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Kai Pen
paper-thin sheets of spiced river algae. Kai (Laotian for “river-grass”) grows in the Mekong and its tributaries. When the water level is low during the dry season the bright green algae is picked from the riverbed, and patted until tender. A broth (from tamarind and a jungle fruit named hog plum) is cooked to spice the algae and make it stick together. Soaked with the broth the kai is laid out and shaped into sheets. Sesame is sprinkled over, and some garlic, onions and sliced tomatoes too. Then the sheets are sun dried. Kai Pen is a traditional snack in the villages of Northern Laos. How to prepare it? Fry it for a few seconds in oil.

Kao Kiep
air-dried crispy wafers, famous in the small town of Luang Prabang in Northern Laos. Steamed cassava roots are the main ingredient. Add coconut flakes, ginger and lots (!) of palm sugar. Pressed to thin wafers the kao kiep are dried in the sun. The sweet snack is quickly fried or roasted before eaten. Marks chef use it for seafood salads or desserts of any kind. The foodhunters first discovery …

Bael
The citrus fruit with the botanical name ‘aegle Marmelos’ (mak dum in Laotian) originates from India and is today common all over mainland South East Asia. Its an ancient relative of our present day orange. Unfortunately you cannot eat it fresh from the tree, as it has huge pips and is extremely sticky. The fruits are cut to slices, sun-dried and used for making a tea (which relieves stomach aches). Its not used for cooking. Too bad, says Mark. It has a unique fragrance and a delicious taste (of caramelised bitter-sweet orange). Mark uses the “grandma orange” for drinks, soups, jelly, pudding, pies, vinaigrettes, barbecue sauces or to prepare a duck a l’orange.

Spicy Wood
called “sa kahn” in Laotian. It is a wild-growing vine, to be found in the jungle near rivers. In Northern Laos it’s a traditional spice, elsewhere it is completely unknown. It has a well-balanced, almost elegant peppery taste, with notes of leather, gloves, cinnamon and cardamom. It goes well with any stews or steamed dishes, either fish or meat. Bits of the vine are cooked or steamed with the dish and then removed. Keep the vine dark and moist – like in the jungle.

Mak-Kenn
A pepper bush, growing wild in the tropical forests of Northern Laos, also in the mountains of Vietnam and Thailand. Especially ethnic minorities use the wild pepper, they gather it in the jungle, sometimes sell it on local markets. Mak-Kenn smells amazingly fresh, a bit like lemon, but is extremely pungent - like an electric zing on the tongue. Mark discovered Mak-Kenn during the shooting. His idea to spice a vodka with the wild pepper convinced us – and Marks chefs – immediately.

TheJjungle Nut
called Mak-Guu in Laos, botanical name Dratonpomelon Dao. Seeds of a 30 meters high jungle tree. Mark discovered it incidentally in the remote area where Laos borders Vietnam. Together with salt, garlic, a roasted chilli and a little bit of scallion the mountainous people of the Akha tribe pound the seeds to prepare a “jungle-nut-pesto”. The Dao tree belongs to the botanical family of the Anacardiacae, it’s a relative to the mango, the pistachio and the cashew nut. No wonder, it tastes that delicious.

Kalamansi's lime honey
A wild bee honey blended with the juice of the Kalamansi lemon. Mark found it in a remote mountainous area of the Philippines. The foodhunter-honey tastes unexpectedly – unexpectedly good. Even star chefs, who have tasted everything a thousand times, are firstly irritated, then smitten with the honey. Wow! Goes well with marinades, sauces, yoghurts, ice cream and so on …

Ker
Indian capers that grow in the desert of Rajasthan. With Sangri pods they form a classic desert meal. Ker & Sangri, once refined by India’s maharajas, today is considered as poor man’s food. When bought in one of Rajasthan’s markets, it can be kept for years. In Shanghai, David Laris snatches the (re)discovery from the hands of Mark and prepares a lamb rack on truffled Ker & Sangri.

Saffron from Kashmir
has a legendary reputation and had it even 500 years ago. Due to the Kashmir conflict, today only forged or diluted saffron can be found on the market. At harvest time Mark goes to Pampur, the centre of saffron cultivation in Kashmir. He is enchanted by the quality of the dried stigmas of the authentic saffron crocus (crocus sativus). 75.000 blossoms for 1 kilo of condiment. In New Delhi, the chef of Shangri La prepares a saffron parfait of Mark’s rare catch.

Ruou Thom (marinade of fragrances)
Perfume Wine, alcohol based marinade, once created by the “sad” emperor Tu Duc. In Hué, the imperial city of central Vietnam, Mark is looking for the six roasted condiments of the marinade that’s not for sale aynmore. Finally, he is successful: Madame Huy, whose great-aunt cooked for the imperial family, succumbs to his charm and tells him the recipe. Mark takes the imperial marinade to some chefs in California – their opinion: “It’s magic!”

