Lumdee Ti Kua Daeng (ลำดีตี้ขัวแดง)

I was first taken to this restaurant, whose names literally means "Delicious at the Red Bridge", by a Chinese customer who lives in Chiang Mai. I have driven past V Community next to Payap University so many times without even realising that there's a restaurant there.  I've seen their signature red bridge in many social networking sites, but never thought of going myself.

So there I was, with a Chinese family who spoke very little English and Thai, and me with my broken mandarin. Somehow we managed to communicate, did business together and ended up together at this restaurant.

Lumdee Ti Kua Daeng has a large indoor and outdoor sections. BTW, a big thank you to Zalora for the bag! I love it!

I was taken straight away by the large and very reasonably priced menu. Their favourite is the Deep Fried Tilapia with Herbs, and wow, it was good. They told me that you can get an even better one in Lamphun! These Chinese people do get around! LOL.

Since then, I've been back many times with my family and also have brought visitors here and everyone enjoyed the food here very much.

The real test though was my last visit when I brought a local Chiang Mai friend who just came home from a stint overseas and a Thai friend from Lamphun. I wanted to know how authentic a Northen Thai restaurant Lumdee Ti Kua Daeng is and I'm glad to say my friends gave their thumbs up.

The spread.. The food even came out all around the same time!

Pla Tubtim Tod Samunpri (Deep-fried Tilapia with Herbs). 200 baht. This is the fried fish that I was talking about earlier. It's not exactly Northern food, but it's good!  The fish meat is cut up into cubes, deep fried then reassembled on the fish and the the herbal sauce is poured over the whole thing. The cubed fillets were very nicely fried, slightly crunchy on the outside and soft and pillowy on the inside. Just the right amount of sauce is absorbed into the thin flour batter, leaving it full of flavour, yet still crunchy. Perfect. The price is great too - normally you'd expect to pay 300 baht for something like this at other restaurants.

Deep-Fried Tilapia with Herbs

Fried Chiangda and Tomato with Egg. 60 baht. Chiangda (Gymnema, a herb with blood sugar lowering properties) is stir-fried with eggs and tomatoes. This is a dish with more subtle, slightly salty flavour and makes a great (and healthy) combination with other dishes, especially spicy ones.

Fried Chiang Da and Tomato with Egg

Naem Peek Gai Khua Daeng. Northern style cured chicken wings. 80 baht. "Naem" dishes have been fermented to give a sour flavour. I normally quite enjoy naem pork. The chicken wings are pretty good, but I found it a little too sour. Served with roasted peanuts, ginger and chilli.

Naem Chicken Wings

Gai Muang Neung. Steamed chicken with herbs. 90 baht. It was delicious and full of flavour. The "soup" was fantastic too. In this dish, the chicken pieces are steamed with various herbs (such as tumeric, garlic and lemongrass). Yum!

Steamed Chicken With Herbs

Nam Prik Ong. 50baht. This is a classic northern Thai pork, tomato and chilli dip. Actually, there are many different chilli dips you can try at Lumdee Ti Kua Daeng. This is my Lamphun friend's favourite Northern Dish and he said Lumdee's Nam Prik Ong has all the right flavours. The chilli dips are served with steamed vegetables (or sometime fresh herbs and veggies depending on the restaurant). Lovely and not too spicy with the veggies and steamed rice or sticky rice.

Nam Prik Ong

Lamdee Ti Kua Daeng also serves many northern soup dishes. I've been told that all the soups are made fresh to each order. Most of the dishes are not all that spicy either. There are also more adventurous dishes to try like the soup with ant eggs!

The service is friendly, efficient and quick. The food is great, and quite inexpensive.

Lumdee Ti Kua Daeng
V Community
345 Moo 3
T. Sanphranet, A Sansai, Chiang Mai
Tel: 086 688 3688
GPS Location: 18.799160, 99.033259
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lumdeetekhuadang/?fref=ts

Gusto Site

Sometimes all you want to do after a hard week's work is to relax... Well, may be not just sometimes! So after a crazy week of work, eating (of course!), a bit of drinking and live music was in order.

I live out on the Outer Ring Road (121) and although it's not that far away, going into town or Nimman feels like a bit of a hike, and I didn't fancy going through the traffic (and looking for parking!). Fortunately, there's a cool little restaurant / cafe on the New San Kamphaeng Rd, just only about 10 min from my house. The traffic, and parking, was a breeze!

Gusto Site. A newish (about 6 month old) restaurant on the New San Kamphaeng Rd.
There's plenty of parking!

The ambience is lovely. There's a big garden and seatings inside and outside the restaurant. There's live music on Friday and Saturday nights. I've been there on a couple of Saturday nights and the band played great easy listening music. A really nice place to chill out.

The atmosphere of the restaurant / cafe. 

