Food Fit for a Rama

Chang Mai is known for, among other things, good food.  Northern Thai food in known as Lanna. and is different than what we think of when we think of Thai food. 

We found a night street food tour through Viator and Mr. J was at our hotel a few minutes early.  One of the advantages of having a group of 5 means that most tours are (almost) private.  For this one, we were joined by an American, Kate, who teaches English in Japan.  We piled into his SUV and headed out to a night food market outside the north walls of the Old City.

Let me state right now that we ate too much food that night, but damn it was worth it.  Here is a list of the things that we tried:

Tom Saap Stand

Tom Saap – A soup of pork broth, galangal, lemon grass, and kaffir lime with mushrooms and chicken

Nam Tok Moo – Grilled pork that has been sliced served with toasted crushed rice, onions, and chili.  This is topped with a fish sauce and is eaten with sticky rice that you roll into a ball and eat with your fingers, making sure to sop up every bit of the tasty sauce.

Pad Gra Pao Gal Kai Dao – Stir fried glass noodles with egg, Thai basil, and meat.  Christopher really liked this one and said “Oh my God this is good” to which Mr J said in Thailand it is “Oh My Buddha” or #OMB.

Yum Gai Saab

Yum Gai Saab – This is a spicy chicken salad that has a flavor profile similar to a green mango salad, but the textures are different.

Pad Pak Bun –Sautéed morning glory or water spinach that reminded me of mustard greens.

Kaho Ka Moo-- This is a slow cooked pork leg served with rice.  The particular food stand that we went to was made famous by Anthony Bourdain a few years ago on CNNs Parts Unknown. The proprietor is known as The Lady With The Hat for the cowboy hat she wears.  It reminded Patrick and I of a good pork carnitas with a sour orange sauce.

Mango and Sticky Rice—How can you go wrong with the dessert.  We had it the first time in Bangkok earlier this year and almost never fails to please us—warm sticky rice, cool mango, and topped with coconut milk.

Lao Khao -- Mr. J asked if any of us wanted to try some whiskey.  Never one to say no, I joined Kate.  Two shots were measured from the bottle (which happened to be a beer bottle).  The clear liquid was poured into glasses.  In one hand we had our glass and in the other we had a slice of lime that had been dipped in salt.  And much like taking a shot of tequila we drank and then sucked the lime.  Later I did some research and found out that this is a local Thai moonshine made of distilled fermented rice.

At this point we left the north side of the Old District and drove to the south side for a couple more courses.

Khao Soi – A dish from Northern Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos that is noodles and meat in a coconut curry sauce.  Almost anything with coconut milk is tasty and this one was too.

Khao Soi 

Rotee – Rotee is like a very thick, creamy crepe that is filled with banana and topped with a drizzle of chocolate.  Cut into bite size pieces we each had a skewer and quickly devoured this last dessert.

So this was our experience of Chang Mai’s street food scene.  This is the third of these tours we have taken in Southeast Asia (Bangkok and Hanoi were the others) and it is great way to get to know a city and to get comfortable with it.