Just off the Mae Ping River lies a bunch small and large guest houses that rent out for anywhere from 20 – 100 a night. Huang House is a very unique guest house with a lot of little old things that you’d love to buy, but are not for sale, including a lot of old pictures of the owners family. They also make a nice little lunch:

Thai Omelette

Seafood with See Ew noodles

Pad See Ew Noodles

Thai Fried Rice

Shallots

The owner cooking our lunch

Earlier I posted about a lunch I had at Huen Phen. A week or so later, I returned with some friends for dinner, which is served in a classier dining area around the back of the lunch restaurant. The dining area is rustic and comfortable and perfect for the evening when the bugs come out. Here is a sampling of a few things that we had:

Northern Thai Green Curry

Stir Fried Morning Glory

A different northern thai green curry

Thai Omelette

I must start out by saying that I did not like the food in this restaurant. While I think the food is mainly westernized versions of thai food, the atmosphere was really nice. There is an outside dining area on the lower level of the grounds and then an upstairs dining area, separate from the main dining area that is really beautiful. The staff here were lovely and the owner’s daughter, a cute young thai girl who spoke perfect english (she was educated in an American high school), showed me around the place.

The Whole Earth has both a vegetarian and meat-based menu – I imagine that the vegetarian menu was better. The food looked wonderful and it didn’t taste bad, it was just western, and i don’t come half way around the world to have western food.

Close to Thapae Gate in the walled city is a little family owned thai restaurant that has a really cute covered patio area. They serve very basic and really fast thai dishes but they are pretty good. But lets me honest, most of Chiang Mai restaurants are family owned and operated and every one has its own unique twist on thai dishes made from their families own recipes. That is what I find so special about discovering food – some of it is not so good, but most of it is a treasure and you won’t be disappointed.

Fried Morning Glory a wonderfully flavored weed that grows around the world, but banned in the US because, well its a weed and they don’t think they can control it – but its damn good food!

Green vegetables with pork

The owner of Thai Thai and her daughter.

During my stay at The Chedi, I had an opportunity to meet the Executive Chef, Blair Mathieson. He prepared four dishes for me to photograph in the dining area of The Chedi.

Tasmanian salmon, beetroot cured, pickled seaweed, cucumber jelly, wasabi

Gai yang, chargrilled spring chicken, garlic-lemongrass, green mango salad,
sticky rice

Tartare, black angus beef, capers, chili, onion, quail egg, potato crisps

Miang som o goong, betel leaf, pomelo salad, prawns, coconut