Mak Bok
lat. irvingia malayana, popular “bush mango”. In the rainy season, the Mak Bok tree throws off its inedible fruit. When the flesh is rotten or eaten by animals, a hard seed comes to light. Its interior is tasty. Mark discovers Mak Bok in a Laotian village. Here the seeds are served to beer as a salty snack. He is convinced and presents the jungle seeds to Norbert Kostner, the chef of the legendary Oriental Hotel of Bangkok. The result: Mak Bok pesto with fresh penne.

Malabar Monsooned Coffee
When the monsoon lets off its rainy load, near Mangalore a very special coffee is produced: “Monsoon Coffee”. In lofty go-downs the green coffee beans are being exposed to the humid monsoon wind. They become more and more pale, loose some of their acidity. The original Monsoon Coffee once was refined by the wind on the ships of unsuspecting Dutchmen. Mark is studying its remake, one of the few noble coffees that are suitable for establishing an expensive market segment.

Kodampoli
as big as a fist, ripped, sour (very sour) fruits from a tree to be found in India’s coffee plantations. In the rainy season, the farm workers don’t have a lot of work. They pick the fruits and dry them on fire, that gives Kodampoli its smoky sourness. Mark is enthusiastic about it. In Shanghai, he offers his discovery to Jeremie Leung, China’s culinary artist. As if by magic, Leung produces a Kodampoli ice cream that doesn’t leave cold any heart.

Toddy vinegar
Toddy is a lightly fermented fruit wine, the men’s drink of Kerala. Mark is invited by a Toddy tapper who is fermenting and filtering Toddy until vinegar is produced. Would go perfectly with white fish or sea fruit salad… In Shanghai, Mark is presenting Kerala’s peasant vinegar to the famous Australian chef David Laris. David caramelizes malty palm sugar with it and adds the reduction to poached turbot. Delicious.

Elephant apple
respectively wood apple, lat. feronia elephantum. Its name comes of the extremely hard shell that allegedly can be cracked only by elephants. The elephant apple grows on massive trees in the dry plains of India and Sri Lanka. Mark discovers it at the roadside of Udaipur. In the past, delicious chutney was made of elephant apple. Today it is a nearly forgotten food, even in India. In the stock market quarter of Hong Kong, Chef Harlan Goldstein prepares an elephant apple sorbet.

Buddha’s Hand
is a highly fragrant citrus fruit (bot. Citrus medica sarcodactylus) that grows in the warm south of China. Because of its fine scent it is frequently used as a temple offering, although it has never been used in Chinese cooking. Most varieties have bitter pith. In Guangdong, however, Mark discovers some sweet varieties. Gerhard Passrugger, chef de cuisine of Shanghai’s Park Hyatt Hotel was the first chef to test Mark’s discovery. He combines beef tender loin and poppy seeds from Austria with Buddha’s Hand. Delicious!

Facai
(Flagelliform nostoc) is a blue-green algae, a primeval plant which grows in the highland deserts of northwestern China. The rare, black, hair-like threads are highly valued in Cantonese cuisine due to a play on the word Facai, which means both ‘hair vegetable’ and ‘getting rich’. Especially on New Year’s Day, the Chinese eat the flavorless algae. Genuine Facai is sold for up to €800 per kilo. The Chinese government has banned this ancient ingredient, as the collecting degrades the poor desert soil. Mark dreams of farming the ingredient, which would certainly make him rich!

Magnolia seeds
In China’s southwest, in the tropical parts of Yunnan province, rainforest is being cut down. Just a few giant trees, the Ye Ba Yiao have survived. Their seeds are highly aromatic and serve as universal medicine. Because of their value, the villagers guard the trees around the clock. Mark makes a “Chinese Pernod” out of the alcoholic essence of the seeds. It works wonderfully in marinades for meat and fish.

Seaweed jelly
In Qingdao, a coastal city in the northeast, a special jelly made from seaweed has been made for many centuries. Liangfen looks unusual, smells of the sea and is particularly popular with women as a traditional slimming food. It only exists in Qingdao. It is mainly served as a light summer dish dressed with vinegar and soy sauce.

Osmanthus
Gui hua (Osmanthus fragrans) are sweet fragrant blossoms well-established as a cooking ingredient in China. Traditionally, they are used to flavour tea. They are also added to cakes, dumplings, soups, marmalades and sometimes to duck. However, Osmanthus is going out of fashion, which is a pity. Mark thinks they could work really well in Western cooking, especially with Italian food, cream-based deserts, sweet cheeses and raw meat.

Wild fennel pollen
was discovered by Mark in Italy. All around the Mediterranean, the fennel grows wild at the roadside. But only in northern Tuscany are the small yellow flowers collected and dried by housewives. The condiment is called Fiori di Finnochio selvatico and it is used with suckling pig, poultry and a particular salami. Fennel pollen tastes and smells intensely herby and licoricy, with a more intense flavour than fennel seeds. Mark took this old Italian spice to China.

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