Cuisines of Chiang Mai

Hello my beloved friends! It is me, Kate, back with another issue! If you don’t know me, I am a Junior Environmental Studies major. My favorite color is orange, my favorite vegetable family is the nightshades (Solanaceae), and I am a member of the Greenhouse! This Fall, I am studying abroad in Chiang Mai, Thailand. What an astonishing experience this has been so far. Everything about Chiang Mai is wonderfully beautiful, from the people to the music and especially, the food. Almost everything I have tried has complex flavor profiles, tasty yet confusing textures, and is simply the absolute bomb.com. Through my coursework, I am learning about the “9 Medicinal Flavors of Thailand.” To have a complete meal, the food must consist of a combination of three of these following flavors: astringent, spicy, bitter, salty, creamy/ oily, sweet, sour, nauseating, fragrant and cooling.

Sometimes the flavor “bland” can be implemented as well! All these flavors are combined in funky and innovative ways to create insane flavor profiles! So, here are some of my favorite flavorful dishes I’ve had:

Som Tom

This cooling (and my favorite) dish is made up of green papaya, chiles, long beans, garlic, peanuts, an array of sauces and seasonings that are too many to list, as well as add-ons such as fruit or shrimp. My signature order is Som Tom with Mango and one chili! This creates a fragrant and cooling, sweet, and spicy flavor combination in my soul.

Khao Soi
An iconic dish from Northern Thailand, Kheo Soi marries the concept of sweet and spicy. With coconut curry broth, Khao Soi consists of egg noodles, chicken or beef, deep fried crispy noodles and a side of shallots and pickled cabbage. Did someone say complex? Did someone say mouth-watering? I think Khao Soi did!

Butterfly Pea Flower Tea

Have you ever seen a drink that looks magical? If you haven’t, or even if you have, check out Butterfly Pea Flower Tea. A stunningly majestic purple drink that will refresh your being and have you feeling mellowed out. Pungently sweet in flavor and aroma, with an aftertaste of bitterness and sourness. Who would’ve thought boiling flower petals would make something like that?

Fried Banana Blossom

It’s a dish I never knew I needed but can’t live without now. Imagine a banana. Now imagine the banana before it was born. It was a banana flower! Now, pick the imaginary banana flower, cut and dice into tiny pieces, season…intensely, and deep fry! It is a bit more complicated than that, but you get the gist. This dish is oily, salty, spicy, and just the right amount of sweet. Again, flowers can do crazy things!

If you’d like to learn about this food and more, have questions about our food systems in the North Country, or studying abroad in Thailand, reach out to me at: klbouc22@stlawu.edu.