge crabs, but they are blue swimmer crabs. I'll go for this guy right here. And let's see about the apron, male or female? I guess it's a, I guess this is a male. You can take that apron, you can pull off the head like that. Break this guy in half. And you can also pull off the claws, kinda fully dissect it like that. Pull this guy out, kinda peel that section. Okay, I'm not the greatest at this. Ying is always better than I am. But right under here, we should have a good nugget. Oh, yes, there it is, there it is. Gotta go in for a little bit of the seafood sauce on this as well. What do you want? Crab. Crab, one of the greatest things ever. And yeah, with that sauce, it's superb. That crab is not big, there's not a lot of meat, but you work for it, and it is so good. And on that note, oh, there's still some squid to try, but I'm gonna take a little lean back for a minute. Micah had a nice nap, and he's now joined us. I think this is the final seafood dish we have, a plate of squid, just slightly boiled. Oh, yeah. Again, just ultra fresh. It's chewy in all the perfect kinda ways, just a little bit chewy, but not overly chewy. Just a clean taste. That's fantastic squid. Nam sam rong, taking a little break to drink some nam sam rong. Sam rong. What is it? Sam rong. Sam rong, okay, so nam sam rong, and Uncle Tom was telling us that this is a local drink that they get from the jungle, made from some herb or something from the jungle, from right here, that they get from the village. Let's try this. I've never heard of it before in other parts of Thailand. Oh, wow, it's kinda like jelly-ish. It doesn't look like a straight liquid, it's kinda like, kinda jelly-y. Oh, wow. Yeah. Oh, it is kinda jelly-y. It kind of has like the, kinda like the chia seed jelly, slimy feel to it. That's a drink you gotta chew a little bit. This is just ultimate right now. Oh, this is gorgeous. The scenery, this is indeed one of the most picturesque, most memorable seafood meals I've ever had. Oh, look at that nugget of crab that just slid out. Oh, this needs to be dipped. And I'm at the very end of that seafood sauce. It was so good, I had to eat all the sauce. But there's still a little bit left for the scooping, for this final nugget. I'm gonna mop that up, kinda let it soak into that piece of crab. Oh, that was absolutely phenomenal. That was an all-you-can-eat seafood feast on a floating bamboo dock. That was, yeah, that was phenomenal. There's nothing better than just laying in a horizontal position after that much seafood. Oh, the sea breeze, and now we're just kinda hanging out with Uncle Tom. Uncle Tom and his wife are, they're amazing people. They're so friendly, they're so nice. They will take care of you. Kob kun maak krab, kob kun maak krab. Wow, that was gorgeous and just absolutely fantastic while it lasted, from the seafood to the relaxation to the location to Uncle Tom and his wife who treat you like family. We're on our way back to the mainland. Kob kun maak krab, kob kun maak krab. No doubt, it was one of the most memorable seafood meals of my life. First of all, I have to give it up and I have to say a huge thank you to Uncle Tom and his wife, Lung Tom. Oh, man, they hooked it up. They're such nice, they're such genuine people. When you eat there, they make you feel like they're part of your family. On top of that, you just don't get any fresher seafood than that and you don't get a better atmosphere location floating on a houseboat in the water. The entire experience was unbelievable. I'll never forget it. That's it for this video. Huge thank you for watching. Please remember to give this video a thumbs up and leave a comment below and also, if you're not already subscribed, click subscribe now and also click the little bell icon so that you get notified of all the future videos that I publish. Huge thank you for watching and I will see you on the next video. What a day.