The food here is pretty good too. Gusto Site has mainly Thai dishes,Thai style pasta dishes, as well as various great looking desserts.

The Deep Fried Pork Belly with Galangal Chilli Dip was lovely. The pork was well seasoned, and the chilli dip was very refreshing. It's like the northern green chilli dip (Nam Prik Noom) with galangal. An interesting twist. (95 baht)

Deep Fried Pork Belly with Galangal Chilli Dip, an icy glass of Heineken.. Mmm
BTW, thanks Zalora for the green bag that I took to the restaurant. 

The Deep Fried Tilapia (Tabtim fish) with Garlic. This is also quite good and nicely done.The fish pieces (not fillets as the pieces still had bones in them) are very nicely fried with light crispy skin, and pillow soft on the inside. It comes with a sweetish sauce with galangal (I think they really like galangal here!). I found I only needed a bit of sauce on the fish as the sauce is quite sweet. 185 baht.

Deep Fried Tilapia (Tubtim) Fish with Garlic. Served with a sweet galangal sauce. 

Gaeng Ratajuan with Pork Ribs. This is quite a lovely, interesting "curry". It features a lot of the usual suspects of Thai herbs (lemongrass, kaffir lime, and other herbs) as well as shrimp paste, which makes the soup/curry really smooth with earthy flavours. Westerners may not appreciate this as it is a bit of an acquired taste due to the shrimp paste. 95 baht

Gaeng Ratajuan with Pork Ribs

What I really love most at Gusto Site (that also helped to replace the calories burnt from that morning's kickboxing session), were the desserts. Oh well, that's one of the benefits of exercising, I guess.. so we can eat more!

The French Toast is really lovely. There's a thick, buttery, slightly salty toast that contrasted well with the scoop of strawberry sorbet (which was.. wow! .. it was full of strawberry flavours). There was also half a mango and various fruits served with the french toast as well. 165 baht.

Loved the French Toast!

Their signature dessert is the Little Bear Chocolate Mousse Cake. Very cute.. and tasted great too (I love chocolate!). My friend wasn't too fussed about chocolate so I ended up eating the whole thing myself (too good to waste!). The mousse was lovely, creamy and soft, not too sweet, and very chocolatey. 95 baht.

.. and the Little Bear Chocolate Mousse Cake! So cute (and decadent)!

I really enjoyed my time chilling out and eating at Gusto Site.

The restaurant seems quite popular with local families from near by moo baans (housing estates). Worth a try if you're in the area!

Gusto Site
T. Ton Pao, A. San Kamphaeng
GPS:18.744124, 99.077092
Tel: 087 657 9889
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GustoSite

Great live music

Khun Mor Cuisine @ Nimman Soi 17

There are a never ending list of restaurants to choose from in Nimman area. Many come and go, and many have also stuck around. Khun Mor Cuisine has been around for a while, having opened its doors on Nimman Soi 17 about 16 years ago.

"Khun Mor" is what Thai people call a doctor. Khun Mor first started with a humble boat noodle shop in Mae Taeng, and later opened her shop in Nimman in 1999.

The menu is quite extensive with most of the dishes being traditional Thai and Northern Thai dishes. If you're travelling through and would like to try new dishes other than the good old pad thai and green curry chicken, Khun Mor Cuisine is a good place to be adventurous and try a few new dishes!

Having said that, the pad thai here is great! The "Pad Thai Jun Goong Sod" (sorry, not photos... no idea how I missed taking the photo of this one!) is very well done, the texture and taste was just right. There were also 3 huge prawns on top. 129 baht.

I also like Khun Mor's home made sai ua, a northern Thailand specialty - herbed pork sausages. It was quite herby, and I noticed also that the sausage didn't have a lot of fat (compared to other sai uas that I've eaten). The unusual thing to me is that sai uas are not usually served with condiments on the side - garlic, ginger, chilli, etc. I did try a piece of the sausage with some condiments, but I prefer to just eat the sai ua by itself as I found the ginger and garlic pieces tend to overcome the flavour of the sai ua. 89 baht.

"Krathong thong" - Minched chicken and sweet corn in crispy golden cups. These are quite lovely. The filling has a vibrant curry flavour, and compliments well with the crispy cups. Good appetiser!  69 baht.

"Kaeng Kae Gai" - spicy tradintional herbal soup with mixed vegetables and chicken. This soup is really lovely, fragrant and smooth. A warning though.. The soup contains shrimp paste and fermented fish, an acquired taste, and may not be everyone's cup of tea! Other herbs used in this soup include chilli, lemongrass, garlic and shallots. It went beautifully with the rice, and I must say Khun Mor's Cuisine's rice was beautiful and really fragrant. There was something about the fragrance of the rice and the soup that was just wow when eaten together! Highly recommended, if you dare! 119 baht.

