

Talad Wat Raiking (ตลาดวัดไร่ขิง)
Day five on set of the Thai food tv show, and it was one of the best days so far, but it was also very long.
We woke up quite early, about 4 am, and got picked up to drive to Wat Raiking (วัดไร่ขิง), a temple that’s home to a huge sprawling market on Sunday mornings.

The temple sits on the edge of the Tha Jeen River, and across from the river is the sprawling market; Though not nearly as chaotic, it sort of reminded me of Kolkata, India, at the Mullik Ghat flower market.

On set, the scene was about eating a typical morning market breakfast in Thailand, something I love doing while living in Thailand.

Jok, or Thai rice congee porridge, is one of the most well known breakfast dishes.

I also got to eat a double shot of kai luak, which are soft boiled eggs in a cup, and finally a couple cups of coffee, plus some patongo, or Chinese style salty donuts.

The atmosphere of the early morning at Talad Wat Raiking (ตลาดวัดไร่ขิง) was fantastic, such a fantastic sprawl of food and a nice place to sit for breakfast.
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After finishing the shoot at Talad Wat Raiking (ตลาดวัดไร่ขิง), we continued on to Yeesarn (ร้านอาหารยี่สาร), a beautiful restaurant that’s famous for serving royal or traditional Thai cuisine.

But before meeting the owner and eating a selection of royal Thai salads, I first got to have my first lesson carving fruit, known in Thai as khae salak polamai (แกะสลักผลไม้).
Fruit carving in Thai culture is a traditional royal art, often associated with the palace courts cuisine; the carvings are not only just used for decoration, but some of the smaller carvings can also be used to eat – beautiful food!

P’Petchari was an expert, and she taught me to carve a simple leaf from a cucumber (there’s no way I could even come close to carving what she was).

Her leaf was a beautiful perfect leaf; Mine on the other hand, looked like it had been though a number of rough storms, maybe a hurricane.

The next scene was filming with the owner of the restaurant, P’Da, who showed me how to make a number of traditional Thai salads, including yam tua plu (ยำถั่วพลู winged bean salad), yam somo (ยำส้มโอ pomelo salad), yam hua pli (ยำถั่วพลู banana blossom salad), and yam takrai (ยำตะไคร้ lemongrass salad).
The owner was incredibly kind and gracious and it was great to hang out with her.

The food at Yeesarn (ร้านอาหารยี่สาร), we enjoyed a full meal there along with filming, was outstanding.

All the dishes I sampled were incredible, including the full range of special salads she made for us. I will write a full review about the restaurant over on EatingThaiFood.com soon.

It was already evening by the time we rolled out of Yeesarn Restaurant, and we headed to the Om Pan Nakhon Chedi (องค์พระปฐมเจดีย์), a famous temple chedi in Nakhon Pathon (นครปฐม).

There’s a famous annual festival that takes place at the temple, but throughout the year, there’s an evening street food market.
We didn’t do too much filming here, but mostly walked around and shot a little bit of the juggling ice cream man (my own video coming soon, very cool) at Ice Cream Loy Fa (ไอศครีมลอยฟ้า).

That was it for the day – another food action packed day, a lot of fun, a lot of delicious food.

