Chiang Mai is the largest city in Northern Thailand and there are plenty of restaurants you must try while you’re visiting. Northern Thailand has become famous for some of the dishes it offers and Chiang Mai is the right place to start exploring the region's foods. Ready to discover the local food of Chiang Mai?
The region’s food is influenced by neighboring Myanmar, Laos, and China. The dishes are recognizably Thai, but slightly different than the Thai food you may know and be used to.
The cooler, seasonal weather of the north also plays a role in the ingredients. Northern Thai food can be less spicy than Southern Thai food. It also uses more local herbs and vegetables that are practically unknown in the southern reaches of the country.
However, people all over Thailand, as well as overseas visitors, have fallen in love with the flavors of Northern Thailand. We’ll tell you what you simply must eat during your visit to Chiang Mai. These five dishes will instantly make you a fan of Northern Thai food.
These five dishes have become famous throughout Thailand for their unique and delicious flavors, colors and textures.
This is perhaps the most famous dish of Northern Thailand, known and loved by everyone who tries it. Several popular restaurants in Chiang Mai, around the old town section of the city, specialize in preparing only Khao Soi. It’s believed to be an adaptation of a dish eaten by traveling Chinese Muslim traders.
Khao Soi is a cross between a soup and an aromatic stew. A chicken leg or chicken pieces are generally the protein, and other ingredients include boiled egg noodles, crispy, deep-fried egg noodles, chopped shallots, pickled mustard greens, and lime. The broth is an addicting curry-flavored coconut milk combination with ground chilies.
Sai ua is a grilled pork sausage from northern Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar. The dish consists of coarse minced pork meat, herbs, spices, and red curry paste. You’ll see coils of sai ua on the carts and stalls of Chiang Mai’s street vendors all over town. It’s usually prepared by grilling, then sliced and served with sticky rice and other dishes. It has an intense earthy flavor. It’s also a popular bar food, where it’s accompanied by beer.
Nam prik ong is a popular dish in Chiang Mai restaurants. It's often accompanied by sticky rice and fresh, crispy vegetables like Chinese cabbage, green beans, and cucumbers.
The dish is made with cooked ground pork, tomato, shrimp paste, and chili paste. The chili paste is a combination of dried chili, garlic, lemongrass, salt, and water pounded in a mortar. It is traditionally eaten by scooping up a portion of nam prik ong with a fingerful of sticky rice.
Gaeng Hang Lay is a rich and intense Northern Thai pork curry traditionally eaten with long-grained rice, not sticky rice, unlike most of the region's other dishes. The dish originates from Myanmar and may have been brought to Thailand by the neighboring Shan people of Myanmar.
The dish features a sauce made of lemongrass, galangal, shallots, shrimp paste, garlic, dried chilies and salt, which are pounded together in a mortar. The traditional protein is pork belly. The pork is marinated in the sauce and seasoned with a traditional spice mix of several ingredients along with fish sauce and black soy sauce, then simmered with ginger, garlic, shallots, peanuts, and santol fruit.
The last dish on our list is actually a Northern Thai dining experience offered at Horizon Village & Resort. A variety of dishes are served on a short-pedestaled round tray called a khan tok tray, which lifts the dishes above the floor and serves as a table. The guests traditionally sit on the floor. The communal meal is often served while classical dances entertain the diners.
The foods served are often finger-type foods that the guests eat with their hands while gathered around the serving tray. These dishes include sticky rice, Northern Thai sausage, boiled and fresh vegetables, lap, fried fish, and other foods that can easily be eaten with the hands.
Set out on a culinary adventure to discover the incredible variety of foods in Northern Thailand and Chiang Mai. When you book a stay at Horizon Village & Resort, you’ll enjoy a choice of three restaurants within our resort’s Tweechol Botanical Garden grounds to choose from. Our Chiang Mai Thai restaurants specialize in preparing the best-loved dishes of the region while also offering international breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Book your stay today.
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