Authentic and unique may be the keys you look for when you plan a trip. To become your choice destination, the province of Sukhothai has introduced gastronomy routes to encourage you to try tasty local food and beverages with hands-on cooking experiences.
"While travelling, we can share pictures of places we visit through social media, but not the taste of food. For food, we have to experience it ourselves," said Chumpol Musiganont, assistant director-general of Designated Areas for the Sustainable Tourism Administration (Dasta) during a speech in a forum recently organised by Dasta and the Thai Ecotourism and Adventure Travel Association (Teata) in Sukhothai.
Dasta and Teata introduced four gastronomy routes for tour agents and the media to test the possibility of further promoting Sukhothai as a food and travel destination.
Gastronomy tourism is a global trend, said Dasta director-general Taweebhong Wichaidit.
Khanom daek nga has a taste like the traditional khanom tom (sticky rice flour dumplings with coconut filling) in the central provinces. However, instead of coating with shredded coconut, khanom daek nga is fully covered (meaning daek in the local dialect) with ground black sesame. Khao nieo sangkhaya chaona is the dessert for treating neighbours who help farmers during harvesting season. The dessert is also known as sangkhaya khi khwai (buffalo dung coconut custard) because of the look. The way to eat the dessert is to take a portion of sticky rice and dip it in sangkhaya. Karnjana Karnjanatawe
International visitors to Thailand spent about 20% of their travel budget on food. According to the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), food is the third reason tourists decide to visit a destination, after cultural motives and beautiful nature.
"Our aim is not to increase the number of tourists to Sukhothai, but to encourage them to stay longer, at least one day more. Our focus is more on tourist quality than quantity," said Taweebhong.
Lao khao (clear rice spirit) is made of sticky rice fermented with luk paeng (starter). The starter is made of rice flour mixed with herbs including chillies, garlic, pepper, ginger, liquorice and lime water. After being fermented for a week, the milky wine will be distilled over a charcoal stove to make clear rice spirit. Karnjana Karnjanatawe
About 800,000 travellers visit Sukhothai each year. The top tourist attractions are the historical parks of Sukhothai and Sri Satchanalai, the Unesco World Heritage Site, as well as traditional events such as the Loy Krathong festival in November.
Lao khao (clear rice spirit) is made of sticky rice fermented with luk paeng (starter). The starter is made of rice flour mixed with herbs including chillies, garlic, pepper, ginger, liquorice and lime water. After being fermented for a week, the milky wine will be distilled over a charcoal stove to make clear rice spirit. Karnjana Karnjanatawe
Praphan helped her late mother grill fish for more than 30 years. Today she runs the business with the help of her husband. Every morning, her staff will clean fish and let them dry before grilling them overnight on a long and large stove. The source of the heat is burning coconut shells topped with sawdust. While grilling, the fish is covered by paper boxes to keep in the heat and fumes. Karnjana Karnjanatawe
Visitors stay about three days on average in the province. They spend about 1,000 baht a day during their stay. If tourists stay longer, they will spend more, which will eventually stimulate the local economy, he said.
"We chose Sukhothai for the pilot project because the province is already well known, especially among travellers from Europe. Sukhothai also has many choices of traditional food and desserts that we want tourists to experience, so we weave those elements into gastronomic routes," he said.
The choices of programmes include the "Evening Countryside Sunset Tour", "Ancient Sukhothai Dessert Hopping", "Sawankhalok Art & Food Tour" and "Historical Sukhothai Food Tour By Local Truck".
Praphan helped her late mother grill fish for more than 30 years. Today she runs the business with the help of her husband. Every morning, her staff will clean fish and let them dry before grilling them overnight on a long and large stove. The source of the heat is burning coconut shells topped with sawdust. While grilling, the fish is covered by paper boxes to keep in the heat and fumes. Karnjana Karnjanatawe
The routes I tried during my two-day trip were the first and the second programmes. We rode a khok mu, a modified six-wheel truck with three benches for passenger seats, to our first stop at a local rice spirit producer called Chado Daeng in Muang district.
The standing sculpture is called Phra Mae Ya or Mae Ya. Legend has it that locals found the sculpture on a hill in the Khao Luang mountain range. They believe that the female figure must be someone important because it is hard to find a sacred image of a woman. They believe she is Nang Sueng, the first queen of Sukhothai Kingdom. Karnjana Karnjanatawe
The owner, named Nut, said his family got a licence to produce lao khao (a spirit made by distilling fermented rice wine) in 2003. He claimed that his family was the first legal lao khao maker in Sukhothai.
Today there are about 20 rice-spirit producers in the province, including three productions of Nut's family.
The lao khao drink has an alcohol content of 35% ABV (alcohol by volume). He also let us see the process of making the spirit and sample some, including clear milky rice wine which contains less alcohol, but it is not for sale.
The milky rice wine is called nam khao by locals. The drink is the liquid of fermented rice. The taste of white rice wine was sweet and a little sour. It reminded me of the taste of makgeolli, a Korean rice wine.
