What to Eat in Chiang Rai
12 northern Thai, Tai Yai & Yunnanese dishes

The flagship of northern Thai food — egg noodles in a yellow coconut curry broth fragrant with dried-chilli curry paste, turmeric and a touch of curry powder, ladled over soft noodles and crowned with a tangle of crispy fried noodles. It's usually khao soi gai (with a tender braised chicken leg) or beef. The way to eat it is to squeeze in lime and add the pickled mustard greens, sliced shallots and chilli oil that come on the side, to taste. Locals eat it for lunch all the time, and several shops in town have been at it for decades.

Another dish at the heart of Chiang Rai — nam ngiao is a pork or beef broth made with dried red kapok flowers, cherry tomatoes and pork blood, seasoned with thua nao (a fermented northern soybean), giving it a gently sour, lightly spicy, savoury taste. It's ladled over khanom jeen (fermented rice noodles) and topped with bean sprouts, pickled greens and khaep mu (pork crackling), eaten with fried dried chilli and lime. It has Tai Yai (Shan) roots but has long become everyday northern food. Some of Chiang Rai's nam ngiao shops have been open for over 50 years.

The northern sausage you'll want to take home as a souvenir — minced pork mixed with red curry paste, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf, chilli and turmeric, stuffed into casing and grilled slowly over charcoal until fragrant and taut. Sliced and eaten with sticky rice, cucumber and fresh vegetables, it's punchy and herb-forward, rich but never greasy. You'll find it everywhere from the morning markets to the Night Bazaar food court and roadside stalls. If you like it spicy, choose a stall grilling it fresh — that's where the aroma is best.

A northern spread you can't skip — nam phrik num is made from young green chillies roasted over a flame with garlic and shallots, pounded with salt and a little fish sauce into a thick, smoky, gently spicy dip that isn't harsh. It's eaten with steamed and fresh vegetables and khaep mu (crisp pork crackling) that's light and crunchy to scoop with. It's a simple dish that sits on every northern table, usually ordered alongside sai ua and gaeng hang lay to round out the spread.

The curry of northern merit-making feasts and banquets — pork belly simmered with hang lay spice mix (a Burmese-style blend), ginger, pickled garlic and tamarind water, cooked low and slow until the pork is meltingly soft and the curry thickens into a rounded sweet-sour flavour. It isn't spicy, just fragrant with ginger and spice. The dish reflects the Burmese influence carried in along the old trade routes, and it's even better with hot sticky rice — another plate that marks Chiang Rai as a northern border cuisine.

Sitting next to Shan State, Chiang Rai has plenty of Tai Yai (Shan) food to try — khao soi noi, a steamed rice sheet a bit like a noodle roll served with thua nao sauce; khao sen (Shan rice noodles), soft noodles in a clear broth; and dishes built around thua nao (fermented soybean dried into discs) as the main seasoning, giving a distinctive savoury depth. Tai Yai food is milder than typical northern Thai, focused on clean broths and the aroma of thua nao. Look for it in the morning markets and small shops in town — ask for a "khao sen" or Shan noodle stall.

Head up to Doi Mae Salong (Santikhiri) and the food turns into genuine Yunnanese-Chinese cooking brought by the descendants of Chinese Nationalist soldiers. The signature is braised pork belly eaten with mantou — pork simmered with Chinese spices until soft and glazed in a dark sauce, paired with mantou (plain buns) that are steamed or fried, crisp outside and fluffy within, made for tearing and dipping. There's also slow-braised Yunnanese pork leg that falls off the bone. The names people mention most are Mae Salong Villa (a Shell Chuan Chim awardee), Im Pochana (ร้านอิ่มโภชนา) and Salima (halal Yunnanese). Up in the cool air it's lovely with the local oolong tea.

Another Yunnanese dish you'll find up at Mae Salong and in Chiang Rai's Yunnanese-Chinese pockets — Yunnan noodles come both stir-fried dry with pork and pickled mustard greens, and in a clear pork-bone broth topped with spring onion and coriander. The noodles are chewier than Thai ones, and the flavour is mountain-Chinese: savoury and lightly spiced rather than the sweet of Bangkok noodles. Some shops also make hand-pulled noodles and Yunnan dumplings. It's a light lunch that suits the cool mountain air.

Chiang Rai's far north meets the Mekong at Chiang Saen and the Golden Triangle, and the riverside restaurants here serve fresh freshwater fish from the river — including pla khang (a catfish), farmed pla buek (giant Mekong catfish, raised in ponds, not caught wild) and butter fish — done steamed with lime, deep-fried with chilli, or in tom yum. The flesh is firm and sweet thanks to the fast current. Eating by the river with Laos and Myanmar in view is an atmosphere the city can't match. It's an easy lunch stop when you're out at the Golden Triangle.

Dinner for travellers is most fun at the Night Bazaar, right by the old bus station (Bus Terminal 1), about a five-minute walk from the Clock Tower — there are two open-air food courts seating around 400 people under fairy lights, where you can pick khao soi, nam ngiao, sai ua, som tam, noodles, grills, roti and mango sticky rice through to sushi and Western dishes, ordering from several stalls to one table. While you eat there's Lanna folk dance and live music on a stage in the evening (around 7–7:30pm). Plates run roughly ฿50–120, and it's a dinner where you eat, watch and browse in one spot.

Northern sweets and nibbles have a charm of their own — khao taen, deep-fried sticky-rice discs drizzled with palm sugar; khanom jok (the northern steamed sweet) filled with coconut or bean and wrapped in banana leaf; khao nuk nga, steamed sticky rice tossed with black sesame pounded with salt, savoury and gently nutty; and khao khwop / khao khaep, crisp grilled rice crackers. You'll find them in the morning markets, the Saturday Walking Street (Thanalai Road) and the Sunday Walking Street (San Khong Noi Road) for a few baht each — good for snacking or taking home.

Chiang Rai is serious coffee country — it grows around 60% of Thailand's arabica, from Doi Chang, Doi Tung and Doi Pang Khon, crops that replaced opium under the Royal Project. Doi Chang beans are well known for their smooth, fragrant cup. Cafés in town and up the hills pour pour-over from local beans at around ฿60–120 a cup, while up at Mae Salong there's oolong and green tea grown on the high slopes, brewed fresh to taste at the plantations. If you like a slow café, try a riverside spot on the Kok River such as Chivit Thamma Da, about 1.5 km north of town, for a garden-by-the-water setting.