Chaiyaphum and Phetchabun Food and Markets
Chaiyaphum and Phetchabun are Isan through and through, and the food shows it: sour, spicy, salty, and eaten with your hands as often as with a fork. The region is famous for two things. The first is the classic Isan trio — som tam (papaya salad), gai yang (grilled chicken) and sticky rice — eaten everywhere from the morning market to a roadside stop. The second is Phetchabun's sweet tamarind, the one local product that people drive out of their way to buy. Add in khanom chin (fresh rice noodles) with fish curry, mam (a fermented pork sausage that is the region's own specialty) and the markets that sell all of it, and you have the easiest way to understand these two provinces: taste them. Chaiyaphum: Classic Isan Cooking The dish you will eat most often in Chaiyaphum is gai yang: half a chicken, flattened, marinated in garlic, coriander root and fish sauce, grilled over charcoal until the skin is crisp and the meat is smoky. It is sold by the half or whole at roadside stalls ...