Last Day in Chiang Mai: Food Festival

Lanna Food Festival 2025 happening outside the Tha Phae Gate

This is my final day in Chiang Mai before I head off to the next destination on this journey.   It's a beautiful city, filled with friendly people.  But you can do everything that needs to be done, and see everything that needs to be seen, in two days here.  This is my third day in Chiang Mai.

Wat to do?

I could visit the Wat Tung Yu there.  Well, why not?

As I said, Chiang Mai is a two-day town.  One day to see all the major temple complexes.  One day to cavort with elephants.  I've done both.  Wat Tung Yu is not one of the major wats.  It's not going to be on any picture postcards.

But it is perfectly nice.

And empty.  Maybe one other tourist here snapping a few photos.  That was it.

I found this sign on the grounds of Wat Tung Yu more than a little bit disturbing.

Thank goodness I left the camisole back at the hotel.  However, despite being directed not to wear shorts, I am not removing mine.  Besides, they're cargo shorts, which always have a respectable inseam length.

I kept wandering down Rachadamnoen Road, the main east-west arterial through the historic core, i.e., inside the moat, part of Chiang Mai, to check out what was beyond the Tha Phae Gate toward the river.  And just outside the gate, I found this:

It was a food festival!  I can't believe it.  Right here where we live.

At the south end of the festival grounds was, what appeared to me at least, some sort of cooking competition going on.

Sort of like every show on the Food Network.  Except for the ones with the insufferable Guy Fieri.  I can't be sure if this is an actual competition because all of the shouting and loud talking was happening in Thai.  Which makes sense.  Given that this is Thailand

The fattest man in Chiang Mai -- no -- not me -- seems to the M.C. or the chief judge.

This makes sense.  One look and you know the guy knows food.  Never ever trust a skinny food critic.  Or a skinny chef.   Or skinny people in general:  never trust a skinny person about anything.  But especially food.

I'm not on the judging panel for the cooking competition, so it was time to wander among the food stalls filled with Thai deliciousness.  At least I hope.

And my hopes were not dashed.  10 baht for a meat skewer?  An absolute bargain.  That's only about 30 cents or so.

I went with pork rather than chicken because it was pork, not chicken.

The "hot" in the sign above meant spicy.  It was room temperature.  But the taste was excellent.  Hot, but not too.

I did not opt for any of the octopus tentacles, however.

And I like some tasty octopus tentacles.

I also did not opt for any of these spices.

I don't know them.  I don't know how to use them.  But I'm sure they would be tasty if I only knew.

Next up?  A deep fried sandwich.  Why eat an ordinary ham and cheese sandwich when you can have one that's been deep-fried.

State fairs everywhere approve of elevating the lowly sandwich through the miracle of hot oil and panko breadcrumbs.

Grilled bananas on a stick?

Why I think I will.

Even better when dredged around in that pot of warm coconut sauce.  Besides:  it's on a stick.  Again, every state fair everywhere would approve of that.

I am working up a powerful thirst at this point.  I've been in Thailand for three days and I have not had any Thai Tea.  Time to rectify that omission.

Delicious, since it has that layer of creamy coconut milk on top flavoring the whole beverage.

At this point, you may have noticed, I have been snacking and grazing.  Time for a main course.  And when in Thailand ...

Pad Thai!  Only this time with a twist.  And the twist is longan, a popular local fruit, also known as "dragon's eye."  I think I like the name "longan" better.  I ordered up the pad thai longan with chicken.

Cooked to order, right on the spot.  And in no time I was presented with this:

This is the Pad Thai I hoped to eat in Thailand.  There were peanuts, and pepper flakes, fish sauce, and raw bean sprouts to add to up the flavor.  And this was amazing.  The sweetness of the longan, the sour of the lime, the heat from the pepper flakes, the umami of the fish sauce, the crunch of the peanuts:  this pad thai had everything that makes pad thai worth eating.  Five stars!!!!!  (Well, five exclamation points.)

Refreshed after a delicious meal and a 30-minute foot massage (too gentle) (not enough reflexology) (but whaddya want for 120 baht -- which is like four bucks), it was time to walk back to the hotel to digest all the food that I ate.