This is a first-person travel/food vlog by Nate and Kara Buchanan visiting the Chiang Mai Sunday Night Market (Wat Sumpal/Wat Som Pa? — temple area). They sample many street foods (stuffed crab, chicken buns, fried dumplings, chicken-on-a-stick, squid eggs/legs, bacon-wrapped mushrooms, pork dumplings), deliberately try insects (bamboo worms and a large horseshoe-crab-style bug), and finish with mango sticky rice. The hosts give on-the-ground tips (market gets crowded early — ~6:30pm; low-cost snacks and services such as $0.30 bacon mushrooms and ~ $4 one-hour foot massages), react to tastes and textures, and close with a humorous unresolved “statue-or-monk” mystery at a temple. The footage is dated late 2018 and framed as an updated revisit of a market video they filmed three years prior.
Questions this video answers
About 6:30pm.
$0.30 each (quoted).
"10 in here for only 50 bucks." (quoted phrase from transcript).
About $4 for an hour (quoted).
December 21, 2018.
Chapters
We eat all.
You eat all. That's not what I wanted her to say. Do you see my hands shaking?
If you don't think about it as bugs, this actually tastes good.
We are at the start of the famous Sunday night market. And as the name suggests, every Sunday, thousands of vendors descend on the old city here in Chiang Mai, selling every souvenir that you could possibly imagine. But tonight, we're here for the food.
Can I get one?
Okay. Three years ago, we came to Chiang Mai for the first time, and we came to the Sunday night market and we made a video. However, we were new to traveling, we were new to vlogging, and let's just say it's a pretty average video. So our goal tonight is to make an updated version of the Sunday night market video, trying some old favorites and some new things, starting with this stuffed crab. We walked by this lady steaming these beautiful crabs, and we decided to try it. She topped it with some crunchy fried onions and what looked like maybe some vinegar. Just smells amazing.
Mmm.
That is so delicious. The crab just, like, melts in your mouth. It's so savory. I love crunchy fried onions. It's got some nice saltiness to it. Great start to the night.
Yeah, we tried those last time. They look beautiful, but they don't taste quite as good as they.
The interesting thing about the night market is it's not like there's stuff in one area and then food in another area. It's just all kind of, like, intermingled together. So you just gotta kind of be constantly keeping your eye out for something delicious.
And it's obviously very crowded because it's very popular. But it's not that annoying to get through the crowd because there's so much to look at that, like, just scooting along, you don't even really notice how slow you're going.
Be prepared to scoot, because you cannot move anywhere fast here. It gets so packed. It's only 6:30. The night market's only just started, and it's already completely packed. It would help, like, the flow of traffic if people just didn't set up in the middle of the room.
I'm not the one that designed it.
Chicken.
So.
This might be the cutest snack at the Sunday night market.
It's chicken.
Because it's a chicken bun. I feel so sad eating him.
Mmm.
I'm not gonna lie. I did not have high expectations first because pretty much every time we've had buns outside of Hong Kong, they just haven't been as good. Plus, I thought this was all about the looks. It wasn't actually gonna taste very good. It's really good. It's like curried chicken. It's delicious.
Transition. Supporting the local economy. Economy. It's a win, win.
It never fails. In Southeast Asia, if you're eating street food, there's always fried dumplings. This lady was boiling them and then taking them right out of the water and frying them on a pan so they're nice and crispy. I don't even know what's inside of them yet. I'm gonna use my hand, but she poured soy sauce and sesame seeds on top.
Delicious. This one even has some little bits of cabbage in there. I think it might be chicken and cabbage. So do I get all these or.
Chicken.
Sounds good. If you ever find yourself wandering around the Chiang Mai night market looking for some delicious food, this is the place to come. It is a temple called Watt. Some pow. Just look it up on Google Maps. They have a big food market. You can find all kinds of stuff here.
So good.
That might be the best thing I've had all night. That's really, really good. For real? Yeah, it's so good. We enjoy most of the things that we eat, so I feel like I really need to stress just how good this is. If you come to the night market, come to Wattson, pal. Get a chicken on a stick and thank me later. It is so good. I hate that. A chicken on steak is like my favorite thing that I've had. But it's just delicious.
This very nice lady is letting me try a bite of her 100% pure squid egg.
This thing. Yummy, yummy.
You know, it kind of tastes like tuna. If you took the yellow part of a boiled egg and mixed it in with canned tuna. That's what a squids egg tastes like.
Not bad, but hope you enjoy tuna.
Your English is very good. She's so. Okay, we're moving on from the really delicious things to the more interesting things. I started with the squid's egg and now I'm going to try part of the squid's leg.
Chewy. Not bad though. It looks really intimidating, you know, because it's a leg like this big. But once they chop it up and add the sauce, it's not too bad. It's not too scary. I really like the chargro flavor on the outside. Like the little crunch of charcoal is actually really yummy. It's not too fishy at all. And she put this sweet and spicy sauce on it. Much better than the egg.
One mushroom and bacon.
It's hard to pass up bacon wrapped mushrooms when they only cost $0.30. Also, if you're looking for a great foot massage for about $4, you can get an hour foot massage right outside the Wat Sumpal temple.
It's so fun to just watch the world go by while you're getting beat rubs.
Why do things on a stick taste so much better?
And the later it gets, the more crowded it gets. And just to give you some context, we've eaten all this food and we are not Even close to 20% of the way through this park yet.
