This week we end our tour of Thailand by going to Northern Thailand, famous for its sour, bitter and tasty cuisine. Our restaurant this week is Lanna Thai, which specialises in cuisine mainly from the northern provinces.
Since the north of Thailand was home to the country’s first city-states, it became an early commercial and cultural hub for Yunnan, Myanmar and Laos. All of these cultures left their mark. As in both Laos and northeastern Thailand, sticky rice is preferred – eaten with the hands.
Northerners like their food with a bitter edge and a sharp tang – not sharing the sweet tooth of central Thais. Acacia leaf, sawtooth coriander, and eggplants for example, all appear in kaeng khae soup, while tamarind juice and pickled bamboo provide a mouth-watering sourness to dishes like kaeng ho. Also, many dishes include vegetables that can’t be grown further south. Uniquely northern is sai ua; a tangy fried sausage of pork, lime peel, lemongrass, shallots, garlic and chilies stuffed into pork intestine.
Kaemg hangleh, a richly spiced Burmese curry made without coconut milk is very popular at weddings and funerals, though available at anytime.
The influences of Yunnan, Myanmar and the Shan combined to create the country’s best noodles: khao sawy – flat egg noodles in a thin but delicious chicken curry with pickled cabbage and one of the region’s famous chili sauces on the side.
The best way to sample a variety of northern Thai dishes is the traditional kahn toke style dinner, where diners sit on the floor around a low and serve themselves from several dishes. This unique experience usually includes traditional entertainment.
http://www.circleofasia.com/Northern-Thai-Cuisine-Thailand.htm
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