vegan Chiang Mai

With Happy Cow listing 68 vegan/vegetarian restaurants in Chiang Mai (compared to a mere 25 in Melbourne), do you need any more reasons to Northern Thailand? 

Chiang Mai is home to over 300 Buddhist temples, hundreds of eateries and a haven for travellers in Asia who don't want shrimp paste in their curry. As we spent 9 days in Chiang Mai, it was a relief that vegan choices beyond the standard curries and Pad Thai abound. Every meal ranged from good to spectacular, including breakfast in our hotel (which, let’s face it, in the best of places can get a bit samey after a few days). The kitchen was always happy to make a vegan hot breakfast to order for the Significant Eater, usually rice or noodle based, supplementing the dazzling array of tropical fruit, salad, sticky rice in banana leaves and amazing juices and iced teas. Vegetarian choices also included eggs cooked to order (my favourite being a Thai omelette with fresh herbs and chilli), pancakes and savoury rice porridge.

We ate most of our meals in the Old City but two of my three top vegan picks are beyond the moat. Keep in mind getting around is easy. For a mere 20 baht (less than a dollar) you can jump in a shared ‘taxi’ (converted ute/pick up truck) or 50 baht for a tuk tuk. For a day trip we found a mid-priced car and driver for 1500 baht (about $50).

Best of the omni cafes

Chiang Mai does casual dinning well. Want breakfast, coffee, a beer, late lunch or a three course dinner? These two laid back gems mightn’t look like anything special but warranted return visits. Both offered free wifi, good vegan choices and a relaxed atmosphere.

1. Peppermint cafe 1/1 Soi 5 Rachadamnoen Rd

The menu is a blend of Thai and Western food, including a fusion of both. If you want your salad ‘Thai style’ with extra spice, you will get a fiery hit. One of their specialties is pizza and they didn’t flinch at whipping up a vegan one (the SE said it was the best vegan pizza he’d ever eaten).

2. Nature’sWay Moon Muang Soi 4

The signs proudly state they don't use MSG. Food is fresh and sometimes organically grown. The vegetarian tom yum soup and noodles were free of fishy additives. I loved their big noodles with tofu and vegetables. Friendly staff, who remember your face and welcome you back. 

Note: my affection for these cafes was probably heightened by cuddles from neighbourhood cats that stopped by for a smooch.

Top three vego eateries in Chiang Mai

Sadly we only sampled a handful of the dozens of vegetarian restaurants but these three stood out for the diversity and sheer yumminess of the food. 

1. Pun Pun 

Wander through the grounds of Suan Dok temple and look for the ‘monk chat’ sign. Pun Pun, an al fresco café, lies beyond. 

Pun Pun is run by a sustainable living community and showcases their own organic vegetables. The menu is large and varied. My soup, with nori and a beetroot sauce, was certainly not traditional Thai and defied culinary pigeonholing. Even the spring rolls offered a novel filling. This is a great daytime café (they have a new restaurant  further out at the base of the hills that stays open til 8pm), perfect for when you get bored of the usual suspects and want to explore new flavours. Check the website for opening hours (the first time I looked at the site it said ‘closed Wednesday’, the next time it didn’t mention it). Avoid if it’s raining, as there’s very little cover in a downpour.

2. Bodhi Zen 18/5 Ratchvithi Road, Sriphim, Chiang Mai (not far from Thapae Gate)

Did you hear about the Vietnamese monk who opened a vegetarian restaurant in Northern Thailand? Offering ‘world cuisine’, this is another excellent choice for when you want to eat something a little different. The rice balls and cabbage rolls were both spectacular. While the meal was amazing, it was a chaotic and slightly uncomfortable dinning experience (for many, many reasons). But the food is worth it. Really.

3. Radiance Restaurant (at The Spa Resort) 165 Moo 4 Tumbon Huaysai, Chiang Mai 

About 40 minutes from the Old City in the grounds of a health resort, Radiance is an upmarket restaurant on the rural fringe of Chiang Mai. The verdant setting is calm and indeed ‘radiant’. I pity those who pay a lot of money to stay here and choose the detox package. While the menu lists a wide range of delicious juices for those fasting, even reading the description of the dishes must drive them wild. Though not strictly a vego restaurant (they offer some fish and chicken) they also have  extensive raw food options (the lasagne was a work of art and the raw chocolate dessert is worth a trip to Thailand in itself). Despite not being a fan of mock meat, the 'duck' curry was one of the most emotionally satisfying meals of my holiday. It also serves booze, something many of vego eateries avoid. This place earns the accolade of gourmet, though expensive by local standards is still significantly cheaper than at home. Worth a detour.

