Chiang Mai Food Tour

Oct 2019

Hi World

I was reviewing my Instagram and realized I have left out my food blog for a little while... Just a little.

My passion for food is still high as before. Recently, I just came back from Mauritius, Thailand, and Singapore. During this trip, I joined two local food tours in Chiangmai and Bangkok; and it was amazing and entertaining.

We found this local tour via Urban Adventures. This company operates with the vision of the sustainability of the local community, and to provide the local experience for the visitors.

It was a sunday, and a lot of local businesses were closed as many of them would like to go to the temple and church. After a 45 minutes drive and three attempts, we finally arrived at this shop to try the famous Chiang Mai coconut curry noodle soup - Khao soi.

I do not have a heavy taste bud, especially in the morning. But this stuff is a BADASS and I enjoyed it so much. This master-piece is made from wheat-and-egg noodles, a rich, fragrant curry-based broth, sides of crunchy pickled greens, sliced shallots and lime. The tour guide mentioned that there are always four condiments on the table: sweet-spicy-salty-sour. Customers can have a taste of the original dish and add in the condiment accord to their personal preference. Those condiments are usually being sugar, dried chili flakes, pickled chilli and fish sauce. There is another popular condiment on the table - deep-fried pork crackling. Thai people love it with salad, noodle soup or snacks. I ordered one serve and dipped it in the soup for a few seconds.....IT WAS INSANELY GOOD.

We took a short ride and arrived at our second Stop - On Soi Tantawan, northeast of where Highway 11 starts at Maya Shopping Centre, in Chang Phueak / Ban Sathaphon.

Trust me, you could not possibly find this shop without a local tour guide. A 100% local place with the 'best papaya salad' in Chiangmai. It was packed during lunchtime, I can see a lot of families and young kids in the restaurant. Salad is the superstar here, you can order anything from papaya, cucumber to mango and pork neck. The place even provides a self-serve condiment station for the customer. We ordered one serve of grilled chicken wing, pork jerky and papaya salad (I finished the chicken wing without a picture....got too excited). The portion is generous and spicy!!! 

The tour guy took us to a dessert shop called Pinky milk for our final stop. But we were too full to eat anything.

Overall it was a great experience for the day and there are many more things to try in this historical town of Thailand.

Garlic Portahouse

I love steak just like everyone else, but to be honest, I wouldn't pay $40 for a average steak in the restaurant unless that is premium cut of steak. But  how to cook a restaurant quality go steak at home? There are some tricks with minimum efforts.

Today I am going to show you my version of steak for just under 10minutes work.

You Need

250gram porterhouse steak
Garlic (sliced and fry it until golden crispy)
Master food garlic steak seasoning 1 tablespoon
Master food garlic salt 1 tablespoon
Rosemary 1 stalk
Lemon zest 1 teaspoon
Olive oil 2 tablespoon


Prep time: 2 Minutes
Cooking Time: 3-5 minutes

1. Marinate steak with olive oil, steak seasoning and salt for 5 minutes ( Make sure steak is in room temperature).
2. Heat up the pan for 3 minutes until it is smoky hot.
3. Place in the steak, and turn it over every 30 seconds, cook it for 3-5 minutes according to your preference.
4. Let it sit for at least 3 minutes, at the same time, put rosemary and lemon zest  into the pan, and let the remaining heat to infuse the favour in,  and then pour in juice from the resting steak.
5. Slice up the steak and put into the plate, pour over the infused juice., and sprinkle fried garlic over steak.

Creamy Avocado Dip

Dipping Sauce is one of the heroes when we having crackers or chips,  it literally brings the snack to another tasting level rather than just the a piece of dull biscuit. The Avocado dip that I am sharing today, it's full of freshness from mix herbs, and also the refreshing taste from lemon and jalapeno.

You Need

• 1 X Sliced avocado
• 1 cup X low-fat sour cream
• 1/2 cup X  Coriander
• 1 tablespoon Lemon juice
• 1 X Jalapeno
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• crackers/corn chips/Hot chips, for serving

Prep Time: 3 Minutes.

1. Sliced avocado into small cubes.
2. Cut Jalapeno into half, and removes all the seeds.
3. In a food processor, combine avocado, sour cream, Coriander, Lemon juice, jalapeno, and salt. Blend it until smooth, you can add in more salt or lemon juice according to personal preference.

PS. fridge the sauce for 30 minutes, and oven baked crackers or corn chips for 3 minutes, it would tastes so much better when you dipping it with the cold  sauce.

Hainanese Chicken Rice is a MUST order dish when I visit Singapore every time, and I guess I would never get sick of it. There are some techniques required to make a nice chicken oil rice and soft chicken,  but all you need is patient. Today, I am going to show you a simple version of it.

You Need ( 2 serves)
Chicken Maryland x 1
Jasmine Rice x 2 Cups
Garlice X 1 whole Garlic Clove
Ginger X half
Spring Onion Root X 5
Pandan Leaves

Chicken Soy Sauce
shao xin wine x 1 tablespoon
light soysauce x 1 tablespoon
sesame oil x 1 teaspoon
sugar x 2/3 teasoon
dark soy sauce x 1 teaspoon

Chilli Sauce
Red Chilli x 3
Lemon/Lime Juice x 1/2 Table spoon
Mince Garlice x 1 Tablespoon
Salt x 1/2 teaspoon
Chicken Stock

Ginger Sauce
Peanut oil x 3 tablespoon
Mince Ginger x 1 tablespoon
Chopped Spring Onion x 1 tablespoon
pinch of salt

1. Bring a large pot of water to the boil, add 3 big pieces of ginger, 5 cloves of garlic, 3 stalks of spring onion, pinch of salt, then add the chicken in, and leave it for 10 seconds and take it out (repeat this step for 3 times),  and then leave the chicken to boil for further 5 minutes. off the heat and cover with a lid and leave to stand in the water for 45 minutes.

