What to eat in Chiang Mai
11 dishes, from khao soi to market food

This is what Chiang Mai is known for. Egg noodles sit in a golden coconut-curry broth fragrant with curry paste and a hint of mild curry powder, carrying echoes of Burma and Yunnan. The noodles in the bowl are soft, then a tangle of crisp fried noodles goes on top for a second texture, with slow-cooked chicken or beef. The local way to eat it: squeeze in lime, add the pickled mustard greens and sliced shallots, stir it through and eat it hot — sour, salty, rich and fragrant, all in one bowl. It's easy to love and wins almost everyone over.

If khao soi is the main event, sai ua is the sausage no Chiang Mai kitchen is without. Minced pork is packed with curry paste and herbs — lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf, chili paste, turmeric — then coiled into a ring and grilled over charcoal until the skin tightens and just chars at the edges. The first bite is all fragrant herb and juicy pork, nicely salty and gently spicy. Eat it on its own or with sticky rice. You'll find it across Chiang Mai's markets — buy it hot off the grill, when it's at its most fragrant.

Nam prik num is the heart of a northern Thai spread. Long green chilies are roasted until soft and smoky, then pounded with garlic, shallot and salt into a smooth green dip with a gentle heat and a lovely charred aroma. You eat it with kaeb moo (crisp pork rinds) and steamed vegetables — long beans, pumpkin, eggplant — scooping it all up with sticky rice for a simple meal that's quietly addictive. This is the everyday home flavour of Chiang Mai, the kind of thing locals eat all the time. The heat is moderate and varies by shop.

A curry that came in from Burma and became fully Lanna. Big pieces of pork belly and fatty pork are simmered in a thick sauce with hung lay curry paste, shredded ginger, pickled garlic and tamarind until the flavour turns sweet, sour and savoury all at once. The pork goes meltingly tender, the heat is low, and the whole thing smells warm with spice. It's a dish northerners cook for merit-making and celebrations, eaten with steamed rice or sticky rice. Another one that's easy for just about everyone.

A regional noodle dish you'll find easily at morning markets. Fermented rice noodles (khanom jeen) are doused in a red-orange broth simmered from tomatoes, chili paste and pork bones, with dried cotton-tree flowers (which give it a distinctive taste and colour), little tomatoes, and soft cubes of pork blood. The flavour is tangy, mildly spicy and well rounded, eaten with a side plate of fresh greens, bean sprouts, cabbage and lime. To be honest, the traditional recipe leans on the pork blood — you can ask the shop to leave it out — but with an open mind it's a hearty, genuinely northern flavour.

The one-plate meal Chiang Mai eats all day. Pork leg is braised in a five-spice gravy until the meat falls apart and the skin turns to soft jelly, then spooned over hot rice and ladled with the fragrant gravy. It comes with sour pickled greens, blanched kale, a braised egg, and a sharp chili-vinegar that cuts the richness. The most famous version is the Chang Phueak Gate stall locals call "the lady in the cowboy hat," who sells from evening into the night with a queue almost every day. An easy, filling, cheap meal — a Chiang Mai late-night staple.

Northern food is eaten mainly with sticky rice, not the steamed jasmine rice of central Thailand. Glutinous rice is steamed in a clay pot or a woven bamboo basket until it's fragrant and tender, then pinched into a ball by hand and dipped into nam prik num, scooped through nam prik ong, or eaten alongside sai ua and pork rinds. Half the fun of a northern meal is rolling little balls of sticky rice and dipping them into the various dishes on the tray. Eat one meal this way and you'll instantly understand how the north eats — the basket of sticky rice is the warm, casual centre of any Lanna spread.

Northern larb is nothing like the Isan version — no toasted rice powder or fish sauce dressing here. Instead it's built on phrik larb, a blend of dozens of roasted, ground spices tossed through minced pork or beef for a deep, complex, warmly spiced flavour that's savoury rather than sour. It's eaten with fresh herbs, mint and pork rinds. There's a cooked version (larb khua, stir-fried) and a raw version for locals. To be honest, some traditional recipes mix in offal — if you're not used to that, the cooked pork larb khua is the easier pick. It's one of the best windows into true Lanna flavour.

Two home-style dishes you'll meet often on a northern tray. Gaeng khanun is young jackfruit, cut into pieces and simmered with pork ribs, tomato and northern curry paste into a mild, rounded curry fragrant with holy basil — northerners consider it an auspicious dish, since the word "khanun" sounds like "support." Nam prik ong is a relish of minced pork and tomatoes cooked down to a glossy orange, mildly sweet-sour-savoury, a bit like a northern take on Bolognese, eaten with fresh vegetables and sticky rice. Both are easy on the heat — fine for kids, satisfying for adults — and a gentle way into northern food.

The Thai dessert visitors fall for, easy to find across Chiang Mai. Sticky rice is steeped in sweetened coconut milk until soft and rich, set beside slices of ripe mango (the fragrant nam dok mai or ok rong varieties), drizzled with thick coconut cream and scattered with a few toasted mung beans. Each bite balances warm sticky rice, cool sweet mango and salty-rich coconut. It's at its best in the hot season (March–May), when mangoes are everywhere and at their sweetest. Look for it in markets, on the Walking Streets and at dessert shops around town — a finish to a meal you shouldn't skip.

Chiang Mai isn't only about food — it's Thailand's real coffee city. Arabica beans are grown on the northern highlands like Doi Chang, Doi Saket and Doi Pu Muen, then roasted and brewed in independent cafés all over town, above all in the Nimmanhaemin area, which is full of specialty coffee shops, skilled baristas and pretty latte art. The names that come up again and again are Ristr8to (home to a world latte-art champion), Graph Café, and Akha Ama Coffee, which sources its beans from an Akha hill-tribe community. Sitting with a cup of Doi coffee in a Chiang Mai café is something not to miss, around ฿60–120 a cup.