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Night markets in Southeast Asia offer a diverse and affordable array of prepared foods, serving as entrepreneurial hubs and a vibrant alternative to traditional wet markets.
The video explores the food scene at the Chiang Mai night market, highlighting the affordability and variety of prepared dishes available. The host contrasts night markets with wet markets, explaining that night markets are evening hubs for ready-to-eat meals and entrepreneurial ventures, while wet markets are for purchasing raw ingredients for home cooking. This distinction is crucial for understanding local food culture and economic opportunities in regions like Southeast Asia.
The host shares specific food purchases from the night market, including watermelon, dragon fruit, spring rolls (chicken, pork, salmon), and pineapple chicken. They emphasize the remarkably low prices compared to Western countries, noting that a substantial meal can be bought for under four US dollars. The host also touches upon the freshness of food in Thailand, which has fewer preservatives, leading to quicker spoilage of leftovers.
The discussion extends to other fruits, with the host expressing a dislike for durian due to its strong smell and high cost, despite acknowledging it as an acquired taste. They also mention trying jackfruit and express interest in breadfruit, noting a hotel named Breadfruit in Chiang Mai. Looking ahead, the host outlines potential travel plans for the following year, including Vietnam as a primary destination, with other possibilities like South Korea and Taiwan also on the radar.
A Chiang Mai night market food tour is an exploration of the diverse and affordable prepared foods available at local night markets. These markets are vibrant hubs where vendors offer ready-to-eat meals, showcasing the culinary richness of Thailand.
Yes, Chiang Mai night markets are incredibly affordable, offering a wide variety of delicious food at significantly lower prices than in Western countries. You can enjoy a substantial meal for under four US dollars, making it a budget-friendly culinary experience.
Night markets focus on prepared, ready-to-eat foods and are popular evening destinations for both locals and tourists. Wet markets, on the other hand, are primarily for purchasing raw ingredients for home cooking, functioning more like grocery stores.
You can find a huge variety of prepared foods at Chiang Mai night markets, including fruits like watermelon and dragon fruit, spring rolls with various fillings, and dishes like pineapple chicken. The emphasis is on fresh, flavorful, and often portable meals.
Durian is a famously strong-smelling and often expensive fruit, considered an acquired taste by many. While available at markets, its polarizing aroma and cost mean it's not for everyone, unlike more universally appealing fruits like jackfruit.
Street food prices in Chiang Mai are remarkably low, especially compared to Western standards. You can expect to pay very little for a filling and delicious meal, often under $4 USD, making it an excellent value.
0:03 Hey YouTube, this is going to be a really quick video. Today, I'm just getting back from the Chiang Mai diversity night market, and I thought I'd show some of the food that I got. Really, all the food that I got from the night market, so that you can kind of see what it is that I'm munching on here in Thailand. And then also, a little bit of an idea of the prices that should help you in your planning. So, let's go ahead and get into it.
0:32 Without further ado, I do have some stuff coming up at the top of the hour, so may I just share? The first thing is this watermelon. I'm not sure how much this weighs, it's pretty hefty. This was 20 Baht, which is roughly around 65 cents for this package of watermelon. It does come chopped up. This is it, it does have seeds, so it's not like the seedless watermelon that you may be used to where you're from. For 20 Baht, so about 65 cents, pretty good deal. I think the equivalent in the US would be probably four or five bucks.
1:10 And then this is something that also I think has a lot of value, such that it's worth having a lot when you are here in Thailand. This is one of my favorite fruits, this is the dragon fruit. This package was also about 65 cents, 20 Baht. It's really, really nice to have that because this package in the US would easily be 10, 12, maybe 15. So to have it for that price, it's something that I like to have a lot. I'll have it pretty frequently. You just try to get fruit probably four times a week or so, maybe five times a week, and it's just so accessible here.
1:49 This is the night market. I definitely need to make a video of it, but it's like maybe eight minutes walking from my apartment, so really close, really convenient. And I passed by a 7-Eleven as well on the way there, so if I need to pick up a large container of water, I can do that. Let me see if I can, yeah, I'll be right back. I'm gonna grab a water just to show you what it is I'm talking about. So here we go.
2:35 So this bottle is 13 Baht, about, it's just calculated out, 13 Baht. So about 36 cents. And this is, see if it has a measurement on it. Um, I think 1.5 liters. So this is about 1.5 liters for, uh, 36 cents. And I go back and forth on it. I know that it's not the most efficient way, but so at times the water here, oh, hey, we got a couple of viewers. Definitely, oh, hey Ron.
