Mukdahan by night

Mukdahan is probably the least known and quietest of Thailand’s large cities located along the Mekong. Despite this, it had one of the region’s best night markets:

It was surprisingly large for such a small town, and despite being firmly rooted in rural northeastern Thailand, Vietnamese food was just about everywhere.

A couple stalls sold this previously unseen specialty:

Pig legs stuffed with a pork and mushroom mixture. Sliced into disks and served as an appetizer, it was deliciously rich and savoury, almost like a pate.

Another unique dish was ban daa, shown at the top of this post. The dish takes the steamed noodle I’ve mentioned previously, but mixes it with a beaten egg and slaps a crispy sesame-laden rice cracker on top:

Bizarre, but actually truly wonderful–crunchy, hot and soft–it’s a real texture experience. I’ve seen a similar dish elsewhere, but according to the vendor, the egg version is only available around Mukdahan.

Another stall sold naem nuang (Vietnamese: nem nướng):

skewers of grilled pork that are eaten wrapped in tiny squares of rice paper along with sour fruits, copious herbs and a sweet sauce. Far less meaty than those sold in Bangkok, the pork was also freshly grilled and still had that wonderfully smoky flavour.

See the entire photoset here.