Saturday 22 August 2009

Inthanon Restaurant


There are certainly a lot of near-waterfall "street eat" experiences at Doi Inthanon National Park. At Mae Klang Waterfall, for example, you can buy sticky rice, grilled chicken and papaya salad to eat at "shacks" by the water. It's quite a fun (and cheap) experience!

There's also a finer dining option further up Thailand's tallest mountain at the Inthanon Royal Project Agricultural Station - the Inthanon Restaurant. Dine in the cool and fresh mountain air on a deck overlooking great views.

Their specialties are the trouts and vegies (both grown and raised, or rather, raised and grown at the Royal Project by local hill-tribes). As you can imagine, the vegetables are super fresh, and straight from the source (so, cheap as well!). For example, a salad, served with a creamy dressing will set you back 50 baht.

This huge plate of Mixed Vegie Tempura was also 50 baht. It was quite nicely made, the vegie not oily and stayed crispy. Served with plum sauce.


We also had this really tasty pork ribs, stewed "Kao Ka Moo" (Pork leg & Rice) style with herbs like five spices, coriander, garlic and soy sauces. These pork ribs are the healthier version, with a lot less fat! It was wonderfully delicious and the meat was falling of the bones. I think it would have been perfect if the ribs were stewed for a bit longer though, making it more tender.
The pork ribs were served with deep fried Chinese bun - mantou, which did a great job soaking up the sauce/gravy concentrated with flavours...mmm...I can still taste it now. The serving was quite large too. I would highly recommend this dish if you go to Inthanon Restaurant. 100 baht.


Now for the house specialty - rainbow trouts, farmed in the fresh waters of Doi Inthanon. You have a choice of: Deep-fried trout with garlic ; Fried with herbs; Fried with butter; Steamed with Soy-sauce. All 320 baht for half a trout. We went for the Deep-fried trout with garlic. It came out aromatic with plenty of crispy fried garlic on top, may be even enough to ward off the H1N1 virus? The trout itself was firm yet tender. It went really well with the chilli sauce that came with it. Recommended for the garlic lover! : )


It's also worth trying the fresh juices (30 baht). At the time, they had passionfruit juice and carrot juice. It took a while to come though, and came even later than the fish, which made us suspect that they ran out of fruits and had to go pick the passionfruit from the trees (???).

Anyway, if you're out Doi Inthanon way, I'd highly recommend visiting Inthanon Restaurant. Great food, great view and great prices! As a bonus, you'll also be able to stroll the gardens of the Inthanon Royal Project Research Station, and that of the nearby Siriphum Waterfalls.

Some info about Doi Inthanon & Royal Project
  • Doi Inthanon is Thailand's tallest mountain. ("Doi" means "Mountain")
  • The entrance fee to the national park is 100 baht for foreigners (adults), 50 baht for kids and 30 baht for cars & vans.
  • The weather is cool all year round.
  • Royal Project is initiated around 1979 by the King of Thailand to try to improve living standards of hill tribes, and as a part of crop-substitution program. The hill-tribes at the time were reliant on growing opium (especially near the Golden Triangle area).
  • The Entrance fee to the Royal Agricultural Station is 20 baht per person.
Doi Inthanon Restaurant
Inthanon Royal Project Agricultural Station
Doi Inthanon

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8 comments:

KennyT said...

Alice, it seems that there are many nice eats in Chiang Mai, perhaps I should go there visit you one day soon, haha

Unknown said...

@Kenny - Please do come to visit. Chiang Mai is not very far from Hong Kong. Actually you blog makes me feel like going to HK just to eat!! May be you'll see me soon! haha!

Michael Leung said...

That looks tasty.
I wish to have some good food to eat!!!

foodbin said...

lovely pork leg-like to eat those tendons and ligament.

singapore gourmet said...

Alice,
How do you rate the rainbow trout as compared with the Tasmanian trout?

Unknown said...

@Michael - thanks for dropping by - where do you live? From your blog, it looks like you live in Australia, somewhere? My Chinese reading skills isn't that great, sorry!

@ Singapore Gourmet - it's hard to compare, because the cooking method is different. We haven't really had deep fried Tasmanian Salmon with garlic! ....but I think Tasmanian Salmon is sweeter and pinker than the Royal Project Rainbow Trout. Also, the Royal Project trout might be a bit firmer in texture. I'd really like to try the Royal Project trout cooked in butter though ...I will get that next time I go. Eating trout with garlic and thai chilli sauce seems to cover the real flavour of the fish.

Ju (The Little Teochew) said...

Hi Alice, great blogs you have :) I have been to Chiang Mai yonks ago. Next time I go, I will look you up to say hi! And of course, refer to your blog for the best eats around ... I love Thai food to bits. Cheers!

Unknown said...

@ Little Teochew - Thanks for your kind words!! Yes, please come and say "Hi" when you visit Chiang Mai.
: )

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