Northern Thai Cuisine (Lanna) Archives

Northern Thai-style bitter buffalo laap (ลาบจิ้นควายขม; laap jin khwaai khohm)

Bitter buffalo laap with bile, cow’s gastric juice, and fresh blood. Buffalo meat is lean and often described as sweet.

khanohm jeen naam ngiaao (ขนมจีนน้ำเงี้ยว)

Khanohm Jeen Naam Ngiaao - Shan-Style Tomato Broth over Fermented Rice Noodles with Pork, Chicken Feet and Chicken Blood Cakes (ขนมจีนน้ำเงี้ยว)

Northern Thai-style fish laap with crispy aromatics (ลาบหมี่ปลา; laap mee plaa)

Northern Thai-style laap of chicken (ลาบไก่เมือง ; laap gai muang)

In the village environment, free-range chicken laap is made from a whole bird butchered and cooked on the spot. All the parts of the chicken are used, with nothing wasted or discarded. First, the meat is minced. Gradually, the still-warm chicken blood is added until the meat is saturated and becomes gooey and moist.

Naam Yaa Neuua – Northern Style Naam Ya according to Lady Plean Passakornrawong (น้ำยาเหนือ)

This fermented rice noodle dish is served with a slow-cooked, chili-less broth made from pounded fish meat and aromatics cooked in coconut cream. Creamy in color and velvety in texture, the broth is seasoned either with fish sauce, fermented fish or salted fish according to one’s preferences. The broth is allowed to slow-cook, achieving its full richness over a couple of hours. Once ready, the broth is poured over the noodles, which are then topped with a glossy-orangey layer of minced shrimp meat fried with their tomalley in pork lard. Complementing this richness are crunchy yellowish bean sprouts blanched in turmeric-tinted water, a sprinkle of sweet, golden crispy-fried shallots and, finally, green lemon basil leaves that endow the dish with a unique, rustic herbal persona.

Northern Thai-style roasted pork laap (ลาบหมูคั่ว ; laap muu khuaa)

This laap dish offers a slightly different way to use the phrik laap seasoning mix. It is added to an aromatic paste made from roasted chilies, galangal, roasted shallots, and roasted garlic. The paste is enriched with coriander seeds, makwen and laap spices mix, which introduces the desired smoke and umami intensifying elements to the dish.

Northern Style Hang Lay Curry (gaaeng hang laeh muu ; แกงฮังเลหมู)

This recipe comes all the way from India through the northern Burmese border. The masala spice mix is still sold in small packages with retro looking prints that seem to forever exist. There is no way in a recipe to communicate what's going on in here; a thick red chili paste marinate, that bursts in orange turmeric color, provides the perfect seen to the tender, almost falling apart, pork meat.

Thai Northern Style Pork and Tomato Chili Relish (naam phrik aawng ; naam prik ong ; น้ำพริกอ่อง)

A dish, like a smell or a color can be so evocative in their place or time. This dish always flys me back to the food stalls of Chiang Mai with its vivid color and tartly savor. In this fast moving world, it is good sometime to pause for a moment, and to have a dish that emphasis relaxation, and allows you to enjoy a feast of textures and colors, because it is never eaten alone. It is served with a rich plate of accompanying vegetables pleasantly arranged, and with a group of good friends; all sharing the centrally placed bowl of the shiny red relish.

Laap of Catfish, Chicken, or Beef (ลาบปลาดุกหรือไก่หรือเนื้อวัว; laap bplaa dook reuu gai reuu neuua wuaa)

Laap bplaa dook, minced catfish, chicken, or beef with fire-roasted aromatics, hot pla ra, and toasted rice powder. Tamra Khraawp Lo:hk, 1929.

Northern laap seasoning mix (น้ำพริกลาบ ; naam phrik laap)

Cooking with blood - How to prepare fresh blood วิธีเตรียมเลือดสดสำหรับการทำอาหาร

While the general assumption is that cooking with blood is associated with regional and rustic cuisine, in fact, animal blood was part of the aristocracy’s diet as well

Northern Thai-style sour curry with free-range chicken, tomatoes and soap pod leaves (gaaeng sohm meuuang sai gai baan ; แกงส้มเมืองใส่ไก่บ้าน)

Khao Soi Recipe, Northern Style Curried Noodle Soup with Chicken
(khaao saawy gai ; สูตรทำข้าวซอยไก่)

This dish (Khao Soi Recipe) takes us back in time to the mid-19th century. The trade caravans were trailing the jungles of northern Thailand along the ancient routes between India and China. Those long caravans were carrying wealth of exotic goods, leaving rich aroma of spices and the sweet scent of opium as they passed. The men on this long line of between fifty and one hundred mules would be Yunnanese Muslim Chinese, who dominated the trade routes and began to settle in Chiang Mai and the main towns of north Thailand at that time.

