the Vietnam THEY don't want you to see... (Dalat is heaven!))

Welcome to Da Lat, a city like no other in Vietnam, literally, it's actually cold here. It's home to some of the friendliest locals you'll ever meet and is a paradise for food lovers. Today, I'll show you some of the best dishes in Da Lat. The first thing I looked for was a dish that screamed, dude, you're in Da Lat, and there's no better way to do that than to get a steaming bowl of Banh Canh. I didn't think, I thought it'd be touristy. Hello. How can I help you? Can I get one? We have Banh Canh, it's thick noodle. Yeah. Made in Da Lat, right? I'm sorry? It's from Da Lat, right? Yeah. Originally? Can I get one? Yes. Can I get one? We have special bowl, this is special. And with normal bowl, we only have Chả and we don't have pork. Okay, I'll get the special. Savory, delicious, beautiful looking broth that's simmered for hours by the hardworking people in Da Lat. She said it'll take two hours and a half or maybe three hours. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, so this is Banh Canh, the noodle bowl from Da Lat. It's an interesting one because the noodles here are not made from one ingredient, they're made from rice flour and tapioca flour. As you can see, it's like slippery. I'm excited to try this. It's from Da Lat. The flavors of the broth are very deep. The deep and savory taste of the broth hits you right away, followed by a subtle sweetness that balances everything out. It's complicated and exciting. It's a broth with many layers, just like me. I got a classy layer and a pervy layer that sneaks up on me sometimes. Very rich. Let's try it out. It works so well with the broth. So much flavor. Tender, buttery, juicy crab cake. This adds a whole new dimension to the whole soup since it mixes perfectly with the broth itself. It's like an easy nine-hit dish that you have to experience yourself to know exactly what the flavor profile is. So weird. Thank you so much. Bye-bye. Thank you. Next, I had to go see the relic of French colonial history, the old train station. But on my way there, I got caught in the rain. The sky decided it's time for a cold shower. Oh, my God. Everybody's standing under a tree. Caught in the downpour in the middle of Vietnam's highlands, I decided to find shelter and get some more of Da Lat's coffee, which is famous in Vietnam. Hot coffee. That's some hot coffee. Sweet, but that's some high-quality coffee beans. I can tell. Vietnamese coffee is usually strong and bitter, just like my life, but Da Lat's coffee is different. The coffee here is smooth with a natural sweetness that comes out from the beans. The highlands produce a special bean. Delicious stuff. So delicious. Come on. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. But rain in Da Lat is so weird. It's like it rains, pouring rain for 30 seconds. So much rain. And then it stops. And then three minutes later, pouring rain. Good old Google Translate. Vietnam Railway, it says. I'm here. Let's go, baby. This is a really important place in Da Lat. As you probably know, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia were colonized by the French. Vietnam was colonized for 67 years. And this is one of the places that the French built. Da Lat Railway Station. So the French controlled Vietnam for 67 years until Ho Chi Minh and his brave Vietnamese soldiers managed to liberate Vietnam in 1954, I think. Da Lat was like a vacation spot for the French because it's not like other parts of Vietnam where it's very, very hot. And we got Michael Jackson. Oh my God, my hero. I want that Michael Jackson one. Wow, that's cool. You can have coffee inside the train. This is cool. You can go from cart to cart. These are really old trains, I guess. This is how they used to ride. The trains are all made of wood. So yeah, everything here was French until the hero Ho Chi Minh and his, of course, soldiers, his allies, kicked the French butt. Like that guy in Hanoi was telling me, France, pow! Government, not people. And then Vietnam was split into North, controlled by Ho Chi Minh and the South. Do you have a cup of snails? This is it? Can I get one? Is this the fish sauce? Dip it. Okay. Come on. Well, you usually get snails anywhere in Vietnam in Da Lat. They do things a little bit different by adding pork inside the snail, marinated pork and some lemongrass in order for you to pull it. Usually there's toothpicks or, yeah, something like toothpick or a needle and it helps you take out the snail. Let's check it out. I don't know when you use this, but I know you're supposed to, according to her, take out the snail, hum its shell and dip it. Let's try it. Check this out. Lemongrass, marinated pork and the snail is probably still intact inside or no, the snail is mixed in with the pork. The snail shell is empty. Over here, you got the marinated pork with the snail. I'm excited to try it. Of course, you dip it into this one. Let's try it out. Wow. So many flavors in your mouth. You got the tender, non-chewy pork that's tasty and you got the chewy snail that's literally combined with it. And this is all steamed, by the way. It's definitely the star of the show. Marinated really well. The taste of the pork is amazing. Creative, right? Lemongrass with pork is definitely better than I thought. I thought pork with snails is going to taste average, but it's over 8.5. I'm surprised. You move it and once it's steamed, I think it takes a little bit of flavor from the lemongrass as well. On top of the marinated pork, much better than eating snails by themselves, I gotta say. It's like a pork burger and inside of it is a snail. This pork is filled with flavor. It's like when you eat it, you instantly get the flavors from the pork. And then after that, you're chewing on the snail. So it'll last a little bit longer. It's always better when things last longer. That's what she said. I'm definitely upgrading it. I'm upgrading it to a 9 because I finished the whole thing. I gotta say, this is delicious. A must try if you come to Dalat.