Field Notes by Rene

I really enjoyed the food scene in Chiang Mai. It is bursting with diverse and delicious flavours, it is rich, fresh, spicy…. Well, here’s a summary of (almost) everything we ate in Chiang Mai.

1. Perfect Pick-me-up breakfast

What’s a perfect meal after a 12-hour long, cold train ride? Fluffy soft, steamy bao buns!

Our first meal upon arrival was at Wikunpanich Salapo, a Chinese confectionery bakery. We ordered custard bao, pork bao (something like sang yuk bao) and siu mai. The bao pastry may be a little coarse with air pores but look at that generous portion of filling! The pork filling was very well seasoned but the size of the siu mai was a little too big and I didn’t quite enjoy it.

2. Flame throwing local specialty

I’ve always thought that I have a decent level of spice tolerance – never had issues in Bangkok and Pattaya. But in Chiang Mai, it’s not your ordinary let-me-blow-my-nose kind of spicy… Let’s just say Northern Thai food really brings out the Charizard in you. Khao Soi in particular, got me spitting fire.

Khao soi is a coconut curry noodle soup commonly consumed in Northern Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos. It consists of noodles in a thick, rich coconut broth, and usually chicken or beef. 

We went to the Khao Soi specialty stall at Thongkham Market. It’s a popular stall among locals and they proudly have five Bib Gourmands stickers displayed on their stall.

I’m not  100% sure if the stickers are legit cause it was December 2023 when I went there and they had 2024 sticker on their stall hmmm… (but I could be wrong)

The curry tasted great but it was a painful experience to finish it. I literally went from “Nah, I don’t need water,” to Googling “has anyone injured their tongue from too much spice?”  

And the heat doesn’t stop there. We tried another Chiang Mai specialty – nam prik noom (Thai roasted chilli dip), which hands down, was THE spiciest dish I’ve ever had in my entire life. No shit (but maybe full of shit the next day).

It was so bad I had to ask if they serve milk – which they did not and I contemplated ordering a cheesecake to take some heat off. (Jarp, my travel companion very kindly stopped me from ordering it cuzzz who orders blueberry cheesecake at an old school looking Thai restaurant?)

Nam prik noom aside, the sun dried fish dish served at the same restaurant, (Huen Muan Jait), also a Bib Gormander for several years, was one of the best fried fish I’ve ever had. SO flavourful and love love love the texture! 

3. It’s Brunch Time

Chiang Mai is paradise for cafe hoppers. They have a strong coffee culture that promotes locally grown coffee beans. And they also happen to have pretty damn good produce which makes great ingredients for cafe food. 

The best meal I had in Chiang Mai was at The Larder Cafe & Bar. I can’t remember exactly what we ordered but the prosciutto strawberry fig salad with burrata, drizzled with balsamic reduction (something along this line) was the best damn thing I had in 2023!!

On top of that, my hummus sandwich was also a banger. It’s difficult to make good hummus and it’s also difficult to find good hummus in restaurants. Too grainy, tastes too ‘raw’, not acidic enough…. The one at Larder was perfect and goes perefectly well with bread. I will definitely revisit and order this dish again and again. 

4. Oh My Bloatedness!

If I ever open some sort of eatery, I would love it to be like Papa Curry – an unassuming Izakaya-style Japanese curry house in a quiet neighbourhood that makes you feel like you’ve pulled up in someone’s driveway. 

There are no dining tables, but rather an “n” style bench seating with the host in the middle, taking and serving orders. In other words – pretty limited seats and will have to wait quite a bit during peak hours.

I can’t remember when was the last time I had Japanese curry but I was reminded why I stayed away from curry for such a long time. Don’t get me wrong, the flavours of the curry was actually very well balanced. I love the fruity hints (likely from apples) in the gravy and that’s exactly how I make my curry.

It is the deep fried goodness that turned us into puffer fish – the kind of bloat that made me asked Siri “Hey Siri, can bloating cause difficulties in breathing?”

It might work better for me if they served it with fresh salad instead of deep fried vegetable fritters but other patrons seemed to enjoy it, especially the group of aunties who were having whiskey with their curry.

I had to down so many cups of green tea to ‘undo’ the grease and unbutton my pants for the rest of the day.

5. Slow Food at it’s best 

I love tofu, I love ferments, so when Jarp said we’re checking out Aeeen, a neo-Japanese plant based restaurant, I’m all in! I had a quick chat in Japanese with the owner’s son and he very proudly told me that their tofu is homemade. 

Unfortunately we arrived at the restaurant a little too late and they’ve run out of their Saturday special. But I still managed to try the tempeh hamburg (which tasted so good) and some sort of tofu apple cake which I find the texture a bit hmm…..

Nonetheless, I will definitely head back to try their signature tofu dishes next time! They serve pretty good tea too!

6. Mixed feelings – The Food Trust

Two years ago, I attended a cooking workshop at Bo.lan and immediately became a fan of Chef Bo. So when in Chiang Mai, naturally I would like to check out The Food Trust which is a sister project of Bo.Lan.

I came in with high expectations but unfortunately there were more misses than hits. The moo koji (grilled marinated pork belly with koji rice) was good but everything else was a bit of a let down. The pasta was undercooked – literally sticking to my teeth when I chewed, the texture of the preserved tofu arancini didn’t quite work for me and the drinks sound a lot more fancy on paper. 

A special mention was the watermelon seed salad. It was a little too spicy for my liking but got me thinking – can we make pesto out of watermelon seeds?

I just did a quick search on Google and it seems that The Food Trust Chiangmai is now permanently closed. 

7. Comforting breakfast staple

My favourite Thai breakfast dishes ever – regardless if its Pattaya, Phuket or Chiangmai are Kao Tom (congee) and pa tong ko (fried dough / Chinese churros). I love it when the fried dough is crunchy and also soft – a texture achieved by dipping the pak tong koo into the congee…which people tend to give me the stares whenever I do it.

8. More energy, more passion, more foodwork – PARI

Stumbled upon this young, up and rising restaurant while trying to look for a fancier place for dinner. The food was alright but for some reason we left the place with quite a bit of sentiment, so much that it deserves an entire blog post dedicated to it. 

Till then, eat well!