04Experiences

The table

From the wok to the table

Street food is part of walking the city, not a separate chapter. Pad thai is stir-fried rice noodles, usually with shrimp, peanuts, green onions, scrambled egg, sugar and bean sprouts. Tom yum is a family of hot and sour soups: tom for the boil, yam for the mix. There is a creamy version and a clear one, cooked with shrimp, pork, chicken or seafood. Massaman is a rich, mildly hot curry. The paste brings Persian, Indian and Malay spices together with local ingredients, often chicken, potato, onion and peanuts, with the body coming from coconut milk. Khao soi is a northern dish of wheat noodles, traditionally spread on cloth over boiling water, steamed, rolled and cut. You meet it often in Chiang Mai. Green curry comes from the centre of the country, and the name means sweet green. Mango with glutinous rice and coconut milk is served here and is also known across Southeast Asia and South Asia. Take one meal in a market and one in a small restaurant, and leave the hotel for a single sitting rather than the whole day.