Thailand: The Food (Chiang Mai)
This post will be the start of a series on my time in Thailand, focusing not so much on chronology but various themes of our 3 week in the Northern part of the country, including Chiang Mai, and the Northwest mountain areas. I’m currently in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, enjoying some cooler weather (think 90 degrees vs. 98–101. Its a big difference).
The first thing that struck me about Thailand was the food. I know I’m not the first person to realize Thailand has some of the best cuisine in the world. But it also struck me because the food in Vietnam was pretty bland. Pho gets a lot of praise, but I always found it to be a pretty underwhelming noodle soup. On the other hand, I fell in love with many Thai dishes.
Before I came, the only dish I learned about was Pad Thai. My very first meal in Chiang Mai was at the aptly named “The Pad Thai Spot”, and for 35 Baht ($1.20 USD), it was incredible: the savory combination of noodles, fish sauce, Thai Pepper Spice, Peanuts, Bean Sprouts, Tofu, and Lime was (and always will be) a winner.
But I soon learned from a local expat (and former frisbee teammate), that Pad Thai was much more popular outside of Thailand than inside. When I met up with Brandon and his girlfriend for dinner one evening, they took us to a wonderful Thai restaurant and introduced us to some proper Thai delights. We had sun-dried pork dipped in chili sauce, Chicken Coconut Soup (with heavy doses of lemongrass), squid dumplings stuffed with pork and covered with a sort of gravy, a fish in lemon sauce, and another noodle dish that is escaping me. All were just unfamiliar enough to be exciting and novel, while tasty enough to leave us asking for second helpings of multiple dishes.
Another fun dish, native to Northern Thailand, is Khao Soi. Khao Soi is another noodle soup, though in a red coconut broth. But it’s spicy. We were both in tears when we first tried it, and after many minutes of unsuccessfully cooling our mouths down, we had to accept defeat. (Thankfully, we tried it again in Mae Hong Son, and it was less spicy. We realized what a good and nourishing dish it was).
Masman curry was another one of my favorites. It was in a rich creamy yet spicy broth, and inside were chicken, potatoes, lemongrass, and other scrumptious bits. It is now my favorite curry soup, blowing red and green curries away.
The dish I kept coming back to was Basil Chicken. I have been working on building my spicy tolerance for several years now, and I found the perfect adversary. Sure, there’s (unspicy) basil, but also mixed with a devilish hot red pepper and other yummy spices. I left each establishment equal parts teary eyed and satisfied. I also gained an appreciation for rice, as it was no longer empty calories, but a valuable tool to dilute the hotness and absorb the other wonderful flavors in a given dish.
