Chiang Mai favorites, and some misses.

I am in Chiang Mai at the moment and really enjoying the food and coffees.
My first stop was Kanjana for the Gaeng Hung Lay with a mango shake and both were phenomenal. Really good meal, good people too.
Hit Jok Sompet for Seafood Congee/Jok with raw egg. Again, very good, thicker than I am used to and the cooked liver I tasted makes me think I might not have gotten what I thought I ordered.
Went to SP Chicken for the fried chicken and som tom w/crab. Underwhelming. The chicken was only ok, kind of slimey, must have been an off day for them, or me. Som tom was ok, didn’t finish it though.
Visited the Cowboy Hat Lady and her sprawling enterprise at North Gate (Chiang Phuak). Stewed pork leg with soft boiled egg over rice with cold mustard greens served at the table from a pitcher. Very good! The pork is excellent and the yolk of the egg was just slightly runny. Delicious! Great bargain too. What a scrum of fellow tourists, though!
Dined on the Khai Kata at Coconut Shell plus a mango and lime shake. Outstanding! And a bargain too. Khai kata is a fried egg and chili dish served in the pan it is cooked in, and lime really does make mango taste even better!
Hit Blue Noodle for beef noodle soup, good but not great and it seemed kind of lacking in adult supervision. One server was throwing an ice cream bar at the other server. They did pick the offending ice cream bar up after the dispute but they put it back in the freezer…
Khao Soi Samer Jai was a bit of a disappointment. The place was heaving, obviously very popular. Scores of table and only one or two open. The server was helpful and got my order quickly, and the khao soi was rich and full of flavor, but the serving size was small and the flies were pretty numerous and assertive. Plus I had a bit of the gut for a couple hours after eating there, never pleasant. Tasty dish, but I don’t think I will go back.
Visited Cafe de Thaan Aoan for breakfast. I think I picked the wrong time of the day to go. The place gets really good reviews, but my cappuccino was muddy and tasted like a vile sort of instant coffee. Plus my breakfast congee with pork was really thin and unassuming, something was missing from this dish. Just a forgettable meal.
Took a cooking class with Asia Scenic at their farm. Just 1,000 Baht for the half day (more like 3/4 day!) and it was a really good time and the tasting tour of the garden was really interesting. I cooked my own basil stir fried chicken, a spring roll, kaprow gai, sticky rice and mango and khao soi. A lot of fun and good food, even if I did cook it myself.
I visited Lert Ros for the BBQ fish but ended up ordering Nam Tok (thai spicy) and Fermented Pork w/sticky rice. The beef was super stringy and tough, but the sauce with the Nam Tok was spicey and tasted great. The fermented pork was a bit too rich for me, I didn’t quite finish it. Now I have to go back for the red tilapia that everyone was ordering, it looks really good.
I still haven’t visited a cafe I went to last year, Jiang Healthy Fish Ball, which was really good. So I have several places still to visit and less than 24 hours to go! LOL!

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Almost a year later I have realized that the Khao Soi that I wasn’t as big a fan of wasn’t Sammerjai, it was Khao Soi Lam Duan. I asked my driver to take me to Khao Soi Sammerjai but he dropped me off hundred meters south of there, at Khao Soi Lam Duan. He is probably related to to the family… Anyway, I am sorry for casting aspersions on Sammerjai that should have been laid on Lam Duan.
My favorite between Khao Soi Lam Duan outside the wall and Khao Soi Khun Yai by the North Wall is still Khun Yai, though. I like the Khao Soi Khun Yai flavor and the friendly, albeit super busy, vibe.

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from youtube description:

One of the top things to do in Chiang Mai is walk around and eat through one of the many Chiang Mai night markets - I think Chiang Mai might be the capital of night markets in the world. There’s a night market for every day of the week and some of them stretch longer than you can see.

At night markets in Chiang Mai you’ll find a huge selection of things to buy, from clothes and antiques to even entertainment like music and Thai massage. But for food lovers, the best thing about visiting any Thai night market is the food.

On Sunday night in Chiang Mai the most popular night market is Tha Pae Walking Street (ตลาดท่าแพ) - it really is an entire street that shuts down for a couple of kilometers, and the entire street is filled with things to look at, buy, and eat. Most of the food is set up in designated area, especially in the small courtyards of temples.

In this Thai street food tour of Chiang Mai, the plan was just to walk around and see what looked good to eat.

Here’s what we ate:

Sai krok Isaan (ไส้กรอกอีสาน), Sai ua (ไส้อั่ว) - This impressive cart was filled with different varieties of Thai sausage, both Isaan style sausage, and Northern Thai herb sausage.
Total price - 30 THB ($0.91)

Pork meatballs (ลูกชิ้นหมู) - I’m usually not a huge fan, but these 100% pork meatballs were pretty tasty.
Price - 40 THB ($1.21)

Pork ham (หมูยอ) - After meeting up with my friends Tom, Joel, and JJ, they had already been snacking on some moo yaw, a Vietnamese style ham sausage.

Grilled egg (ไข่ป่าม) - This is a unique Northern Thai food, of grilled egg.
Price - 30 THB ($0.91)

Sticky rice (ข้าวหนุกงา) - One of the Thai snacks I had never tried before were sticky rice patties. They were interesting and quite tasty.
Price - 20 THB ($0.61)

Pork ribs (ซี่โครงหมู), Crab egg custard (อ่องปู) - We saw the ribs being grilled and couldn’t’t resist. They were alright, but the paddy crab egg custard was more unique.
Price - 180 THB ($5.46)

Durian (ทุเรียน) - Finally, although a little overpriced, and not season, we couldn’t resist a little nugget of durian to end this Chiang Mai night market Thai food tour.
Price - 200 THB ($6.06)

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from youtube description:

CHIANG MAI, THAILAND

I’ll just tell you straight up, Northern Thailand is known for its meat, and meat is a huge part of the local authentic food diet. So today I’m going to take you on a Northern Thai food meat tour - eat mostly amazing bbq meat and a dish called laap (ลาบ) - and show you some of the best restaurants in Chiang Mai, that I personally love.

