We Tried Bangkok's Fruit Dishes Unlike Anything You’ve Ever Seen

Bon Appétit

In this edition of Street Eats chef Lucas Sin is in Bangkok, Thailand to try sticky, spicy dressed santol at a legendary fruit stand serving the most elaborate fruit dishes the city has to offer.

Transcript

00:00 (egg cracking)

00:02 Welcome to a bright, sunny day.

00:05 An hour outside of Bangkok, I've been told

00:07 that this is the place to check out some fruit.

00:11 That's where we're going.

00:13 Welcome to J Nok Krathong Somkran,

00:16 which is known for the Somtow fruit cut up

00:19 and dressed in an amazing way.

00:22 In the couple of days that we've been here,

00:23 we haven't seen fruit stands of this size

00:25 making dressed elaborate fruit dishes of this quality.

00:29 There is fruit everywhere.

00:31 This, I think is what we're here for, Somtow.

00:35 Also known as the cotton fruit.

00:37 I'm excited because I have no idea what to expect.

00:40 The outside of this fruit is a little bit like a pet.

00:42 It's a little bit furry.

00:44 It's orange, striped.

00:46 It's quite large, but I have no idea what's inside of it.

00:50 Oh!

00:51 Is this Somtow?

00:53 The middle is like mangosteen.

00:57 It's like slurpy, a little bit slimy in the middle.

01:00 The outside, apricot texture.

01:03 Looks a little bit like a peach,

01:04 tastes a little bit like a sour peach.

01:06 The center, there's a pit in the middle that you spit out.

01:10 But the outside, you slurp, try to scrape as much of it off

01:13 with your teeth.

01:14 Kham khap.

01:16 I see honeydew, dragon fruit.

01:20 Oh, by the way, this is the dedication to fruit

01:22 we have as Asian chefs, but that's not what we're here for.

01:26 What we're here for is Somtow.

01:28 Here in the back in the production kitchen,

01:31 she's peeling through it.

01:33 The skin seems quite pliable,

01:36 but it's got good amounts of fiber.

01:38 We're soaking it in water, and the big boy comes out.

01:43 Wah, wah, okay, okay, okay.

01:47 She's not chopping all the ways through.

01:49 It looks like what she's going for is a spiral

01:52 at a bit of an angle through the top, through the bottom.

01:57 (gasps)

01:58 She presses it open.

01:59 Wah, beautiful.

02:01 Can I taste?

02:03 Oh, it needs to be, okay, yes.

02:04 This is where the bulk of it's done.

02:09 It looks like it's soaked in a little bit of a brine,

02:12 but everyone all day is doing this.

02:14 Chef told us that she prepped 1,000 portions of this

02:18 for today alone.

02:19 Here she is doing the takeout.

02:21 When she presses it into the takeout container,

02:23 she'll get a nice, blossoming swirl.

02:26 That way, when the dressing and the seasoning

02:28 and the sauce goes over the top,

02:29 you can pick it up individually for pieces.

02:31 Syrup, okay.

02:35 This is cane sugar, the chef says,

02:37 has been cooked for eight hours,

02:39 and then infused with chilies,

02:40 just to balance out that sweetness,

02:42 so it's not just one dimension.

02:44 And then over the top, peanuts, coconut,

02:47 little baby shrimp.

02:48 Wah, no way.

02:53 Get out of here.

02:54 Oh yeah, yeah, wah.

02:58 Assumptions are being challenged.

03:00 Fruit usually is sweet.

03:01 You have that classic pairing of peanuts and coconut,

03:04 both of those a little bit nutty.

03:06 You're expecting some earthy, toasted brightness.

03:09 I'm expecting a little bit of a punch from the chili

03:13 for that spice, and then for a thick syrup,

03:17 maybe something that lasts a little bit longer,

03:19 maybe something right on the edge of cloying.

03:23 Mm, whoa.

03:25 The fruit itself is tart,

03:28 but the first feeling is a sort of

03:30 buttery, supple richness.

03:35 It's obviously a little bit like that of green apple,

03:38 a little bit of those tannins at the back of your mouth.

03:40 There's a bit of guava, there's a little bit of soursop,

03:43 and the syrup is really sweet,

03:44 but it's really balanced out with that chili

03:45 and that saltiness.

03:47 It's slippery, it's smooth, but it's not quite silky.

03:50 There's a little bit of firmness because it gives way,

03:54 like a peach.

03:55 Smell toasted coconut and peanuts.

03:59 Smell that nuttiness.

04:00 You smell that fragrance.

04:01 There is a whiff of that dried shrimp, and it's very sweet.