2. Remove the chicken from the water. chop it up and pour over the soy sauce on the chicken, leave to cool. (microwave it for 40 seconds before serving it)

3. Blend chilli, garlic and ginger in a food processor, add ½ tablespoon of chicken stock and lemon/lime juice and salt to taste.

4. To make the ginger sauce, place spring onion in a empty saucer, sprinkle salt over the top, fry mince ginger with oil for 1 minute, pour into saucer, let the remaining heat to cook over spring onion.

5. To make the chicken rice, wash and drain the rice,  heat the chicken fat in a pan until it releases oil, then add the ginger and garlic and fry until golden. Discard any solid pieces of fat. Add the rice and salt and stir-fry for 3 minutes. Transfer the rice to a rice cooker, and add in pandan leaves, chicken stock ( the usual amount of water you used to cook rice) and the pandan leaves if using.

6. To make the soup, add in salt and spring onion and fried shallot with the remaining chicken stock.

Cantonese Fried Egg Noodles

If you do know a little bit more about Cantonese culture, you would know what we love to eat in the morning. one of the classic combinations is plain porridge, Deep-fried dough and Fried egg noodles. Chinese love to eat rice, they can have it at any time of the day, it's just like bread, cereal, and potato in western country. Plain porridge itself has not much taste, and this is where all the side dishes came from.

Today I am going to show you how to make a classic Cantonese fried egg noodles in just 15 minutes.

You Need

Egg Noodles  X 2
Bean sprouts   X 1 Cup
Spring onion (sliced) X 1 Stalk
Sesame Oil X 2 Tablespoon
Dark Soy Sauce X 2 Tablespoon
Chili Oil (Optional)
Roasted White Sesame  x 1 Teablespoon

1. Cook bean sprouts for 1 minute,Cook Noodles for 2-3 minutes, drain it and set aside.
2. Heat up the Pan, add in Sesame oil, noodle and bean sprouts, fry for 1 minute, add in soy sauce, followed by spring onion, fry for another minute.
3. Plate up, and sprinkle roasted white sesame and chili oil on top of it.

Cheesy Bacon Macaroni

Here is a simple macaroni recipe for a quick lunch, Bacon and cheese, who doesn't love it, right?

You Need

Macaroni x 1 Cup
Bacon x 2 strips (sliced)
Fresh/Dried Chives (Optional)

Cooking Cream 1/2 Cup
Kraft Full Cream Cheese x 2 slices
Salt & Black Pepper

Seasoning (One Teaspoon each)
Garlic Steak Seasoning
Piri Piri (Hot) Seasoning
Paprika Ground
Turmeric Ground

Prep Time: 2 Minutes
Cook Time: 10-15 Minutes

1. Boil macaroni for 7- 8 minutes with olive oil and pinch of salt, then drain it and set aside.
2. Fry up the bacon for 3 minutes and add in all spices as above, fry for another 3 minutes.
3. turn to low heat, add in macaroni and 1/2 of cream, stir it through.
4. Once everything combined, add in cheese slices, let it melt with macaroni.
5. Once cheese melt and combined, sprinkle chives and black pepper over the pasta.

Five Spices Roasted Pork

Succulent pork belly with crispy chunky cracker isn't it the food from haven? This simple roasted pork recipe is very easy to make and goes so well with Chinese vegetables and rice.

You Need
1kg Pork Belly
White vinegar

Marinate sauce
Chinese five spices x 1 Tbs
White pepper x 1Tbs
Chicken stock powder x 1Ts
Chinese Rice Wine x 1Tbs
Sugar x 1Ts
Salt x half Tbs

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 60 minutes

1. Place pork skin down into hot water, let it simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Dry it up with paper towel, marinated the meat, please do not touch the skin to avoid colour turns black later.
3. Use pork tenderiser to pop as much holes as possible, and brush one layer of white vinegar on pork skin.
4. Leave it in the fridge over night.
5. Take it out and let it set until room temperature, preheat oven to 200 degree, put the pork in for 40minutes, and raise the temperature to 220 degree for 5-8 minutes.

Oven is various from one to another, please keep an eye on with the last 5-10 minutes.


一斤帶皮豬腩肉，白醋

醃料
五香粉 一湯匙
白胡椒粉 一湯匙
雞粉 一茶匙
紹興酒 一湯匙
糖 一茶匙
鹽 半湯匙


1. 煲滾熱水，將帶皮一面反轉，浸泡十分鐘。
2. 抹乾水份，將醃料搽上肉，絕對不要掂到豬皮，會變黑。
3. 用扎肉器在豬皮上扎密孔，愈多愈好，再掃上一層白醋。
4. 放入雪櫃醃過夜，不用包保鮮紙，要利用冷氣吸乾水份。
5. 將肉放至室溫，預熱焗爐至200度後，放入中層焗45分鐘，轉上層焗5-8分鐘。
6. 取出後放至十分鐘便可切成小塊。

每個焗爐都不一樣，注意轉上層後要注意豬皮的變化，以免燒焦。