We love Thai food and eat it every day. When we came back from six weeks in India, all I wanted was a Yam Khai Dao with plenty of lime and chilli. But living somewhere where the variety of international cuisines is pretty limited, we find ourselves craving our westerns favourites from time to time.
So when we go somewhere like Chiang Mai we treat ourselves and satisfy those cravings.
Chiang Mai has great street food and of course it’s famous Khao Soi (which is delicious and everyone should try it!) but we were on a mission to only eat things that we cannot get in Nakhon Sawan.
Here are the edible highlights of our trip:
Breakfast at Rustic and Blue.
I was recommended this place on Twitter and it did not disappoint. We both had a variation of french toast and they were equally gigantic and magnificent!
I had the ‘Awesome French Toast’ which had peanut butter and nutella INSIDE it and was topped with fresh fruit, caramelised nuts and a lemon and passion fruit coulis.
Matt went for the ‘Brekkie Stack’ which comprised two wedges of brioche french toast, maple syrup, bacon, egg, sausage and cheese. I know!
It was wonderful and we will be back!
Vava Frozen Yoghurt
I hunt down fro-yo wherever I am and I feel like I nailed it this time. My go-to order is plain yoghurt and blueberries but there were no blueberries availabe and as at Vava you serve yourself and pay by weight I thought I’d experiment a bit.
Sticking with the plain base I topped it with raspberries, mango, both dark and white chocolate chips, peanuts and almonds.
It was perfect – sweet but not too sweet and the nuts added a great crunch!
Dinner at Italics.
I wanted pizza and although we do know a good Italian in Chiang Mai, we fancied trying somewhere new.
Italics is the restaurant at The Akyra hotel and it’s Tripadvisor’s top rated Italian restaurant in Chiang Mai so we figured it was worth a try!
It has very unusual decor with long thin branches of lights coming out of black wicker benches. It was perhaps a tad too bright but overall it had a nice atmosphere.
On to the food…
Complementary bread with a wonderful pesto.
Tomato bruschetta – Matt ordered this. I have issues with bruschetta.
Pasta with olives, ricotta, sundried tomatoes and veggies.
Deep fried courgette sticks with sour cream.
We customised our pizza with four different quarters: Chiang Rai four cheese; the ‘Vegetarian’ (courgette, aubergine, olives, mushroom and pepper), the ‘Diavola’ (mozzarella, salami and peppers) and ‘Carbonara’ (mozzarella, carbonara sauce, bacon and parmesan).
Chocolate lava cake with pistachio ice cream.
Banana ricotta cheesecake.
The cheesecake was delicious but the chunks of raw banana on top didn’t quite work and they bizarrely poured so much cream on for you that the cheesecake was swimming in a vanilla pool!
It was such a treat to get dressed up and go somewhere a bit fancy and even drink Prosecco! Our bellies were so full that I wasn’t even hungry for breakfast the next day!
Rustic and Blue: https://www.facebook.com/rusticandbluechiangmai/
Vava: http://www.vavayogurt.com
Italics: http://www.theakyra.com/chiang-mai/dining/akyra-manor-italics/
