Northern Thai Red Cotton Flower

Red Cotton Flower (Chinese: Mumian 木棉, 斑芝树, 英雄树, 攀枝花 Thai: ngiu งิ้ว Vietnamese: Gạo).In Southwest China (among the Tai Yai people who are related to the Thais), Thailand and Laos, the core of the red cotton flowers are dried in the sun until they are brown. After that, they add them to a noodles soup dish called nam ngiao น้ำเงี้ยว . The dried red cotton flower core has a wonderful texture and it gives the spicy noodles soup an additional dimension. Nam ngiao is a signature dish of the Northern Thai Lanna cuisine.Another Lanna dish that uses the red cotton flower core is the green kaeng khae curry แกงแค. Unlike curries in the south of Thailand, this curry dish is devoid of coconut milk and contains a whole variety of similar plants unheard of outside of the region. Once again, both its unique taste and texture create a very different dining experience that one should not miss.Apart from putting the flower cores in soups and curries, you can also just deep-fry them: they make really gr