{"id":6264,"date":"2026-11-15T00:08:45","date_gmt":"2026-11-14T17:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/songkran.com\/mae-hong-son-food-guide\/"},"modified":"2026-11-15T00:10:43","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T17:10:43","slug":"mae-hong-son-food-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/songkran.com\/en\/mae-hong-son-food-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Mae Hong Son Food Guide: Shan Dishes, Tua Nao and Pai Markets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mae Hong Son&#8217;s mountain towns are home to the Shan (Tai Yai) people, and their cooking sets the province apart: fermented soybean, gentle curries and rice steamed in banana leaves. Pai adds a lively evening market.<\/p>\n<h2>What to eat in Mae Hong Son<\/h2>\n<h3>Khao kan jin<\/h3>\n<p>Rice mixed with pork and herbs, steamed in a banana leaf and topped with crispy garlic. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/search\/?api=1&#038;query=khao%20kan%20jin%20Mae%20Hong%20Son\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Map<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Tua nao<\/h3>\n<p>Fermented soybean, sold as dried discs or paste and used to season many Shan dishes.<\/p>\n<h3>Kaeng hang le<\/h3>\n<p>A mild pork curry with ginger and tamarind.<\/p>\n<h3>Khanom jeen nam ngiao<\/h3>\n<p>Rice noodles in a tomato and pork broth.<\/p>\n<h3>Shan snacks<\/h3>\n<p>Rice crackers, sweet sticky-rice cakes and tea-leaf salad at local markets.<\/p>\n<h2>Markets and where to eat<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Mae Hong Son morning market<\/strong> \u2013 Shan food in town. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/search\/?api=1&#038;query=Mae%20Hong%20Son%20morning%20market\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Map<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Jong Kham Lake night market<\/strong> \u2013 evening stalls by the lake in the high season. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/search\/?api=1&#038;query=Jong%20Kham%20Lake%20Mae%20Hong%20Son\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Map<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Pai Walking Street<\/strong> \u2013 a busy evening market in Pai. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/search\/?api=1&#038;query=Pai%20Walking%20Street\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Map<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Mae Hong Son has no MICHELIN-listed restaurants. Opening times change often, so check before you go.<\/p>\n<h2>Food at festivals<\/h2>\n<p>The Poy Sang Long novice ordination, usually held around late March to early April, brings Shan food stalls; dates vary. See our <a href=\"https:\/\/songkran.com\/en\/mae-hong-son-travel-guide\/\">Mae Hong Son travel guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>FAQ<\/h2>\n<h3>What is special about the food here?<\/h3>\n<p>It is Shan (Tai Yai) cooking with fermented soybean and mild curries.<\/p>\n<h3>What can I bring home?<\/h3>\n<p>Dried tua nao and Shan snacks.<\/p>\n<h3>Where is the best evening market?<\/h3>\n<p>Pai Walking Street or Jong Kham Lake in Mae Hong Son town.<\/p>\n<h3>Is the food spicy?<\/h3>\n<p>Usually milder than central Thai food.<\/p>\n<h2>More to read<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/songkran.com\/en\/mae-hong-son-travel-guide\/\">Mae Hong Son travel guide<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/songkran.com\/en\/backpacking-pai-mae-hong-son\/\">Backpacking to Pai<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/songkran.com\/en\/chiang-mai-food-guide\/\">Chiang Mai food guide<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/songkran.com\/en\/tak-food-guide\/\">Tak food guide<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"sk-photo-credit\"><small>Cover photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:2013_Khao_kan_chin.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2013 Khao kan chin.jpg<\/a> \u00b7 Takeaway \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a> \u00b7 Wikimedia Commons<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What to eat in Mae Hong Son: Shan (Tai Yai) dishes like khao kan jin, tua nao, kaeng hang le, khanom jeen nam ngiao, and Pai Walking Street.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6265,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"province":[177],"class_list":["post-6264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-en","province-mae-hong-son-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/songkran.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/songkran.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/songkran.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/songkran.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/songkran.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/songkran.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6284,"href":"https:\/\/songkran.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6264\/revisions\/6284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/songkran.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/songkran.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/songkran.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/songkran.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6264"},{"taxonomy":"province","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/songkran.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/province?post=6264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}