I Flew to Thailand Just to Eat Giant River Prawns! 🦐 🇹🇭

These are giant river prawns, and I flew to Thailand just to eat them. At the meeting point of three rivers lies Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Siam and home to some of the world's greatest freshwater seafood. Prawn heaven. I'm talking giant river prawns, prized for their rich head butter, known as Ayutthaya gold. I came here to taste it for myself. We are here at the fish market in Ayutthaya, and we've come to a restaurant called Goong Poon Prao, and they are famous for selling these beautiful, wild-caught, giant river prawns. They also have the smaller size, which are farmed, and you can tell that this one is a male because of the giant arms that they have, and they are famous because of the beautiful prawn fat or head butter. So we're going to try both the giant and the regular size. So we're watching how they grill the smaller river prawns, the ones that are farmed. So you first start by selecting from the tanks the size that you want, and per kg is like 380 baht or 500 baht, and then once you've got your bucket full of prawns, they put them live right onto the charcoal, so he's got to kind of cover them before they start to jump away, and then it's just a matter of rotating and rotating and rotating until they get evenly cooked, but they do cook up really fast. The color changes really fast. That's directly on the charcoal, just like two inches off the charcoal itself. So the heat is super hot, and you can start to see some of the yellow prawn butter sort of seeping through the shell, and I love how he arranges them so neatly so that once they are finished cooking, he can just put them onto the plate, and they're perfectly ready to serve just like that, smoky, fresh, delicious prawns. These are the small ones. We're also going to order up the giant wild river prawns. I think these ones are just about done, so he's going to put it on the plate. I love this move right here, the little flip. Nice. So that's Ayutthaya prawns. It is prawn mania. It's just buckets and buckets of prawns. As soon as they finish off with one, they've got another bucket going on, and these are live prawns, so as soon as they hit the hot coals, they actually cover them with a little lid so that they don't jump away. It's not to help them cook, because as soon as they stop squirming, they take that lid off and then just put another rack on it, so it's literally just so they don't jump off of the hot coals. Kind of a crazy way to do it, but I guess that's how they do it here in Thailand. Can't judge anybody else's culture. Besides the prawns, they also have this salted catfish, also from the river, that's on a stick and then grilled on charcoal. So the giant prawns are definitely pricey, because the actual wild population has severely diminished over the years here in Thailand, so we paid about 1,600 baht for our two prawns. They're each about 500 grams, so a kilo, and then as soon as he cracks those open, you just see the gold, the beauty, the best part of the prawn, that prawn fat or butter, you can see. Just put it on, this is actually on the gas stove, and then we've also got the claws here, so those are gonna get covered up for a little bit, cook away, and we're having a prawn feast here in Ayutthaya. This is the lunch of champions here in Ayutthaya. You know, this used to be the commoner's food, sort of like where I come from in the east coast of Canada. We had an abundance of lobster back in the day, it was almost like the poor man's food, and that was kind of the same thing as the river prawns here in Ayutthaya. It used to just be for anybody, but nowadays, it's quite a pricey delicacy that you can only enjoy once in a while, but a lot of people make the trek up to Ayutthaya, it's just about an hour and a half, the city's beautiful, we'll show you a little bit more later, but let's dig into these prawns. So we've got our plate, we went with the 380 baht prawns, which are the smallest size, but still pretty big guys. You can see all charred up, charcoal, crispy, all the meat's going to be in the tails for these guys. But then over here, we've got the pièce de résistance, the massive prawn, 500 grams, and you can see that is the Ayutthaya gold, the beautiful prawn butter, head, fat, whatever you want to call it. I actually looked it up because I wasn't totally sure what it was. A lot of people mistakenly think it's roe, it's not eggs. These are actually the males, and it's actually the hepatopancreas that functions similar to the liver in the prawn, and when you cook it, it has all those lipids and fat in it that it becomes like a rich, creamy sauce, almost like a concentrated prawn sauce. I think for my first bite, I'm going to go in with that, oh, beauty. That is so, so nice looking, oh, okay, let's try this. So rich, it's got like a tinge of bitterness, but other than that, it's just pure prawn. It's like if you took all the shells, cooked them down for like 48 hours, and then strained that, and then cooked that down for another 48 hours, and you get the final concentrate of the prawn. That's basically what this taste is like, but even richer, I think. You can't produce this without getting the actual natural flavor. Oh, man, it's so good. It's just like the perfect dipping sauce. All right, let's