3:08 Ron, great question. Ron asks, what's the difference between a night market and a wet market? Open this. Pause to answer Ron's question, and then I'm going to hop back to, uh, just sharing the rest of what I got tonight. Got two other items I'd like to share with you.
3:24 So the difference between a night market and a wet market, in my mind, is a wet market somewhat functions like a grocery store. You'll typically go there and you'll purchase raw ingredients to cook at home. It's often going to be primarily catering to locals because, in a lot of the countries that are, you could just say non-western, there's a limited group of people that can afford a high-end grocery store, right? So those exist, but there's a limited audience that has the budget for that. And so I probably really think of a wet market as a place for, like I said, locals on a budget, perhaps cooking, feeding a lot of people, right? Like if you're a local person and you're cooking for say, three or four people or more, then it becomes more and more economical to cook. Whereas if you're a single person, well, you've got four viewers. This is a great time to be on. Hey everybody, feel free to throw any questions or comments down below, but I'm just answering Ron's question here. So yeah, you'll get bulk deals and presumably you can find one that does a really good job and is following some standards. Certainly, some wet markets are better than others. Some are, you know, just not as good as some others.
4:45 But I don't really shop at wet markets. I don't cook here in Thailand. I have, I don't even have a kitchenette in this unit, which is fine with me. I'm not a big part, I'm not big on cooking anyway, just because for one person, it can really be pricey. You know, you talk about adding up all the ingredients and stretching things out. I also find food here does not have as much preservatives as it does in America, so things tend to go bad more quickly. I tend to not like to keep a lot of leftovers. I just find that they, they don't stay as good for long, and I think, like I said, it just goes into, you know, the preservative aspect.
5:26 Um, what else can I say on that? So about a night market, you're curious about what a night market is. Well, to me, a night market is, they're, they're really popular throughout Asia, especially Southeast Asia, because it's so hot during the day, right? And most people are working during the day. So during the daytime, people are working, it's also really hot outside, where most people, they'd rather be inside, I think, or a lot of people would anyway. And so at nighttime, everybody gets off work, all the students presumably are done with their classes for the day, and they have these markets where you can go. And they'll typically serve a lot of different prepared food. They might have like, uh, you know, cake shop and like ice cream, you know, desserts. They typically have a lot of stalls too, right? People who are entrepreneurial, but maybe they can't commit to a full building lease. They'll get a stall or a kiosk, get a night market, and they could still be a business person, but they don't have to make quite the same investment that you would make if you're going out renting a stand-alone building, you had to put up all kinds of fantasy decoration, you had to hire a lot more staff. Or, you know, the night market, I think it really does provide that opportunity for people to pursue that entrepreneurial spirit. And in some cases, I've heard of stalls becoming full-fledged restaurants, right? Where the owner is so successful, they're able to rent a brick and mortar, to outfit it, decorate it. And I've seen this in the United States as well, but I think that happens here in Thailand too.
6:58 I also think, like, a night market is prepared food, right? I don't think of it as a wet market where you're buying a lot of raw ingredients. I think it's much more like, uh, you know, much more prepared food. Speaking of which, I'll share the next couple of things I bought.
7:14 So I got these, uh, spring rolls. Not sure if you've heard of spring rolls, you're familiar, but, uh, we've got on the bottom here is salmon, uh, I think this is pork, and I think this is chicken on top. So I've got chicken, pork, and salmon. And then also this spicy sauce here that has got, I don't know if it's chili peppers or what exactly it is, but it's got this spicy sauce. And typically, you, you know, you pour it on the spring rolls or dunk the spring rolls in there. Really, really tasty. And each of these was 10 Baht. So this package for one salmon, one pork, and one chicken was 30 Baht. So let's calculate that out. 30 Baht is about 84 cents for those three. That's a really good deal. I think like in the US, I'd be paying probably five bucks for two, something like that. Now, admittedly, they'd probably be a little bit bigger.
8:22 Oh, these are already, uh, yeah, these are already cooked. So, but I definitely agree with you, Ron. Definitely agree with you. It's important to cook. I particularly, pork all the way, chicken, these two really should not be undercooked.
8:32 And then the last thing that I got, uh, really tasty here. Um, this is pineapple chicken. And so, uh, you can see here, they also include a couple of shrimps right there. And it's really, really good. It's, I don't think it's traditional Thai food, but they make, like, uh, it reminds me of like a cashew chicken a bit from in the US. And this ran about 65 Baht. This, uh, this pineapple chicken. And that's roughly 65 Baht, $1.82. So about a dollar 82.