Other food-worthy mentions

Coffee: While Chiang Mai professes to having a ‘coffee culture’, including its home grown answer to Starb*cks, the espressos I sampled were very ordinary. With one notable exception. Akha Ama's  beans are organic and sustainably grown in Northern Thailand. They’re serious about their product, have a good rig and train their baristas. I’m not kidding when I say this is possibly the best espresso I’ve ever drunk. They do a mean iced green tea, like no other (possibly with powdered green tea?)

I frequently visited their new café at La Fattoria, Rachadamnoen Rd (past the police station, near Wat Phrasingh).

Markets: There are a plethora of wet markets selling fresh produce, if you want to pick up a kilo mangosteens for less than a dollar. My favourite was San Pakoy, just across the river, perfect for an early morning walk. (Non-vegans might want to try breakfast from the many carts near the market or outside the night bazaar, for some real but undeniably meaty street food).

The Sunday Walking market along Rachadamnoen Rd offers a number of vegan goodies including noodles, barbecued corn and stuffed betel leaves. Don’t forget to take a break between grazing and stop for a foot massage.

Cooking: There are a truck-load of cooking schools in Chiang Mai but I'd heard grumbles that some use vegan-unfriendly curry pastes. We spent a delightful day in the country at Thai Farm Cooking School, on a small organic farm, where we cooked everything from scratched. As you cook your own dishes, there's no problems being in a mixed omni/veg*n class. We had a fun day, visited a local market, cooked a soup, curry, stir fry, noodles and sticky rice...and patted some nice cats.

Maps. The Nancy Chandler map is a Chiang Mai institution, now in it’s 19^th edition. It plots a pleasing amount of V’s for vegetarian, along with non-food things to do in town. Don’t forget to check online for updates (unlike us, who didn’t and went on a thwarted hunt for the cat sanctuary and wooden foot bridge). You can pick up your map from any of the bookstores in Chiang Mai selling English language books. 

Want more tips? Check out my entry on Chiang Mai in my travel blog.

New York - Brooklyn Flea and Smorgasburg

After two days of torrential rain in New York (hello tropical storm Andrea), we farewelled the octogenarian traveller. Miraculously the clouds parted as he headed for Newark airport and we jumped a taxi downtown to our new digs in West Village. It was a relief to leave the tourist tat of Times Square behind.

Dropping our bags at our Airbnb apartment and slipping into walking shoes, it was time to activate the virgin subway card and hit Brooklyn.

It wasn’t so much a shopping trip but a street food pilgrimage.

After a quick look at the Fort Greene greenmarket we hoofed it to the Saturday Flea. Though a better than average vintage and craft market, the best thing about it was the grazing.

First off, some vegan ‘noodles’. In need of something raw and nutritious this amply hit the spot.

Once the nutritional halo had been polished it was time for sugary refreshments. Couldn’t go past the rhubarb and Thai basil soda. The savoury hit after the initial fruitiness on the palate was inspiring.

Scouting for vegan goodies was derailed by the discovery of mahi-mahi taco (sans crème), fresh soft tortilla, grilled tuna and an inspiring green apple salsa. The green apple salsa got me googling for recipes.

With the afternoon getting on we jumped the subway to Bedford Ave and lucked upon the coolest place in New York, closed to traffic for the day. Hipsters chilling out on astroturf, a swathe of great shops and even a vegan ice cream truck – who could ask for more?

After a wander and partaking of the food truck’s delights, the day was getting on. Smorgasurg awaited and the biggest surprise wasn’t just the awesome array of vegan foods on offer, amongst the usual piggy parts, but the amazing view of Manhattan just across the East River.

It almost broke my foodie heart to not be hungry but somehow forced down a tart cherry cola (not as exciting as the rhubarb) and sampled the blackberry chocolate vegan ice cream. We thought the Van Leeuewen was good but the Alchemy Creamery nudged them out of first place.

The Saturday Smorgasburg has a laid back vibe, wonderful views and food worth fasting a day for, to work up a worthy appetite.

After a gazillion photos of the Manhattan skyline, we had a quick rummage at the artist and flea market on 7^th Street. (Tip: probably the closest toilet to Smorgasburg), then back to the wonders of Williamsburg Walks and delights on Bedford Ave. With its stylish boutiques, browse-worthy bookshops, cafes and yet another vegan restaurant, Williamsburg on a sunny Saturday put the glitz of 42^nd Street to shame.

Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, San Francisco

An unexpected bonus of a travelling north in winter is catching a second taste of summer. Just as the fruit and veg at home starts getting dreary, along comes another hit of sun blushed abundance.

Late spring in San Francisco dished up all-you-can-eat cherries, asparagus and artichokes. We also gorged on fresh dates and beautiful beetroots. The Rainier cherries in particular were a burst of sunshine in each mouthful. At $7 a pound for organic, they were also way cheaper than at home during our short cherry season.

