Thai Food and Chiang Mai Specialties

The Best of Thai Cuisine

Thai Hawker Food

Although modern transportation and mixing of the population has created a lot of overlap, the regions still have many distinct foods and are strongly influenced by neighboring countries. In the case of Chiang Mai in the north, strong influences come from Burma and more importantly Laos.
Rice is the staple, as with most other Asian cuisines. Sweet-smelling jasmine rice (khao hohm mali) from the central plains is often used but sticky rice (khao neow) is preferred especially in the rural North (and Issan.) Even more common in Laos, sticky (or glutinous rice) is a variety of rice with a unique starch that cause it to cook up to a sticky consistency. It is cooked by soaking for several hours and then steamed in a large bamboo basket. Balls of the rice are served in small bamboo baskets. The rice is sticky but dry and is eaten in the North with the fingers of the right hand in bite sized pieces by making it into balls that are dipped into side dishes.

Thai food is generally eaten with a fork and a spoon. Chopsticks are used mostly only when eating noodle soups. The fork is held in the left hand and is used to push food into the spoon.

A popular dish in the North is called nam prik which refers to a chilli sauce or paste. It is prepared by crushing roasted chillies alone or together with ingredients such as garlic and shrimp paste using a mortar and pestle. It is then often served with fresh raw or blanched vegetables such as cucumbers, cabbage and yard-long beans. The vegetables are dipped into the sauce and eaten with rice. Thai food is often served with a variety of spicy condiments. These can range from dried chili pieces, or sliced chili peppers and cucfumber in a sweetened rice vinegar, to the nam prik mentioned above.

Some popular dishes in the North include:

Som tam - green papaya salad, pounded with a mortar and pestle. Variations include Som tam Lao with salted small black crab, and Som tam Thai with peanuts, dried shrimp and palm sugar.
(For more on Somtam click here or the picture on the right.)

Kao niao ma muang - Sliced ripe mango on sticky rice covered with coconut milk. A local favorite dessert.
(Above)