9:15 And so in total for these four things, uh, the watermelon, the dragon fruit, the spring rolls, and the, uh, pineapple chicken, it's about 135 Baht, right under four bucks. And there's a lot here. I'm really excited to dig into it. I definitely should show off that night market. There's a lot of other stuff too. They have a, uh, pizza spot. I haven't tried that yet. They have a, uh, like a, a Korean barbecue almost, and I did try that. It was incredible. I definitely plan to go back. It was really a wild experience. Like they were, you know, not, uh, they're not short of fans. And so that's definitely what attracted me to them.
9:59 But yeah, I hope this video has been helpful. I'm going to wrap up here in a couple more minutes, just because I'd say about five minutes, just because I've got some stuff to, uh, work on around nine. But yeah, feel free to throw any more questions you have down below. It's, it's definitely a, it's been a nice day in Chiang Mai today.
10:24 I may have a little bit of this dragon fruit. I have my Thai language class today, and I'm definitely, definitely challenging, but, um, I can number.
10:49 Oh, Ron asked, have you tried durian? You know, I've tried durian a few times, and I, I can't get into it. You know, I'll, I'll keep trying it because I imagine someday, you know, it might be like a beer or, um, wine or something like that, where it's an acquired taste. Personally, I just don't think it's worth it. It's, you know, durian is one, it's, it's really strong. So it smells really strong, and I don't really like the smell. It's also expensive relative to what I could get other fruit for. I'm gonna pay like, you know, five times or more for durian. It, it's just too, too odd for me, I think. For, for what it is. Jackfruit, I think I've tried it before, prepared it. It's okay. It's not my favorite. It's, uh, it's not my least favorite either.
11:50 Breadfruit. Let me look this up. Oh, wow. I need to try it. There's actually a hotel named Breadfruit here in Chiang Mai. That's funny. Apparently, it's popular in the Philippines. I'm gonna have to check it out sometime. Ron, that sounds really good.
12:33 Yeah, dragon fruit. So like, I don't know why they're so expensive in the US. They're like 10 bucks for one. I remember in San Francisco, and that's a place where you think it'd be a little bit cheaper, but, um, yeah, I definitely, definitely pricey.
12:45 Uh, so Ron asks, how long are you there in Thailand? I will be here until next July. I think next July, I'm looking at, uh, Vietnam, and I'm trying to think of anything else. I might start working my way back to America. It really depends on how things go. If, you know, the tech industry picks back up, I'll definitely be considering jumping on that opportunity.
13:11 Also, uh, you know, it'd be nice to see Vietnam. So.
13:17 It would be nice to see Vietnam, so I'd really like to go to Vietnam next year. There are some other countries that are on my radar as well, but I'm not sure how timing will work out. I think Vietnam is just easy; it's like a couple-hour flight. I could go there for as little as a week and feel like it was worth the time and effort to go.
13:36 I wouldn't want to go for a weekend just because it seems like a really cool and unique place based on what everybody's told me about it. But yeah, it's definitely on my list. I haven't been to Vietnam yet, so I've been to most of the Southeast Asian countries. I think that are on people's radar, but not all. And Vietnam is one of those.
13:57 Then the other one I'll definitely be dropping some hints on it, you know, if that time comes next year. Lychee is good, I like lychee. I also like it made into drinks. I haven't been to Dubai yet, and I am definitely a fan of Singapore. I love Singapore, such a cool country, really beautiful country, safe, modern, advanced. Yeah, I liked it a lot.
14:23 It was very, very hot, and that's saying something for this region. But even that, you know, being said, still, still a very unique city. I really like it. I'll definitely be interested to go back at some point.
14:39 South Korea is on my radar. I'm not sure if I'm gonna go in that direction in the near future, but I've heard South Korea is really good for teaching English. So I've thought about that, you know, maybe going and trying it for six months or a year in Seoul or in Busan or in a different part of Korea, just to experience what that's like.
15:06 In Taiwan, I've had a layover in Taiwan. I haven't really done much outside the airport, but I really want to go to Taiwan at some point. Yeah, it seems like a really interesting country, and I've heard it has a lot in common with Japan.
15:19 But thanks so much, Ron. I really enjoyed chatting with you. I'm going to wrap this one up just because I'm going to munch on some food and then get on my next project. But yeah, I'll talk to everybody soon. Definitely, I appreciate you watching, and I hope you have a great, great day ahead.
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