Chiang Mai is a great little tourist city, located in Northern Thailand, with much more comfortable weather than Bangkok. It’s a wonderful city where you can rent a motorbike for $7/day and visit waterfalls, or spend the day walking around the old city visiting wats. There were two highlights for us, food-wise: 1) Mingkwan Vegetarian Food has some of the most interesting food in all of Thailand. Each day they have a selection of about 15 entrees, including some of the best wontons I’ve ever had, and some great noodle and veggie dishes (hard to find in Thailand!).
2) Another highlight were the perfectly blended Green Tea Oreo Frappes we had from this man’s stand. It is located right near Fang guesthouse, and we went here everyday. There are many stands in and around Chiang Mai that are similar to this one, but no frappes lived up to the ones our friend made. He would carefully clean the container of Carnation (don’t think about it), boil the green tea, blend the ice with delicate pulsations, and then stop at the precise moment when he would add one oreo to the middle of the frappe and blend for a second longer. He took such care when he made the shakes, that we couldn’t help but love him. You might be thinking, just one oreo?!? But it was just perfect. We actually had a shake in Trang that was similar but made with three oreos, and it was horrible. But careful, once you try one of his, you’ll be hooked.
The funniest food we’ve had so far was this: (yes that is sundae in a hot dog bun, with sticky rice topping)
A great place to have Pad Thai is right under the Night Bazaar Pavilion, for 50baht.
The Chiang Mai night market is pretty uninteresting as far as night markets go, but in the food court is some good, cheap sushi for 5baht a piece, and some of the best Shrimp Shumai I’ve had.
A great coffee shop that has such good Iced Cappuccinos you’ll drink them in just one sip is located near Wat Chedi Luang.
A delicious Thai snack, and in my opinion there aren’t many, is Baked Coconut Balls. They’re available as street food, just about anywhere.
As usual, don’t forget to have fruit! My personal favorites are pineapple, mango, and watermelon as they are the freshest.