What makes a market in Thailand a northern Thai market?
Here's a hint: Oink!
Pork is enjoyed in much of Thailand, but nowhere as much as in the northern provinces. Stand in the middle of a food market in northern Thailand and toss a pebble. Chances are it will land at the feet of a vendor peddling something porcine.
Here, no part of the pig goes to waste. Not the head. Not the slabs of fat, destined to be melted in a hot pan or wok for a stir-fry.
Not the heart, liver, stomach, and assorted other innards which, along with skin, might end up in a northern-style laab, a chopped meat 'salad' spicy from chilies, black pepper, long pepper, and makhwem (a northern Thai variety of prickly ash) and heady with the scent of dry spices like coriander, cardamom, nutmeg, and cumin. Nor the blood, sold as a liquid to be mixed into laab (both laab dip - uncooked - and laab khua - cooked) or in the form of lightly set 'cakes', to be diced and added to kanom jeen nam ngiaow, skinny fermented rice noodles with a thin, lightly soured sauce/gravy of meat and tomatoes.
Northern Thailand's hills hide culinary treasures - like wild boar. Its gamey essence adds heft to curries and its skin, deep-fried, makes for a delightful snack.
It's hard to pass a day in the north without encountering pork rinds, wild or otherwise. They're eaten on their own, used to scoop dips, added to curries, crumbled atop noodles. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that they are essential to the (non-Muslim) northern Thai diet.
Pork balls - for noodle soup, mostly - are a fixture of just about any Thai market, but here it's not unusual to encounter a vendor offering up to ten varieties.
There are, of course, sausages: sai oua (smoked sausage seasoned with curry paste), sai krawp priaow (sour sausages of pork fermented with glutinous rice), and sai krawp wunsen, which substitute wunsen (bean thread noodles) for sticky rice.
Fermented pork is a northern specialty. For naem, the meat is chopped, mixed with glutinous rice and shallots and/or garlic, packed into a clay pot, and left for exactly three days to sour.
Naem needn't be cooked (in a way, it already is), but is especially tasty wrapped in a banana leaf and placed over a grill, so that the meat absorbs the fragrance of the green.
Eaten with a couple of fiery chilies softened from the heat and accompanied by a glass of strong, sweet Thai coffee, naem makes for an excellent early-morning market breakfast.
No Thai market is complete without a mobile vendor selling muu yang, grilled skewered pork. Up north the cut of choice is belly, which makes for a wonderfully (and sinfully) fatty snack.
Every northern market features a range of pork-centric prepared curries.
Especially worth seeking out is gaeng kadang, a sort of pork curry 'jelly' set with sago-sago. Meaty, spicy, flavored with a combination of dried spices and fresh herbs, it holds its shape without refrigeration, making it the perfect travel food. And it tastes about one hundred times better than it looks.
How I enjoy reading what you write and look at the beautiful photos! I'm happy every time I see that you have posted something!
Posted by: Ilva | 2006.11.30 at 16:22
Pork tastes so different in Thailand than here in the States. I can still remember my favorite childhood snack...pork on a stick with sticky rice. Back at pratom 5, I would spend my daily allowance (5 bahts!) at a moo ping food stand on the way to school... what porky goodness.
Posted by: thaigirl | 2006.11.30 at 22:31
Thanks Ilva!
thaigirl - so true, though it's not just Thailand. IMO pork anywhere in Asia is heads and shoulders above pork in the US. And it's fattier -- not great for the health, perhaps, but much better for flavor!
Posted by: Robyn | 2006.12.01 at 08:35
Perhaps you should change this to "The Other White Meat, Jao" (northern dialect!). You're definitely right here--they do love their pork up north. However I've found that they love their veggies just as much, and a northern meal typically has a good balance of meat and veg.
By the way, the spice used in laap khua is ma khwaen, not ma khwaem.
Posted by: Austin | 2006.12.01 at 09:13
Thanks Austin. I thought 'kha' would be recognized by more readers than would 'jao'. We found the same re: veggies up north. But let's not jump the gun. That's a post for next week. ;-)
As for the spice, everyone we met in the N, including the folks in the makhwe*m* -harvesting village we visited, pronounce the word with an 'm'. Have a look at David Thompson's book - he uses an 'm' as well.
Posted by: Robyn | 2006.12.01 at 14:07
Yum, that looks and sounds fabulous! I'm drooling...
Posted by: riana | 2006.12.01 at 21:28
What a great photo essay! Your site is great. Special thanks this time for describing northern laap (you and Austin have both written about this), which was something I didn't know about until recently. I wonder if this explains the laap I had two years ago in Pua, in Nan province -- I remember being puzzled that it was very "dark," both in appearance and flavor, and highly spiced but not sprightly or herby. I don't remember any prickly ash type sensation. I wasn't sure if it was just that restaurant, or a local style, but you all are making me think the latter. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences with those of us who are desk-bound far away.
Posted by: mary shaposhnik | 2006.12.02 at 03:37
Either you misheard it, or it's a dialect difference (which I doubt), as I'm positive it's ma khwaen, and the Thai-language cookbook I'm staring at right now confirms this! Mr Thompson is actually in BKK now and I can ask him about this when we meet for lunch on Wed!
Looking forward to seeing the northern veggies. You were fortunate to be there during phak hueat season--hope you mention this veggie.
Posted by: Austin | 2006.12.02 at 15:43
Great, let me know. He spells it 'macquem'.
Posted by: Robyn | 2006.12.02 at 18:09
the naem looks mildly familiar, but of course its not ! those meats, only in Amazing Thailand,how salivating....
Posted by: toniXe | 2006.12.02 at 18:37
Coagulated pigs blood that comes with kanom jeen nam ngiaow = yummy. Hard to come nowdays, by back home in Malaysia.
Posted by: unkaleong | 2006.12.04 at 11:22
toniXe - I don't know, Malaysians don't do so bad with their roast pork! But I do prefer Thai-style grilled pork to Malaysian sate.
unkaleong - yes, what is it abt the blood in nam ngaiow? To me it's so much tastier than the coagulated blood in Malaysian-style soups/stews.
Posted by: Robyn | 2006.12.04 at 11:37
I've been told it's due to the way the pigs are slaughtered in Malaysia. Don't quote me on this though...
In Southern Thailand,I came across crispy roasted pork that was delcious, will mail you a picture...
Posted by: unkaleong | 2006.12.04 at 16:51
Hi! This is my first visit to your blog and i love it! I tried the Naem which i thought was meat sausage. To my horror, it tasted sour and it was not meat but glutinous rice. Tasted fermented and the lady seller did not understand my complain so i threw away the whole thing. The sour taste lingered in my mouth for the next half an hour. After reading your blog, now i know it is supposed to be sour.
Posted by: Ivy | 2007.01.18 at 12:09