Chiang Mai, Thailand

Night market at the Chang Phuak Gate, Chiang Mai. The air is stifling, though I've started to acclimate to a slow, steady sweat. A legendary lady boss wielding a cleaver and wearing a Stetson prepares her widely regarded specialty, khao kha mu, pork stewed for 72 hours and served over rice with garlic and mustard greens. Laced with cinnamon and five-spice, the meat is tender enough to shred with a spoon, and it's broth soaks the rice, eating like a richer, bolder cousin of pho. To finish, a bright chili vinegar sauce I could drown basically everything in. Northern Thai cuisine (Lanna) veers away from the staples of fish sauce, palm sugar and coconut so central to Southern Thai cuisine and leans instead on the roots, herbs and warm spices that lay softer and subtler on the tongue. Wild game and pork assume the starring role in place of fish and the average heat level is palatable even to the wimpish. It's incredible to see the pillars of cuisine shift as I move North, a separate but equal flavor profile which borrows from its Burmese border and is rooted in what natural treasures the mountainous, land-locked region has provided. Tomorrow I descend further into Chiang Mai's mountains (and markets) via motorbike.