12 dishes to try before you leave Mae Hong Son
Ranked by how distinctive they are — the dishes that capture this border town's northern-Shan flavours.
The dish that tells you instantly you're in the north — egg noodles in a coconut-curry broth, rich and fragrant with spices, with chicken or beef, topped with crispy fried noodles and served with pickled greens, shallots and lime to season yourself. The balance leans sweet then savoury. In Mae Hong Son the khao soi is often milder and carries a faint Shan-Burmese note. You'll find it at restaurants in town for breakfast and lunch alike — it's the first dish to try when you arrive. Order it with chicken or beef and add the pickled greens to cut the richness.
A Shan dish that became a town staple — rice noodles under a nam ngiao broth, an orange-red soup that gets its flavour from small tomatoes and dried silk-cotton flowers, with pork ribs or a cube of pork blood. It's lightly sour, fragrant with spices and thua nao (fermented soybean), eaten with fresh vegetables, bean sprouts and pork crackling, plus roasted dried chilli to taste. It's a breakfast and lunch dish at the morning market and Shan restaurants in town. It's not very spicy and children manage it, and if you want to try true Shan flavour, this is a good place to start.
The town's Shan roots mean food you rarely find elsewhere — thua nao, fermented soybean dried into discs or ground into dishes in place of shrimp paste, with a distinctive aroma; soy tofu, fried or steamed and eaten with a dip; nam prik ong, tomato and minced pork cooked down into a relish; Shan noodles in a mild clear broth; and steamed meats and Shan curries, gently flavoured. This group is low in oil and leans on fermented ingredients. You'll find it at Shan restaurants and the morning market in town — order several dishes to share with sticky rice for the full range.
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A curry with Burmese influence that northerners serve at merit-making feasts — pork belly braised in a thick curry with hang le powder (a Burmese-style spice mix), ginger, pickled garlic and tamarind until it turns deep, sweet and sour. The pork falls apart easily and it isn't spicy, eaten with hot sticky rice. You'll find it at northern restaurants and market stalls in town. The flavour is rounded and easy to like — one plate with sticky rice is a meal, or order it to share with relish and steamed vegetables for a full spread.
One of Mae Hong Son's defining images — at Ban Jabo, a Lahu hill village near Pang Mapha, a noodle shop lets you sit on a cliff-edge ledge with your legs dangling, eating hot noodles while you look out over a sea of mist and the ranges below, a view people call "a million-baht view." The noodles are a plain clear-broth or tom-yam bowl; the setting and the view are the point. Come on a cool-season morning when the mist sits thick. It's out of town on the Pang Mapha–Sop Pong road, reached by car or motorbike up winding roads — go early before the crowd and allow time.
Ban Rak Thai is a Yunnanese-Chinese village by a lake near the border, so the food is Yunnanese and hard to find elsewhere — mantou buns, steamed or fried, with condensed milk or pork leg; Yunnan pork leg braised until meltingly tender; black-chicken stew with Chinese herbs in a clay pot; pork belly stir-fried with Yunnan seasonings; and shiitake or mountain vegetables in season. The village is known for tea grown on the surrounding hills, and sipping hot oolong by the lake in the mist is a fine way to pass an hour. Many places are family-run in mud-brick or timber houses; come on a cool-season morning for the best mist.
A northern spread isn't complete without relish — nam prik num, roasted young green chillies pounded with garlic, mild and smoky; nam prik ta daeng, a darker roasted-dried-chilli relish with more heat; and nam prik ong, tomato cooked down with minced pork, leaning sweet. They're eaten with sticky rice, pork crackling and steamed vegetables (pumpkin, long beans, eggplant). Roll a ball of sticky rice, dip it in the relish, and chase it with vegetables and crackling. It's a filling local meal and a taste of true northern flavour, found at northern restaurants and rice-and-curry shops in town. Adjust the heat as you eat.
The best breakfast in Mae Hong Son is in the morning market in the centre, open from before light — the full spread of local breakfast: khanom jin nam ngiao, sticky rice with steamed and fried bites, grilled thua nao, pa thong ko (fried dough) and warm soy milk, plus Shan food like steamed meats and local sweets. You can browse and graze, savoury and sweet, one thing at a time, at local prices. It's the single best place to see town life and taste true Shan flavour in one spot. Come early morning to mid-morning while everything's still out and fresh — bring cash and wander as you graze.
Mae Hong Son has a family of northern-Shan sweets and snacks to try — khao ram fuen, a Yunnanese snack of set bean-starch jelly cut up and eaten with a sour-spicy dressing; ah-la-wa, a Burmese-style sweet of glutinous rice flour and coconut milk baked until fragrant; Shan sweets such as steamed sticky rice with sesame and cane sugar; and fried bean crackers (thua pae yi). Many you can buy at the morning market and sweet shops in town, and they make good edible souvenirs. Buy a few kinds and taste them side by side with a hot tea or coffee.
The cool mountain air lets Mae Hong Son grow good tea and coffee — at Ban Rak Thai, oolong tea grows on the slopes around the village, and sipping hot oolong by the lake in the mist has a Yunnanese feel. Up other hills in the province there's cool-climate arabica coffee, grown and roasted locally. Small cafés in town and up in the hills serve hill coffee with a mountain view, good for a mid-day break or an early start with a warm cup. If you like edible souvenirs, you can buy tea leaves and coffee beans at Ban Rak Thai and shops in town.
A Shan dish you rarely find outside Mae Hong Son — khao kan jin (sometimes called khao ngiao) is rice mixed with pork blood and seasonings, then wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed until fragrant, served with fried garlic, fried chilli and spring onion. It's rounded and banana-leaf-fragrant, not spicy, and eaten warm as a breakfast or snack. Jin som, a northern-style soured pork eaten with ginger and fresh chilli, is in the same family. This group reflects the town's Shan way of eating well — find it at the morning market and Shan restaurants. Try a parcel with a hot tea in the morning for true local flavour.
After dark the walking street and night market in town around Nong Jong Kham become the evening's food — rows of stalls doing grilled pork, chicken, meatball skewers, fried snacks, khao soi and single-plate northern dishes, plus sweets and warm drinks for the cool air. Prices are easy, starting at a few tens of baht per skewer or plate. It's the place for a graze after a day out in town, busiest in the cool season (Nov–Feb) when visitors come. Some of it runs only at weekends, so check the day before you go, and bring a jacket — the evening chill comes on fast.