What you eatThe morning market
ตลาดเช้า · talat chao
Open at five, finished by nine, and the best meal of your day is in it.
Sharon Hahn Darlin · CC BY 2.0What it is
Every town on this loop has one. Rice, curries in bags, grilled things, sticky rice, coffee, and whatever the hills sent down that morning.
The long version
Inference — this is the single best thing on the circuit that costs almost nothing and that most riders sleep through. The market is at its fullest between five and seven and is packing up by nine, which is the same window in which you want to be riding anyway — so the answer is to eat first and leave at eight, not to lie in and buy a sandwich.
What is on the tables changes by altitude and by who is selling. In Mae Hong Son and Mae Sariang the Shan and Burmese side of the kitchen is right there; up the hill it is Karen and Lisu produce; in Mae Chaem it is a Lanna market.
Tradition holds — curry is sold by the bag, tied at the neck, to take away. You buy rice separately. Nobody minds you pointing.
Runs with
- dishKhao soi — Often the best bowl in town is in here.
- dishSticky rice — Bought here, eaten all day.
- townMae Hong Son — Where the Shan side of the kitchen is plainest.
Named here by
- stopThe evening in Pai — The other market, and the better meal.
- watWat Hua Wiang — Next door, and do that first.
- dishGrilled by the road — Where the sausage is sold by weight.
- dishKhao soi — Where to find it before it runs out.
- dishSticky rice — Where the basket comes from.
- dishThua nao — Stacked like coasters, on every table.
- coffeeThe stall at the top of the climb — The other thing worth getting up for.
- personLisu, Lahu, Hmong and Lua — Where their fields arrive every morning.
Where each claim comes from
| Field | Tier | Source | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| default | tradition | ||
| text_th | inference | written in Thai by this project, not machine-translated |
Sources
- Night market — Wikipedia (en)
- Thai cuisine — Wikipedia (en)
- Mae Hong Son province — Wikipedia (en)
cited Cited — a named source, linked · harvested Harvested — fetched from an open dataset, with its licence · tradition Tradition — general knowledge of the tradition, hedged · inference Inference — this project's own reasoning from the above · field Field — someone stood there