I only made it to the smaller midweek market at the FerryPlaza, the Saturday one is much larger but was suitably wowed by the variety and quality of the produce. 

Blue Bottle Coffee (they also have a permanent stall inside) sufficiently caffeinated me to Melbourne levels. Toby had given me a heads up to look out for them in the US and their cafes are liberally sprinkled throughout San Francisco and New York.

There were liberal opportunities to taste the market goodies; I just wished I’d left room for the hot tamales. Once we’d had our fill outside, there were the wonders of the ferry building itself to explore. You can read omni blogs about the infamous Cowgirl Creamery and the shop specialising in ‘tasty salted pig parts’ but it was Far West Fungi that had me drooling. Their array of wild and cultivated mushrooms had me crying out for a kitchen but I almost howled at having to forgo experimenting with fiddlehead ferns.

I got over my woe with cleansing ale at MarketBar, one of a number on upmarket restaurants in the building, then jumped on the Sausalito ferry (it is a commuter terminal after all) to escape the madness of downtown San Francisco. Like all great cities, a little distance never hurts to help you enjoy it, just a little bit more.

New York highlights

Unexpected

Dogs – in Macy’s, on the street, in boutiques…

Pregnant women – especially at the Brooklyn markets, it’s a fecund borough

Frozen yoghurt – where our current epidemic started, let’s hope we find a cure…fast

Children playing in fountains on hot days

80s Brit pop – playing in stores and cafes, including quite a few indie bands from my youth, nostalgia city

Bipolar weather – either a chilly all day downpour or sunburn

Subway buskers – the best ever, amazing voices, strings and brass

Ten dollar psychics – on every street corner

Art

Subway art – lovely surprises, including the subversive Tom Otterness Life Underground  bronzes in the nooks and crannies of ‘our’ 14^th St station.

Museum Mile – annual 5^th Avenue street festival where 10 blocks are closed and museums open free for three hours. Visited the Guggenheim, The Met (including the Punk exhibition), listened to DJs, watched buskers and gasped at the glory of Central Park at sunset.

Murals in the lobby of the Chrysler building (and you thought all the deco loveliness was on the outside?)

Dia:Beacon – perfect rainy day trip up the Hudson to Connecticut. For lovers of modern art only, this place is like entering the Tardis (“it’s a lot bigger on the inside”) Richard Sera, Warhol, Sol Le Witt all standouts as well as the most comfortable sofas ever experienced in an art gallery. Check out the Metro North Getaway Package for a reduced price train trip/museum entry.

MoMA PS1 worth a trip to Long Island, more modern art than you can poke a stick at, the eco themed Expo1 studded with gems from Meg Webster’s Pool to classic Ansel Adams prints.

Food

Like the weather food is equally polarized. Equal number of vegan and porcine themed eateries, food stalls and products.

Markets – visited the Fort Greene and Union Square farmers markets, gobbled our way through the Brooklyn flea food stalls barely leaving room for a late afternoon trip to Smorgasburg in Williamsburg. 

Food trucks – Van Leeuwen’s vegan ice cream was our fave.

So little time, so much amazing food to choose from - will share more soon.

Architecture

The Empire State and Chrysler buildings around almost every corner. Viewed from Williamsburg, the Hudson, the Highline and all places in between.

Grand Central Terminus – best view from the mezanine Apple Store (tip: free wifi) at rush hour, watching all those busy little ants below and the star map above.

Frank Gehry’s IAC building – from the High Line, the Hudson, during the day, the magic twighlight zone when it’s see-through and at night.

Ceilings to remember – Rose Main Reading Room and the NY Public library, Bethesda Terrace in Central Park and off course Grand Central.

…and speaking of the High Line, it deserves it’s own post (here it is!). We stayed two blocks from the start and walked 5 lengths of it during our stay. We were wowed during the day, loved it as a pedestrian express route uptown, a spot to drink an excellent morning coffee from Kava but it was on a summer’s night that it totally blew my mind and senses.

Parks and gardens

While the High Line is a 21^st century Central Park, it’s the pocket gardens the breath clean air into most neighbourhoods.

Jefferson Market Garden - a standout Greenwich Village green spot, lovingly tended by volunteers.

Washington Square – for buskers, the fountain and food trucks.

And also

Happy Hour – what a wonderful institution. Cheap drinks, cheeky bartenders, chatting with the locals. Margaritas at Mole worth a detour. 

West Village – woke up to birdsong every morning, great neighbourhood bars and restaurants, espresso and a potential ‘Little Melbourne’ (can we start the trend and call it ‘LiMe’?) with Crumpler and Aesop around the corner. Plus the usual $10 psychics, healthfood stores and dogs.

Summer fruits, flowers and Tropical Storm Andrea.