Chiang Mai-Style Chicken Gaaeng Garee (แกงเผ็ดกะหรี่เชียงใหม่ ; gaaeng phet garee chiang mai)

I discovered this unusual curry recipe hidden in a 1970 memorial book for Ms. Bootree Gralaksa. Born in Bangkok in 1898, Ms. Bootree spent her entire life, from childhood on, in a wooden house on Maha Chak Road (Pra Nakorn). One could say that she was born to be a great cook; just fourteen years old when her mother died, Ms. Bootree became the sole caregiver for her four siblings, a duty that she performed with a love and attention that endowed her with remarkable cooking skills. Her memorial book showcases now-forgotten dishes that were popular in the Bangkok of the early 1900s, such as Beautiful Curry (แกงหงษา ; Gaaeng Hohng Saa), and also includes some of her one-of-a-kind culinary creations – such as this dish, which she dubbed “Chiang Mai-Style Spicy Curry”.

Making Fermented Thai Pork Sausage (แหนมหมู ; naem moo)

Naem is a fermented sausage made with pork, pork skins, cooked sticky rice (glutinous), fresh garlic, salt, sugar and bird’s eye chilies. The sausage is wrapped in banana leaves or synthetic casings, and fermented for 3-5 days at about 30 degrees (C) and 50% humidity. The fermentation process enables the growth of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts, mostly lactobacilli, which accounts for the sourness of the sausage. The salt acts as an inhibitor - preventing the meat from going rotten, allowing the lactic acid bacteria and yeasts to feed on the rice and sugar, and fermenting the meat to perfection.

Miang Sot (เมี่ยงซด) - Miiang Soht, circa 1928

The word ‘miang’ is often used to designate Thai hors d’oeuvre-like snacks consisting of various ingredients wrapped in leaves. To chew on a miang parcel delivers a delightful melee of flavors and textures, each triumphing over the other in a continuous transformation, creating a captivating and ever-evolving taste experience throughout the bite. Miang sot is a fermented leaves dish that appeared in a cookbook published in honor of Thao Suphatigaanapakdee (also known as Prik Sirisamphan) (ท้าวสุภัติการภักดี (ปริก ศิริสัมพันธ์)), in 1928. Titled Gap Khaao Thai (กับข้าวไทย), the book features a collection of recipes that were once prepared and served to King Chulalongkorn Rama V. The author, Sohmboon Sirisamphan (เถ้าแก่ สมบุญ ศิริสัมพันธ์) a respected elder (known as thao gaae (เถ้าแก่) in Thai), was a distinguished businessman of Chinese origins. The dish is composed of fermented tea leaves; it is perhaps the closest tea leaves wrap to the ‘miang’ style introduced to the Siamese court by Princess Dara Rasami in the late 1800s. The dish gives us a glimpse of flavor of what her household, which participated in the informal marketplace events within the palace, might have to offer. The popularity of miang in Siamese cuisine is tied to the history of two kingdoms, Siam and Lanna, and the life of one princess, Princess Dara Rasami. The daughter of King Inthawichayanon of Chiang Mai and the fifth consort of King Chulalongkorn, the princess was selected at the age of thirteen, in 1886, to serve as a consort to King Chulalongkorn in the Inner Palace; the decision was shaped by both political strategy and personal transition. At the time, Siam was consolidating its power and extending its influence over neighboring regions, including Lanna. As the ruler of Chiang Mai, Princess Dara Rasami’s father, Intawichayanon, viewed the move as a strategic alliance. In return, King Chulalongkorn presented him with the medal of the Order of Chula Chom Klao, which is the Siamese equivalent of a knighthood.

Rustic & Spicy Laotian Fish Soup with Grilled Eggplants, Oyster Mushrooms and Herbs (ต้มแจ่วปลา ; dtom jeaw pla)

Dtom Jeaw Pla is a rustic and spicy fish soup that is far from being unsophisticated. There is something humble, genuine, and unpretentious about it, which makes you fall in love with it. Its humble countryside charm and surfeit of tastes quickly placed it high on my personal list of favorite dishes. The fresh essence of fish cooked to perfection melds with the earthy tones of the grilled ingredients, the eggplants, shallots, chilies and garlic. It has a heavenly silky broth with a scent of lemongrass, which is generously lifted up by a handful of fresh herbs, lemon basil, saw coriander and spring onions.

35 Medicinal plants to serve with laap, and why! – phak gap laap (ผักกับลาบ)

Saa Bpia - Akha-style grilled pork laap in banana leaves (ส่าเปี๊ยะ ลาบอย่างชาวอาข่า)

Saa Bpia -Akha-style grilled pork laap in banana leaves (ส่าเปี๊ยะ ลาบอย่างชาวอาข่า)

How to prepare makwen-infused fish sauce (มะแขว่นดองน้ำปลา)

A fish sauce infused with palate-numbing makwen is great for seasoning those dishes that draw their seasoning from phrik laap.

Shan-Style Asian Pennywort Salad (ผักหนอกโก้; Phak Naawk Goh)

This Shan-style salad exemplifies both technical and compositional simplicity. The salad is prepared using a vigorous hand-squeezing technique, known as go:h (โก้) in the Shan language. This blending method, which bruises the ingredients and releases their aromatic moisture, is often used to pair the sharp taste of medicinal fresh herbs – which can carry an immediate bitterness and a certain level of astringency – with earthiness and tartness.

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