Goats Do Roam: A Night of Khantoke Dinner and Dance

Kantoke Palace, Chiang Mai

The Lanna people of Northern Thailand, have a particular dining style, (an ancient tradition really) called Khantoke. Khantoke is a dining style, where a round and low pedestal tray made of bamboo, rattan or wood is used to serve the food. It is tradition that the family or parties will sit cross-legged on the floor around the Khantoke tray. Several bowls of Lanna food are served on the tray with sticky rice, the number one staple of the Lanna.

The Lanna love sticky rice SO much, sometimes they joke that they lost the battle because the armies spent a lot of their time preparing and eating sticky rice!) The sticky rice is rolled into balls by each person and dipped into the food of their choice. Eating Khantoke means the food on the pedestal is shared by all and eaten slowly. Its a beautiful tradition! In todays modern world Khantoke dinners are still very common in the home, at weddings, ordinations, celebrations, funerals and other ceremonies.

While in Chiang Mai we heard about The Kantoke Palace, a gorgeous place where you can learn more about the Lanna through food and dance. We heard that there was a Sword Dance, so we jumped on the opportunity to go. When we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised- there was even more to see than we realized! Upon entering the gates of Kantoke Palace, we were greeted by beautiful young women exhibiting Lanna arts. One woman was carving intricate flowers from melons, another was playing an old Lanna instrument that reminded me of both a harp and xylophone.

Be sure to leave your shoes at the door!

The food was absolutely amazing! In the middle is the eggplant and hot chili dip, served with vegetables. Then we have a few curries, some sweet and crispy noodles, some deep-fried pumpkin crisps and deep-fried tofu. Lam mak! ( Very delicious)

The dance ceremony was started with Lanna music played live, with the ancient Candle Dance following. Next was the Umbrella Dance among many others, and then finally the Sword Dance, which was traditionally used by the Lanna warrior before entering battle. It was believed to bring power and good luck to the warrior. (The Sword Dance needs a blog of it's own. Check back soon!)