Khun Mor Cuisine is quite large restaurant and is decorated in Lanna style. Most of the seating is in the open air section. There's also some seating in a small garden and an air-conditioned room (5 baht extra per person to use the air-cond room).

There seem be be a mixed review of this restaurant, especially on Trip Advisor. There were a few comments regarding the service that reviewers were not happy about. When I was there, I thought the service was fine. We were in the air-conditioned room and there was a waiter hanging around outside, so it wasn't difficult to get his attention.

And one of the things I really like about Khun Mor Cuisine is the parking! Coming to Nimman to eat is usually not one of my top priorities because of 1) the traffic and 2) the parking situation (or lack of!). This restaurant has its own parking lot across the soi, and a few spots in front of the restaurant too, which is really helpful!

Khun Mor Cuisine
10/1 Nimmanhaemin Rd Soi 17
T Suthep, A Muang, Chiang Mai
Tel: 053 226 379
Opens: 7:30am-10pm

Talom Culture Cuisine (Northern Thai & Thai food)

I drove past this very good restaurant in a garden setting many times and never thought of stopping by. It's relatively new and a little bit unknown, I think, as I never see a lot of people there when I go. I've visited few times already, and I find the food great, prices reasonable...and grandma loves it too!

Talom does Northern Thai food and Thai food. As Northern Thai food isn't our specialty, we relied on our excellent and knowledgable waiter a lot...and all the dishes he suggested were great!

Spicy Roasted Fish Dip (Nam Prik Pla Jee) - This is a bit like the green chilli dip (Nam prik noom) mixed with mashed up grilled fish. Lovely, a touch spicy and and served with steamed vegetables. 65 baht.

Deep fried Pla Nin with Garlic  (Pla nin = a type of fish) - this was fantastic. The fish was very nicely done, and the meat was lovely and soft. Very, very nice! 190 baht.

Gaeng Pak Wan with Dried Fish & Vermicelli - "Pak wan" is a local vegetable. This soup is for the adventurous only! The flavour is quite good, but I think it contains "Pla ra" or fermented fish, which I'd say is an acquired taste.  A lot of westerners may not like this one. 85 baht.

Pak Chiang Da Stir-fried with Egg. "Pak Chiang Da" is a type of local vegetable. Very nice when stir-fried with egg- slightly bitter and salty flavour. 75 baht.

All in all a very nice and enjoyable meal. There are heaps of other dishes on the menu, so if these dishes don't appeal to you, then there are lots more to choose from!

I've been to Talom a few times, and the food has been very good and consistent, and the price very reasonable.

The bill for 6 people came to 985 baht (only about 160 baht each)!

Open air area 

Indoor dining ...and lots of wines to choose from too!

Talom Culture Cuisine
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Talom-chiangmai/490487534373167
413 Moo 6, Sanphiseur, Chiang Mai
Opens: 5-11pm except Mondays.
Next to Nakorn Payap International School



View Talom Culture Cuisine in a larger map

Midnight Fried Chicken / Sticky Rice

Hungry late at night? Look no further than this institution that has been in Chiang Mai pretty much forever...Midnight Sticky Rice / Fried Chicken. Opens from 11pm-5am!

Notice I'm mixing up the name.. just because it's pretty much known as Midnight Fried Chicken (or rather, the Thai equivalent of it!), but many people also call them Midnight Sticky Rice.

The place was packed when we arrived at around 11:40 pm.

Midnight Fried Chicken provides the standard lanna (Northern Thai) fare including Nam Prik Noom (Green chilli dip),  and fried dishes including chicken (of course), pork, intestines, saiua (Northern Thai sausages),  boiled duck eggs, ....

My favourite was the deep fried 3 layer pork (50 baht - small plate) - very tasty! The chicken (50-55 baht - small plate) was also very good, but I would love it to be hot when served. Really liked the deep fried intestines too (25 baht - small plate)... a bit crunchy on the outside and nice and soft on the inside. Nam Prik Noom (Green chilli dip) was also very good.

Notice no eating utensils here.. we eat the Northern Thai way.. with our fingers. Pick up the sticky rice and then pick up the chilli dip. Finger licking good!

The price worked out to be about 100 baht/person. A very satisfying meal and we were all ready for bed after filling up our very hungry stomachs!

Midnight Fried Chicken
Kamphaengdin Rd
Near Chiang Mai Night Bazaar and just down the road from Imperial Mae Ping Hotel.
Opens 11pm-5am.
Check out their facebook page for details of other branches!

View Larger Map

Khao Soi House @ Chaing Mai Airport

So you live in or have just visited Chiang Mai and fell in love with Khao Soi, and would like to have one (or more!) last bowl before you leave, Khao Soi House could just be the place to satisfy your craving.