Thank you for following along in this series of updates about filming for a Thai food tv show. Day 5 completed the first episode of the show, and we have a few weeks break, to make sure all the production is going according to plan, and to get approved by the commissioner.
During our break, Ying and I took a quick trip to Yangon, Myanmar, and enjoyed a lot of interesting dishes. More updates about Myanmar, and about the show (when it starts up again in a couple weeks), coming soon.
Hope you’re doing well and having a great day.
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High Rated Gabru
2 years ago
Nice blog post. Thanks for share.
Vishal
4 years ago
Great post Mark! Thailand is indeed a beautiful country to visit. Your pics were awesome.👌👌
Selina
9 years ago
looks very yummie, but never for breakfast. I couldn’t eat this plates in the morning. But I konw the Thai do so….silly how nariture habits can be different 🙂 Thank you anyway for your post 🙂
Mark Wiens
9 years ago
Hi Selina, great to hear from you, yah it all depends how and where you grow up and what you prefer – and that’s part of the beauty of the diversity of the world.
Liezl
9 years ago
I normally don’t follow blogs, but yours looked so tempting Mark, with all the deliciousness that you display.
Goodluck with the travel show…your Myanmar photo essay turned out great!
: )
Mark Wiens
9 years ago
Hi Liezl, I really appreciate it. Thank you for the support.
Adam
9 years ago
When I was living in Calgary, one of the roommates that I shared a house with was Thai and he was freakin’ AWESOME when it came to carving watermelons (he was a chef at a restaurant on the southside, so it was for work) … so intricate, but he did leave a water stain on the kitchen table from his work one time 😛
Mark Wiens
9 years ago
Hey Adam, very cool, thank you for sharing, awesome how he could carve a watermelon!
Stephen S.
9 years ago
Great post Mark! Thailand is indeed a beautiful country to visit. Your pics were awesome.
Mark Wiens
9 years ago
Thank you Stephen
Maria Falvey
9 years ago
Mark, I’ve never seen anyone create such a beautiful work of art from a watermelon like the one you’ve pictured here. Stunning!
Mark Wiens
9 years ago
Hi Maria, I agree, it was very impressive.
Ani
9 years ago
Mark those are some excellent pictures. I love the look of Yam hua pli – mango in thai dishes is my favourite combination. Congratulations on landing the job 🙂 Can’t think of anyone better to make people around the world drool 🙂
Cheers
Mark Wiens
9 years ago
Big thank you Ani.
Stephanie – The Travel Chica
9 years ago
Do you know how long it takes to do the fruit carving?
Mark Wiens
9 years ago
Good question Stephanie. I think the watermelon took about 2 – 3 hours, and for the smaller pieces like that pumpkin flower took about 1 hour. Other smaller decoration she could whip out in like 10 minutes. This lady had a lot of experience, she was very good. It was really cool to watch.
Lindsay
9 years ago
Enjoy a durian or two for us in Myanmar! We had some of the best durian ever there 🙂
Mark Wiens
9 years ago
Thanks Lindsay.
Victoria
9 years ago
Hi Mark.
Congratulations on getting the job as Thai food tv show host!
I’m very happy for you because I know food is your passion and I can’t wait to see it.
I’m a big fan and always love to watch your food videos.
Since I found out about your videos I became interested about Thailand culture which makes me want to travel to Thailand with my kids (I’m from Canada). I have a few questions for you. This is my first time travelling to Thailand with kids so I’m a little nervous.
1. How many days should I stay in Bangkok, Thailand?
2. Do you have any recommendations for which hotel I should stay? I’m looking for a 3 or 4 star hotel. I did find 2 I’m interested in, it’s called Novotel hotel on Siam square and the other is pathumwan princess hotel. But I want your opinion of others too.
Thanks. I hope to hear from you soon. Good luck on your show!
Victoria
Mark Wiens
9 years ago
Hi Victoria,
Thank you very much for watching my videos, and great to hear you are taking a trip to Thailand.
1. It really depends on how many days you have available, but I think about 4 – 5 days would be a good amount of time to do some things and also have some relax time. Will you be only visiting Bangkok, or other parts in Thailand as well?
2. As for hotel, a good area is Siam or along Sukhumvit, I think Novotel Siam Square would be a great option. It’s in a good location and a nice hotel. Another one could be Grande Center Point at Terminal 21, or Ibis Bangkok Siam.
Please let me know if you have any other questions about visiting.
Kurt
9 years ago
Geez, those salads look sublime. Im salivating over here!
Mark Wiens
9 years ago
Thanks Kurt
Songtham
9 years ago
Love the morning breakfast. Can’t wait to see your version of Yee sarn restaurant. This must be one of the best show.
Mark Wiens
9 years ago
Thank you Songtham, I agree, morning market breakfast is a wonderful thing.
Elizabeth
9 years ago
LOVE jok, eat it everyday! Loaded with prik nam pla and the likes.
Mark Wiens
9 years ago
Great to hear that Elizabeth.
Sulasno
9 years ago
Use light soy sauce for porridge
Ashley
9 years ago
Fruit carving is such a beautiful art!
Mark Wiens
9 years ago
Hey Ashley, I fully agree, it’s beautiful.