Lanna flavours and sticky rice culture
In Chiang Mai, start your northern food with a bowl of khao soi. You get soft noodles, crispy noodles and a rich curry broth together. For the next meal, try herby sai ua and nam prik ong, a tomato dipping sauce, with sticky rice. It is a northern table that is quite different from a noodle dish.
Choosing a meal in Chiang Mai
If you want a light lunch, choose khao soi. On a day when you are sharing several dishes, order sai ua and nam prik ong with sticky rice and vegetables for a meal of northern food.
In the north, sticky rice is eaten with a range of side dishes, vegetables and nam prik. The khantoke meal, where food is laid out on a small table, shows this food culture too. Khantoke is not the name of one dish; it describes the table where many dishes are set out and the way of eating them.
Khao soi, sai ua and nam prik ong are eaten not only in Chiang Mai but in other parts of the north too.
Pick a dish you fancy. Each guide explains the flavour and what to eat it with.
A rich curry broth and two kinds of noodle define it. The topping noodles are crisp at first and soften little by little as they touch the broth. Taste the broth before and after you add the side dishes, and you get different flavours in one bowl.
Khao Soi: flavour and how to eat it →
The richness of pork is joined by herb aroma and chilli seasoning. The distinctive scent is different from a familiar sausage. How hot it is depends on how it is made, so if it is your first time, you could start with a small piece.
Sai Ua: flavour and how to eat it →
The acidity of tomato and the savoury depth of pork are joined by chilli seasoning. A soft sauce on crunchy vegetables brings different textures together. The heat varies from maker to maker.
Nam Prik Ong: flavour and how to eat it →The place a fruit is famous for may not be the city where you buy it today. Check the season and flavour, then choose what you would like to try.
The flesh is sweet, and the aroma varies with the variety. There is a black stone inside the white flesh, so you take it out as you eat.
Longan: season, flavour and how to eat it →
The white flesh is sweet, and some varieties also have some sharpness. You peel it and remove the stone in the middle to eat.
Lychee: season, flavour and how to eat it →
Ripe mango is soft and sweet. Some varieties of green mango are eaten for a texture different from ripe mango, so you do not need to assume that every green one is unripe.
Mango: season, flavour and how to eat it →
You enjoy the sweetness and the sharpness of citrus together. The flavour changes with the variety and how ripe it is, and the flesh may have seeds.
Thai Mandarin Orange: season, flavour and how to eat it →Khao soi, sai ua and nam prik ong are eaten not only in Chiang Mai but in other parts of the north too.
If you want a light lunch, choose khao soi. On a day when you are sharing several dishes, order sai ua and nam prik ong with sticky rice and vegetables for a meal of northern food.
If you would like to read more about the food and the regions behind it, these sources are worth a look. Ingredients and cooking methods can vary from one cook to the next.
