Story and photos by WAYNE JOHNSON
We love to travel for all kinds of different reasons, but one of the major delights of visiting another country is indulging our tastebuds by trying exotic food.
While it’s true that many major cities offer food from practically anywhere on Earth, nothing is as satisfying as eating the dishes in their original home — both for freshness and authenticity.
One place high on the list of any culinary traveller is northern Thailand’s, Chiang Mai, also referred to as The Rose of the North. As well as being a cultural and religious centre for the north, Chiang Mai is also the major hub for Lanna (the name of both the ancient region and people of the area) cuisine.
Thai satay Its signature dishes include Khao Soy (chicken cooked with noodles and coconut), Hung Lai (Burmese Pork curry) and many others. Of course, there are also the famous Thai staples such as Pad Thai, Tom Yum soup and green curry, if that is what you are after.
For novices or veteran foodies alike, the range and variety of dishes on offer in Chiang Mai can be quite bewildering, and outside of the main tourist places, the food can often be unfamiliar, too. Thai restaurants in your hometown often don’t have the freshest ingredients, or they will lessen the spiciness to suit local tastes, so tasting the authentic version can come as a shock.
One of the best ways to truly appreciate the intricacies and also the simplicity of Thai cooking, as well as a good way to impress your friends and family upon your return home, is to join one of the many cooking classes operating in Chiang Mai. A typical session will last one day, and each day will have a different set menu for you to prepare.
I signed up with Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School which runs courses from 10am to 4pm daily. However, I arrived at my appointed place around two hours early because the day begins with a tour of the traditional market to learn about the various ingredients used for Thai cooking.
Our excited and enthusiastic group was a mix of nationalities and ages, all united in their love of Thai food. Accompanied by our guide, Apple (yes, that is her real name), we marched into the traditional market. Here we were introduced to the various types of fruits, vegetables and spices commonly used in Thai cuisine, like the lemongrass and prik khii noo (a small, eye-watering chilli).
After the interesting tour, we purchased our ingredients for the day and made our way to our open-air kitchen.
Get authentic Thai dishes from a seller on the roadside. At the school we each received our own cooking station complete with shiny wok, chopping board and various utensils arranged alongside freshly purchased ingredients.
Grinning expectantly and feeling our stomachs rumble with anticipation, we stood mortar and pestle at the ready as Apple began the day by demonstrating how to grind spices to make Panaeng curry paste.
Luckily, if you do not possess biceps like Arnold Schwarznegger, which seems to be a prerequisite for creating a fine paste, they have some pre-made ones, which many of us grabbed eagerly. Shamefully, after 10 minutes of grinding, during which I thought my arm would drop off, I, too, took the easy way out. It did give me a newfound respect for all those slightly built Thai ladies who routinely create these fine curry pastes.
The day is divided into a morning and afternoon session, which gives you enough time to relax and take a break, and also enough time to eat all the food you created. This is essential when you consider that a typical day’s set-course consists of six items. On the course I chose, we learned to make: Panaeng Curry with Pork, Chiang Mai Curry with Chicken, Fried Fish with Chilli, Sweet and Sour Vegetables, Spicy Glass Noodle Salad and Black Sticky Rice Pudding.
That’s a lot of food, so it’s best to come on an empty stomach. Getting through a six-course meal is no mean feat, even (or should that be especially?) if the food is your own creation.
Unfortunately, beds are not provided for the much-needed post-lunch nap; instead, after suitably stuffing your face, you are summoned back to the wok to prepare the next round of delicacies.
The whole experience is fun, informative and highly recommended. However, if and when you get tired of creating your own dishes, know that Chiang Mai is full of great options to sample the best in Thai cuisine.
One of the great joys of walking around any Thai city, and Chiang Mai in particular, is the variety and quality of the street food. For a fraction of the prices you pay at a restaurant, you can enjoy some of the finest hawker food in Asia. Hygiene is also usually not a problem as Thai people tend to be meticulously clean in their habits and in food preparation, so a dose of Chiang Mai Belly is unusual to say the least.
Each stall usually specialises in one item, such as noodle soup, kebab, martabak, etc, and Thai people will travel long distances to frequent a stall with a good reputation. If, however, you are willing to be a little more adventurous, then how about a plate of fried insects?
Popular, with people from the eastern Isaan region of Thailand, these plates of fried locusts, boiled beetles and crispy maggots are not everyone’s ideal meal, but who knows, you may like such a thing.
If street food is not your thing, then an up-market dining option at an unbeatable romantic setting is the Riverside Restaurant. Situated right on the banks of the Mae Ping River, this place is understandably always busy at night and reservations should be made in advance.
The place is popular with locals and tourists and has musical entertainment as well as an impressive array of northern Thai dishes.
If you decide to take a break from stuffing your face, although this is not as easy as it sounds, then Chiang Mai has many other attractions to recommend it, from the temple which sits atop Doi Suthep mountain and is the holiest site in northern Thailand, to the favourite meeting spot of Thae Pae Gate, the aromatic flower market, to losing yourself for hours in the bustle of the night bazaar.
And in a further testament to Chiang Mai’s status as a food and shopping paradise, every Sunday the streets in the old town are closed to traffic and taken over by street vendors offering massages and selling everything from baby clothes to samurai swords, all the while accompanied by hundreds of different types of food for sale.
Further afield there are opportunities to go trekking and rafting in the mountainous jungle surrounding Chiang Mai, to visit the Elephant camp or to visit the leisure lake, where you can recline in a gazebo and eat fresh fish in between taking a cooling swim.
So what are you waiting for? Go on a crash diet for three months, and then go and indulge in some of the finest cuisines in the world in a city that lives for its food.
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