After the rice-spirit tasting, we had two options, of riding a bicycle along rice fields to the next destination or continuing with the khok mu ride. I chose the latter. Our truck drove on a one-lane road flanked by rice fields, after the group of cyclists, to Praphan Pla Yang, a home-made grilled fish supplier.
According to our local guide, grilled fish is a famous product of the province. Praphan Pla Yang has run the business for three generations. They grill various kinds of freshwater fish like pla chon (striped snakehead fish), pla duk (walking catfish), pla sawai (striped catfish) and pla soi (Siamese mud carp).
Dream Cafe is famous not only for its old ambience, which has never changed for the past five decades, but also for its secret recipes for ya dong (a herb-infused rice spirit). The restaurant does not sell the drink in a bottle, nor does it allow customers to buy some for taking out. The owner, Chaba, who drinks ya dong daily, said her liquor has health benefits, including easing muscle aches, improving blood circulation and adding strength. If you want to sample a shot, you have to be at the restaurant. Karnjana Karnjanatawe
Praphan Duangma said her family bought a tonne of fresh fish every day and sales have never been down. She let us try grilled striped catfish. The fish had a lot of meat and was tasty even without spicy dipping sauce. The fish made me hungry, but we still had a few stops to make before dinner.
Next, we crossed the Yom River to pay respect to the Mae Ya Shrine, one of the top 10 places to visit in Sukhothai, said the guide. It is because locals worship Mae Ya, an ancient female sculpture, whom they believe was the first queen of the Sukhothai Kingdom. She was also the mother of King Ramkhamhaeng the Great, who created the Thai alphabet more than 700 years ago. People believe that worshipping Mae Ya can help make their wishes come true.
Not far from the shrine, we stopped at Dream Cafe to taste ya dong, a herb-infused rice spirit. The restaurant has been open for 50 years. It serves local meals and 10 choices of ya dong. Various herbs are infused in its home-made organic rice spirit for two years before the drink is ready for consumption, said Chaba, the restaurant owner. Ya dong has an alcohol content of 28% ABV.
"Ya dong can help make you healthy if you drink a shot a day for at least a month. The best time to drink ya dong is either after dinner or before bedtime," she said.
She encouraged everyone to try. It was the first time for me and also for many of us to try ya dong. The way to drink it is to take the whole shot at once like taking a vodka shot. The taste of ya dong was sweet with a little bitter taste left on the tongue. I felt the burning from the throat to the stomach.
I wish we'd had dinner at the restaurant, but there was another stop to make. It was a small night market where we sampled sticky rice with various choices of pork toppings of a particular push cart stall called khao nieo moo thiang kheun. The stall has been open for more than 30 years. They cook 50kg of sticky rice and 50kg of pork daily. At present their shop is open from 5-10pm instead of midnight-5am in the past.
Our dinner was at Lung Joi restaurant, a short drive from the night market. It is well known for dishes made of freshwater fish like pla khao (wallago attu), pla neu on (sheatfish) and pla rak kluay (horseface loach).
The next morning was the programme for those who have a sweet tooth. We had a chance to make khanom daek nga, which is made of sticky-rice flour stuffed with sweet coconut and coated with ground sesame. We sampled other local desserts, like sangkhaya chaona (coconut custard served with sticky rice mixed with coconut shreds) and khanom si thuay (four toppings in sweet coconut milk).
The gastronomic routes opened up new experiences for me and helped me know more about local lifestyles through traditional food. There are still more tasty dishes to try.
Lao khao (clear rice spirit) is made of sticky rice fermented with luk paeng (starter). The starter is made of rice flour mixed with herbs including chillies, garlic, pepper, ginger, liquorice and lime water. After being fermented for a week, the milky wine will be distilled over a charcoal stove to make clear rice spirit. Karnjana Karnjanatawe
Khok mu is the name for public buses in the city of Sukhothai. A ticket is 30 baht. The service is available from 6am-5pm and the waiting time is 10-30 minutes. You can rent the truck to tour the city for a day. Fees start at 1,000 baht, excluding fuel. The khok mu can handle up to 35 passengers. Karnjana Karnjanatawe
This dessert is called khanom si thuay because it consists of four ingredients and each has a good meaning. This sweet is normally served in a wedding ceremony. The first ingredient is med maeng lak (basil seeds), which is called khai kob, and that refers to fertility. Next is lod chong (pandan noodles). It is called nok ploi, meaning setting off with no harm. The third element is khao tok (popped rice), representing purity. The last ingredient is black sticky rice, called ai tue. The meaning is the love that sticks together eternally. The way to eat the dessert is to mix the four ingredients together and top with sweet coconut milk. Karnjana Karnjanatawe
TRAVEL INFO
- The most convenient way to travel to Sukhothai from Bangkok is to fly. Bangkok Airways provides direct flights. Visit bangkokair.com.
- From the airport, you can take a public van to the city or rent a car over the counters at the airport.
- For more details, visit the websites of Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration on dasta.or.th and Thai Ecotourism and Adventure Travel Association on teata.or.th.
