As our final day in Chiang Rai reached its end, we went looking for some street food to satisfy our hunger. We figured we’d stay close to home base and see into what the local night market had in store. We ended up discovering an intriguing local dish at one of the the city’s night markets.
Our hotel was very close to the bus station, which was also close to the Chiang Rai Night Bazaar. We went to check it out and see what we could find. The market is filled with stalls selling various clothes, crockery, bags, and other souvenirs. Since many travelers pass through Chiang Rai on their way to Laos, this place is geared toward tourists with many of the products have Thailand branded on them.
There is a small outside area with a bar and a couple of restaurants around the outside. This looked like a good place to stop for food, but we decided to continue exploring first. Behind the bar we would pass several stalls selling produce and fresh meat. A wet market just like the ones back in China. If we weren’t staying in a hotel, we would definitely have gone here for food.
Past the wet market, we came to a food hall with yellow seats and tables set up, a stage at one side with a live DJ set going. This hall is lined with several food stalls, with options including local Thai food, Chinese food, and Western food. At the back we found a stall selling Hotpot Soup and Soup Spicy and immediately knew where we would eat. Our love for hotpot and longing for spicy food has been long unfulfilled since the last time we were in China, so we were excited for one last chance for a spicy hot pot before we left for Laos.
Eagerly, we ordered the hotpot and waited in anticipation for them to prepare a pot and bring it over. While waiting I went to the nearby bar, more like a beer stall, and got a drink to enjoy the meal with. By this time we were really hungry, so were excited for what would hopefully be some tasty food. Many people know Chinese hotpot, but they don’t realise that many regions have their own version of hotpot, including countries outside of China. It was exciting to see what Thailand’s version of it would look like.
The hotpot came in a small clay pot, coals burning underneath to keep it bubbling. The warmth of the clay pot was comforting as we were also given a small selection of vegetables and some pork to go with it. It reminded me a little of Korean hotpot, or the Xi’an hotpot that was meant for individuals. Since my partner doesn’t eat meat, we had opted to buy just one with some extra vegetables rather than ordering individually.
The soup itself was a pork stock, or more like a broth with the amount of vegetables inside. Adding the food, especially the meat, released a slew of new aromas, a preview of the taste we were about to experience. We tried the soup both before and after cooking our food, and the flavour of the pork especially complemented the blend of herbs that had been used to make the soup. It was the perfect meal to end our time in the country.
It was the spiciest meal I’d had the whole time I was in Thailand. Maybe it was recency bias because it had been so long since I’ve had hotpot, but it was one of the best hotpots I’ve ever tasted, and the best local food I had in the entire country.
We had a couple more beers in another bar that was hidden behind the food hall. After our night cap we returned to the hotel. We had to be up early the next day, as we were finally going to the border and crossing over into Laos. It’s been an interesting time in Thailand, and I’d love to come back one day.
But it was time to continue the adventure through South East Asia, to Laos, a country I knew very little about, so I was looking forward to learning more about the country’s history, culture, and seeing if it had its own version of hotpot.
