Hey everyone, I’m in Chiang Mai, Thailand for three months to help out my parents. It’s great to spend some extended time in my hometown from childhood. Of course, everything is different now. Life is so much busier in Chiang Mai than when I was young. It’s still quite nice, though. I’m very comfortable financially and things are cheap here compare to the U.S. I can live it up a bit more than usual. Anyway, today I’d like to tell you a bit about some strange food from Northern Thailand. Some of these are quite different than what Thai restaurants in the US serve. Most of those dishes are from the central area of Thailand. All right, are you ready?
Larb – raw beef tartare
Actually, you can find Larb in most restaurants in the US, but it won’t be raw. I’ve had the raw version before and it’s really good. The texture is like beef tartare, but the taste is completely different. They add various herbs and spices to give the dish a nice flavorful kick. If the place is really authentic, you can order it bitter as well. This dish is quite flexible.
- Raw or cooked – To be safe, probably should stick with cooked. Although, the raw is better, smooth.
- Beef or pork – Most Thai people don’t eat raw pork larb. It can cause deafness. Although, some people love it. They’ve been eating it all their lives and their hearing is fine.
- Spiciness level – mild to very spicy.
- Bitterness level – They use bile and other juice to give the dish a bitter taste. I’ve only had this once and it’s surprisingly good. (In the clip below.) The bitterness comes and goes really quicky. It elevates the dish somehow.
You can see how they make this dish at the end of this clip (6:20). Oh, they also added tripe in this one. I really enjoyed it and I hope to go back before I leave. But I’ll probably order it cooked next time.
Take out food from the market
Kang Hoh – Originally, this is what you make from the leftover curry. Just add some curry paste, vegetables, and bean noodles and you’ve got another meal. However, it got so popular that they now make it from scratch. I posted a recipe for Kang Hoh a while back.
Sai ua – Chiang Mai sausage. Yum. I love sai ua. This sausage is famous in Thailand and you can find it everywhere these days. However, I’ve never seen it in the U.S. It is so good, full of herbs like kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass. You can’t miss this if you’re in Chiang Mai.
Fried pork chop – These are kids’ favorite. You can eat it with sticky rice or add a spicy dip.
Fried pork rinds – Mmmm… crunchy. The pork rinds here are so much better than in the U.S. because it is fresher. The ones in the U.S. are in chip bags and cooked weeks or months ago. These are cooked that morning or just yesterday. They sell quickly in the markets.
Sticky rice – Oh, I love sticky rice. These are the best rice. Usually, I try to eat only a little rice because I want to avoid carbs. But when there is sticky rice, I always eat too much.
Cooked pork larb – This is the cooked version from the market.
Eggplant dip – This is made from long eggplants. They seared the eggplant and chilies. Add a bunch of herbs and spices then smash them all together in a big mortar.
Jackfruit dip – This is similar to the previous dip, but they use young jackfruit instead. Both are really good with sticky rice.
Traditionally, you eat sticky rice and sides with your hand like this. But you could use a fork if you’d like.
Khoa Soi – curry noodles
Mmmm… I love khoa soi. This is a noodle dish from Northern Thailand. But did you know it was adapted from a Yunnan (Chinese) dish? The Shan people live in the hills of China, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand. This dish originally has no coconut milk or curry paste in it. From what I understand, many of the Shan immigrated from China. Most of them live in the mountains, but some moved to Chiang Mai. They opened restaurants and served a noodle dish – papa soi. This is a Halal dish because they are Muslim. At some point (in the 60s and 70s?)they became a target because of anti-communism sentiments. Many of them closed up shop and left. The Thai workers continued the business and adapted the dish to their liking by adding coconut milk and curry paste. They also changed the noodles to egg noodles. The result is a great curry noodle dish – khoa soi. The best one I’ve had so far is at Khoa Soi Lung Prakit. It was awesome. There is a place in Chiang Mai that serves the original version, but they are closed temporarily. I heard the original version is really good too.
That’s it for now. There are many other northern Thai dishes that I’m planning to try. I’ll write part 2 when I collected more pictures. I don’t know why, but I enjoy these northern dishes so much more than the usual Thai food we get in the U.S. Maybe it’s because I rarely get to eat them. Mrs. RB40 really likes these too. Have you tried any of these dishes?
Related Food posts
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Chiang Mai Cost of Living 2022
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Originally posted 2022-03-01 19:19:16. Republished by Blog Post Promoter