Northern Thai Cooking

Northern food is the least sweet of Thailand's regional kitchens and the furthest from what most visitors expect. Sticky rice replaces steamed rice and is eaten with the fingers. Coconut milk barely appears. The flavour comes from dried spice, fermented soybean discs, bitterness and salt: khao soi, a curried egg-noodle soup under a nest of fried noodles, carrying an obvious Burmese and Yunnanese debt; gaeng hang lay, pork belly stewed with ginger, tamarind and turmeric; sai ua, a coarse herb sausage grilled over charcoal; and nam prik ong and nam prik num, chilli relishes eaten with raw vegetables and pork crackling. Khantoke meals serve several of these together on a low round tray.

What you actually see

• Khao soi - curried noodle soup under fried noodles, lime and pickled greens.
• Sai ua - the coarse herb sausage grilled over charcoal.
• Nam prik trays - chilli relishes with raw vegetables and crackling.
• Gaeng hang lay - pork belly stewed with ginger and tamarind.

When to go

Any month. Morning markets sell the sausage and the relishes to take away, which is how locals actually eat them; khao soi shops are lunchtime places and many close by mid-afternoon. Khantoke dinners are a set-piece format built for groups and worth one evening, not more. The cool season adds seasonal greens to the relish trays.

Honest expectations

Khantoke dinners come with dance shows and are priced for tour groups rather than for the food. Some northern dishes are served raw or barely cooked, including certain versions of larb, and those are not a sensible risk for visitors. The bitterness and the fermented soybean divide opinion sharply, and sticky rice eaten with the fingers takes practice.

Nearby

Warorot market and the weekend walking streets sell most of it under one roof.