04:04 This is definitely a summer dish.

04:09 Imagine this at a picnic, carved out

04:11 so that you can take a piece on your own,

04:13 eat it over conversation.

04:14 I mean, look out here.

04:15 All these people queuing up,

04:17 all these people here first thing in the morning.

04:18 This is one of the most popular fruit stalls

04:21 here outside of Bangkok.

04:22 I also see something over here.

04:25 What is this one for?

04:29 - Number one.

04:30 - For green mango?

04:31 - A chai.

04:33 - This is at the front of the stall.

04:34 Okay, cool.

04:36 Here's some beautifully cut green mango

04:37 with that embellishment, with that specialty knife.

04:40 Fruit carving is a big part of the culture.

04:43 This looks like chopped shallots,

04:45 more little baby dried shrimp, chilies,

04:48 that same syrup, and I smell fish sauce.

04:50 And as it sits here in the front,

04:52 all those flavors come together.

04:54 And one bowl of elasticity red brown sugar.

04:58 It looks like tamarind with a little bit of chili

05:01 and crystal white sugar, and maybe some palm sugar also.

05:05 When you order green mango,

05:07 this is what you get over the top.

05:09 Look at this beautiful gloss.

05:10 And a little bit of a topping over here too, dried shrimp.

05:14 Thank you.

05:16 This is the queen of fruit herself.

05:18 So green mango, unlike yellow ripe mango, is less ripe.

05:25 But also, you're eating it for a different flavor.

05:27 So there's a little bit of savoriness,

05:29 it's significantly less sweet,

05:30 and you want some sourness and tartness in it.

05:32 This is really good.

05:36 This is really good.

05:38 It's like every flavor together,

05:43 every single part of your palate is hit.

05:45 Here's that bright orange shrimp.

05:46 This is usually a saltwater shrimp.

05:48 These are shrimpy.

05:49 They're dry, so a little bit crispy,

05:53 little bit chewy in the middle.

05:54 It's giving us salinity

05:55 to balance out all the aggressive sugar.

05:58 The mango itself is nice and tart,

06:00 almost like a chip from when you dip it.

06:02 It's almost like three stages, sweet and sour first,

06:07 and then the savoriness from the shrimp, the fish sauce,

06:10 and then finally chili, just like lasting chili heat

06:14 at the back of your palate.

06:15 I've had versions of this before

06:17 with pork and different other contexts,

06:18 but within fruit, this is really quite special.

06:21 Is green mango a different type of mango?

06:23 Oh, I see.

06:24 So green mango is a totally different species of mango.

06:27 They're eaten primarily for their texture

06:29 and their sourness.

06:30 When they're ripe, they're not as good.

06:31 So don't assume that green mangoes

06:33 are just raw versions of the regular mangoes

06:35 that we get that we eat sweet.

06:36 Very much.

06:37 Let me tell you what's typical.

06:40 What's typical is a fruit stand in Southeast Asia.

06:44 What's typical is a cornucopia of delicious sweet fruits

06:47 that you can get, the variety that you can get

06:49 in a place like Bangkok.

06:51 What's not typical is the popularity of this place.

06:54 All day, you're just gonna see people drive up,

06:56 hop out to get their fruit,

06:57 hop back in their car, onto their way.

07:00 There are a couple of things

07:01 that make this dish uniquely Thai.

07:02 One, the availability of this fruit.

07:04 If I could get this on a regular basis,

07:06 I'd be messing with the dish all the time.

07:08 Second, the technique.

07:10 Cutting it so that you can smoosh it down,

07:13 spiral it, share it.

07:14 Third, the seasoning.

07:16 Obvious sweetness, fruit, sweet on sweet,

07:18 but also the chilies.

07:20 That echo, that backspice, the savoriness

07:23 from the fish sauce, from the shrimp.

07:25 It all comes together into something

07:27 that is a full pilot, almost full-body experience.

07:31 For us tourists, for people who aren't here in Bangkok,

07:34 I think one of the most amazing things

07:35 is to explore the fruit culture

07:37 because of the variety of textures,

07:39 variety of sweets and flavors.

07:41 Part of it is standing outside

07:42 in the sweltering heat like this,

07:44 waiting for your fruit to be cut up

07:45 and getting it dressed so beautifully, so perfectly.

07:48 It's not something I've ever had before,

07:49 and it's something I'm looking forward to having again

07:51 the next time I'm back.

07:52 Behind you, by the way, durian.

07:57 Stuffed with sticky rice.

07:59 With a queen herself,

08:01 Jai Nong Kratom Som Krum.

08:02 (laughing)

08:05 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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