Akha food is particularly spicy! The Akha love to pile on the chilies for their nam prik, or chili sauce, eaten with most meals. Rice is also eaten with most meals, though Akha people often eat a harder, shorter-grained rice than that eaten by Thai people.

Food is usually served either on a small round tray around which everyone sits, or directly on banana leaves placed on bamboo floor mats. People eat handfuls of rice with pieces of fresh herbs and vegetables from the pile that often includes mint, basil, green beans, and many especially bitter plants. The rice and raw vegetables are then dipped in any of the various chili sauces which are served with the meal. Barbequed or raw pork mixed with spicy herbs mixed are also popular dishes.

Visitors to an Akha village should always stop in at least one home to have a drink or snack. Visitors will certainly be offered something, such as the strong tea Akha people love to drink from bamboo cups. If they don’t partake, they might be mistaken for an intruder! 

Pad Prik King (Stir-Fried Ginger and Chili)

1. Fry 2-3 mashed cloves of garlic in ¼ cup of oil; add 10 chopped bird (Thai) chilies and about ½ cup ginger, sliced (not diced) into small pieces. 

2. Let fry for 3-5 minutes, then add roughly 1 cup chopped chicken innards (or, if you prefer, any part of any animal) 

3. Add 2-3 shakes of fish sauce or salty soy sauce, and 2-3 shakes of oyster sauce or thick, sweet soy sauce.  Add 1 tsp. MSG.  Add more to taste.

4. Cook 5-10 minutes till the meat is fully cooked.

5. Add 1-2 cups chopped “hoo noo” mushrooms. These thin black mushrooms (literally translated as mouse ear mushrooms), are usually available from Asian grocery stores. If using dried form soak in hot water before cooking.

6. Cut 2 large spring onions (white and green parts) into small pieces, add and stir briefly, then remove from the heat and serve with rice.

  Lap Moo (Pork Salad)

1. Combine the following:

• 2-3 tbsp. chopped mint leaves
  

• 3 stalks lemongrass, chopped up to the end of the whitish part

• 1 sliced tomato

• 3 diced bird (Thai) chilies (but not so small you can’t find & avoid eating them!)

• Roughly 1 cup chopped cilantro (coriander)

• 1 tsp MSG

• A few shakes of fish sauce

• 2 spring onions sliced (use white and green parts)

2. Boil meat pieces till cooked through, then grill to bring out the flavor.  Innards were used in this version of the salad; you may use whichever animal & parts are pleasing to you.  Chop into bite-sized pieces and toss with above ingredients.

3. Squeeze juice of 2 limes onto the salad and toss. 

  Mee’s Nam Prik (Chili Sauce)

1. Puncture 2 tomatoes with a knife then roast, along with 4-5 bird (Thai) chilies on the coals of a decent fire.  Allow to blacken on the outside, then discard the blackened bits of the tomato, chop the head off the chilies, and add all to mortar.

2. Add to mortar:  3-4 cloves garlic, the chopped up whitish bit of one lemongrass stalk, 2-3 stalks finely chopped cilantro (coriander), 1 finely chopped spring onion, and 1 tsps. each MSG and salt.

3. Use pestle to pulverize into a warm, fragrant, mushy sauce.