NAM PRIK NUM
A dip made from young chilies
(prik num), roasted on the grill and
pounded into a paste.SAI OUA
A pork sausage with herby,
spicy and salty lavours that’s
sometimes fried but is best when
charcoal-grilled.LAAB KHUA
A ‘salad’ of stir-fried pork mixed
with spices and fresh herbs.GAENG HUNG LAY
A Northern Thai pork belly curry,
slowly stewed with fresh herbs
and spices.THUA NAO KHAEP
Fermented soya bean paste,
lattened into discs and dried.
Used to add depth of lavour, as
well as an umami hit.Five food finds
Thai Airways lies from London to Chiang Rai from
£501, including taxes. Double rooms at Phu Chaisai
Mountain Resort start from around £70, B&B.
thaiairways.com phu-chaisai.commassive pile of crispy-fried garlic that looks
almost as if it’s been tempura battered, set
on pieces of deboned ish. Joining it is laab
dip (laab meaning ‘lucky’ and dip meaning
‘raw’), it’s a salad of raw pork mixed with a
spice and chilli blend. It’s a feature of every
celebration table.
We also try naem (also known as jin som)
— pork and rice sausage that’s been
fermented and has a sour, funky taste. All
over the table, there are piles of herbs: we
pick out feathery cha-om leaves, varieties of
coriander and tamarind leaves, but such is
the quantity that there are some even Kay
doesn’t recognise. Our guide, Mak, tells
us this is a common experience, even for
locals: “There’s always a leaf on the plate we
just don’t know,” he says.
Further up the mountain from Phu
Chaisai lives a local man who probably
never has such a problem. See Mork let to
become a teacher in Bangkok but returned
to the wild to teach visitors about wild
plants and herbs and their uses both as
medicine and as culinary ingredients.
Ater a rough assessment of our height and
weight, he matches each of us up with one of
his Thai ponies and, ater a short time riding
round a little circle in his yard, leads us out
to trek in the mountains.
The sturdy little beasts are used to the
inclines. But me? Not so much. There’s a lot
of giggling and a little bit of fear as we trotinto the wild. “I love to teach people how
special it is up here,” he says. “I learned
about the plants and lowers when I was
10 years old from the older people around
me. In the city markets, you never know if
they’re using chemicals or not, but up here
there are none. We should all know more
about nature and its beauty and bounty.”
Around a large, rough-hewn table in his
wooden house, See Mork pours glasses of
lao khao, a white moonshine made from
fermented sticky rice that’s drunk with
alacrity all across the north. See Mork’s
brew is light, mild and sweetened with
honey. With it we eat a clear broth made
with chicken, carrots, potatoes, radish and
coriander, all from the garden; battered
aubergines; and nam prik kapi, made with
fermented shrimp paste and chillies.
See Mork urges us to drink more
irewater — it’s good for our health,
he says, and our digestion. “This one is
a very special lao khao,” he says, before
producing a bottle crammed with his
special herbs. “Just ill it with alcohol when
you get home. Let it sit a while,” he advises.
“It’ll be your elixir of life — and your taste
of Northern Thailand.”IMAGES: LOUISE HAGGER; GETTYFROM LEFT: Nam prik
num; Thai broth54 nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel
EAT