Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern - Bangkok   View more episodes

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Aired at 12:00 AM on Friday, Jun 25, 2010 (6/25/2010)      View all transcripts from this day

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00:01:10♪♪♪♪♪♪
00:01:16bangkok is a town where everyone eats out almost all the time, but usually not at restaurants.
00:01:21On a typical day, locals make multiple stops at little eateries like these, with makeshift kitchens, minimal seating and usually just one specialty on the menu.
00:01:31Some of the most popular specialties are created by immigrants from through southeast asia.
00:01:39Bright and early, in a quietcorner of bangkok's inner city, there's a lilliputian restaurant that's not even a hole in the wall.
00:01:47It's a covered alleyway between two buildings with a makeshift kitchen built out front.
00:01:52The name says it all-- thai-made meatballs and pork brains.
00:01:56Look at that-- beautiful poached lobes of fresh pig brain.
00:02:01But what people really come here for is the broth and all the other goodies that go into it.
00:02:06Pork brain soup is a specialty of hakka cuisine, the food of southern china.
00:02:11Siu tip salamanca's family immigrated from china, and she's been making soup here for more than 50 years.
00:02:18Oh, thank you.
00:02:19One bowl is just brains.
00:02:21The other is brains with everything.
00:02:23Fish balls. tofu.
00:02:26A little bit of pork intestine.
00:02:30Pig brains usually taste pretty swiney with a strong barnyard aroma.
00:02:34But in siu tip's place, they're like sweet porky pudding.
00:02:39The pork brain here is creamy, rich.
00:02:43This is breakfast soup.
00:02:46What makes the difference is the tender loving care that goes into every bowl.
00:02:50Every single element in the soup is poached and cleaned separately.
00:02:55There's not an off or gamy flavor in it.
00:02:57If you shut your eyes, you really can't even tell that you're eating pork innards.
00:03:03There's none of that, you know, poopy, piggy smell that you associate with thissoup in so many other countries.
00:03:09It's no wonder this humble little place is legendary for bangkok food lovers.
00:03:14Thank you so much. that was just delicious.
00:03:15Delicious.
00:03:18This kind of meal in a bowl is classically bangkok in style.
00:03:21A little eatery creates one rich, spicy broth and fills it with a variety of ingredients.
00:03:30Here in the bustling business district, there's a food joint that's really just an open-air tent, where they fill their brothy bowls with one of bangkok's most beloved signature foods.
00:03:40Boat noodles got their name in the 19th century, when floating lunch wagons went up and down bangkok's canals, selling meals in a bowl to workmen along the water.
00:03:48Notice how low they sit in the bowl so they wouldn't spill if a little wave came along?
00:03:54This is, uh, noodles, little bits of beef liver, beef, fish ball, heart, some tendon.
00:04:03The ingredients in the soup can vary from place to place, but there's one ingredient that's a must-- fresh cow's blood.
00:04:11That's not black pepper or spices.
00:04:13That's just littlecoagulated bits of beef blood.
00:04:27Man, that's good.
00:04:28In a lot of cultures, they add blood to soup as a thickener.
00:04:31But the reason that I like it in thailand the best is that the soup itself is that sweet-sour soup that's so loaded with lime juice and citrus that the blood has a perfect foil.
00:04:45The thais are such masters at layering flavor-- that licorice and anise from the thai basil, the sulfurfrom the scallions and onions, the deep, earthy, dank, soil, farmland, loamy goodness of that bloody broth.
00:05:00In spite of the intense farm flavor, this kind of food was born and bred in the big city.
00:05:06But some of the most interesting food in bangkok was brought by immigrants from thailand's countryside, including a dish that starts out with 3 feet of raw bull penis.
00:05:18In this little shack behind bangkok's lumpini park that penis will be turned into a soup originally from isaan, the rural farming country in northeastern thailand.
00:05:30The whole penis is blanched, skinned and then hacked to pieces.
00:05:35I'm guessing a bunch of guys watching tv right now just crossed their legs.
00:05:40Once the penis is thoroughly chopped it's back into the potto stew for a couple of hours.
00:05:45Then it's served with plenty of vegetables in a thai steam boat to keep it piping hot.
00:05:50The bull penis gets all the publicity, but it's really the broth that's doing the heavy lifting for this dish.
00:05:57It's like beef consommé with chinese sweet spices.
00:06:02Pretty nice.
00:06:09Mmm.
00:06:16Wow.
00:06:17That broth is strong and with a lot ofchili-tamarind paste in there.
00:06:22It's spicy and sour.
00:06:24I'll tell you, it's the sticky, chewy, almost jell-o-like quality that the bull penis has that really makes this-- this dish what it is.
00:06:34I don't want to brag, but I've had a lot of experience with this type of dish over the years, and I've learned a few things.
00:06:41The larger phalluses are easier to eat.
00:06:44They're softer. they're not as toothsome.
00:06:48The smaller the penis, the sort of crunchierand harder it is to cook right.
00:06:54The truth is almost no one eats this dish just for the taste.
00:06:58The food is supposed to improve strength, virility and stamina.
00:07:02In fact,men on the chinese olympic team eat a bowl of bull penis soup for breakfast every day.
00:07:08Better them than me.
00:07:09What would be the best way to describe the texture of bull penis?
00:07:14It's kind of like a carrot made out of petroleum jelly with kind of just enough body to hold together.
00:07:23It's not the most pleasant of textures.
00:07:25Let's be honest with each other.
00:07:31 exploring food in bangkok, the surprises can't all be good ones.
00:07:36But the amazing fact is that there'sso many surprises to discover.
00:07:40What do you get when you leave pork

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