Chiang Mai Street Food Crawl: Exploring Northern Thai Cuisine and Local Delights

Culinary Exploration in Chiang Mai

• 🍜 The journey begins in Chiang Mai, exploring local cuisine distinct from Bangkok's offerings, with a focus on northern Thai food.
• 🤝 A local Thai friend, Gang, guides the exploration to authentic and recommended eateries.

Northern Thai Homestyle Cuisine

• 🍲 The first stop features homestyle northern cuisine at Hun Manchai, a Michelin-recommended spot.
• 🌶️ Dishes include a northern chili paste with pork, hunglay curry (a yellow northern curry), and a fried cracker pork with a secret chili paste.
• 🍄 A notable dish is the steamed mushroom dish, highlighting northern cuisine's use of mushrooms due to its proximity to foresty regions and influences from Myanmar and Yunan.
• 🐷 Other dishes sampled include crispy pork with a bright chili sauce and a savory curry with a pig's blood cube.

Khao Soi and Local Flavors

• 🍜 A visit to Khao Soi Messai, a Michelin Guide-rated spot, showcases the iconic Khao Soi noodle dish, priced affordably at under $2.
• 🌿 Accompaniments like preserved vegetables, shallots, and lime enhance the fresh and nutty flavor of the Khao Soi.

Unique Chiang Mai Experiences

• 🍵 The exploration extends to a popular Japanese matcha house, Mago Tea House, featuring unique desserts like yuzu sorbet and Greek yogurt.
• ☕ A stop at Patan Alley Baristro Coffee Roaster offers a peanut butter latte by the river, highlighting Chiang Mai's blend of chill vibes and quality establishments.
• 🍜 Suki Chongpa is featured for its famous stir-fry dishes, including beef, chicken, eggs, cabbage, and glass noodles, praised for good macros and flavor.
• 🍡 Small, sweet pork balls called 'nukimu' are also sampled.
• 🍰 A dessert from Swang Boyoy, a stand since 1979, includes pandan tapioca with coconut shavings and salted egg yolk, offering a sweet and salty profile.

Markets and Modern Chiang Mai

• 🛍️ The Bang Kangwat marketplace showcases local artists and handcrafted goods, featuring a refreshing, fermented Japanese-style enzyme juice made from banana and coconut sugar.
• 🍞 A viral bakery, London CNX, is visited for its AOP butter bun and squid ink bun, noted for their fluffy texture and melt-in-your-mouth quality.
• 🦗 At the Yan Walking Street market, various street foods are available, including insects like crickets and silkworms, alongside more common dishes like fried rice and pad thai.
• 🥚 An interesting find is a 'real Thai girl' egg dish, where the egg is removed, marinated, and reinserted into the shell before cooking, resulting in a steamed omelette-like texture.
• 🐟 The trip concludes with a visit to a highly-rated seafood restaurant, Ma Day, which imports fresh seafood, featuring dishes like sardine jerky, shrimp and marine plum salad, stir-fried squid, and grilled kingfish.
• 🚚 A ride on a red truck (songthaew), a common mode of transport, is experienced before departure.