If you’re someone who loves food as much as we do, I can almost guarantee you’ve tried Thai cuisine at least once in your life. In fact, Thai is one of the most popular cuisines around the world, with Pad Thai as it’s most iconic dish. Given all of this, you can bet we had incredibly high expectations for the food during this leg our trip. Chiang Mai did not disappoint. In fact, it blew our expectations out of the water.
Our first day in Chiang Mai we ate a small restaurant called Rustic & Blue, which was highly recommended by some friends. Anyone who has traveled through SE Asia can probably attest to the fact that finding a real American breakfast joint can be quite difficult. We walked an hour across and out of the old part of the city to find this little restaurant and get a hearty breakfast. Mind you this was an hour of walking through terrible heat (Chiang Mai is one of the hottest places we’ve been to so far), so by the time we got there we were starved, hot, faint, and just generally grumpy. Thankfully the food was amazing and completely revived us. I had poached eggs with beet hollandaise over avocado toast and Mike had a protein bowl (protein powder, chocolate, some seeds, banana and peanut butter—Mike’s kinda meal) and a serving of eggs. It was such a great change of pace and a really beautiful restaurant. We would highly recommend!
The classic scrambled eggs and bacon
Chocolate protein bowl
Poached eggs with beet hollandaise and a side salaf
Very few times in your life are you lucky enough to eat at an amazing establishment like David’s Kitchen. Mike found out about this place via Trip Advisor, where it’s rated by travelers as one of the top 20 restaurants in the world. Of course given our mutual love for food and good restaurants, we couldn’t resist. The minute we arrived at David’s Kitchen we knew it was going to be a special night. The building itself is spectacular- it’s this big modern beautifully decorated home with a very welcoming atmosphere. The minute we entered we were welcomed by several staff members and brought to our table, where a small sign that read “Welcome Hillary and Michael, enjoy your date night”. We immediately ordered a great bottle of Sancerre and settled in for an amazing night of food.
The meal started with an amuse bouche of their famous Japanese pumpkin soup with white truffles and croutons- it was an incredible sip of food. I ordered the Braised Beef cheek slow cooked in red wine with Paris Mash- it was unbelievably melt in your mouth tender and tasty. Mike had the grilled Australian grass fed strip loin, and loved every bite of it. For desert we both shared a Toffee pudding that absolutely blew us away. At the end of the night we were stuffed and grinning from ear to ear.
David’s kitchen is fine dining at it’s best. It was started by a couple a few years ago- the wife is their dessert chef, and the husband is one of the most interesting men we’ve ever met. Throughout the meal, David (the husband) walks from table to table talking to each guest. We spent a good 15 minutes talking to him about his life and how he ended up operating a fine dining restaurant in Chiang Mai. This man’s story is unreal. He grew up in England and traveled to Thailand frequently after being drawn to Buddhism early in life. Here he met a monk and they quickly became friends. One day he tells the monk that he’s unhappy with his life, and the next thing he knows he finds himself moving to Chiang Mai and becoming a monk in the jungles of Chiang Mai. He was a monk for 2 years before leaving to pursue other things…who in the world becomes a Buddhist monk just for the experience?! Anyway, after talking we told him I will be going to culinary school, so he took us into their kitchen and introduced us to their head chef! It was incredibly cool to get to see their kitchen in action and to meet the man behind the great food.
At the end of the night they brought me a rose as a thank you for spending our date night with them, and later received an email from David himself thanking us for gong to their restaurant and wishing us luck in our future endeavors. Talk about going above and beyond for excellent customer service! If you’re in Chiang Mai we would highly recommend splurging a bit for this experience.
Chiang Mai is most known for elephants, wats, and (surprisingly) cooking classes. These classes are actually one of the top 3 things to do in the city, so we obviously had to give it a try. It was hands down the best cooking class we’ve taken so far! The day started with a visit to a local market where our guide/chef, Jay, introduced us to the key ingredients in Thai cuisine. They then drove us about 30 minutes out of the city and into the countryside of Chiang Mai, where we found ourselves at the company’s training school and small farm.
A view of the market
We started off by picking a few ingredients and learning about how we would prepare each dish. Unlike the other cooking schools we’ve been to, this one let us cook and enjoy each dish before moving on to the next one. This meant the class itself was about 4 hours long- but it was 4 hours of amazing food and pure bliss. We learned how to make Thai spring rolls, Chicken coconut soup, a curry of our choice from scratch (Mike- red, Me- yellow), stir-fry chicken with cashew nuts, and lastly, mango sticky rice.
Green Curry and Chicken Cashew Nut Stir Fry
The amazing thing about this class was that each dish was very simple to prepare, but incredibly tasty. In fact, it was some of the best food we had in Thailand! My favorite was the chicken coconut soup and Mike really loved his stir-fry chicken cashew nut. At the end of the class we had a newfound appreciation for the simple complexity of Thai food. We will take these recipes with us and enjoy them for the rest of our lives!
Yes…we’re matching.
On our last night in Chiang Mai, we were lucky enough to get invited to dinner with my uncle Henry and his wife and grandson. We went to a cute little place by the river called The Antique House. It served really delicious local dishes that were bursting with flavor and spice. His wife, Noi, is a local and helped us order so that we wouldn’t miss out on some of her favorite dishes. It was a wonderful way to end our trip and finish eating our way through Chiang Mai!
Restaurant Summary:
1. David’s Kitchen- fine dining at its best
2. Rustic & Blue- amazing Western food if you need a taste of home
3. Thai Farm Cooking School- honestly a must if you’re in Chiang Mai
4. Antique House- great for local food and a cool vibe
Recipe of the day:
* Some of these ingredients can be hard to find- I would recommend going to your nearest Asian market and trying to find the dried version of many of the herbs. Make sure you soak your dried herbs in warm water for a few minutes to revive them and enhance the flavor before use!
Tom Kaa Gai- Chicken and Galangal Cocount Soup
Ingredients:
• 100 grams sliced chicken
• 1 cup coconut milk
• ½ cup water
• ¼ cup galangal
o Galangal is in the same family as ginger- so if you can’t find it you can substitute with traditional ginger you find in the grocery store. Make sure to add less as ginger has a stronger taste.
• 1 stalk of lemongrass (sliced into 1 inch long pieces)
o If you can’t find fresh lemongrass, I would suggest trying to find it in frozen or paste form, or substituting with lime juice to taste. Dried lemongrass doesn’t have the same flavor and work as well for cooking.
• ¼ cup sliced tomatoes
• ½ cup of sliced mushrooms- shitake or oyster work best
• 1-5 crushed bird’s eye chili peppers (1-2 is mild)
• 2-3 kaffir lime leaves
o Can be substituted with lime zest- add and taste as you go
• 1 stem chopped spring onion
• 1 stem coriander
• 2 tsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp fish sauce or soy sauce
• ½ tsp sugar
• 2 chopped shallots
• Pinch of salt
Preparation:
1. Make a broth by putting water in a saucepan and adding lemongrass, galangal, shallots, tomatoes and mushrooms and heating until boiling
2. Add coconut milk, chicken, and bird’s eye chili peppers
3. Season with fish/soy sauce, sugar, and salt
4. Stir thoroughly
5. Once chicken has cooked through (should turn white), add coriander, kaffir lime leaves, and spring onion
6. Finally add lime juice
7. Taste should be creamy, slightly salty, and sour