Pad Thai. Green Curry. Drunken Noodles. Most of what we know of as Thai food in the West comes from Bangkok and further south. Northern Thai is very different. There’s more emphasis and sour and aromatic flavors from lemongrass, kaffir lime and fish sauce. Add in a language barrier and this can make eating in the Northern capital of Chiang Mai a confusing experience for first timers.
Wanting to take in all the delights of the north in a short period of time I booked the Chiang Mai Northern Food Tour with A Chef’s Tour. We got to try around 17 items at markets and restaurants around the city that few tourists visit. If you want to eat like a local in Chiang Mai but don’t know where to begin, this tour is for you.
Our first stop was Chiang Mai’s most well known vendor – the Cowboy Hat Lady at North Gate Night Market. As mentioned in my Chiang Mai Street Food Guide this market is very tourist friendly and you can and should go on your own. But you won’t get all the background on this famous lady if you do. We learned the stewed pork leg is not inherently Thai, but Chinese (which explains the five spice flavor). The cowboy hat lady herself is also Chinese and moved to Chiang Mai with her husband to hawk her wares. And she’s been pretty successful at it. Turns out she serves up a whopping 400 kilos of pork and 1,000 duck eggs every night of the week. When you bite into the tender, perfectly seasoned swine, you will immediately see why.
Next up our truck tuck us to Thanin market. This place is a true local gem offering both grocery items and ready-to-eat Thai delights. Here having a guide was invaluable. There’s very little English spoken and no chance you could guess what some of the crazy items are on your own. Next to the buffalo brains and skin (bet you’ve never seen that before!) I noticed a plastic bag filled with an unappetizing looking brownish liquid. “What’s that!?” I asked the guide. Her response: “buffalo shit juice.” I thought I misheard but she took the time to confirm it. Yes, every part of the animal is truly used in Thailand.
Here are a few more appetizing delights from our stroll:
Seeing all this delicious food was all well and good but after 30 minutes of walking around I was ready to eat again. But as always be careful what you wish for because the next stop was insect alley. Grasshoppers, crickets and meal worms are all considered snacks here. In the name of food research I felt inclined to give both a try.
The first rule everyone gives you about eating an insect is to not thinking about what you’re about to put in your mouth. Personally I find this about as helpful as when the nurse tells you to look away before sticking a needle in your arm. Whether it’s the prick on your skin or tiny feet landing on your tongue, the feeling of it will never let you forget about what’s going on. So my advice is to take a deep breath, relax and try to keep your gag reflex in check. It’s not like they’re going to draw blood anyway.
The cricket is actually close to enjoyable. It’s like a potato chip – crunchy and salty. Which is basically how they’re eaten here anyway. But unlike with Lays, I betcha can eat just one.
The meal worm is another story. There’s a little crunch from the deep frying but that quickly fades away. What you’re left with is, well, mealy. At least the name makes sense because you definitely won’t want to make a full meal out of these suckers.
After a few more fried snacks along the way we wound up at the absolute highlight of Thanin Market: the Sai Oua lady. Sai Oua is Northern Thai style pork sausage and what separates it from the sausage you eat back home are the herbs and spices inside. Lemongrass, kaffir lime, galangal and chili paste combine to give it that perfect Thai taste.
For dessert we grabbed some classic sticky rice boiled with coconut milk and stuffed into a husk. That was followed up by Khanom Buang which looks like a Thai taco but is actually a pancake filled with coconut cream meringue and topped with preserved egg yolks. I couldn’t try them due to my egg allergy, but the response from the rest of the group was very positive.
Unlike most meals, dessert was nowhere near the end of this tour. We hopped back into the truck and set off for a faraway place that we were assured is still in Chiang Mai but felt more like a small village. In actuality we had entered a neighborhood of primarily Shan migrants. The Shan are an ethnic group from just over the border in Myanmar who have been forced to flee to Thailand due to persecution. Our next stop was a Shan restaurant.
Here we ate the Nam Prik we picked up at Thanin market along with a whole host of salads. The flavors were more on the sour and fermented side. A very cool experience and it was great to help out people forced to flee their homes.
After the meal it was back on the truck to another local market called Warorot. This is the largest market in Chiang Mai which draws tourists and locals alike. We were immediately whisked through the hordes of hawkers to one of the markets most famous residents: The Noodle Soup Lady.
I wish I was less full from the other stops when we arrived. We tried a red pork blood soup. Do not let the word blood scare you away. Mixed into a soup it has nowhere near the strong taste of something like blood sausage. Instead it thickens the broth and make it a little tangier. It’s delicious and I recommend you try it at least once while in Thailand.
To walk off the last of the savory courses we took a stroll through the desserts. Our guide had us try mung bean cake, coconut cakes and sticky rice coconut pudding. To be honest, Thai desserts are a little sugary for my taste and I preferred the fresh mangosteen we picked up from the fruit vendors. But I guess they are a good way to cool the mouth and belly after a night of fiery Thai food.
At this point I was about to burst one of my two good pairs of shorts for the trip. I figured our lumber along the the scenic banks of the Ping River would mark the tour’s end. But no. A final dessert awaited. We jumped into the truck one final time to a hopping shop with colorful wall art and hipster serves that looks built for instagram.
The concept is like a Chipotle of a Thai sweets. The guy behind the counter grabs a bowl and you pick among a bunch of fruits, jelly noodles, rice flour balls you want to add. I won’t pretend I could name even half of them. They mostly seem to be more texture than taste anyway. It’s then all topped with a refreshing glug of coconut milk. Now cooled down and on a sugar high, I quickly flagged down the nearest tuk tuk to take me back to the hostel to crash.
