Miang Can

Miang can be pretty much anything you want them to be. That's my conclusion anyway, after our latest encounter with street miang.

In from of the wonderful morning market in Lampang, a sleepy town about an hour south of Chiang Mai, we found two versions of classic Thai miang kham (peanuts, lime, ginger, sweet chili sauce, et all wrapped in wild pepper leaves) -- one made with blanched leaves, the other with fresh.

Three hours east of Lampang in Nan, capital of the Lao-bordering Thai province of the same name, we ate miang made with pickled cabbage leaves filled with fried pork skin, chilies, peanuts, and cilantro. The vendor called them miang Lao.

 

And here in Luang Prabang we've discovered yet more variations on the miang  theme.

On a corner two blocks from the Post Office (heading away from the peninsula) a vendor sets up her miang takeaway stall every afternoon around 1:30 or 2. After covering her low table with a plastic tarp she lays out a plastic basket filled with soft pillows of rice vermicelli and a mound of slivered banana blossom mixed with sliced purple globe eggplant and mint.

Next to that she places a plastic bowl of jaow makhyaa -- a dip made of grilled eggplant pounded with chilies and herbs -- and then a smaller plastic bowl of a sweetened paste made from glutinous rice and brown cane sugar. The surfaces of both the eggplant and the rice paste are covered with crispy caramlized shallots.

After placing two white enameled platters at the front of the table she pulls up a tiny chair, sits down, and gets to work.

Blanched cabbage and wild pepper leaves receive a peanut or two and a few rings of sliced lemongrass, each pulled from a plastic bag sitting on her lap. She dabs sweetened rice paste on top, then tucks the leaf around the filling to form a neat triangle and places the finished miang on the platter to her right.

 

The first time we stopped by she was making fresh miang with curly green leaf lettuce and cashew leaves, wrapping the greens around a few strands of noodle and spoonful of eggplant dip.

 

The next day she used pakkat (vegetables of the mustard family -- in this case flowering yellow mustard) leaves instead of cashew leaves. In other words, whatever is good and fresh at the market is what ends up in her miang. 

We'd been hoofing about in search of lunch for 30 minutes or so by the time we found her stall. Ravenous, we ate her miang as fast as she could make them, popping them in our mouths one after another, adding a little heat as we went with nibbles from crispy roasted dried chilies pulled from a plastic bag on her table (help yourself).

Each miang cost 500 kip. Twelve thousand well held us to dinner.

Miang vendor, main road two blocks up from the Post Office. From 1-1:30pm (but perhaps not everyday). If you arrive after 2:30 you'll also find a kanom krok vendor (highly recommended). Around 3pm a grilled banana and sweet potato vendor sets up as well.

Comments

[Chefdanhitweets]

Thanks Robin, we often generalize and over-simplify in order to communicate about a cultures food. I.E. "Miang Khum is... with.... "but here you have once again illustrated how food is not a strict set of codes! Here is a video of a Vietnamese street bite...enjoy http://southeastasianflavors.com/vietnamese_recipes.shtml

[Nate @ House of Annie]

I only became familiar with mieng kham at a Thai restaurant in KL - I don't recall them serving this in the Thai Hawaii or California we visited.

So mieng / miang is more of a style of preparation rather than a set recipe. That's fine. The miang Lao looks awesome!

I hope we can travel to Thailand someday and sample these ourselves.

[David Gilbert]

I just returned home to Italy yesterday. I ate miang from her every afternoon on my way to Utopia(one of the greatest bars in SE Asia). The food in LP was uniformly good except for the much hyped 3 Nagas which was supposed to be wonderful - but wasn't. Tam Nak Lao was fab, although it can get frantic with large parties. The first b-b-q stand on the left (across from the head of the night market was fantastic. The line of Lao people eating her food attests to that. I'm addicted to your blog. Bravo!

[Joshua Armstrong]

I remember these well from my time in Luang Prabang, that's for bringing back the memories.

[Medical Advice]

Your right Joshua, I remember that one too and I really think it is amazing!

[Stephanie]

Divine Robin! Not so sure about her fingernails though!

[wine cellar]

Amazing photos and such delicious looking ingredients too! I love spring rolls! Cheers~

[Eurasian Sensation]

That's an interesting use of eggplant (grilled and mashed). Something that is very common in the Middle East and its sphere of culinary influence (from Greece to India), but not something you tend to see in East Asian cuisine.

[Food Menu]

Thanks for sharing a great Lao food. Papayas salad looks something like a cross between Vietanamse and Thai food.

[Luray va accommodations]

Thai Foods are so delicious and tempting and are of different styles and varieties. The Miang Can is a delicious and spicy Thai item made from peanuts, lime and ginger, sweet chili sauce all wrapped in wild pepper leaves and give an amazing taste.

[ricardo neuman]

Here in Koh Samui miang cam (this is the way I hear it and what my wife says is the transliteration she would use) is pepper leaves around your choice of the following items: ginger chunks, prik ki neuw (chili) slices, toasted coconut shreds, toasted peanuts, shallot pieces, lime chunks with the skin included (or bling bing - a very sour fruit that grows directly on the trunks of a small tree - looks like a small and somewhat translucent cucumber) with a very sweet syrup with a little bit of gapi (fermented shrimp paste)in the syrup. Sold in a bag with all the seperate ingredients in their own smaller bags. An incredible collection of flavor bursts! This is one of my favorite things to show/share with visitors.