Chiang Mai Table · Dry-Spiced Minced Meat

Laap Khua (Northern Cooked Meat Salad)

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Despite sharing a name with Isaan's larb, this version is cooked, not tossed raw with lime juice, and gets its dark color and heat from a dried spice mix called phrik laap that can include a dozen roasted spices.

Minced pork or beef, sometimes with liver and other offal, is stir-fried with a northern Thai spice paste of dried chilies, coriander seed, cinnamon and cloves, then finished with a splash of pork blood and torn cilantro. It's a common dish at Chiang Mai market stalls and khantoke-style dinners.

Why it's made this way: Northern Thai laap developed separately from Isaan's lime-and-herb version under the old Lanna kingdom, using a dry roasted spice blend closer to the region's other curries than to Lao-style raw salads.