Octie Appetie: Ban Rak Thai Village

16 November 2021

Ban Rak Thai Village

Previously:

Ban Rak Thai village is a small mountainous town with a beautiful lake sat in the middle of the valley. It is only 40 kilometers away from Mae Hong Son city. This village is one of the several Yunnanese communities can be found in Thailand. It retains their oriental looks of buildings and signs. This place used to be very peaceful and serene. However, in the past recent years, this town has been growing significant numbers of tourists. Especially on the weekend or holiday seasons, the city packs with visitors.

Lee Wine Yunnan restaurant or commonly known as Lee Wine Ruk Thai is hands down the most popular and one of the early restaurant in this village. As you can easily guess, of course they serve Chinese Yunnan food here and tea as well as wine testing. Back then 12 years ago, when I was there, there was only one main restaurant and a couple small souvenirs shops in the area but now more and more others are kinda competing and selling similar products to accomodate increased demands in the market.

Lee Wine Yunnan restaurant has the most strategic location of all, right at the door of Rak Thai village and the dining area is facing a calm lake along with beautiful layered ornate houses and mountain on the backdrop. Next door is a coffee shop where you can buy ticket and board the boat to enjoy the village on the water view point. On top of it, they also serve delicious food here. So, what's not to like?

Braised pork leg served with steamed plain bun 390฿

And a well-known to try is their signature Kha moo mor fai or braised pork leg served on hot pot. It comes with 5 pieces of mantou (Chinese steamed plain bun). The leg was humongous and very meaty. The skin had been fried first before they braised again in the aromatic soup for hours. So it's kinda chewy in texture yet melt-in-your-mouth at the same time. This dish is succulent and delighful. You have to sunk the plain bun into the soup too, it will absorb all the juices and flavour. Totally divine.

Yunnan style fried noodle 190฿

Deep fried pork with sweet plum sauce 180฿ and stir fried chayote leaves 90฿

Mantou tod or deep fried mantou served with condensed milk 100฿

This sweet is absolutely the winner dish for me. Although what we had for our main dishes were all heavy and full of carbs but we didn't want to miss this hefty dessert either. It was great in all aspects, texture and taste wise. The soft plain white mantou that had been deep fried into a golden brown color, very crispy and slightly oily on the outer skin, however, inside still maintains its softness and somewhat drier than the steam version. Once you dip that into condensed milk, BOOM... really really yummm...

They also give free hot tea for customers who dine in. Their tea is so fragrant (one is oolong tea and another one I couldn't recall the name). If you want to buy some souvenirs back home, you can use your receipt after dining to claim another 10% discount of your purchase (may not applied on some special promotion products)