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Saturday, November 24, 2007

The Joys of Travel: Food Markets, part 3 (the food - the good stuff!)

As I've been raving about the pleasures of food markets and our recent rovings around Thailand's markets, I thought I should actually show you some of the fabulous food offerings from Thanin Market (also known as Siriwattana Market) in Chiang Mai, our favourite. The best time to go is for breakfast when it's at its buzziest.

Try: Chiang Mai's famous spicy pork sausage and crunchy pork crackling with sticky rice, a popular local breakfast. (The pork crackling pictured here is famous all over Thailand).

Don't miss: Kanom Krok - deliciously sweet, little coconut puddings, topped with spring onions or corn.

Take away: delicious deep fried snacks - banana, sweet potato and pumpkin are on offer most days but there are daily specials such as fried banana blossom with sesame, oil and chili! Yum! or 'Aroi' (delicious)! as they say in Thailand.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This market in Chiang Mai is absolutely one of the best in all of Asia. Bags full of toads for sale, next to those tongue-searing kanom krok puddings, next to the enormous pork cracklin' fry vats, and a hundred varieties of rice you never knew existed. Fantastic place.

Lara Dunston said...

Completely agree with you! You know I was never a fan of Pork Crackling until we tried the Chiang Mai crackling - YUM! We loved the tiny markets in small towns too - not as impressive as Thanin (love Thanin's scale, variety, and array of fresh food, as well as all the delicious hot meals) - but the small towns are where you often find the most surprising things - the ones still jumping in the little plastic ready-to-it lunch bags!

Would love to know what your top 5 food markets in Asia are?

Lara Dunston said...

That should have been 'ready-to-eat'!

Alexander Santillanes said...

Mmm, kanon krok- I'm glad to finally know what those are called! I love them- though I'm never patient enough to let them cool off. I just burnt my mouth eating one too early last week! -X

Lara Dunston said...

Ooohh Xander, I think we're all the same! My memories of the last ones I ate were the sweetness, the slithery feeling as they slid down my throat, the savouriness of the spring onion, but most of all the pain from the heat - I just couldn't wait!! - and I think Sloan says above that his experience of them is 'Tongue-searing'! Perhaps the pleasure is in the pain as well!

Anonymous said...

Let them cool down and have them with some local coffee. Don't spoil your tastebuds in the market! You'll miss out on the sensational salty taste of the pork cracking, the amazing flavour of the Chiang Mai pork sausage and the glutenous texture of the sticky rice...I could on forever...