Vegetarian places to eat in Chiang Mai.

Pumpkin humous at Mai Kaidees. Yum.

There are lots of vegetarian places to eat in Chiang Mai - I can't recommend the food there enough. In fact, I got offered a job which was better paid in another part of Thailand, but turned it down because I knew the food wouldn’t be as good!! 

 I certainly can't say I've travelled the entire world, but I can confidently say that Chiang Mai has the best food options of anywhere I’ve ever been. 

So, what does Chiang Mai offer for vegetarians? So, so much! You can get everything from delicious, traditional Thai curries to amazing burritos and all-you-can eat buffets laden with hundreds of veggie options. 

Here’s my guide to the best traditional Thai veggie options in Chiang Mai…. 

 1. Mai Kaidees
Two years after leaving Thailand, I still dream about the taste of a Number 10 (curried tofu with noodles)at Mai Kaidees. It’s mainly traditional northern Thai dishes – Khoa Soi, curries, spring rolls etc – but she manages to make them taste so fresh and different to anywhere else. There is also tasty pumpkin humous on the menu and you must get something that involves her fabulous peanut sauce. It’s all veggie and very cheap at around 50/60baht a dish (£1 ish/ $1.60). The only thing I would say is that the service can be quite slow – I used to see countless people sit down for 15 minutes and then decide to leave because their order hadn’t even been taken. Persevere, I promise it’s worth it! There are also two Mai Kaidees in Bangkok which are just as good. 

46/32G Ratchawithi Road, Sri Phum (inside the old moat) 

2. Aum 
It was the first place I ever ate in Chiang Mai and I must have gone back at least 40 more times. I would recommend the veggie burger (70b/£1.40/$2.20) which is homemade and comes in a lovely granary bun and their Khoa Soi (60b/£1.20/$1.90) which was the best I tasted. If you’ve never had Khoa Soi then you must have it while in Chiang Mai – it’s a curried noodle dish which Aum serve with tofu and potato. They don’t have air con so it can get hot in here, but it’s worth sweating it out just to taste the Khoa Soi. (See my recipe for Khoa Soi here) 

65 Th Moon Muang (inside the old moat) 

3. Pun Pun at Wat Suandok 
This is a little gem. It’s quite far out the centre and is best reached by moped, but I promise it’s worth it. It’s located behind pretty Wat Suandok and only opens for limited hours (until around 3pm if I remember rightly). The food is really cheap – about 45b a dish (90p/$1.40) – and incredibly fresh. They do lots of traditional Thai dishes but also have beautiful salads with interesting ingredients such as bean sprouts and papaya. Just make sure you take some insect repellent as the garden location means you get eaten alive. 

On Suthep Road, west of the old city 

4. Khun Churn 
Located in the trendy Nimmanhemin area, where all of the university students hang out, Khun Churn is outside out the old moat but don't let that put you off. The most popular thing about Khun Churn is the lunch buffet which was 80b (£1.60) when I was there – I’ve got a feeling it’s probably gone up since then though. Still, even at 100b or slightly over, it’s a complete bargain as there is so much veggie food on offer. You can get fragrant soups, curries, salad and even make your own Khoa Soi. It’s also lovely in the evening when the menu is a la catre – try the penang curry. Yum. This is definitely not street food, it’s nice food in classy surroundings. 

Nimmanhemin, Soi 17 (50200) 

5. Blue Diamond 
The previous four were without doubt my favourite places to eat while living in Chiang Mai, but I’ve included Blue Diamond as it was always lovely but slightly expensive for me (I tried not spend more than 60baht on each meal!), however, I’m sure tourists can afford to be a bit more generous. Here you can get really fresh salads and rice dishes. They also have a bakery selling fresh bread and lovely cakes at a reasonable price. The dishes used to be around 90b (£1.80) which sounds cheap by British standards but was positively extravagant by my tight Thai standards! 

35/1 Moon Muang Road, Soi 9 (inside the old moat)

Itinerary for one month in Vietnam.



Beautiful Hoi An.


If you're deciding on an itinirary for one month in Vietnam, I hope this will be helpful. In 2011, my boyfriend and I spent nine months living in and travelling around South East Asia. While I was there, I was forever trawling the internet for information for travellers on a budget. So, here is my first blog on travelling which attempts to give some practical tips if you're planning to spend one month in Vietnam.

Itinerary:

We were there for a whole month and travelled from HCMC to Hanoi (south to north). A lot of people say it's better to travel north to south but we were already in Cambodia so it made sense to get the 10-hour bus from Phnom Penh to HCMC and head up the country.

Here's a rough idea of our itinerary...