Talad Mae Hia (ตลาดแม่เหี้ยะ) Market - We started off the morning at what is one of the best places in Chiang Mai for sai oua (ไส้อั่ว), or Northern Thai herb sausage. At the market, the stall is called Sai Oua Kao Bakam (ร้านไส้อั่วเก๊าบ่าขาม) and we ate their sai oua (ไส้อั่ว) and a brains packet (แอบอ๋องอ๋อ). The sausage was the highlight, a perfect balance of herbal and meatiness.
Price - 390 THB ($11.91) per kg.

Kum Sang Dao (คุ้มแสงดาวหมูย่าง) - Just outside of Chiang Mai, but well worth the effort to get there, is one of the most impressive, filled to the brim Northern Thai bbq meat grills. For any grillmaster, this will be a sight to behold. The northern Thai food grill is typically quite low heat so meat can just kind of hang around and smoke all day long as it’s eaten. We ordered the mixed grill (ย่างรวมมิตร), which included a mix of everything on the grill chopped up and served with sauce. Another highlight dish at Kum Sang Dao (คุ้มแสงดาวหมูย่าง) is theirsSoured pork, egg (จิ้นส้มหมกใส่ไข่). This is an amazing restaurant for Northern Thai meat dishes.
Total price - 390 THB ($11.91)

Laap Ton Koi Restaurant (ลาบต้นข่อย) - One of the best restaurants in Chiang Mai to eat at laap raw buffalo (ลาบควายดิบ), is Laap Ton Koi Restaurant (ลาบต้นข่อย), and I was very excited for this one. The minced buffalo was mixed with spices and bile, and herbs perfectly by the laap master. This is the best laap I have ever had in my life, it was absolutely incredible. We also ordered the Flash-cooked sliced meat (ส้าสะดุ้ง), and the pork herb curry (แกงอ่อมหมู).
Total price - 140 THB ($4.28)

Laap Ton Yang Restaurant (ร้านลาบต้นยาง) - Finally to end this Thai street food meat tour of Chiang Mai, we ate at one more of the best restaurants in Chiang Mai specializing in laap. Again the laap made with beef raw (ลาบเนื้อ ดิบ) was spectacular, but we also tried their laap pork cooked (ลาบหมู สุก), soured fried pork riblets (แหนมซี่โครงหมูทอด), steamed beef, chili dip (จิ้นนึ่ง นำ้พริกตาแดง), fish curry (แกงตูนป่า), and fried fish, herbs (ปลาทอดสมุนไพร). You don’t need to eat raw meat here, all the other Northern Thai food dishes are also spectacular. This is just a great restaurant in Chiang Mai.
Total price - 420 THB ($12.83)

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from Youtube description:

CHIANG MAI, THAILAND - In this video I’m going to show you a mix of restaurants and street food in Chiang Mai - and everything a little rare, unique, or unheard of. We ate a one of a kind satay in Chiang mai for breakfast, had rare Thai food for lunch, and amazing seafood for dinner - but seafood in Chiang Mai? I’m going to share all the restaurants with you here.

Beef satay (เนื้อสะเต๊ะใต้ต้นข่อย) - For breakfast we went to a small street food stall serving a unique type of beef satay (เนื้อสะเต๊ะ). It was cool to sit down right where they were being grilled and eat stick after stick. The beef was so juicy, but the sauce was a little sweet for me.
Price - 5 THB ($0.15) per stick

Saiyut’s Kitchen (ครัวอาจารย์สายหยุด) - This is a top restaurant in Chiang Mai that serves a mix of high end, Royal, and old family Thai recipes. Here are the main dishes we ordered:

Saeng wa goong (แสร้งว่ากุ้ง)
Nam prik kai boo (นำ้พริกไข่ปู)
Chaw muang (ช่อม่วง)
Kratong tong (กระทงทอง)
Karawaek sodsee (การะเวกสอดสี)
Room (หรุ่ม)
Chiang da pad kai (เชียงดาผัดไข่)
Khao yam (ข้าวยำ)
Pla tod samoon prai (ปลาทอดสมุนไพร)
Gaeng ranjuan (แกงรัญจวน)
Mee krob Chaowang (หมี่กรอบชาววัง)

The food was overall quite good. It’s not always my personal favorite type of Thai food, but I did enjoy the food here, and the presentation and history. Food is more on the sweet side than spicy side. Well worth trying when you’re in Chiang Mai.
Total price - 1,725 THB ($52.31)

Lerd Rote Tai Rom Ma-Feuang (เลิศรสใต้ร่มมะเฟือง) - Finally on this best restaurants tour of Chiang Mai we decided to go to a restaurant that many locals from Chiang Mai recommend for seafood. Yes, I was a little hesitant to eat seafood in Chiang Mai, considering its distance from the ocean, be we went for it. Turned out to be quite an amazing seafood meal, although expensive, it was delicious.

Shrimp chilies salt (กุ้งพริกเกลือ)
Tom yum fish (ต้มยำปลา นำ้ใส)
Black pepper crab (ปูผัดพริกไทยดำ)

Total price - 2,000 THB ($60.65)