The Thai Fresh Market - The Talad

The Thai Fresh Market

One of the great Thai shopping institutions is the talad (ตลาด -promounced dà~lart). They are small to huge roofed but open air local markets with rows of concrete or wooden benches , food carts and cooking stalls which sell fresh food and almost anything else.

There are two types of talads in Thailand. The first is known as the talad sod (or fresh market) which are permanent markets. They are always open seven days a week. The second type is the talad nat (or appointment market) which are similar to the weekend markets in many other countries where farmers bring their produce to town to sell.

Talads are in almost every village, big or small. The produce on sale is fresher than in supermarkets and much cheaper.

Large Talads are located in every town and have hundreds of vendors selling fresh and cooked food, clothing, and a wide variety of goods of all descriptions.

There are three huge permanent talads within 5ks of where I live and tens of smaller talads sod and nat. We farangs think that we invented the modern shopping mall but the Thais did that centuries ago. We just added air conditioning and coffee shops.The talads are great places to buy cooked meals, wrapped and bagged, along with fresh meats, poultry, seafood, fruit and veggies.

At Thai talads you will find all kinds of curries, hand made curry pastes, spicy soups, salads, stir-fries, barbecued seafood, chicken, duck and pork that go well with the Thai sticky rice (khao niao).

In Chiang Mai the local specialities are the Chiang Mai sausage (sai krok) with lots of local herbs and spices, gaeng hung lay (a sweet Northern pork curry), karb moo (crispy pork rinds), khao soy (a mild chicken or pork curry served with crisp and soft noodles, Thai shallots, pickled cabbage, lime and crisp roasted chillis) and of course nam prik noom and nam prik ong (the green and red thick but not too spicy chilli dips) that are great with the Chiang Mae sausage and karb moo.

The local sweets should not be missed either such as bua loy (rice balls in coconut milk), khao niao mamuang (ripe mango with coconut milk on steamed sticky rice - a ThIsi classic), buad faktong (pumpkin in coconut milk) and kha-nom mo gang (egg custard pudding).

One of the best parts of going to the talad is just walking around taking in the vibrant sights, sounds, smells and tastes which are offered freely.