HCMC (two nights)

Mui Ne (six nights)

Da Lat (three nights)

- Two-day/two-night Easyrider tour

Nha Trang (three nights)

- Night bus

Hoi An (six nights)

- Night bus

Hue (one night)

- Night bus

Hanoi (four nights with one night in Halong Bay)

I hope that's of some help. We found that if we loved somewhere (Mui Ne, Hoi An) then we ended up staying longer than planned and if we weren't so fussed (Hue, HCMC) then we'd make an exit ASAP - generally you only get a month-long visa so make the most of it. My advice is: be flexible and if you aren't feeling it, then get out!

Perfect t-shirt for a traveller

For a while now I've been looking for new t-shirts to go with skinny jeans for a casual weekend look.

I hate plain t-shirts and it's too chilly in the UK to wear vest tops atm (typical British summer), so I've been a bit stuck.

However, I went into Topshop last weekend and bought TWO new t-shirts. This is the first one - I really like the dipped back hem, I think it's such a flattering style. Also, the pattern is perfect for me because I love travelling, so while wearing it I can study the map and plan my next trip.

World Map t-shirt, Tee and Cake for Topshop, £25

Vegetarian Khao Soi Chiang Mai style.

I spent six months living in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand and I can honestly say in that time I ate some of the best food of my life.
When I first got there I was drawn to western food places (and there are many) but once funds started running low, I had to eat Thai for breakfast, lunch and dinner - but I never looked back.
Without doubt my favourite dish was Khao Soi which I believe is from northern Thailand/Burma, I certainly didn't see it on the menu anywhere else in southern Thailand. It's a noodle soup dish but with coconut milk and fresh coriannder, which gives it much more flavour and freshness than any other noodle soup I've eaten.
If you ever find yourself in Chiang Mai then you must go to Aum on Th 66 Moon Muang (walk through Thae Pae Gate towards the posh hotel with the water feature and head left) which has the best Khao Soi I tasted (and I tasted a lot!). It was 60 baht (£1.20/less than $2) which was more than I liked to pay for dinner, but it was worth it.
I've been back in the UK for nearly six months now but I've only just dared to try making my own Khao Soi as I was so worried about it not tasting as good...but this weekend I've made it twice and both times it was pretty damn good! Here's my recipe for beautiful Khao Soi (although still not as beautiful as Aum, unfortunately).

Comfortably serves 2

10 big cubes of tofu (the pre-fried stuff you get in plastic bags in Asian supermarkets)
1 small potato
1 cup mushrooms
1 carrot
1 courgette (zucchini)
1/2 cup of small sweetcorn
2-6 dried red chillies (depending on how hot you like it)
1 tablespoon red curry paste*
2 teaspoons of curry powder
1 1/2 tablespoons of light soy sauce
1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon of brown sugar
Just over half a can of coconut milk or more if you like it creamy
1-2 cups of water
400g of fresh egg noodles

Toppings:
A handful of crispy noodles (see recipe)
2 shallots
1 lime
A handful of coriander (cilantro)
1 sprig of spring onion
In Thailand it was always served with pickled mustard greens but I never liked these - try if you must!

1. Chop up the tofu and vegetables, ensure the potato is cut quite small so it will cook easily.

2. I find it's easier to prepare the toppings in advance and leave to one side. So, quarter the lime, roughly chop the coriander, peel and chop the shallots and cut the spring onion into strips. Then leave these in the middle of the table for later.

3. To make the crispy noodles, just put around an inch of sunflower oil into a wok and put on the hob until it's bubbling slightly. Grab a small handful of the fresh noodles and put them into the wok and stir with a wooden spoon. Once the noodles become stiff and slightly brown take them out and leave them on kitchen towel to drain.

4. Put the wok back on the heat with the sunflower oil residue in and put in the chopped vegetables, tofu and desired amount of dried red chillies in. Cook on high for about two minutes.

5. Then add the curry paste and curry powder and toss the vegetables around the wok so they're all coated. Add the light soy sauce while still stirring and then 30 seconds later add the dark soy sauce, still stirring.

6. Add the sugar and coconut milk and simmer for 2 minutes.

7. Pour in the water and bring back to simmer. Taste and add more chillies, sugar or soy sauce as desired. Leave simmering for 5 more minutes at the most.

8. Meanwhile, boil some water for the remaining noodles and once slowly bubbling plunge them in for 1-2 minutes and drain.

9. Put the noodles into the bottom of two deep bowls and then put the curry broth and vegetables on top. The broth should nearly cover the vegetables and definitely cover the noodles. Add the crispy noodles to the top.

10. Once at the table it can be enjoyed with sprinkles of coriander on top, a good squeeze of lime juice over the crispy noodles and some fresh shallots placed in the broth. Yum!

* If you really take Thai food seriously then make the curry paste from scratch, I'll put a veggie-friendly recipe in a future blog.