Food in each region of Thailand is very distinctive, and none less than northern Thai food.

The people of Chiang Mai are loyal Thai citizens, yet they are very proud of their distinct culture and traditions. They have their own language, their own customs and festivals and their own style of cooking.

The people of Bangkok eat plain rice. The people of Chiang Mai eat sticky rice. They sit on a mat in the middle of which are placed the bowls of curry and spicy dips, they break off pieces of sticky rice - as it were of bread - roll it into a ball and dip it into the food. The famous tourist attraction of the Kantoke Dinner has evolved from this way of eating.

At a Kantoke Dinner the guests sit round a circular, raised tray on which are placed dishes of special Northern Thai food such as prik num and prik ong, both spicy dips, naem and sai-ua, peculiar kinds of sausage, kap mu, crackly pork skin, vegetables and so on. Pretty girls in Northern Thai dress serve you and spectacular Northern Thai and hilltribe dances are performed.

There are, too, northern dishes that originated in Burma such as the tasty noodle curry, eaten for lunch, called kao soi. Other well -known dishes such as nam ngeow, somtam and kanom chin have been given a distinct northern taste. Chiang Mai, because of its cool, mountainous climate, is also renowned for its great selection of temperate as well as tropical fruit and vegetables.