We traveled to Chiang Mai, a popular destination city for Chinese travelers and witnessed many things including a beautiful fruit market with many fruits that you don’t see in the US. We saw mangosteen, pomelos, baby pineapples, and of course, the supposedly foul smelling durian.
We also had the pleasure of dining at a Michelin-Star restaurant called The Ginger Farm where I must say the dining experience was truly one of the better restaurants that we ate at during our trip to Thailand.
Let’s start with the not so impressive. The fried shrimp with it’s sweet and sour sauce tasting like a McDonald’s chicken nugget and the different styles of rice were underwhelming. The fried shrimp should never remind me of a fast food and the there truly is no reason to offer that many styles of rice. I mean I guess it’s nice if you are a person who wants sticky rice or whole grain rice or blue rice? But having a little of each didn’t add to the dining experience.
Now on to the average. The chicken in green curry and the egg with a green vegetable were worth having but nothing spectacular. Those dishes were a nice compliment to the other dishes that we enjoyed. Not the best, but I’m sure you could have done worse.
The dishes that shined for me was the stewed beef and the fried tilapia. The stewed beef was very tender and in a brown sauce that reminded me of curry. The flavors are hard to describe as it’s not a common flavor in the US but a very lovely bouquet of curry shined right through. The fried tilapia was very well fried with a light and airy crispy crust that had a better flavor and texture that you might get from a fish and chips in the US. Plus adding a sweet and sour sauce or the spicy green curry sauce to dip added a new level of flavor to the already well balanced fried tilapia. Absolutely the best dish of the night for this traveler.
If you do travel to Chiang Mai, a stop at The Ginger Farm is a must if only for the fried tilapia alone.
