Updated March 2, 2026
Burmese-influenced curries, highland herb stews, and plant-forward braises from the Lanna kitchen. Twelve dishes where dried spices enter the mortar, coconut mostly stays out, and sticky rice is the only accompaniment.
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Chef Fai
Lanna's kreung tam breaks from Central Thai rules: ginger over galangal, cumin and coriander from Burmese spice routes, tamarind for sour instead of lime. The North has its own system, and this curry is its crown.
Chef Fai
Lanna's kreung tam breaks every Central Thai rule: dried spices from Burmese trade routes enter the mortar, ginger replaces galangal, and coconut milk arrives as a highland exception. This is Chiang Mai in a bowl.
Chef Fai
The Lanna kreung tam breaks every Central Thai rule: ginger over galangal, cumin and star anise from the Burmese trade roads, coconut in a region where coconut palms don't grow. Braised beef turns it into something that sticks to your ribs through the cool season.
Chef Fai
No coconut. No compromise. Lanna's jungle curry is built on a kreung tam of dried spices and ginger, simmered in water, and loaded with wild herbs your grandmother foraged from the mountain. The paste is the principle. The herbs are the land.
Chef Fai
No paste. No mortar. Phak wan leaves, eggs, garlic, fish sauce, and water. Lanna home cooking stripped to the bone, and the four pillars still hold when everything else is gone.
Chef Fai
Beef and highland paste go into a pot with water. Two hours later, the water is gone. What remains is a dark, sticky glaze of Burmese-route spices clinging to every fiber of beef. Lanna concentration at its purest.
Chef Fai
No coconut grows in the northern highlands. Just a Lanna kreung tam heavy on ginger and toasted spices from the Burmese trade routes, dissolved into water, simmered with beef shin until the broth turns thick and golden. This is how the mountains cook.
Chef Fai
The kreung tam lives twice. Yesterday's gaeng hang le hits a screaming wok with glass noodles and bamboo, and the Lanna kitchen proves that a day-old curry isn't a leftover. It's a foundation waiting for its second life.
Chef Fai
No coconut palms grow in the northern highlands, so Lanna cooks built curries on water, pork stock, and a kreung tam loaded with ginger and Burmese-route spices. The young jackfruit soaks up every drop.
Chef Fai
The inner trunk of the banana plant, not the fruit, simmered in a Lanna herb broth with pork ribs. Peasant food that turns agricultural waste into dinner. The highlands use what grows at the door.
Chef Fai
Foraged water lily stems simmered in a Lanna broth built on a kreung tam that's never seen coconut. Ginger over galangal, tua nao over shrimp paste. The mountains cook differently. This curry proves it.
Chef Fai
A Lanna kreung tam built on ginger, dried spices from the Burmese border, and tua nao instead of shrimp paste. No coconut. Just pork ribs, tomatoes, and a paste that belongs to the mountains.
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