The Northern Valleys

The northern valleys lie in the mountainous upper reaches of Thailand, where the Ping, Wang, Yom and Nan rivers run south between forested ridges and gather into the Chao Phraya system on the central plain. The principal basins, with Chiang Mai in the Ping valley at their centre, were the seat of the old Lanna kingdom, and the food of the region is called Lanna or northern Thai cooking. Andy Ricker, in Pok Pok, draws much of his account of this cooking from Chiang Mai and its surrounding country, and treats it as a cuisine distinct from that of the central plain and of Isan.

The country is one of cool uplands, narrow irrigated valley floors and hill slopes, and the table follows from it. The staple is glutinous rice, khao niao, steamed in a tall woven basket and carried to the table in a small lidded basket called a kratip, to be rolled into a ball by hand and used to take up the rest of the meal. In this the north shares a habit with Isan and with Laos, and Ricker places the northern table within that wider glutinous-rice region rather than with the jasmine-rice cooking of the central plain. The cooking is marked by bitterness, by sourness drawn from tomato and from fermented ingredients, and by a restraint in sweetness that sets it apart from the plain. Coconut milk is used far less than in the central and southern kitchens, and the characteristic seasonings are dried and fresh chillies, garlic, shallot, and fermented soy bean cakes known as thua nao. Pok Pok describes the northern relishes, the nam prik, as the heart of the table. Nam prik noom, made from grilled long green chillies, shallot and garlic pounded together, and nam prik ong, built on pork and tomato, are eaten with steamed and raw vegetables, pork crackling and sticky rice. Two dishes carry the region's name abroad. Khao soi, a bowl of egg noodles in a curried coconut broth with a nest of crisp fried noodles on top, shows the influence of the Chinese Muslim traders who moved through the north. Sai ua, the coarse-textured pork sausage of Chiang Mai, is seasoned with a paste of dried chillies, lemongrass, galangal Alpinia galanga, makrut Citrus hystrix peel, shallot and garlic, and is grilled over charcoal. Both are cooked with a precision of seasoning that Ricker takes as the measure of the cook. The northern valleys also supply a particular larder: bitter leaves and shoots gathered from the hills, river fish and small field creatures, pork in many forms, and a set of pungent herbs. Larb in its northern form, larb muang, differs from the lime-sour version of Isan, being seasoned with a dried spice mixture of the region and built on minced meat and offal. The food of the valleys is thus the food of a landlocked, cool and hilly country, and it rests on glutinous rice, fermented seasonings and the produce of the slopes.

The northern table is bitter, sour and salty before it is sweet, with heat from chillies both fresh and dried and a deep savour from fermented soy bean and grilled aromatics. A meal is built around sticky rice, one or two relishes with raw and blanched vegetables, a grilled meat and a soup or curry of restrained richness. Ricker presents these as dishes to be eaten together, each answering the others, and not as courses in sequence.