get into the meat of this guy. All right, let's see if I can get a clean extraction of the tail meat. The meat is quite firm on these prawns, I do find, but it's complimented by that super creamy, beautiful sauce, head butter, whatever you want to call it. Oh, man, look at that. Oh, yes. And then let's go for a full dunking. Just get that completely coated. So it's also served with nam jim seafood, which is like the Thai garlic chili sauce. I'm just going to put a tiny, tiny little bit of that on top because that's going to be super rich. This will kind of help cut through some of that richness. Okay, this is a Utah prawns to the max. The only way to describe it is prawn butter. In my opinion, that's the proper name. I'm not going to be using hepatopancreas anytime soon. Prawn butter or head butter, oh, my God. Because it is like butter. It just melts in your mouth. It's so fatty. It's so oily. Okay, let's get the other half of this. So these guys are butterfly cut, different than, oh, my gosh, different than the smaller ones. I'm going to save some of my butter and Mink has kindly allowed me to go for a dunk in here. Look at that. Oh, my God. Prawn heaven. Oh, wow. It's so rich. Oh, my God. This is something you must try in Thailand. So that yellow color is actually due to whatever their diet is naturally that they're feeding on in the rivers. But then once you cook it, it starts to turn more of like a rich, darker red. I think if you come to Ayutthaya and you don't know what to order apart from prawns, I recommend ordering this river prawn to try with some fried rice because this is what I like to do. I like to grab a little of the fried rice, put the prawns over top, and a little bit of the head butter like this. And of course, just a tiny little bit of our Thai seafood sauce like that. And I think they are all the perfect combinations together. So cheers. I'm speechless. Now I'm just going to eat the prawns by itself with the head butter. This is the star of Ayutthaya. That giant prawn was probably enough for a meal by itself, but we got another plate of all the prawns. So this is even big for the smallest ones they have. These ones are quite large. And this one also has the head butter, but not quite as much. But look at that, beautiful. So I actually just noticed this one is filled with roe. So this is a female, obviously, and you can see all those tiny little prawn eggs. It's probably hard for the camera to pick it up, but it's like another sauce all over. There you go. See that? Let's try it. A little dip in the Nam Diem seafood. Oh, those are good too. The roe is a little bit too small to kind of pop in your mouth like caviar, but it's more just like a sauce that's all over it. It's not as rich as that head butter, but it's still very good. Oh man, we have a lot of prawns to eat. I will say that the wild caught definitely has a better natural flavor. I can taste a little bit of that aquarium that these guys were kept in, but still really meaty prawns. These are farm raised ones though, so they can't beat the wild caught and definitely can't beat that head butter. But luckily we got lots of the head butter to dip these guys into. I don't know, you might think that prawns are the same everywhere in Asia or around the world, but I really think Thailand does them better than anywhere else. And when it comes to these giant river prawns here in Ayutthaya, that head butter, I've never seen anywhere else do it quite like that. It's seriously something worth traveling to Thailand just to taste. You've got to eat this. It's incredible. Even for me, like I'm Thai, but after we traveled to a lot of country and yeah, I don't want to brag, but I think Thai prawns or especially Thai seafood, it's a little bit of like, it's hard to beat because Nam dim seafood, which sour, spicy, and it's all really, really well with all kinds of seafood, especially prawns. I think like coming to eat like seafood, especially like eat prawns, you having fun, if you like it, you're having fun, like feeling the shell of the prawns and it's kind of like another activities that you can do, but I don't really like it. So look has to be the one. What? This is messy? Yeah, it's definitely a messy affair. Look at that one. Oh my gosh. That's filled with the fat from the head. Oh yeah. So these guys aren't totally at a loss. They've got some of the fat on their own, man, it is a messy affair though. You've got to get in there deep, get your fingers covered in all that fat. And I love dipping these guys though in the Nam dim seafood. It's like fish sauce, sugar, chili, garlic, coriander root, and it kind of cuts through some of that richness. Oh, it's creamy. Some people actually aren't fans of the head butter. I get it. It's so rich and, uh, I don't like it in lobster for example, but in the prawn, I love it and it goes nicely with the fried rice as well. I can't believe that's their smallest size. They're still really big and I find that these ones are quite smoky from that charcoal prawn overload. Yeah. I don't think it's even close when it comes to seafood in Asia. I think Thailand wins without a doubt. Just the abundance, the variety, and the quality of the seafood here. Of course, Canada, we've got the best seafood in the world. In Asia, I think it's going to be Thailand. Mink