It's not street cheap, though, at about 100 baht per serving of the Chicken Khao Soi, but you do get more than twice the amount that you would off the stalls, not to mention good quality ingredients and a nice and creamy, coconuty broth. I find (from the one time I've been there) that although the broth is pretty decent, it's a little mild and lacking the intensity and deep flavours from khao soi places "off the street".

Khao Soi House seems to be a popular restaurant at Chiang Mai Airport (not that there are many resturants there!). I think it's not a bad place to go if you're happen to be at the airport, or even as you arrive in Chiang Mai to wet your appetite for more khao soi to come.

Water is pretty expensive here though at 45 baht/bottle!

Khao Soi House
Chiang Mai Airport (Domestic Arrivals Hall)

Mira Terrace @ Ratilanna Riverside Spa and Resort

I generally don't really go to hotels for Thai food mainly because I assume (wrongly!) that Thai food at hotels are somehow modified to suit foreigners' tastes. A Thai friend, though, mentioned that he always goes to hotels for Thai food as he find the taste authentic and they use "real" ingredients. This is certainly the case for Mira Terrace. The Thai food there is excellent, and top quality.

Mira Terrace is a very lovely restaurant in a very lovely resort. The restaurant has a deck overlooking the Ping River, or you can choose to dine in air-conditioned comfort, and still with a view of the river.

Here we have Spicy Banana Blossom Salad with Grilled Prawns Skewer. It was very good - very nice peanut sauce, but also tangy and spicy at the same time. Nicely done!

Pan Seared Grouper fish with Chilli Sauce - also very good, covered with sweetish chilli sauce and crispy fried basil leaves.

Grilled Smoke Duck Breast with Tamarind Sauce - the duck breast was excellent - smokey and melt in your mouth tenderness. The sauce was like a tamarind syrup - use only a little bit as it is very strongly flavoured and quite overwhelming.

Green curry chicken - Mira Terrace makes an excellent green curry chicken. Beautifully smooth and rich curry. You could really taste the quality of the coconut milk. Loved it!

From the dishes I had, I would say my favourites are the duck and the green curry. There is something else on the menu that I would really love to try - Hung Ley Lamb - Northern braised lamb curry with ginger, gingko nut and cashew nuts served with crushed roti. Sounds fantastic, doesn't it?  Unfortunately most of the people I was with didn't eat lamb. Next time!

Mira Terrace also serves a number of international and fusion dishes.

The bill came to about 1800 baht for 5 people. Quite good value, I think for the quality and ambience, not to mention very good service.

The only downside was that the food came out very slowly. Perhaps the chef was making everything fresh. We were given a plate of very nice bread to have while waiting though.

Mira Terrace
Ratilanna Riverside Spa & Resort
33 Changklan Rd, Muang, Chiang Mai
Tel: 053 999 333
Opens daily:
Breakfast: 6am-10:30am
All day menu: 11am-11pm
http://www.ratilannachiangmai.com/dining_mira.php

Alfresco dining on the terrace

Khao Soi Mae Manee (ข้าวซอยเเม่มฌี)

Oh my gosh! I haven't been so excited about food…since last entry! Here we have the no so humble Khao Soi sold in a rather humble little shack like place in a small lane off Chotana Road. I knew it would be good when the Thai friend who took us there said it's his favorite Khao Soi place since childhood, and I got really excited as soon as I see the place (see above photo), and the two older ladies who run it  - you can find some of the best food in such places!

The shop itself is fairly simple and clean. The walls are adorned with posters of reviews and articles about this eatery from various magazines. Looking at the rather extensive looking menu board, I was little astounded. I've always thought Khao Soi comes in 3 varieties - pork ribs, chicken, beef…was rather surprised to see varieties like Mama (instant noodles) Khao Soi, Vermicelli noodles Khao Soi, as well as fish, pork and beef ball khao sois on the list. Regular Khao Sois are 25 baht per bowl, and you can even combine 4 different "meats" together for 90 baht. They even have special Khao Sois for children (on request). 

I decided to put in my regular Khao Soi order - Khao Soi with Pork Ribs. 

As we helped ourselves with complimentary water and ice, our Khao Sois arrive with condiments - lime wedges, shallots and generous amounts of homemade pickled mustard greens. The deep colour of the broth already hints on how great the Khao Soi would be.

And yes, it was GOOD. The broth was beautiful, rich and deeply flavored, and surprising not that spicy (for me). Of course, you can always add extra chilli if you like. The pork ribs were lovely -  succulent and tender, and the homemade pickled mustard greens were great too - crunchy and mild tasting to add an nice contrast to the khao soi. 

Khao Soi Mae Manee
18 Soi Chotana 24
T. Changpeuk, A. Muang
Chiang Mai
Tel: 053 218 286, 053 218 519, 0819612235
Open daily, closed on Buddha days.

...and yes, this is my new favourite Khao Soi place!