Craft & Cuisine: Four sumptuous courses of Lanna cuisine at Raya

By Citylife | Fri 14 Oct 2022

Citylife, along with many members of the city’s media, was invited to the beautiful riverside Raya Heritage hotel (sister hotel with Krabi’s world renown Rayavadee) to join a fun pottery workshop organised by InClay Studio, learning and enjoying the complicated process of turning clay into beautiful pottery. In Clay Studio Pottery has been open for fourteen years, teaching pottery classes, taking orders as well as producing their own lines of ceramics for sale.

After creating some very sub par pottery, and feeling rather proud of ourselves anyway, we media were getting hungry.

So, various crooked pots and plates in hand, we headed to the riverfront Khu Khao Restaurant in Raya Heritage, appetite built up from a vigorous afternoon of shaping and baking. We were soon seated in the sumptuous restaurant, decorated with objet d’arts from the local area, awaiting the delivery of dishes by Chef Somyot Pokpong which soon left the kitchen and arrived all sumptuous on our tables.

Khu Khao is highly acclaimed for its Northern cuisine and for ONE NIGHT only, on the 29th of October, you can indulge in some of the best dishes Chef Somyot conjures up. Inspired by the rice planting and harvesting process, each conceived dish has had a serving dish designed by In Clay Studio Pottery to complement it along with a super creative cocktail also infused with Lanna flavours and elements.

Here are the four courses of food and drinks to tempt you!

Au Goong and Lemongrass Cocktail

Traditionally, at the start of the rainy season, as rice saplings are being planted, farmers will draw water into the paddy fields. This is hard and tiring work requiring long hours each day. Therefore farmers will bring prepared and filling meals to the paddy fields to fuel their energy for the day’s work. Au is a common dish brought on such occasions. This dish is infused with rich spices and served with a refreshing lemongrass cocktail.

Grilled river prawns with fresh meat scooped out and cooked with Lanna spices and served Lanna style has the nose twitching with scents of lemongrass, turmeric and fresh spicy herbs. Fresh salad is served to cool the palate.

This dish is served with a Chalong Bay rum cocktail with Chiang Mai’s Ma Jai Dum spirit mixed with homemade lemongrass spirit, fresh lemongrass, cucumber, sweet basil, fresh lime and tonic. A refreshing compliment to the spicy flavours of the dish inspired by ingredients that are available at the beginning of the planting season and during the field preparation period.

Tom See-Kriang Moo Yuak Kluay and Chilli Cocktail

Inspired by ingredients available as the first rains pour down each year, this classic Northern dish has been elevated into a broth more complex and sophisticated, than previously imagined. Banana stalks, thirstily laps up the falling rains, drawing it in to soak its cells and create a delicious accompaniment to many famous Northern dishes, representing the richness of nature which arrives with each monsoon season.

Braised pork spare ribs, falling off the bone, sits with tender banana stalks in a rich broth of lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime.

The deceptively simple broth is served with a Chilli Cocktail which is comprised of grandma Jinns, Shiraz, homemade chilli syrup, rosella juice and fresh bird’s eye chilli…not for the faint hearted!

Mob Poo, Abb Pla & Nam Prik Ba Khua with Kaffir Lime Cocktail

As the rice begins to swell and grow, once-barren paddy fields become lively ecosystems filled with edibles at a time when traditionally farmers enjoy some of the best nature offers. Whether it is vegetables, fish, crabs or prawns, the rice fields are teeming with life, allowing farmers to eat well.

Inspired by the blooming season, classic Northern mob pu is a rich crab broth which wafts sweet aromas. Served with roasted rice and seasonal vegetables, there is also a slice of marinated grilled Siam red tail catfish in chilli paste and a spicy eggplant dip to round off this rather wonderful course.

With so much going on from this dish, the pairing cocktail is kept simple. Lanna vodka is mixed with Prosecco Brut and homemade kaffir lime syrup topped with some jaunty and fresh Vietnamese leaves and mint leaves.

Khao Mao with Ice Cream Mak Mao and Saa To Cocktail

It is harvest time! Time for fun and festivities to celebrate a successful crop which will support the family for the coming year. Flowers are in bloom as winter nears, and this is the perfect season to draw inspiration from to create a delicious dessert dish.

There is now plenty of rice so rice is the hero of this dish. Mixed pounded unripe rice with soy bean filling is served with Thai blueberry and coconut ice cream.

This dish is paired with a saa to ice cream. Saa to is jasmine rice rum and when a splash of sweet and rich Khalua is added, along with a pinch of organic coffee, some syrup, wild berry purée, fresh wild berry and milk…well…it is simply lip-smacking!

You can indulge in this four course extravaganza for only one night, on the 29th of October, at Khu Khao Restaurant, Raya Heritage Resort.

In house guests will also be able to enjoy both a pottery workshop and a weaving workshop, both of which the hotel offers to its guests as an added experience to their stay.