Okay, y', all, I know that I like mocha things, but the very first Sunday we were here in Chiang Mai, which was like five Sundays ago now, we came to the Sunday night market and we found these pork dumplings. And we have come back every single week just for these. They are the best I have ever had. They're just a little bit of round dumplings stuffed with the most tender, juicy, spicy pork. And then she tops it off with these little crunchy bits and soy sauce. It is amazing.
I could eat these every day. And it's a great value. This thing is stuffed. I think there's 10 in here for only 50 bucks.
This one's going to be easy. We ordered two separate sets of bugs. We have like your starter bugs, which are your bamboo worms. And then what will be the biggest bug I've ever eaten if I can convince myself to put it in my mouth. I don't know why we do this to ourselves, but about once a year we force ourselves to eat bugs. It is almost the end of 2018. Not had a proper bug experience this year. So go for it.
I guess you fries them because there's nothing inside. It's just like the crunchy, salty outside of the bug. I sprayed some soy sauce on it. If you don't think about it as bugs, this actually tastes good.
Try one.
How about the big one?
Okay. Since I have the small ones, you.
Have to eat the big one.
This is called a horse shoe crab. It honestly looks like a big roach.
A large gallery of people behind. It's a kind of medicine. A medicine?
Yeah, yeah.
Does it taste like Chinese? I'm being told it's supposed to be good for you.
Which disease?
Oh, you don't eat the wings.
The back or the head or. No, we eat all. You eat all. That's not what I wanted her to say. There we go. Do you see my hands shaking?
There's stuff inside of that one.
It's never as bad as you think it's gonna be. It's really not. Like, there's a lot of hard texture inside of my mouth. Like, kind of feels like I'm chewing on tree bark. But.
That was, like, the buggy part of it getting to me.
It's just.
It's very earthy with strong hints of soy sauce. I wish this would get out of my mouth faster.
I don't know. The head? I don't think so.
Thank you.
You think he's great? Thank you. Yeah.
She was the one. Peer pressure.
You look crazy.
A little crazy.
She's been going, eat it, eat it, eat it.
Have you not swallowed it yet?
Well, I'm still chewing. We're at least 30 seconds into this. Oh, you want to see what's inside the bug?
Oh, yeah.
Okay, it's your turn. Yeah, it's your turn. It's your turn.
I'm really nervous about it. Weird. My new friends. I'm Gianna. Cheers. We're from Nashville. I'm not ready. We have to take the wings off.
Oh, we do.
I'll take off as many things as I'm allowed to take off. What side did you eat? I have to tell you. Oh, not the head.
I'll go for the. Oh.
Do you eat the whole thing or. I'm gonna take a bite. Cheers. I can't wait to 70 minutes.
Oh, salty. It's salty, but so.
Chewy. Yeah.
Did you swallow it? No, I don't like it at all. Tastes a little old.
She's braver than me.
She made me look really bad. This is our new friend, Drew from California.
Hey, everybody.
Drew, have you ever eaten a bug before?
I had one last night, actually, at the Ratchata Night Market in Bangkok, and I.
What did you think?
I loved it, but I haven't tried this one. Let's go for it.
It's all you. The whole thing? The whole thing.
Oh, yeah.
Woo.
Pressure's off of me now.
Something to watch. And down with. Wow. Drew is a really good sport. He walked up to us, he was like, hey, I watch your YouTube channel. And we were like, do you want to eat a bucket? And he was like, yeah, let's do it.
Just didn't even think about it.
Dove right in. Drew, you are the man.
Can I get one?
We are completely full to the brim. We have eaten as much delicious street food as we possibly can. But it wasn't all delicious. But we've eaten as much street food as we possibly can, and we're ending this tour the best way that we know How? With my favorite Thai dessert, mango sticky rice. I'm sure most of you already know what this is, but in case you don't, it's sticky rice. And then they chop up the mango, lay it on top, and then they drizzle it all with this super sweet coconut milk. It's perfect after all the spicy food.
I look forward to this every time we come.
Okay, before we end this video, we have a debate that we have to settle.
This is serious.
Three years ago, when we were here, there was a temple at the end of the night market, and we walked inside, and there was a monk that we could not tell if he was a statue or if he was a real person. Can't tell if this is a real person.
I was, like, 40ft away. I still have no idea if he's real or a statue. He was real.
Kara's convinced he was real. I'm convinced it was a statue because he didn't blink for, like, the 10 minutes we were sitting there looking at it.
That's a statue.
So we're going back to the temple, and we're gonna see if he is still sitting in the same spot. If he's still in the same spot. I was right. Or he's a very dedicated monk.
I think he was a wax statue. He's gonna be right. He's gonna be right.
It will forever remain a mystery.
Darn it.
It's closed. We'll never know. Any of you get the chance to come here on the right side of this temple. If I don't get ran over by this car, I'm standing in a large puddle. So if any of you come, you can help us solve the mystery. Let us know. Is there a monk sitting really still on the front left side of the temple behind us?
We really hope you enjoyed this video. And we are stuffed. So we're gonna go get a foot massage.
How positive is this badge?
I'm, like, 70% positive it's not a real person. But, like, literally, we've been within, like, 12 inches of it and still can't tell her.
Don't call him an it.
She is still trying to figure out if he's real or not.
Ready?
Trying to say delicious and tacky. She was like, what?
Oh, they smell nice. Woody squirt, bottle of soy sauce. Cover up some flavor.
