Places to Eat in Chiang Khan
Whatever are your preferences, chances are that you’ll spend most of your days walking up and down Chai Khong Road, and any time you’ll feel tired of constant browsing shops there are a lot of places happy to offer you a tasty meal.
Street food in Chiang Khan is one of the best in Thailand with so many choices any time of the day and such a huge variety of dishes which you’ll hardly find anywhere else in the country. This diversity makes the process of choosing what to eat a real fun – unknown to a western eye specialties abound and trying to guess what is on sale approaching one seller after another is much more entertaining than sitting in a restaurant with a comfortable English menu.
Prices are slightly higher than anywhere else in Thailand but still extremely affordable for a western tourist; expect to pay between THB30 and THB80 for the majority of the dishes sold on the street.
Breakfast
Unless you have breakfast included in your hotel rate we strongly recommend you to skip the usual bacon and eggs and start your day culinary journey the way the Thais do. At the very beginning of Soi 0, a few different places will offer you khao lam, a bamboo tube stuffed with sticky rice drenched in coconut milk and grilled on a charcoal fire. Take one stick and continue your morning stroll – this is an ideal snack to eat on the way. Be careful if it comes directly from the fire and give it a bit of time to cool down.
A sweeter version of khao lam and easier to eat is khao nieow in banana leaves with taro added to sticky rice and coconut milk.
If you need your caffeine dose to kick-start your day, coffee shops are ubiquitous. They pour out good coffees and cappuccinos accompanied by traditional sweets and cakes. Toffee Coffee on soi 14 with a beautiful terrace right on the river is out favourite.
Noodles
When lunch time comes there’s nothing better than noodles in Chiang Khan; this is not going to be your regular noodle soup with a couple of pork meatballs that you can find at any bus station in Thailand. The first option is called dong daeng, and it can be found in many shops along Chai Khong Road – even if the owner of Chi Kum Man Tong claims to be the first and only creator of the dish. The noodles are a variation of the famous khanom jeen, but a lot thicker and shorter; once they’re boiled, they are mixed in a mortar with garlic, peanuts, fish sauce, tomatoes and local veggies; the mix of flavours that comes out in the end is incredible.
Another noodle option is jum nua –your best bet for that is a small place named after this noodle dish on Soi 10. Pork, fermented tofu, morning glory and several secret spices are added to noodles of your choice to create a delicious soup with a slightly weird pink colour coming from fermented tofu.
Dinner
When the sun is about to go down, a lot more street vendors show up and the choices for dinner are endless. For the more adventurous palates naem moo is raw pork rolled into a banana leaf. The pork is left to ferment for 24 hours with spices and chili to give it a distinctive sour flavour and kill the bacteria that otherwise would make it dangerous to eat.
Another meaty option is naem khao tod. For this dish rice balls are deep fried before being mixed with some pork, chili and herbs are added to create a tasty salad.
Local prawn skewers are a must to try; don’t be fooled by the small size and give it a try; they are delicious.
If you prefer a comfortable dinner in one of the river front restaurant don’t miss the Mekong freshwater fish which is served everywhere and will be cooked at your choice; pair it with a som tam salad (papaya salad). A whole fish will come at around THB250.