and I might have a little bit of an argument about that later. We've got a pile full of shells and we're not even halfway through the prawn. When you've lived and traveled in Asia long enough like me, you don't even mind when you get a little bit of the shell in there. It's like an extra crunch. I used to pick them out. Not anymore. I was mistaken. These little guys actually got lots of head butter. Look at this. I'm just going to give it a squeeze. It's not quite as orange or dark red as the other ones and not quite as rich in flavor either because these are farm-raised, like I've been saying, so they don't have the natural diet like the wild ones. Still really good though. Just one heads up for me. If you plan to come to Igutaya and after the prawns, like after you come eat the prawns, don't pack too many activities. Prepare some time, maybe like two or three hours because you might need time to nap. Because that's from my experience. These guys, rich in head butter like this, after I eat it, I just want to go to sleep. Like I need a nap. It's so good though. Wow, what a meal. And this restaurant is absolutely packed on a Saturday. Only locals in here and one farang. And actually, this fish market has some dessert. So after all that rich, creamy, savory prawn, we're going to go grab some dessert next. So we call this one almond kacau, which translates to a glass almond. Basically, he's melting the sugar right now, like brown sugar. And he's going to put it in right here. And once it cools off, it's going to look like a glass. It's really good. So he's actually using palm sugar. It's got a beautiful brown color. And then all of the almonds are in there. Or these ones aren't almonds. These ones are cashews. So this version is going to be with cashews. And then he's got all of these sesame seeds laying it right here. So once the sugar is cooked down enough with all those cashew nuts in there, he pours it onto the bed of sesame seeds. And now he's working against time because it's starting to solidify really quickly and turn into that glass. So he's getting all the sesame seeds spread around. They make it with almond. They make it with cashews as well. And it's going to solidify real quick and turn into glass. You can already kind of see it happening. Okay, he's going to cut it. Nice. Okay, they've got some samples here for everybody to try. It's a really popular spot. You can see, like, it's completely translucent. I don't know, again, if the camera will pick it up, but I can see the sun right through it. This is also the cashew. Oh, really good. It's like toffee. With the crunch from the almond and then the aftertaste of sesame seeds. It's very simple, but it's so good. It's like a beautiful caramel toffee. Alright, I'm sold. I want a box. Okay, we bought ourselves a box for 100 baht. And we've got the fresh stuff that just finished cooking. I'm going to have to break that. Oh, it's still hot. Yeah, wow, it's clear. It's see-through. This is not a dessert that I've seen anywhere else in Thailand. It's definitely not common. When it's warm, it's even better. That's the perfect dessert after all that rich prawn butter. I'm going to finish this box by the time I get back to Bangkok. So a dessert you will see commonly here in Ayutthaya is roti saimai. It seems like it's actually everywhere. And we're just watching this lady here prepare the roti. So they have different flavors of the roti. This one's with milk. They also have other ones with pandan. So it's roti saimai. Saimai is actually like cotton candy. So it's kind of interesting. Seems like it shouldn't go together, but it does really go together. Roti wrapped over cotton candy. So we're going to try it out. It's Ayutthaya's most famous dessert. Maybe the most famous thing from Ayutthaya besides the prawn. So you have to try both when you come here. It's just so cool to watch her actually do it. The batter that she's using. She just keeps it in her hand and keeps working it. Really cool technique. It looks really satisfying to do actually. I wish I could try it. Okay, there you go. So that's the roti. And then inside is the saimai. I'll try to unwrap this. Or you can see it better from this side. There you go. So I say like cotton candy or like, what do they call it? Dragon floss or something in Chinese. Let's try it. Seems like the last thing I would ever think about to put inside of a roti. Somehow it's really good. Because the roti's got a little bit of a savoriness. A little salty. And then sweet on the inside. And the textures are completely different too. It's like chewy and then a little bit of a crunch, but then it dissolves in your mouth. I could just watch her do this all day. It's so cool. Ayutthaya fish market, definitely worth a visit. So much seafood here, but everywhere you look it's just these prawns. Prawns, prawns, prawns. Get yourself some roti saimai to bring home with you back to Bangkok. We're actually going to go check out Ayutthaya's famous temples next. We've come to one of the many wats or temples here in Ayutthaya that are sort of in ruins from the ancient times when this was the capital of Siam. This is called Wat Nakhon Luang. One thing we do know is that there are Khmer architectural influences. So it's got a little bit of an Angkor Wat vibe going on. Almost like Tomb Raider.