The time-honoured recipes of Thailand’s northernmost state draw
on the natural bounty of its mountains and the ancient traditions of its
indigenous peoples. Words: Audrey GillanCHIANG RAI
Eat
R
at-tail radish, Chinese onions, hooker
chives, bitter aubergines and handfuls
of prik num (mild and fruity banana
chil lies). Ater gathering these ingredients
— all staples in Thailand’s mountainous
north — Kay Plunkett-Hogge picks up piles
of fresh herbs and brushes them against my
face like a green, feathery fan. The fragrance
of each is so bright they’re almost singing.
We’re in Mae Chan market in Chiang Rai
province, and as she shops, Kay chats to
the stallholders, leaving almost each one
agog when they irst hear her — a farang, or
foreigner — speak in perfect Thai. “I have the
face of a foreigner and the heart of a Thai,”
she laughs. “As soon as I get back here, I
think in Thai, and then I dream in Thai.”
Kay was born in Bangkok, in the south, but
fell in love with this part of country when,
aged seven, she visited with her father and
tasted khao soi, the region’s heady curried
noodle soup — a dish that’s crowned with a
nest of crisp-fried noodles.‘It’s a place that I love and I spend a lot
of time far up in the mountains of the
Golden Triangle among the cofee and tea
plantations, scudding clouds and green,
green forest,’ Kay writes in her book, Baan:
Recipes and Stories From My Thai Home.
And now I’ve come beneath the clouds
with her to learn about the regional cuisine
— one that’s more rustic than elsewhere
in Thailand, in part because of its remote
location, terroir, cool climate, and the
diversity of its population. More than 30
ethnic groups can be found in Chiang
Rai — which shares borders with Laos and
Myanmar (Burma) — all of which bring
diferent cooking inluences to the table.
I soon discover that there’s little coconut
milk, ish sauce or sugar in dishes. Nor are
things very spicy.
This is a meat-exalting part of the world
— with pork being king — but one in which
more than 40 indigenous herbs help to cut
through the fat on the palate and in the gut. IMAGES: YINDEE; GETTY50 nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel