Food in Phayao

dancing shrimp

During my recent adventures around Phayao I enjoyed this delicious meal. The first dish to arrive was dancing shrimp (goong dten [กู้งเต้น]). The bowl looks dirty already, but that’s because the shrimp weren’t very happy to be in there. The shrimp are actually still alive and flopping around while you eat them. The combination of no water and lots of chilies can’t be pleasant for the shrimp, but it does make for tasty food. I’ve posted about dancing shrimp before, but this was the first time I ever encountered the dish outside of Bangkok.

The second dish was deep-fried morning glory (pak bung grawp [ผักบุ้งกรอบ]) with an abundance of squid. The morning glory is very lightly battered and then flash fried so it has a soft, but crispy texture. It is covered with a sour spicy sauce that is typical of most Thai salads. The extra squid served with this one made it really tasty.

Lastly, we had some laab muu [ลาบหมู]. Laab is a common, traditional Isaan preparation for pork that minces it up along with some herbs and spices. Sometimes it includes only the meat whereas other times offal will be added for extra flavor. It is very tasty, but the introduction of what I believe to be fried shallots made this serving unlike any of the hundreds of laabs I have previously had. The shallots gave it a pleasantly sweet flavor which is strange for dish that is usually spicy and sour.

All in all, this meal was a great sample of some food served on the lake in Phayao province.

กู้งเต้น

deep-fried morning glory

northern laab