Food in Chiang Mai

Probably my favorite restaurant that we have eaten at so far is Heuan Phen in Chiang Mai. This place has more atmosphere than any other restaurant that we have been to. There was nice wooden furniture and wooden antiques and plants all around. Their specialty is northern Thai food which is served with sticky rice which is meant to be dipped into a dish's sauce. We had been anxious to try banana flower so we ordered a pork and and banana flower soup and also a grilled eggplant salad. The pork broth was simple but delicious and was more bland than other Thai soups that we have tried. We dipped balls of sticky rice, served in straw boxes to keep from drying out, into it.


The salad was also excellent with small pieces of grilled green eggplant. As we were eating, we noticed another list of appetizers on our table and spotted fried, stuffed bamboo shoots. They were greasy and hot but great too. Each of the three shoots were filled with pork and covered in like flakes of breading.


After all of that we were too stuffed to think about trying dessert.

Another Chiang Mai specialty is a bowl of noodles called Khao Sawy. Although it is a well-known dish, we had a hard time finding a place that actually served it. Our search was worth it and we finally found them near Chiang Mai's mosque as it is originally a Thai Muslim dish. The noodles are similar to baa mii (egg noodles) but thick and chewy and come served in a rich curry broth. They are served with crispy fried noodles on top and with lime, raw sliced shallots, and pickled cabbage on the side. Khao Sawy commonly contains chicken or pork and ours came with chicken. The broth turned out to be much sweeter than I expected so I added lots of lime, but it was very flavorful without the addition and the noodles were a great texture.


Also in Chiang Mai, we had a variation on Sukothai style noodles which we had missed out on while in Sukothai. They are served with all sorts of delicious sides including green beans, pickled cabbage, pork rinds, coriander, peanuts, green onions, and chilis. I liked these even better than Khao Sawy partly because the woman who served them to us was very friendly.

Okay, while I am on the topic I might as well tell you about one of my favorite types of noodles, baa-mii, even though they are not specific to the north. As much as I love rice noodles, these fresh thin egg noodles are wonderful in soup. What makes them even better is that they are often served with small dumplings made with a similar egg wrapper. These dumplings contain just a small circle of meat with the wrapper folded up around it. They also come with pieces of morning glory and what is called red pork in Thailand but what I would call cha-siu. These thin pork slices are tender and flavorful. The broth is slightly sweet and fragrant. We had these noodles for the first time in Sukothai when we went out of a late-night snack. Although we had already eaten noodles twice that day, we couldn't pass up this vendor whose tables were packed with happy customers.

I hope this catches you up on northern foods for a while.

Roti

This popular dessert deserved its own short entry. Roti vendors are usually seen after dark near night markets and bazaars. Tourists seem to all like them, so they are also common in other touristy areas. Oh, we've also noticed that Muslims seem to have a corner on the roti market. OK, on to the juicy (and buttery) details!

Most people that have eaten at an Indian restaurant know roti as a whole wheat, pan fried, flat bread. In Thailand, roti is not nearly as healthy. I've outlined the process of making the most "standard" type of roti below. We may post a video later.

Step 1: The vendor puts some oil in the very flat wok used to cook the roti.

Step 2: He grabs a ball of dough that has been soaking in oil and makes the dough into a very thin pancake with some fancy flicks of the wrist. He then trows this on the wok.

Step 3: A banana gets sliced up and mixed up with an egg. Then this filling gets poured on top of the sizzling pancake.


Step 4: He folds up the pancake into a square packet and flips it to cook on the other side. At this point about a Tbsp of yellow butter gets thrown in the wok.


Step 5: Once the roti is cooked it gets cut into squares and topped with sugar and sweetened condensed milk, and sometimes even chocolate.


Step 6: Eat!


Oil, butter, egg, sugar, and condensed milk! This snack is not to be eaten alone unless you plan for it to be a meal. Lyndsay and I are usually finished off for the night after sharing one.

Noodles

One of the foods Lyndsay and I were most excited about in Thailand was noodles, or Khuaytiaw, in Thai. Our first bowl of noodles was at Bangkok's Chatachuk market. The type of noodles we had are commonly called "boat noodles" because they used to be served from boats when the canal systems were a more commonly used mode of transportation.


Noodle places offer a choice of noodles, usually sen yai (wide fresh rice noodles), sen lek (medium sized rice noodles), or sen mii (angel-hair sized rice noodles). We chose sen yai, but later realized they would have been best with sen lek. The broth is slightly sweet and tastes like it is seasoned with star anise and maybe cinnamon or cloves. It also features a hearty dose of pork blood (which I have fallen in love with), making the broth a deep reddish brown. The portions at this place were small but the pork, meatballs, and morning glory in it were all good and the broth was amazing.

Our second bowl of noodles was on Katie's soi (a small side street in Thailand).


Lyndsay and I both chose sen lek this time. These noodles had meatballs and rare beef (briefly swished in boiling broth to cook it). The broth had some pork blood, but these were no boat noodles. Most noodle places offer four condiments: phrik pod (powdered chili), nam plaa (fish sauce), sugar, and sliced chilies in vinegar. I added some sugar, fish sauce, and chili to mine.

Bowl number three was in Phetchaburi.



I got mine with sen mii and sweet marinated pork and Lyndsay got sen lek with a whole chicken thigh. The meat was very good because it was pre-cooked and marinated, but the broth was much more bland than other places. They served us cups of weak iced tea though! While we were eating a guy came to our table with what I soon recognized as a cut open cocoa pod. He offered us some and then came back later with a whole one and gave it to me! There will be more on the cocoa pod in the train post. Back to noodles.

The next bowl of noodles was in Hua Hin and was my favorite so far. Unfortunately we learned a hard lesson and forgot our camera, so no pictures of this bowl. In case you are so inspired by my description that you want to attempt to find the same noodle stand, it was the first one on the right side of Th. Dechaunuchit as you are going toward the beach in the last block of the street. This bowl featured fried fish cakes (mmm from Eric), fried tofu (mmm from Lyndsay), meatballs, and chicken. Tiny dried shrimp and fried shallots were sprinkled on top. They had very generous portions for only 25 Baht a bowl. Our only criticism was that the sen lek was a little undercooked, but it could have been because we were her first customers of the day and the water was not yet at its hottest.

We then made our way up north to Phitsanulok and had some noodles there for breakfast. This bowl looked like it would be best with sen yai, so we ordered and sat down.


She brought us fat noodles with fish pieces, especially delicious fish balls, some weird crunchy/chewy curly sea-creature-like thing, morning glory, and a mystery vegetable. It came with small bowls of a vinegary chili sauce which we dipped our fish pieces in. I thought the broth was a bit bland so I added sugar, fish sauce, and some of the dipping sauce. Lyndsay just stuck with the phrik pod. This was a pretty good bowl of noodles overall.


That's all for now! Sluuuuurp!