In Mae Salong, the Yunnanese village located in the mountains of Northern Thailand’s Golden Triangle region, many visitors flock to Mae Salong Villa to sample their cuisine for lunch or dinner. Perched on a hillside overlooking town with views of the surrounding tea plantations and the magnificent Mae Salong temple, Mae Salong Villa’s reputation as the best Chinese restaurant in Chiang Rai province is well deserved.

While I have eaten dinner at Mae Salong Villa a number of times, overall my favorite restaurant in the area has to be Salema , a small family owned eatery, which offers a variety of Thai and Chinese dishes at local prices. Located on the main road about 300 meters east past the turn off to the Mae Salong temple, the food at Salema is very tasty and healthfully prepared according to the Halal (Muslim dietary laws) and is definitely vegetarian friendly (Hey, they even have brown rice here). Their vegetarian Pad Thai dish is one of the best I’ve had in Thailand and their stir fried shitake mushroom dish is to die for. Your monies will go a long way here as most entrees are priced between 35 - 70 baht (1-2 USD), and the people who work at this small cafe are very friendly and accommodating. As a side note, in an area where almost 99% percent of the inhabitants are Buddhists and animists, the family who run this small cafe are Muslim.

If you’re in the Me Salong, I recommend that you eat at both Mae Salong Villa and Salema.Tell’ em Hanumann, “Ling Yai” sent you!

Factoid: In the Arabic language, Salema means peace and purity .

This entry was posted on Friday, December 22nd, 2006 at 9:21 am and is filed under Thailand, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.